Australia politics live: question time under way after condolence motion for Joel Fitzgibbon’s son

Key events

We are back to migration.

Michael Sukkar asks Anthony Albanese:

My question is to the Prime Minister. In the year ending September 30, 2023, net overseas migration was 548,800 people which is an increase of 206,500, or a 6 0% increase from the previous year. Prime Minister - don’t these figures just confirm that Labor’s housing crisis is worsening with overseas arrivals now running at four times the new home builds.

(Does Sukkar believe that each migrant who arrives in Australia lives alone in their own property?)

Before Albanese can get to migration, he too must also acknowledge Grant Shapps and David Cameron:

I join with the members of Parliament in welcoming our UK minister here and in welcoming Minister Shapps to the Lodge later today along with Minister Cameron, the Foreign Minister, will be hosting the A UK MIN delegation there this evening before they head to Adelaide for what will be a very important meeting and I look forward to hearing the feedback. And I was able to host the High Commissioner just on Tuesday evening as well to get a briefing about the relationship between Australia and the UK, of which the AUKUS arrangements and our defence relationship are so important.

Then to the question:

Migration is lower than it was anticipated to be. The population figures are lower than what was anticipated to be.

Andrew Hastie then stands up to also pay tribute to the Australia–United Kingdom relationship, and for a moment it is all colonial happy families again in the Australian parliament.

The first dixer is on the Australia–United Kingdom alliance. Richard Marles has said most of this in the press conference and the press release, so I think we can all recite it in our sleep by now.

Jim Chalmers finishes that answer off with a comment on housing:

When it comes to housing, and I want to say this in a respectful way that reflects the respectful way that the shadow treasurer [asked] the question in the context today of the speeches that were given a moment ago.

When it comes to housing, if those opposite were serious about the housing shortage in this country, they’d vote to help fix it.

And we have proposed, and again, tribute to the housing minister and the cabinet and the prime minister – we’ve got about 17 different housing policy and they’ve not all been supported by those opposite.

And so, if those opposite were serious about housing – there is a shortage of housing in this country and we’re doing our best to address that and alleviate that, and if they were serious about it, they’d help us.

Question time begins

With the condolence motion moved to the federation chamber, the house switches gears and moves into the last question time for the week.

Angus Taylor has been given the first question and acknowledges it “is hard to follow” the motion for Jack Fitzgibbon. So there is less bluster than usual as he asks Jim Chalmers:

Since the election, the adult population has increased by over a million people. Meanwhile, home building completions are a quarter of that. We are in a GDP per capita or family recession. The only thing left driving the economy is migration, at a time when Labor’s housing crisis is worsening. Why is this government taking our economy in the wrong direction?

Chalmers says:

We’re not. And for evidence of that, have a look at the quite remarkable jobs numbers that we got a couple of hours ago. We’ve got unemployment falling. We’ve got real wages growing.

We’ve got inflation moderating. In each of those three respects, the economy is in a stronger position than what we inherited in May of 2022. Now, when it comes to the migration numbers that the shadow treasurer asked about, and indeed, the housing situation that the shadow treasurer asked about as well, we did get today more data about net overseas migration.

The reason why that number was relatively high was because of the arrival of international students.

And what today’s data doesn’t take into account is the quite substantial action that the ministers and the government have taken when it comes to putting downward pressure on this net overseas migration.

The defence minister, Richard Marles, and his opposition counterpart, Andrew Hastie, are also giving speeches on the Jack Fitzgibbon condolence motion.

After a moment’s silence in the chamber, the rest of the motion will be moved to the federation chamber (the house of reps’ spillover chamber) where the remaining contributions will be heard.

Michaelia Cash, who is acting opposition leader in the Senate today, followed up by asking how Don Farrell’s remarks helped to secure the transfer of knowledge and technology from the United States that the Aukus partnership depended upon.

Penny Wong replied that perhaps Cash “should be winding back some of the people on her side who are trying to undermine our engagement with the United States” (that’s a reference to attacking Kevin Rudd’s continued viability as ambassador to the US after Donald Trump’s comments).

Cash asked whether Wong stood by her past comments that “in diplomacy, words matter”. Wong responded by pointing to Emmanuel Macron’s infamous “I don’t think, I know” comment about Scott Morrison’s honesty.

Wong said the Coalition was, for a third day, “confecting an argument where there is none”. Wong said the government’s commitment to the US alliance was “unshakeable”.

New Zealand is ‘family’, while US is Australia’s ‘closest ally’, Penny Wong says

Over in Senate question time – three days after the fact – the Coalition is still leading the prosecution of the government for Don Farrell’s thought crime (“I’m not sure that the United States is our most trusted ally. I would have said New Zealand, in the whole history of time.”)

The leader of the government in the Senate, Penny Wong, responded:

I think we all know – we all know – that the Kiwis are family. We all know that. Everyone also knows the United States is our closest ally and our principal strategic partner.

Wong – who had been away on the day Farrell made the comment – added that both major parties in Australia had shown support for the US alliance:

But on a range of fronts this week, what we have seen is this opposition seeking to play partisan politics with the US alliance, which I think demonstrates, yet again, that under the wrecking ball that is Mr Dutton, they are prepared recklessly to politicise anything, recklessly to fight about anything regardless of whether or not it’s good for the country. They’re not fit for government.

Peter Dutton stands to deliver his condolence speech:

In the tragic death of Lance Corporal Jack Fitzgibbon, our nation has lost a principled, personable and promising young Australian.

Greater than the national loss is the profoundly personal loss.

A dedicated father has lost his only son.

A devoted mum has lost her only boy.

A dear partner has lost her life’s counterpart, and two sisters have lost their darling sibling.

