Australia politics live: Plibersek quizzed over nature positive bill as cost of living debate again dominates question time

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The Australian Federal Police are appearing before a parliamentary committee, where senior officers are facing questions about how politicians are briefed on sensitive investigations.

This, of course, comes in the context of the Coalition’s criticism of the government’s response to anti-semitic crimes, and whether Anthony Albanese was briefed in a timely fashion on the Dural caravan loaded with explosives.

Coalition MP Llew O’Brien has been asking questions about when sensitive investigations are briefed to senior members of the government. AFP members said each investigation is different, and it’s on a “case by case basis” whether they decide to escalate certain investigations to the notice of senior government members.

Greens senator David Shoebridge asked similar questions.

Asked about previous anti-semitic investigations, AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw said it was inappropriate to discuss, in a public forum, whether specific ongoing investigations had been briefed to politicians.

Shoebridge countered that disclosing whether the PM had been told “in no way could prejudice a criminal investigation.”

Labor senator Helen Polley, the committee chair, has interjected numerous times to direct questioning back to the purpose of the hearing - to investigate the AFP’s annual report - and to note hearing rules that it should not go into ongoing investigations.

Matildas great Williams out for rest of ALW season

Matildas great Lydia Williams’ professional career is in doubt after Melbourne Victory confirmed the veteran goalkeeper will miss the remainder of the A-League Women season through injury.

Williams, who officially retired from the Matildas last June, hasn’t played in Victory’s current campaign after suffering a wrist injury, and recently had surgery.

Victory had been unwilling to draw a line through Williams but on Thursday coach Jeff Hopkins conceded her season was likely over.

Williams, whose most recent club game was last season’s elimination-final loss to Central Coast, is out of contract at season’s end. The 36-year-old is yet to make a decision on her playing future and will be given time and space to consider it.

“Probably looks like Lyds won’t play again this season,” Hopkins said.

She’s had an operation and although it’s gone really well, probably I don’t think that will allow her to play this season.

Hopkins was unwilling to speculate on Williams’ future beyond the season.

– Australian Associated Press

Amendments to hate crimes bill ‘a Band-Aid on a much bigger wound’, says Equality Australia CEO

Equality Australia says the federal government has “missed an opportunity to stamp out hate speech” by not including serious vilification in its hate crimes bill.

The CEO of the national LGBTIQ+ group, Anna Brown, said the amendments late last night “failed to adequately protect vulnerable communities from hate speech while capitulating to Coalition demands on mandatory sentencing.”

LGBTIQ+ people and other minorities will still have no protections against people who target them by promoting hate, serious contempt or severe ridicule. Outlawing incitement to violence while ignoring the toxic rhetoric and harassment that leads to it is simply putting a Band-Aid on a much bigger wound.

Brown welcomed the bill’s inclusion of children, families and friends as protected “associates” of LGBTIQ+ people, but said it stopped short of including others – such as librarians and councillors – who are “increasingly caught in the crossfire when LGBTIQ+ people are targeted by hate.”

She also took aim at the inclusion of mandatory minimum sentencing, saying this “undermines judicial discretion and runs the very real risk of further fracturing social cohesion and making all communities less safe.”

Dutton claims Trump not talking about ‘forcibly removing people’ from Gaza: video

Here is the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, saying the US president, Donald Trump, is not talking about “forcibly removing people” from Gaza.

Dutton made the comments in response to Trump’s statement that the US should “take over” Gaza and “own it”, which the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warns would be “ethnic cleansing”.

Dutton also said today Trump brings “gravitas” to the Middle East conflict and that he is a “big thinker,” which you can read about earlier in the blog.

Thanks for following along with me on the blog today! I’ll hand you over to Rafqa Touma for the rest of the day’s news.

I’ll be with you next week for more fun when parliament sits again.

Woodside CEO on nuclear: ‘all energy options’ should be on the table

Continuing from our last post …

As the Guardian has reported, scientists have warned the proposal to extend the life of the North West Shelf gas processing plant on the Burrup Peninsula in the country’s remote north-west is linked to the development of at least three major gas fields and could ultimately result in billions of tonnes of climate pollution being released into the atmosphere.

Woodside’s CEO, Meg O’Neill also indicated support for nuclear power as part of Australia’s energy mix, calling for “all energy options” to be on the table. Asked whether Australia could reach net zero emissions without nuclear, she said, “I think that’ll be a stretch ... I think it’ll get very expensive.”

