Dutton condemns PM for including calls for ceasefire and de-escalation in motionPeter Dutton then condemns the prime minister and Labor for putting forward a motion which also recognised Palestinians and blames him for the Coalition not coming to a bipartisan agreement on the motion.This is actually quite extraordinary, even for the Australian parliament.Dutton:
On this day, the eighth of October, the day after the first sitting, day after the seven October anniversary that this prime minister wasn’t able to lead a moment of bipartisanship in this parliament, which, in my memory, is without precedent, prime minister, there has always been a bipartisan position between your predecessors.
You’re citing Biden, France, Hawke, Keating, you don’t mention them, you don’t mention Rudd, you don’t mention Gillard. There has been a position of bipartisanship on these issues, and your predecessors would have had the decency to respect the Jewish community in a way that you have not done today.
And for that prime minister, you should stand condemned.
ShareUpdated at 03.40 CESTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureWe are now less than 10 minutes out from the first question time of the week, so take what moments you need.It has been quite the morning.ShareDaniel HurstVivienne Porzsolt, a founding member of Jews Against the Occupation ’48, told the same press conference:
I’ve been an activist for peace in Palestine for over 30 years. I am a Jew. My parents got out of Czechoslovakia the day the Nazis marched into Prague. And so the whole experience of that Holocaust is burnt into my bones as part of my experience. And I draw from that experience, from the Jewish traditions of humanism and justice…
I and growing numbers of Jews are saying, ‘not in our name’. The State of Israel is committing grave atrocities in our name. And I say to my fellow Jews who continue to see Israel as a guarantee of safety that we need to to be aware and remember the words of Hillel, who said, ‘If I am not for myself, who shall be for me?’ And that’s the something we remember quite well, but we don’t remember the other bit: ‘If I’m for myself alone, who am I?’ So I say the state of Israel is committing atrocities in our name, and we say ‘not in our name’.
ShareDaniel HurstNow that the lower house debate over the government’s 7 October-related motion has wrapped up, let’s bring you a few more testimonies from the earlier press conference in the Mural Hall. The speakers included Palestinian Australians.Dr Bushra Othman, a surgeon from Melbourne, said she recently returned from a three-week volunteer medical initiative with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association. She told of her time based at al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza:
We travelled to Gaza to provide medical care, but it became clear that our main goal was to bear witness to the cruel injustice, to the oppression and the horrific crimes being committed against the Palestinians there.
Othman spoke of a 21-year-old patient who “who died because of severe malnutrition and devastating injuries she suffered from a bomb while walking home”.Othman said she also thought of a 17-year-old patient “whose right arm has been auto-amputated by shrapnel, and his mangled right leg is on the brink of being amputated, and Israel won’t allow for him to be medically evacuated”. She said:
The people of Gaza are not just headlines. They are not just numbers. They are precious lives. I stand before you today to implore immediate action be taken.
ShareThe video team have put together some of the speeches from that motion:Dutton declines to support government motion on 7 October attack – videoShare7 October motion passes houseThe house divided and the motion passed, 85 to 54.Australia’s first Muslim ministers, Ed Husic and Anne Aly, sat together during the motion debate.Ed Husic and Anne Aly watch members making statements on the anniversary of the Hamas attacks and ongoing conflicts in the House of Representatives. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The GuardianShareUpdated at 04.42 CESTJosh ButlerLey tells Coalition partyroom Labor is ‘flailing’ and says there is ‘very real chance’ of early electionThe Coalition partyroom meeting this morning got a bit of an advance taste of Peter Dutton’s response to that 7 October motion, when the opposition leader told his troops of his claims that the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was trying to “walk both sides of the street”.The opposition caucus met earlier today, with the usual criticisms of the government: Dutton claimed Albanese and Labor were “out of sync” with the public mood, the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, raised concerns about food, energy and housing costs in the cost-of-living crisis; and the deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, claimed Labor was “flailing”.Ley spoke again of her belief there was a “very real chance of an early election” and urged colleagues to get out and keep campaigning. She claimed voters “can’t say what Albanese stands for”, according to a readout from a caucus spokesperson.The Coalition will push for numerous bills on the government agenda to go to a committee process, or wait for ongoing committees to report, before they give their verdict on whether to support or oppose: that includes the new aged care bill, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing changes, and the wage increase for early childhood educators.The party spokesperson reiterated