Australia news live: Burke accuses Dutton of wanting to ‘throw more kerosene on the fire’ by recalling parliament to debate anti-terror laws

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Hello and good morning from Canberra. The political attention is split today, with Queensland premier Steven Miles about to officially ask for an election to be called, but the federal MPs are still doing what they can to claim a bit of space.

One of those MPs is Queensland LNP senator Matt Canavan, who appeared on Sky News early this morning where he took a slightly different view to handling protesters, compared to his party leadership.

Canavan, who has previously said he flirted with communism while at university, said he wasn’t sure if threats to ‘mass arrest’ people was winning hearts and minds.

I don’t know if just mass arresting people is going to help here. I mean, we’ve obviously got a huge problem in our society over extremism. These are abominable displays we’ve seen on our streets. But this is ultimately a battle of ideas, and ideas that include an end of days extreme ideology.

And I just don’t know if just mass arresting people is going to defeat that. I mean, I’ll draw the comparison to communism.

Katy Gallagher was also asked about calls from Peter Dutton to recall the parliament and give the AFP powers to arrest people who allegedly held Hezbollah flags at protests over the weekend.

Is this something the government would consider? Gallagher said:

I think that the leader of the opposition knows that the police are and have indicated that they are investigating the matters on the weekend, including the [alleged] raising of those flags of a listed terrorist organisation.

It is appropriate, and in this country, we do have law enforcement agencies that actually undertake the investigation. The investigation is not undertaken by the leader of the opposition.

Parliament is sitting next week. I think the leader of the opposition understands what he’s doing here, which is trying to raise and create further division at a moment where people are feeling extremely concerned about what’s happening in the Middle East.

Gallagher said the alleged raising of Hezbollah flags “is absolutely inappropriate, and it is absolutely appropriate that the police investigate that matter.”

Gallagher reiterates call for ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon

The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, spoke to ABC News Breakfast just earlier to discuss the crisis unfolding in Lebanon.

Asked if there is a plan to evacuate citizens if it comes to it, she said Dfat and the government have been “working hard over the last few months around contingency planning [and] people should be assured that that work is being done”.

She was asked what message Australia is sending to Israel at the moment, with the Israeli government not appearing to be heeding international calls for it to pull back from a ground offensive and agree to a ceasefire. Gallagher responded:

Last week you saw that Australia – along with a number of other nations like the US, the UK and the European Union – had issued a statement which called for a ceasefire, for further humanitarian assistance, which Australia is providing to Lebanon. And certainly, calling for de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.

So that remains our message. That remains our message to Israel. We don’t want to see loss of life that we have been seeing in the Middle East over the past year, particularly in Gaza, about now in Lebanon as well.

You can follow the latest developments on our separate live blog below:

Liberal senator speaks up for negative gearing

Andrew Bragg was also asked about reports that the Treasury is looking at options on negative gearing reform.

What’s wrong with looking at it, he was asked? Bragg said:

We don’t think that increasing taxes on houses is going to result in more … houses. That’s pretty simply our view. And as you know, about half the cost of a new house in NSW already goes in taxes and regulatory charges.

So, increasing the tax burden on housing is not a very good approach and, unfortunately, it’s been held out by some like the Greens as a silver bullet to the housing crisis when, unfortunately, there isn’t a silver bullet other than building more houses and finding ways to tilt the scales in favour of first home buyers.

But why shouldn’t it be on the table to explore? Bragg said, “because even if you changed it, you still have a massive housing problem.”

And asked if there should be any limits on how many negatively geared properties people can have, Bragg responded:

The deduction of rental losses is a pretty standard tax principle that applies across the economy. And at the end of the day, I think this is a massive distraction from the core issue, which is that the government have not built enough houses, and they haven’t been creative in ways to help first home buyers.

Banks should loosen credit laws to help first home buyers, Liberal senator says

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg was on ABC RN earlier to discuss an idea being pushed by some Liberals – to loosen credit laws to help first home buyers. He made the case for the changes and said:

[At] the moment, you have basically [a] very low level of delinquencies in Australia, and so the banks aren’t able to take on any risk – and frankly, we want banks to take on some risk, particularly in relation to first home buyers.

And a lot of people who are listening today, who may be older Australians, would probably have never received a loan under the current arrangements if they were in place 20 or 30 years ago.

So we need to balance risk management against our objective of growing first home ownership in Australia. And in other countries like Singapore, the equivalent regulator has to consider the impact on the economy and on people, whereas [the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority] only has one very narrow objective.

Asked if this could push house prices up further, Bragg said this was “a conversation about getting more first home buyers into the market”.

