Voice will provide new approach to closing the gap, Michael Long says
AFL legend Michael Long explained why he re-created his famous 2004 walk in support of Indigenous Australians , this time in support of the voice.
He said:
In the 19 years since that meeting, the gap between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians has not closed. In some areas it has widened, according to our Productivity Commission latest report. That is why we set out from Melbourne again, 19 days ago. A yes vote in the referendum on the voice to parliament will give Indigenous people the self-determination that we asked all those years ago. It will give this nation a new approach to closing the gap and it will allow this nation to embrace the fullness of our history.
Key events
Legislation targeting former ADF who train foreign militaries comes before parliament
The parliament sitting has begun. The house is looking at the legislation Daniel Hurst flagged earlier, which will make it an offence of up to 20 years imprisonment, if defence force personnel do unauthorised work for a foreign nation.
Over in the senate, there is some usual senate business, and then it should deal with the third reading of the housing Australia future fund bill (the amendments have been ticked off by the house) which, all going well, should see it passed.
Sussan Ley says she’s ‘sad’ about the prospects for reconciliation
Sussan Ley continued her key lines of attack against the yes campaign in a doorstop (quick press conference) this morning and then finished her introductory spiel with
I’m sad for the prospects of reconciliation in this country
The voice is a request from Indigenous Australians to be heard on issues that affect them, says ACTU’s O’Neil
ACTU president Michele O’Neil spoke to ABC radio RN Breakfast about the Nine newspaper story that yes campaigners were being encouraged to tell the public the no campaign was “vilifying Aboriginal people” and “distracting” from what the voice debate is actually about.
(The no campaign script was telling volunteers to use fear over facts)
O’Neil said:
I think it’s important in this debate that people have the facts, and that they understand that this is a really simple request from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and one where it’s not complicated and so having time to talk to people to take them through the fact that this is about practical change for people, better health care outcomes, better education outcomes, better opportunity to have your voice heard, is something that we should welcome that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have asked us to do.
It’s about respect for that 65,000 years, recognition for that connection to this culture for that long, in this country for that long and then of course, having an opportunity to be heard on issues that affect them.
We all want that, you know, we all want to be listened to and it’s not a big ask. So, I think people talking to people about the real issues is a good thing.
Voice will provide new approach to closing the gap, Michael Long says
AFL legend Michael Long explained why he re-created his famous 2004 walk in support of Indigenous Australians , this time in support of the voice.
He said:
In the 19 years since that meeting, the gap between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians has not closed. In some areas it has widened, according to our Productivity Commission latest report. That is why we set out from Melbourne again, 19 days ago. A yes vote in the referendum on the voice to parliament will give Indigenous people the self-determination that we asked all those years ago. It will give this nation a new approach to closing the gap and it will allow this nation to embrace the fullness of our history.
McManus: Unions will ‘fight until the end’ against companies that treat workers badly
Sally McManus said the Qantas decision was proof that unions will ‘fight until the end’.
I think it is a message to corporate Australia that if you go about making up schemes or thinking through with your lawyers the way you can get away with doing something that anyone will [be] seeing as immoral and treating workers with disrespect, the union movement will fight until the end.
It was a risk for the TWU to do this. It cost a lot of money. They don’t have the same deep pockets as Qantas.
If they lost yesterday, they would have had to pay for the costs of Qantas’ lawyers but they stuck by people anyway. When you stick together you can achieve things.
Hopefully, it is a message to corporate Australia that working people in Australia have still got fight and that if this happens, we will take it on.
Plibersek’s relief that Great Barrier Reef won’t be listed as ‘in danger’ met with anger on social media
Environment minister Tanya Plibersek posted this last night – the responses to it are pretty much what you would expect, given the continued approval of coal mines and gas field expansion.
We’ve just heard that the United Nations committee responsible for World Heritage has confirmed the Great Barrier Reef will not be listed as in danger. Our government has wasted no time acting on climate change and better protecting our precious Reef – and the world has noticed.… pic.twitter.com/KKBMfSpmvg
— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) September 13, 2023
ACTU’s McManus wants sacked Qantas workers ‘fairly’ compensated
Back to the ABC and ACTU boss Sally McManus is asked what next after a workers’ victory in the high court against Qantas yesterday.
McManus says:
Firstly, it is a huge case to go through. It is the largest case of illegal sackings that the country has had.
There is a bit for court to consider. There is some matters to do with making sure that people, their wages are compensated. A lot of people have been unemployed for the last three years. If you are in your 60s and you are a baggage handler, it is hard getting a job.
Plus, there is the mental trauma people have gone through which was significant for lots of them. That will have to be carefully worked through. It starts off in the courts next week.
