Pesutto ‘tarred’ Deeming with ‘the Nazi brush’, court told as defamation trial beginsAdeshola OreVictoria’s opposition leader, John Pesutto, “tarred” ex-Liberal MP Moira Deeming with “the Nazi brush,” the federal court has heard.Deeming is suing Pesutto for defamation over allegations he falsely portrayed her a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at a rally in March 2023 that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.Speaking in the federal court, Deeming’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, says Pesutto’s team would incorrectly argue that prior to March last year, Deeming had a bad reputation:
Reputation is apparently an issue in this place. Mr Pesutto comes to this court and asks your honour to find that, before he tarred her with the Nazi brush in March of last year, she had a bad reputation.
The evidence that is before your honour points overwhelmingly to the contrary.
Chrysanthou says this evidence includes Pesutto asking Deeming to apply for a parliamentary whip position after he was elected opposition leader in December 2022.ShareUpdated at 03.00 CESTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureBowen: ‘Dutton has no plan for Australia’s energy future, just a risky gamble’Chris Bowen certainly keeps track of time’s passage.The energy minister just posted to social media:
It’s been 89 days since Peter Dutton announced his risky nuclear reactor sites and he still won’t tell us how much they will cost the taxpayer, how long they will take to get up and running, or how much energy they will generate. Peter Dutton has no plan for Australia’s energy future, just a risky gamble.
ShareUpdated at 04.19 CESTThe Greens will be holding a press conference in a short while to respond to some of the day’s events, including the never ending housing debate.The Greens leader Adam Bandt has stuck around Canberra, despite the house not sitting, so it’s obvious the party was preparing for this to be a big week.ShareUpdated at 04.10 CESTSarah Basford CanalesData breaches hit record high across AustraliaData breaches in the first half of 2024 have reached record highs, new data from the privacy watchdog shows.The figures from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, released Monday, shows the regulator was notified of 527 data breaches between January and June 2024 – the highest number since July to December 2020.Malicious and criminal attacks were behind 67% of the breaches with 57% of those recorded as cybersecurity incidents.The Australian government recorded 19% of data breaches during the six-month period while the health industry made up 19% of cases.The privacy commissioner, Carly Kind, said:
Almost every day, my office is notified of data breaches where Australians are at likely risk of serious harm. This harm can range from an increase in scams and the risk of identity theft to emotional distress and even physical harm.
ShareUpdated at 03.57 CEST‘A question of values’: crossbenchers unite in push to ‘properly’ fund public schoolsMembers of the Senate crossbench, including Fatima Payman, David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie have backed a push by Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne to have public education “properly” funded by the government.The crossbench senators want the government to “fund public schools from 22.5% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) to a minimum of 25%”.Allman-Payne said the school funding system was not fair:
Every day this year, the federal government will give $51 million to private schools, while leaving public schools underfunded. Every day. Who can look a public school parent or carer in the eye and say that’s a fair system?
The government must make a choice. Will it further entrench a two-tier system where public schools, which educate the vast majority of disadvantaged students, are forced to struggle by on inadequate funding? Or will it invest in our young people and properly fund our public schools?
Pocok said he could not “in good conscience back legislation that will bake in underfunding for a decade to come”.
The ACT has been fortunate enough to be the only jurisdiction to hit 100 per cent of its school resourcing standard but even then we’ve got kids without enough chairs in class, teachers burning out, classes collapsing.
Payman said it was a “question of values and priorities”.
By neglecting public schools, we are condemning another generation of Australian kids to an underfunded education.
Every child, regardless of their background, their postcode, their parents income, deserves a fully funded, high-quality education.
Senator Fatima Payman. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPLambie wants the government to honour the 2010 Gonski reforms.
Gonksi was a Labor reform – it blows me away that Education Minister Jason Clare still hasn’t fixed this. While our richest private schools are getting taxpayer money to build libraries that look like castles and sports centres with Olympic swimming pools – my old high school is still using demountables from the late 1980’s.”
ShareUpdated at 03.55 CESTGreens, Pocock and Lambie call on federal government to lift share of school fundingPaul KarpThe Greens, and some of the crossbench including senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie are about to call on the federal government to increase its share of public school funding to 25% of the school resource standard.The commonwealth has done a deal with Western Australia to increase its share to 22.5% and wants the other states to agree to that figure, but the states and the Australian Education Union are calling for 25%.We’re expecting the Greens’ senator Penny Allman-Payne to put out a media release soon.Lambie said:
On the back of the Gonski reforms in 2010, prime minister Julia Gillard told Australians that your postcode shouldn’t determine how well you do in life. But in 2024 more than half of the $29 billion [federal] government spend on schools in Australia goes to private schools! Gonksi was a Labor reform – it blows me away that education minister Jason Clare still hasn’t fixed this. While our richest private schools are getting taxpayer money to build libraries that look like castles and sports centres with Olympic swimming pools – my old high school is still using demountables from the late 1980s.
Senator Jacqui Lambie. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPShareUpdated at 03.45 CESTWong asked about Ukraine’s use of British and French made missilesOn the question of whether or not Ukraine should be allowed British and French made long range missiles to target military sites in Russia, Penny Wong says:
Look, NATO, including obviously the US and the UK, has been balancing a very difficult set of propositions throughout this conflict, and they include, we all have to stand with Ukraine and their fight for their sovereignty. I mean this is a breach of the UN Charter and no country is safe if the international community enables in any way that breach of the UN Charter.