the Coalition’s strong opposition to the misinformation bill, however, calling the amended version “unacceptable” and confirming they would vote against it.ShareUpdated at 04.41 CESTSarah Basford CanalesPro-Palestine demonstrators gather on Parliament House lawnsSupporters of Palestine have been on the lawns of Parliament House this morning, calling for an end to Israel’s military response in Gaza and criticising the Albanese government for not condemning Israel’s actions strongly enough.It comes a day after a Christian-organised rally commemorated the 1,200 Israelis attacked and killed in the country’s south by Palestinian militant group, Hamas, and the ensuing Israeli military response on 7 October 2023 in front of parliament.Israel’s response to those attacks has so far killed more than 40,000 in Gaza, according to authorities.The rally heard from a number of activists and advocates, including school teachers, lawyers and community leaders.The Greens senator David Shoebridge and independent Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe also spoke to the crowd of a few hundred.Thorpe, wearing a black keffiyeh, said First Nations people were survivors of genocide and “that’s why we stand with Palestinians and Lebanon, because we know what genocide looks like”.“We are the survivors of genocide, and we will stand with you every minute of every day, and we will hold this government to account.”Rally in support of Palestine on the front lawns of Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The GuardianShareUpdated at 04.52 CESTGreens abstaining from motion as it ‘fails to condemn the war crimes’ of Netanyahu governmentThe house is dividing on the government’s motion – and while the Coalition is voting no, it looks like the Greens are abstaining.Adam Bandt told the Guardian:
The Greens can’t support a motion about a year of ongoing slaughter that fails to condemn the war crimes of the extremist Netanyahu government, acknowledge the unfolding genocide in Gaza, or put any pressure on Netanyahu’s government to stop the invasions of Palestine and Lebanon.
ShareUpdated at 04.35 CESTMelissa DaveyOther health professionals needed at GP clinics to provide more team-based care, review findsThe government has published findings from three reviews into Medicare and primary health care.One of the reviews examined general practice incentives, with rural and low-income patients in particular struggling to access general health care thanks to rising costs and GP shortages.The review found there was a need for GP clinics to include other health professionals in patient care like nurses, psychologists, and dietitians. This is especially important for the growing number of patients with chronic conditions, the review found.But because the current billing system relies heavily on fee-for-service payments, the ability of clinics to provide and bill for team-based care is currently limited. The review recommends a new flexible payment system be introduced to GP clinics to better accommodate multidisciplinary care appointments. This system would also allow clinics to better cater to patients based on location, socioeconomic status, and the types of health issues being managed, the review found.A separate review into Medicare found current laws and policies that are supposed to encourage doctors to work in underserved areas are not working well. Relying on overseas doctors to fill shortages is leading to inconsistent care, the review found, while doctors aren’t always being correctly allocated based on areas of highest need.The review recommends changes to the way the government allocates doctors to underserved areas, focusing on those regions with the highest need for GPs. Australia also needs to work towards being more self-sufficient to reduce reliance on overseas doctors, the review found.A third review examined after hours care. It found getting health care after hours is complex, fragmented, and difficult to navigate for many consumers. Too many people are still presenting at emergency departments seeking care for non-emergency health needs, the review found.ShareUpdated at 04.34 CESTLisa CoxDozens of protesters gather outside convention centre as environment summit beginsAs the Global Nature Positive summit began at Sydney’s International Convention Centre, about 40 activists gathered outside to protest logging of endangered species habitat in northern New South Wales and the federal government’s recent approval of three coalmine expansions.The NSW Forestry Corporation has resumed its activities at the Bulga state forest, inland from Port Macquarie, where citizen scientists have spent months registering den trees for endangered greater gliders in an effort to protect some habitat.The state-government owned agency has been met with strong resistance from local forest campaigners, who say 11 protesters have been arrested at Bulga state forest since last week.The NSW Greens environment spokesperson Sue Higginson told the protest at Darling Harbour:
Let’s all have one message here for the people on the frontline of Bulga State Forest right now … literally on their knees begging for their government to hear them and to really understand what the people who know what nature positive looks like are doing today.
We know the environment minister [Tanya Plibersek] thinks Nature Positive is heading to Taronga Zoo, holding animals in cages and telling the world we’ve got it sorted. Well, she’s wrong, and it’s time for the truth, for all of us to stand up in the face of this madness.