The union wants to see those workers fairly compensated but fairly also means carefully working that through.
We hope Qantas drops the cloak of arrogance that they have had for a long time; it is that arrogance that got them into a situation when they were treating the workers and customers how they have. This is an opportunity out of this bad situation for them to show that they are different.
Mike Bowers and Katharine Murphy followed the last leg of the Long walk to parliament:
In case you missed it yesterday, this is what Sussan Ley was asked about on ABC News Breakfast:
No vote on Indigenous voice ahead in every state, says Guardian’s poll tracker
Where is the voice polling at?
No is ahead in every state, according to the Guardian’s poll tracker:
Chevron’s gas workers to start rolling strikes
Jonathan Barrett
Full-scale strikes at Chevron’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in Australia are due to start this morning, putting global energy markets on edge amid a protracted industrial dispute.
The escalation of the industrial action comes after a breakdown in negotiations over pay and conditions in a sector that typically uses individual contracts.
Hundreds of workers at the Gorgon and Wheatstone facilities, which account for about 7% of global LNG supply, are scheduled to start two weeks of 24-hour strikes early on Thursday.
The Australian Workers’ Union and Maritime Union of Australia are trying to lock in industry standard wage rates and conditions. They recently reached an agreement with Woodside.
While most LNG shipped from Australia’s north and west goes to Asian markets, any prolonged supply reduction will mean buyers will look for other sources. This has triggered volatility in European gas prices in recent weeks.
Ley defends text messages about postal votes that link to a Liberal Party-authorised website
That leads to this back and forth:
Q: [While] we’re talking about misinformation – text messages that are being sent out to voters asking them to apply for a postal vote and linking through to a Liberal Party-authorised website?
Sussan Ley:
Look, the no campaign is not the Liberal Party. Everyone, by the way, is entitled to a postal vote because that helps people …
Q: Linking through to a Liberal Party-authorised website …
Ley:
Well, that helps people…
Q: They can get it from the AEC
Ley:
Yes, that’s right. But we’ve always been involved in distributing postal votes, both sides of politics have. I come back to the main point – we want to help rural and regional Australians vote. We want to give them access to that.
The actual campaign itself and the conduct of them matters for them. So, whenever people say to me, the yes campaign said this or the no campaign said that, I simply say: “Those are matters for those campaigns to defend. The Liberal Party is not running the no campaign.”
But what the Liberal Party very much wants is a respectful tone to this debate. And Australians need explanations. They’re not getting that. And this is running off the rails and the Prime Minister is yet to show the leadership that we need, both in this Parliament and in this community. We leave here – we have four weeks until the referendum. We absolutely need those answers so Australians can make informed decisions.
The detail has been released. The referendum is on whether or not an Indigenous advisory body should be added to the constitution. The legislation would be created if the yes vote passes the double majority. Sussan Ley, as a member of parliament, would have a role in that. It’s the same as during an election campaign, when a political party releases a policy – you get the detail about what it would be about, but you don’t see the legislation unless they win the election and once the parliament is formed. Once that happens, the legislation is introduced, put through committee inquiry, argued and debated, possibly amended, and then either passed or not.
The Liberal party has been holding the government responsible for the yes campaign.
Ley says government should distance itself from Langton, says Australia not a racist country
On ABC News Breakfast, Sussan Ley is asked ‘So, you’re not backing away from it?’ and says:
I’m not. This is not about Liberal versus Labor. It’s about the campaign and the messaging and the refusal of this government to actually distance itself, or condemn, the people who are saying these things.
Look, one in five Australians are not spewing racism. We are not a racist country.
It is OK to vote no without this condemnation.
And yesterday in Parliament, we had Linda Burney call for respectful debate, yes.
But directly after that, we had both the Treasurer and the Attorney-General making the most awful insults, which the Treasurer then had to subsequently withdraw, and we had the Attorney-General – responsible for the AFP, the first law officer in the land – claiming misinformation.
Now, I should point out that there’s a bill before the parliament that makes the spreading of misinformation and disinformation an offence, and he’s standing there in the parliament, loosely using those claims against the Opposition.
Marcia Langton herself has said that “of course” there are not racist reasons for voting no, and that she does not believe that most Australians are racist.
Peter Dutton has not condemned the comments by Gary Johns.
The treasurer and attorney-general were running through the false claims Dutton had made about the voice during the campaign and for spreading misinformation. Jim Chalmers withdrew his remarks “to assist the house” for the debate to continue.
Amnesty International 2021 report found racism a growing problem in Australia
Amnesty International has taken a look at racism in Australia.
Here is what it found in 2021:
In its inaugural human rights report, the Amnesty International Human Rights Barometer, 84% of Australians believe in freedom from discrimination and 78% believe in freedom of religion and culture.