As Graham Readfearn explained, the Coalition has presented no evidence to back up its claim that its nuclear proposal could bring electricity prices down.

With the event held in Victoria, O’Neill also took the opportunity to criticise the Victorian government’s policies on gas – including the state’s ban on coal seam gas and its gas substitution roadmap. However she also expressed “cautious signs of optimism” about a change in position, noting “increased recognition that gas can and should be part of the mix”.

Woodside energy criticises red tape as company awaits approval on North West Shelf facility

Woodside Energy’s chief executive, Meg O’Neill, has argued for governments to cut “red and green tape”, zeroing in on lengthy environmental approvals for fossil fuel projects and Victoria’s “anti-gas rhetoric”.

O’Neill said she anticipated a federal decision on the North West Shelf gas processing plant soon after receiving approval from the WA state government in December.

The project’s six-year environmental approval process was used as a case study, underlining the gas executive’s call for clearer timelines on decisions. O’Neill said:

We’ve got to have a process that is clear for everybody concerned, that’s ourselves as investors, bureaucrats, [and] it’s the timeline for the community who’s interested in seeing these projects moving forward.

According to O’Neill, Woodside had received a letter from the federal environment department advising that the department’s review of the project was expected to be completed – and handed to the minister – by 28 February.

In December, we received approval from the WA state government to extend the life of the plant, but it came after six years of assessment and appeals within the WA environmental system, despite bipartisan support for the proposal. Now we are eagerly awaiting a federal decision as a second environmental regulator has to consider [the project].

Tldr: what we learned today in question time

The Coalition spent more than half of their questions asking the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, about how costs have gone up on food, gas, rents etc. Chalmers didn’t seem to mind and went back on the attack against Angus Taylor.

The government’s dixers were at first laser-focused on the cost of living and their key health and education policies, but by the end went into other territory like veterans’ affairs and vaping (which felt a bit out of the blue).

Tanya Plibersek was also in the spotlight today on the government pulling its nature-positive bills. She blamed the Coalition and Greens for not supporting it – though it’s been revealed recently from FoI documents that she did have a deal with the Greens and David Pocock before it was pulled.

Question time ends

The final question is a dixer to Mark Butler on restricting vapes.

His response gets some heckling from the opposite side, and we can hear some comments of “it [a ban] doesn’t work”.

And with that, question time is over for the week.

Burke confirms no plans to raise worker threshold when defining small businesses

The questions go back to the crossbench, and independent MP Allegra Spender asks whether the government will raise the threshold of the definition of small business from 15 to 25 workers. Tony Burke takes the question:

We want to make sure we get the balance right in providing the distinction between acknowledging the different pressures of small businesses are under, particularly with paperwork, but making sure that the definitions are realistic because with every exemption, it carries two consequences. One, it does mean for those businesses, they do have an easy compliance burden, that is true, but it does also mean that the workers who work there have fewer rights than they would have [at] another business …

The changing definition is a very big step and given the way many businesses are structured in respect to casuals, that is why we have not been supporting a change in that number.

Burke continues attacks on Coalition’s potential investor visa revival

The next dixer goes to home affairs minister Tony Burke, on getting rid of “dodgy visa programs”. It’s a nod to the significant investor visa that Peter Dutton has suggested could be reestablished if the Coalition won government. There’s a bit more context on that here.

Burke says a review of the visa system found “serious problems” in the system.

The Albanese government should hold firm on good policies that are in place for good reasons, referring specifically for our abolition of the visas that the leader of the opposition wants to bring back.

This shows the twisted priorities … today in an interview he doubled down and wanted to bring back a discredited visa.

Pulling ‘necessary’ and ‘sensible’ nature-positive bill a shame, says Plibersek

Tanya Plibersek gets another question from the opposition on the nature positive bill. This time it’s from the s leader, David Littleproud, who asks if she would rule out introducing a future environmental protection bill.

Plibersek again says its a “shame” the bill didn’t pass the Senate. The government has pulled the legislation from the Senate notice paper, but says it was “necessary” and “sensible” reform.

Prof Graeme Samuel was selected by the previous government to report on our environmental laws and what did he find? He found that those laws either working for business and not working for nature.

Veterans ‘waiting for years’ to have claims processed after Coalition government: Keogh

We’re getting a whole range of dixers today. The next one goes to Matt Keogh, the veterans’ affairs minister, on how the government is improving the lives of veterans.