Queensland premier launches bid to oust controversial mayor in final hours in office

Queensland premier Steven Miles has launched a last-gasp bid to stand down the controversial Townsville mayor during his final hours in office before embarking upon an uphill re-election campaign.

This morning, Miles’ office confirmed it had sent a late-night show cause to Troy Thompson while the corruption watchdog investigates claims he embellished his military service during his mayoral campaign.

Thompson will have three weeks to respond. He has been contacted for comment.

Miles’ Labor government goes into caretaker mode today.

Dutton calls for cancelling of visas if ‘people are acting outside of Australian law’

Continuing his interview on Today, Peter Dutton said there should be “consequences” for people in Australia on a visa if they “aren’t abiding by our laws or they aren’t adhering to the values that they’ve signed up to”:

And I know Tony Burke talks about the prospect – “Maybe we’ll cancel visas.” No, we have to be very definite about this.

If people are acting outside of Australian law, if they’re acting in a way that’s inconsistent with the obligations that they’ve signed up to under their visa – that is to come here and to be peaceful – then their visas should be must be cancelled ahead of Monday [7 October], which is a significant day.

The former deputy police commissioner for NSW, Mick Willing, spoke with Sunrise earlier amid news the AFP would investigate at least six people who allegedly waved Hezbollah flags at rallies over the weekend.

Willing described the alleged actions as “atrocious … [and] unacceptable in this country” but said police have to work within the confines of the legislation:

So, the simple display of some of those symbols on itself is not enough to charge. There are a range of thresholds that have to be met. I am glad the investigation has kicked off both by the Australian Federal Police, Victoria and NSW too. It is going to take some time to pull that investigation together, but they have to work within the confines of that legislation.

At the same time, the opposition leader Peter Dutton spoke with the Today show and said “I believe that there are provisions within the existing law”, but if there’s not, the PM should “recall Parliament and deal with whatever deficiency there is in the law”.

The glorification of a man who is a leader of a terrorist organisation – It’d be like people out there glorifying Adolf Hitler or glorifying Osama bin Laden. It’s completely unacceptable.

Finding the right envoy on Islamophobia ‘has taken a while’, minister says

Tony Burke was also asked about the special envoy on Islamophobia, and said “finding the right person has taken a while”:

Rather than starting with a name, I started talking to people about what sort of person should fill the role. And it was through those conversations that Aftab Malik emerged …

This is a very targeted job for them, to talk about Islamophobia, and it’s important that they have the support of the community, and Aftab does, but it’s also important their job is to help to combat Islamophobia throughout the country.

Burke said he would “go through my whole life without experiencing hate speech and bigotry in this country, but my neighbours won’t”.

He said Australia has legal protection against hate speech on a range of issues such as race, sex, gender and disability, but not faith:

So that’s why these envoy positions are particularly important to help make the case and to help to lower the temperature in Australia.

We always need to remember, while it hasn’t happened here in Australia, the Christchurch massacre was conducted by an Australian. Islamophobia can lead to forms of terror and violent extremism that are absolutely horrific.

If you go to who is the person most likely to be targeted for abuse in Australia right now, it’s an Islamic woman wearing a hijab. I don’t want that to be the case. I want everyone to be able to live peacefully and live safely.

Burke says he has met ‘extraordinary’ Palestinians and transferred them on to humanitarian visas

Tony Burke was also asked about Palestinians who are in Australia on visitor visas and what will happen to them in the long term.

He said he had been dealing with them “case-by-case” over the past few weeks:

For some of the people who I’ve been meeting with, I’ve been transferring them on to humanitarian visas. That’s the same humanitarian visa that the Ukrainians have been on… We’re doing all the full checks that you’d expect in terms of security checks and everything that gets done.

Burke said he had helped 12 families with this process so far, moving them to humanitarian visas:

They don’t all have to be personal meetings with me, but so far, they have been … I’ve met with some extraordinary people, some people with skills like some accountants who are desperate to be able to work here in Australia.

One man who has a son with cerebral palsy … [and he] carried his adult son for 5km to try to get into safety [in Gaza]. When he met with me, he was still carrying his son because they didn’t have a wheelchair yet.

These are some extraordinary, good people who I’ve met with, and I’m hoping with those individual decisions that we’ve been making, that they’re finding a bit more safety here in Australia.

Burke calls out Dutton for wanting to recall parliament to debate anti-terrorism laws

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has called for parliament to be recalled to pass laws addressing the alleged waving of Hezbollah flags at rallies at the weekend.