A band of brothers have lost one of their own.

And now our hearts break for Joel and Di and Cass and Caitlin and Grace and for the commanders of the second commander regiment.

Anthony Albanese concludes with:

There is, of course, no grief without love. Sorrow may soften with the passage of the years, but love does not. All that Jack meant and all that he was will endure always.

I offer my deepest condolences to all of Jack’s family. His dad and me were elected on the same day in 1996, but we’ve been mates a lot longer than that.

Since the early 1980s.

So I’ve seen his family grow up as we in this strange profession that we’re engaged with see often of families as they grow and families together.

And Joel was a mate of my son’s as well. So this is tough. But to all who loved him, and to all who served with him, to all who have joined us here in the public gallery to honour him, may your hearts always glow with his memory. May Jack rest in peace.

PM says Jack Fitzgibbon ‘lived a full life that was cut far too short’

Anthony Albanese has spoken on the condolence motion for Jack Fitzgibbon:

This accident which took Jack away from all who loved him is a harsh reminder that there are no easy days for those who defend our nation.

What they do is crucial to everything that we hold dear as a nation and as a people. The choice to serve is a profound expression of love for our country.

We are so grateful to every Australian who serves and put themselves on the line for all of us. Our nation thanks Jack.

Our nation honours Jack. He lived a full life that was cut far too short. To look at that photo of Jack in his uniform, shoulders back, eyes bright, is to grieve for all the tomorrows he has been denied. To mourn for all of the moments he will never share.

All that time, his loved ones should have had with him.

Analysis: quid pro quo with Beijing?

There has been a bit of excitement in some quarters in the past 24 hours over Australia’s decision to drop anti-dumping measures against Chinese wind towers.

Yesterday, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, was asked whether it was a “quid pro quo” as Australia awaits a final decision from Beijing on tariffs on Australian wine.

Wong said no – the industry minister, Ed Husic, had “made a decision based on the apolitical and evidence‑based recommendation from the Anti-Dumping Commissioner, and Australia has made clear the independence of that commission and our trade remedy system”.

There has been some commentary since then insisting that the move was “fodder for Chinese propaganda and division”. The Australian newspaper ran a piece that said:

Whatever the Chinese translation is for the Latin quid pro quo there is no doubt Beijing is working on the basis that Australia is giving ground on trade and in other areas, and that China is rewarding the pandering.

Now, it is true that the final decision was made by Husic only last week. Some Australian journalists were miffed that the news first appeared to turn up in China’s state-run Global Times, which quoted a professor as saying it was “a good gesture by the Australian side” ahead of the visit by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit.

But the decision was not a secret – the notice was posted on the website of the Anti-Dumping Commission, as is normal for all of these anti-dumping review processes.

And it certainly didn’t come out of the blue – Husic accepted the recommendation. When was the commission’s recommendation first flagged?

Guardian Australia reported in October last year that the commission was proposing “to recommend that the measures on wind towers exported to Australia from China expire on 16 April 2024”. That was because the commission was “not satisfied” that scrapping the tariffs would cause “the material injury that the measures are intended to prevent”.

Ahead of question time there is a condolence motion for Jack Fitzgibbon, who died in a parachuting accident during ADF training.

Jack’s family, including the former Labor defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon, are in the chamber for the speeches.

Question time is about to begin. Paul Karp says almost all the women in the chamber are wearing yellow, which I believe is part of the March into Yellow campaign for Endometriosis Australia.

Tanya Plibersek, Linda Burney, Ged Kearney, Alicia Payne, Sally Sitou, Mary Doyle, Tracey Roberts, Sharon Claydon, Melissa McIntosh, Anne Webster, Zoe Daniel, Dai Le, Sophie Scamps, Monique Ryan, Nola Marino and Karen Andrews are among those wearing yellow.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor accuses Labor of ‘failures on workplace relations, energy, housing and tax’

The shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has responded to the unexpected fall in the unemployment rate (helped by more people joining the labour force) by saying that “jobs were the only thing keeping Australians’ heads above water in a cost-of-living crisis”.

Which … yes? Money from jobs does help people pay for things …?

The wider point was about the cost of living:

Australians’ living standards are collapsing under Labor. Australia is experiencing a GDP per capita recession and a consumer confidence recession. The only thing left driving the economy is immigration.

As the RBA has recognised, hardworking Australians are facing a highly uncertain economic future. Labor’s failures on workplace relations, energy, housing and tax are driving up the cost of living for all Australians.

Australians are working harder, for less under Labor.

You can expect question time to contain a version of this press release.

Independent research council board to be established to take politics out of research grants

The education minister, Jason Clare, has heralded the passage of the Australian Research Council amendment (review response) bill 2023, which is aimed at taking the politics out of research grants.

An independent ARC board will be established which will approve grants with the minister to be responsible for approving the funding guidelines. That approval from the minister will be subject to scrutiny from the parliament. Clare said:

I promised to end the days of ministers using the ARC as a political plaything and today, that’s what we’re doing.

The Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has also welcomed the passage of the bill, having first moved a private member’s bill to stop political interference in research grants in 2018.

Faruqi said the legislation was a “a win for the Greens and researchers, who have long fought for research independence and an end to political interference in ARC grants”.

The Greens secured amendments including:

Making it an objective of the ARC to support Australian universities to attract and retain academic researchers and promote quality academic jobs.

Requiring reporting on the nature of employment of researchers employed using ARC funding to provide a clearer picture of job insecurity which is rife in the sector.

Inserting a requirement for the minister to ensure the ARC Board reflects the diversity of the community.

Requiring an independent review of the ARC Board, to begin two years after the significant changes made by this bill are implemented.