Keogh goes to the proposed cuts to the public service that the opposition has raised, and says some of the new public service hires by the government have been frontline workers in the department of veterans’ affairs (DVA):

The leader of the opposition has been saying workers who provide government services are government waste and he has been saying that he wants to cut the 36,000 public service roles. But when the Liberals left office, DVA was under-resourced and there was some 42,000 veteran claims that were not even being looked at by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which meant that veterans were waiting for years to have their claims processed.

Laos authorities investigating alcohol poisoning of Australians have not requested support from AFP

The independent MP Zoe Daniel gets the next crossbench question. She asks for an update on the investigation into alcohol poisoning that killed two Australian girls in Laos last year – Holly Moreton Bowles and Bianca Jones. The two girls lived in Daniel’s electorate of Goldstein in Melbourne.

The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, answers, saying the Laos government hasn’t taken up an offer from the Australian federal police to support the investigation.

This is an investigation which is being undertaken by the authorities in Laos. The Australian federal police have made an offer to the authorities in Laos to provide their assistance in the investigation and there is a whole lot of capability that the Australian federal police could bring to bear in terms of this investigation. I have to report … that, at this point, the Laos authorities have not taken up that invitation …

The minister for foreign affairs has spoken to her counterpart in Laos and made clear that it is the expectation of the Australian government that there be a thorough investigation into these events, into this crime and that the perpetrators be found.

Husic spruiks $2bn for green aluminium

The next dixer goes to the industry minister, Ed Husic, on how the government is helping job security for regional communities that make aluminium.

Husic says the government is supporting blue-collar jobs and gives a nod to the $2bn announcement for green aluminium that the government made last month.

It is an incredible opportunity and a big deal. We have the resources, the people and we have got the ability to add value across the breadth of the supply chain, we have the smelters. The Australian aluminium council says our investment is globally significant.

Plibersek blames Coalition and Greens for ditched EPA legislature

Sussan Ley gets the next question, and asks the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, if she still wants “a federal Environmental Protection Agency, including in Western Australia?”

There’s a bit of back and forth between Plibersek and Peter Dutton over calling Sussan Ley the deputy leader of the opposition, and she calls Dutton “aggro” for repeatedly interrupting her.

She then continues:

We made very clear through our nature positive plan and through our laws that we wanted to see progress. Progress to deliver stronger protection for nature and progress to provide faster, clearer decisions for business. There is no business in the country that believes the environment laws are working to progress projects quickly and there is no environmental organisation or anyone with any common sense that thinks that our laws are working to protect nature effectively either.

She blames the Coalition and Greens again for not supporting the bill, though the WA premier, Roger Cook, has publicly said he doesn’t want to see the bill pass.

King spruiks $7.2bn for Bruce highway after dixer on Queensland road safety improvements

Infrastructure minister Catherine King is given a dixer on improving road safety in Queensland.

King mentions the $7.2bn commitment Labor made to the Bruce highway and that the government will support rebuilding infrastructure destroyed in the floods.

I want to assure the house [that] the Albanese government is working closely with the Queensland government to ensure that we get that freight route up as soon as possible and that we have a long-term resilience solution for that stretch of road and we have seen the prime minister is there today.

She then delves into where the opposition would cut spending to pay for their nuclear plan. She also mentions tax-free lunches.

Taylor presses Chalmers on insurance costs since last election

Angus Taylor asks Chalmers whether insurance costs have risen 19% since the last election.

Chalmers says the impacts of natural disasters, like in north Queensland now, are affecting insurance premiums:

Insurance has been one of the big drivers of the inflation challenge in our economy. And even as we’ve made some really quite substantial progress in a lot of the other categories, and insurance, I think from memory, came off a little bit in the most recent data, it is still a big and prominent part of the CPI.

Chalmers challenges Taylor to tell the house what else should be done to reduce inflation premiums.

Jason Clare: we will cut student debt, opposition will cut price of ‘croquembouche for bosses’

It’s time for another dixer, and this time, we are going from childcare to higher education and the government’s promise to cut student debt if it wins the next election.

The education minister, Jason Clare, spruiks the election promise and provides our third reference to tax-free lunches for today, which gets picked up by the opposition, and is asked by Milton Dick not to stray too far.

He continues anyway:

If we win the election, Mr speaker, we will cut student debt by 20% and that will leave 3 million Australians better off. If they win the election, if they won’t get that, they will be worse off … the opposition leader says that he thinks $1.6bn on bosses’ lunches is an efficient use of taxpayers’ money. Doesn’t say that about Medicare, doesn’t say that about childcare but apparently cut price croquembouche for bosses, that is, chef kiss.