Tony Burke told ABC RN:

He didn’t say we should recall the parliament so that we could get our housing legislation through. He didn’t say we should move quickly in the parliament to get cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines or anything done … If you were going to recall the parliament, you’d be doing it to do something on cost of living, and we’ve got the legislation in front of parliament right now to try to get more people into houses, and Peter Dutton and the Greens are voting together to prevent that from happening.

But is there a case for strengthening the laws? Burke responded:

These are laws that Peter Dutton supported when they were passed a year ago.

He argued that Dutton wanted to recall the parliament for two reasons: because “any chance he gets to not talk about cost of living, he wants to take it”, and second:

With Peter Dutton, it remains the case that no matter how many times our security agencies say we need to lower the temperature in Australia, he wants to raise the temperature every single time. He doesn’t want to recall parliament because he wants to change laws that he supported a year ago, he wants to recall parliament because he wants to throw more kerosene on the fire and get people angrier with each other and say more outrageous things in the parliament. That’s what it’s about. It’s nothing to do with Australia.

We mourn the civilians – not the Hezbollah leader, Burke says

Tony Burke was asked about reports of people mourning Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and said:

Well, the government doesn’t mourn him for one minute, not for one minute, but I’ll tell you – there are civilians who have been killed who we mourn. There are people who have nothing to do with terrorism, who were alive a week ago and are dead now, and we certainly, certainly mourn them.

For people claiming that they mourn someone like that, they can explain that for themselves, but from the government’s perspective, there are plenty of people to mourn, and he’s not one of them … The number of civilians killed is just intolerable, and that’s why the government’s calls for a ceasefire are so important.

Anti-hate speech laws ‘supported by both sides of politics’

Is waving a Hezbollah flag in Australia against the law? Tony Burke said that there are “certainly laws that speak to it”.

From December last year in the commonwealth criminal code, it became an offence to display the symbols of a listed terrorist organisation, which Hezbollah has been designated as since 2021.

Burke said of the legislation:

When those laws were passed through the parliament, they were the strongest statement on hate speech that the parliament has ever taken. They were supported by both sides of politics. They’re yet to be tested in the courts for the first time … The first cases that are brought will be the first cases that are tested, and they may well be from what happened over the course of the weekend.

‘I’ve got very strong views against hate speech and hate symbols’

Tony Burke was asked what the bar would be for a visa cancellation, and whether holding a Hezbollah flag would be enough for a visa to be cancelled.

He didn’t answer directly because of the court process but said:

I’ve got very strong views against hate speech and hate symbols, very strong views, and I don’t want the anger and hatred from around the world being imported into Australia.

And so as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t matter which side of a conflict you’re on, if you’re involved in inciting discord and hatred in Australia, then I want to have a look. And I asked the department to prepare a brief for me so I can consider whether the visa should be cancelled.

Inciting discord a reason for me to cancel visas, Tony Burke says

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, is speaking with ABC RN amid news the AFP will investigate at least six people who allegedly waved Hezbollah flags at rallies at the weekend.

Asked if any visas had been cancelled since the weekend, Burke said no:

We don’t know whether people there are actually on visas, or people who end up being of concern to the authorities are on visas.

He added:

I was simply asked within my portfolio whether actions that I would take, and it’s very clear that if someone’s inciting discord, they fail the character tests, [then] I’d be willing to cancel those visas …

We do have a higher standard in Australia if you’re on a visa as to what’s expected. If you’re on a visa in anyone’s country, you’re there as a guest … Where people will have arguments about freedom of speech, when you’re a guest in someone’s country, you’re there as a guest, and inciting discord is a reason for me to refuse visas and a reason for me to cancel visas.

Age discrimination commissioner urges more accurate reporting about older people

The age discrimination commissioner, Robert Fitzgerald, is urging the media to improve how it reports on older people.

A study commissioned by the Australian Human Rights Commission and titled Shaping perceptions: How Australian media reports on ageing found that negative stereotypes of older people are widely prevalent in mainstream media, as well as the under-reporting or misrepresentation of the matters affecting them.

Fitzgerald said positive and accurate portrayals of ageing in the media were found to be in the minority:

A key reason cited for these poor representations is the current state of Australian media. With many newsrooms shrinking and understaffed, specialist reporters being phased out, and overworked journalists facing tighter deadlines with fewer resources, the study found it is increasingly difficult for journalists to adequately research or report on age and ageing. This is resulting in the misreporting of older people, or unconscious biases seeping into news coverage.

The study also found the commercial drive to mainly target younger audiences was “either minimising older Australians or overstating their issues in line with the ‘click-bait’ culture”.