Almost two thirds of respondents (64%) said that Australia was a successful multicultural society, while only half of respondents (47%) believed there was a problem with racism and more than a quarter thought we didn’t have a problem with racism at all. Worryingly, 63% of the respondents also said they believed that some ethnic groups and cultures don’t want to fit into the “Australian” way of life.
It’s clear then that racism not only exists, it is a growing problem in Australia.
Western Sydney University released a landmark project in 2017, with a national survey on racism and among it’s findings:
Almost one-quarter (23%) of all respondents stated that some migrant groups do not belong in, or should not be welcomed to, Australia
Liberals’ Sussan Ley repeats criticism of Marcia Langton’s no campaign comments
As the Long walkers head to their final destination in support of the voice, deputy leader Sussan Ley is on ABC TV News Breakfast talking about Prof Marcia Langton’s comments:
She did say that because she was describing the arguments of the no campaign, she wasn’t therefore describing the people.
But, unfortunately, later she did also – or she was reported to have said that one in five Australians are spewing racism.
So, that’s 20% of Australians. And, unfortunately, that does need to be called out. She does need to be responsible for those remarks. And by suggesting that the arguments at the heart of the no campaign are either racist or stupid is an incredible reflection on Australians who are considering, or wanting, to vote no.
And, unfortunately, we didn’t have the minister for Indigenous Australians in the Parliament yesterday either distance herself from the appointment of Marcia Langton to her own Referendum Working Group, where she has been, of course, a co-designer of the voice itself.
Daniel Hurst
Laws ‘not intended to prevent Australians from working overseas or with all foreign governments or militaries’
[continued from previous post]
When considering requests, the defence minister will consider factors including the type of work the individual performed in Defence and the type of information they had access to; the length of time they worked in that role; the type of work they would be doing in their new role; and the foreign country for which the person will be working.
Marles will tell parliament the new laws are “not intended to prevent Australians from working overseas or with all foreign governments or militaries”. According to extracts distributed in advance, Marles will say:
Rather, our legislative intent is to prevent individuals with knowledge of sensitive Defence information from training or working for certain foreign militaries or governments where that activity would put Australia’s national security at risk …
The protection of our nation’s secrets and sensitive information is central to preserving Australia’s national security and to keeping Australians safe.
The “complex” bill is expected to be considered by the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security (PJCIS), and the government will promise to work collaboratively across the parliament to ensure the legislation is effective.
New laws target former ADF members who train foreign militaries
Daniel Hurst
Former Australian defence force members who work for foreign military organisations without approval from the Australian government face up to 20 years in jail under proposed new laws.
The federal government will today introduce a bill to parliament that it argues strengthens Australia’s ability “to protect the unwanted transfer of sensitive defence information to foreign militaries”.
It will extend existing laws so that they apply to accumulated knowledge, skills, experience and information. The moves stem from a review sparked by reports last year that highly skilled former ADF personnel, including pilots, may have been approached to provide military training to China.
The new legislation, called the defence amendment (safeguarding Australia’s military secrets) bill 2023, is expected to require certain former members of the ADF and former Department of Defence public servants to obtain authorisation if they intend to work for a foreign military, foreign government or foreign government entity. Doing so without approval could be subject to a penalty of up to 20 years’ imprisonment.
But the defence minister, Richard Marles, plans to exclude proposed work for any of Australia’s Five Eyes partners – the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand – from the legislation. Government sources argued the proposed laws would also “provide greater confidence to our key security partners – including under our Aukus arrangements”.
The bill is also expected to say that any Australian who seeks to provide training in relation to military techniques or controlled military items – such as weapons, missiles, ammunition – to foreign militaries without approval could also face up to 20 years’ imprisonment.
If the Australian government grants a person approval subject to a condition and the individual breaches that condition, the maximum penalty will be five years’ imprisonment.
Katharine Murphy
Albanese walks with Liberals’ Leeser and Archer in support of Indigenous voice
As Amy has flagged, Anthony Albanese has joined AFL great Michael Long on his long walk to parliament in support of the voice. It’s a crisp spring morning in Canberra.
A large contingent of MPs from across the spectrum have joined the walk across Kings Ave bridge. Locals are joining in as we go.
The tone in the parliament this week has been punishing.
The spirit by the lake could not be more different. Albanese was joined at the start of the walk by Liberals Julian Leeser and Bridget Archer who continue to argue the moral and practical case for the voice.
An Albanese staffer signalled to the prime minister that the two Liberals were just behind him. Albanese beckoned them forward. They walked together.
Albanese looked for a moment as if he might well up. He gathered himself and picked up the pace. The John Farnham ballad is on high rotation.