Higginson added that while Australia’s environmental laws were “broken”, they “are not so broken” that the government had to “approve three coalmines last week”.Bulga local Susie Russell, from the North East Forest Alliance, told Guardian Australia campaigners had been at the forest since 5am today with two arrested after locking on to a gate and a piece of machinery. She said she felt “sick” that a global nature summit was under way in Sydney while habitat destruction in a stronghold for endangered Australian species was occurring about 400km away.ShareUpdated at 04.33 CESTAdam MortonPlibersek addresses Global Nature Positive summit as event kicks off in SydneyThe Australian government-hosted Global Nature Positive summit has kicked off at Sydney’s International Convention Centre, bringing together up to 1,000 delegates to talk about environmental protection.The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, told the summit the event was as a chance to “take stock” and discuss ways to drive investment and activities that would protect nature.Plibersek announced the summit nearly two years ago, at a landmark UN biodiversity conference that agreed on a framework to protect and improve nature by 2030.The two-day summit, which has been overshadowed by the follow-up UN conference in Colombia later this month, is largely focused on how to pay for nature protection and restoration.Scientists and environmentalists have called on the Australian government to lift spending on nature from 0.1% to 1% of its budget. Plibersek did not announce new funding in her speech.She focused on Labor’s track record on the environment, and confirmed the government would quadruple the size of a sub-Antarctic marine park around the Heard and McDonald Islands.You can read more about that here:ShareUpdated at 04.31 CESTJust on Andrew’s post there, that policy is very, very similar to the boot camp policy the LNP had while last in government in 2012-15.The motivations around the policy were very similar as well.ShareAndrew MessengerQueensland LNP leader pledges $50m for early intervention centres for ‘wayward’ teensOn the Queensland election campaign trail today, the opposition leader, David Crisafulli, has announced “wayward” teens could be sent away to special “reset” programs as part of a $50m early intervention plan.Crisafulli says 9 early intervention centres will be set up across the state for troubled youths who require a higher level of care than community-based programs can provide.The programs would provide 24/7 intensive early intervention for them, with a stint lasting between a week and three weeks.Those with “high-risk” behaviours – including substance abuse, aggression or truancy – will be eligible for the residential programs.The scheme will operate on a referral basis from schools, police, shield safety and parents.It will also be open to the siblings of “high-risk” teens.Crisafulli says the live-in programs will be designed to intervene and divert youths before they become entangled in a web of crime. He said:
The LNPs Regional Reset Program will reset young lives with the life skills, discipline, psychological support and teamwork to turn them around early.
ShareUpdated at 04.29 CESTThe motion is continuing. The vote will go the government’s way because they have the numbers.We’ll take a look at some of the other news which has been occurring.ShareZoe Daniel: ‘The pain of more than one group of people can coexist’Independent MP Zoe Daniel is also speaking to the motion and what Jewish members of her community are feeling.She continues:
I note the opposition leader’s comments arguing that mentioning both sides in this conversation is unhelpful today.
Respectfully, I disagree. The pain of more than one group of people can coexist no matter where that pain began.
Shouting at each other in this place does not cancel out anyone’s pain, either; I would argue actually that that’s what’s unhelpful. This isn’t a political conversation, or it shouldn’t be.
ShareUpdated at 04.15 CESTPaul Fletcher finishes with:
The response of the state of Israel to defend itself, to defend its people, to restore order, is a response which is appropriate and proportionate, and it is regrettable in the extreme that at a moment when we should have been able to come together in a motion of this parliament marking the one year anniversary of this appalling event, that the prime minister was unable to bring himself to use language which recognised the stark moral clarity of what has occurred here.
It is deeply disappointing that the Coalition has been put in this position. And it is so important, that on this anniversary, we acknowledge the horror, and the loss, and we express our support to the people of Israel.
ShareUpdated at 04.14 CESTFletcher repeats ‘conflict between good and evil’ line on Middle EastPaul Fletcher then doubles down on that analogy:
Unfortunately, the language of this motion reflects the continued equivocation of this prime minister and of this government on what should be an issue where there is clarity, on what should be an issue where it is accepted and understood and recognised that this is a conflict between good and evil.
Again, the parts of the motion the Coalition are objecting to are those which recognise the civilian loss in Palestine and Lebanon, calling for a ceasefire and de-escalation and a two-state solution.ShareUpdated at 04.13 CESTLiberal MP Paul Fletcher literally calls the response to what is happening in the Middle East “a contest between good and evil”.
It is a test which demands in response strong and unequivocal leadership. It is a test which demands in response, moral clarity.
But we have not seen that from this prime minister and this government. We have seen on a daily basis, calculations as to which gradations of words to use, informed by domestic political considerations and assessments of which seats in Western Sydney may be at risk.
This is so much more important than those petty political considerations.
This is a contest between good and evil, and we need a clear statement of that, a clear recognition of that.
ShareUpdated at 04.10 CEST