Equally, Nato is balancing, you know, how to avert further escalation in Europe. They are hard decisions, and I know from my conversations with both the US and the United Kingdom, they are considering very closely these sorts of issues; how do you support sovereignty, but at the same time not escalate.
I recognise the work they are doing to try and strike that balance.
ShareUpdated at 03.29 CESTWong says ‘Iranian regime is a destabilising and repressive force’The US, UK, France and Germany announced sanctions against Iran’s government last week after accusing it of sending missiles to Russia. Asked if she supported those sanctions, Wong said:
Of course. What this demonstrates is the extent to which the Iranian regime is a destabilising and repressive force. It demonstrates its willingness to ferment conflict elsewhere in the world; we know the destabilising role it has in the region.
This enabling of President Putin’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine is again not only a violation of international law, but it is – flies in the face of Ukrainian sovereignty and international law.
ShareUpdated at 03.48 CESTWong relieved Trump not injured and says political violence ‘has no place’ in societyIn an earlier interview with ABC radio RN Breakfast, Penny Wong also spoke about the apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump:
I’m relieved that President Trump and others were not injured in this, and you know, obviously very pleased that law enforcement was able to deal with the situation. But what I would say is, political violence has no place in any society, certainly has no place in a democracy, and … this is another, you know, dreadful demonstration of the potential of political violence.
ShareUpdated at 03.19 CESTPaul KarpPalestinian applications for onshore protection slightly down in AugustThe latest home affairs statistics on people applying for onshore protection (subclass 866 visas) have been tabled in parliament.In August the three biggest sources for claims were citizens of China (224), the “Palestinian Authority” (166) and India (161).Until this month the number of Palestinians applying for visas has been rising, increasing pressure on the Albanese government over its decision to require them to come to Australia on visitor visas first.August’s figures are down slightly on July, when 176 people from the “Palestinian Authority” applied. In June, July and August, none were actually granted – which points to delays processing claims.ShareUpdated at 03.01 CESTPesutto ‘tarred’ Deeming with ‘the Nazi brush’, court told as defamation trial beginsAdeshola OreVictoria’s opposition leader, John Pesutto, “tarred” ex-Liberal MP Moira Deeming with “the Nazi brush,” the federal court has heard.Deeming is suing Pesutto for defamation over allegations he falsely portrayed her a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at a rally in March 2023 that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.Speaking in the federal court, Deeming’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, says Pesutto’s team would incorrectly argue that prior to March last year, Deeming had a bad reputation:
Reputation is apparently an issue in this place. Mr Pesutto comes to this court and asks your honour to find that, before he tarred her with the Nazi brush in March of last year, she had a bad reputation.
The evidence that is before your honour points overwhelmingly to the contrary.
Chrysanthou says this evidence includes Pesutto asking Deeming to apply for a parliamentary whip position after he was elected opposition leader in December 2022.ShareUpdated at 03.00 CESTHollie Hughes distances Coalition from aged care reforms: ‘This was not a co-design’The Albanese government’s aged care reforms were announced last week after negotiations with the Coalition. They are off to a Senate inquiry now, where there will be more of a lookey-loo over them, before they are voted on.This morning on Sky News, the Liberal senator Hollie Hughes was keen to distance the Coalition from the legislation (which was put forward by Anika Wells after consultation with Hughes’ colleague Anne Ruston).Hughes:
Well, this was not a co-design package of reforms. This is something that Labor’s put together. When she was finally brought in, Senator Ruston has negotiated a number of issues around making sure that these are grandfathered, that government will remain the majority funder, and that there will be lifetime caps, all of which were not necessarily part of Labor’s first suggested reforms. And Senator Ruston’s also worked really hard to make sure that those in rural and regional areas are supported, which are so often forgotten –
Host: [interjecting] “But was there another way?”Hughes: “You know, retirees are Labor’s way to just whack them around.”Host: “But that’s what you’re doing by supporting it.”Hughes:
Well, we are trying to get them out in the open if it does need to be reform. And let me tell you, you don’t want the Greens in there trying to negotiate some of these things. We can’t all always just sit back. It may not be perfect, but there does need to be some reform. And Senator Ruston’s done a lot of work to make sure that the impact is minimal, but that the sector will remain sustainable.
ShareUpdated at 02.57 CEST‘Real question’ for Greens, Watt says, as Help To Buy housing bill goes to SenateEmployment minister Murray Watt was also carrying the housing baton this morning;
This will be a real test for both the Coalition and the Greens this week. Frankly, we don’t have much hope that the Coalition will support this legislation because they tend to say no to anything that Labor puts up, especially anything revolving around cost‑of‑living pressures.But there’s a real question mark this week for the Greens party about whether they’re serious in working with the government to deliver more housing and support for renters that they always say they’re keen on. The truth is that every time the Greens vote against Labor’s housing measures, that makes it harder for renters to enter the housing market. It makes it harder for us to be able to deliver the more housing that this country so desperately needs, and every time we see the Greens vote with the Coalition to block Labor’s moves, the only person that that helps is Peter Dutton.So there’s a real question for the Greens party this week about whether they will deliver on their promise to help renters and to help provide more housing, and the best way they can do that is by voting with Labor to pass this Help to Buy legislation.
ShareUpdated at 02.31 CEST