Australia politics live: Coalition says legislation needed after high court quashes ankle bracelet and curfew regime; Lehrmann barrister asks for anonymity | Australian politics

Rafqa Touma

Ben, an American student currently at the University of Sydney, says he hopes no violence follows the US presidential election.

He is watching the results roll in at a Democrats Abroad watch party at Kent Street Hotel, Sydney. He says:

I thought it would just be fun to come meet other people and watch the election together in a more vibrant atmosphere.

People are a little tense. People are worried about it but, you know, its lively and people seem to be excited … [I] hope things go really well but I’m still nervous.

I just, I hope it goes smoothly. I hope there’s not violence or anything, because I’ve heard a lot about that.

It would be really cool to see the first woman president. I’m really excited for that. So hopefully that’s the outcome. That’s what I’m hoping for.

Rafqa Touma

American expats ‘nervous’ about US election result

Alex Webb and Jialin Wu are watching the US presidential election results roll in at the Kent Street Hotel, Sydney, wearing Harris 2024 merchandise and American flags.

Webb, an American living in Australia, says the pub feels nervously optimistic.

“After 2016 everybody’s nervous,” Webb says. He is hoping for a “landslide Kamala victory”.

“I’m looking forward to celebrating the first female president.”

Peter Hannam

Cost of living increases slowing sharply, ABS says

The ABS has issued some cost of living data this morning, and generally pressures appear to be easing.

Employee households’ living costs rose 0.6% in the September quarter, or about half the 1.3% increase last quarter, the ABS said.

There’s a range of impacts, though, with households with employees facing higher costs of living (mostly because of their exposure to higher mortgage rates). As fixed-rate loans expire and they are repriced at a higher interest, those mortgage payments have been increasing.

Against that, automotive fuel and electricity prices have been easing back – the former because of a slide in global oil prices, and the latter because of government rebates (especially in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania).

“Electricity costs for Employee households fell by 20% compared to households receiving government payments, which fell by around 10%,” said Michelle Marquardt, ABS head of prices statistics.

The best off, at least in terms of cost of living increases, are age pensioners and self-funded retirees. Their costs rose 0.3% in the quarter, or a quarter of the pace of the previous quarter.

As it happened, we flagged the case for the worst being over in terms of cost of living increases recently here:

Rafqa Touma

‘The fate of western democracy is on the line’: Sydney pub fills with American expats watching US election

Hope, an American-Australian dual citizen is watching the US presidential election results roll in among others at a watch party at the Kent Street Hotel, Sydney, this morning. She says:

This is a super important election, and I either wanted to celebrate with people who would be as excited as I am, or cry with people who are going to be as devastated as I will be.

The event was organised by Democrats Abroad Australia and Sydney Expat Americans. Hope, who volunteers with Democrats Abroad, says:

I really think the fate of western democracy is on the line with this election. This isn’t just about America, but also I’m enraged on behalf of women and minorities and the republic and the constitution and Australia as a country that always follows America culturally and politically.

Watching Australia shift over further and further to the right over the last 40 years that I’ve been here has just been so sad.

Hope’s friend Amy is visiting from America. “We voted early so that we could watch this together,” she says.

Amy says the energy in the Sydney pub is optimistic:

This could be the end of democracy. I mean, we are all voting, I never thought it would happen in my lifetime, but we are all voting to avoid an autocracy … but we are hopeful.

Rafqa Touma

Australians and American expats gather in Sydney pub before US election results

American flags are strung up in rows to the ceiling of the Kent Street Hotel in Sydney this morning. As CNN’s live US election coverage plays from screens throughout the pub, dozens of are gathering to watch – some are in shirts with Kamala Harris logos, others wear badges with Democrat slogans.

Hundreds are expected to join the watch party by lunchtime, Jasper Lee, the chair of Democrats Abroad Australia, says. The event is organised by Democrats Abroad and Sydney Expat Americans.

Lee says there is an energy of excitement this morning:

There’s certainly anxiety, but it’s a good kind of anxiety. We’re all hoping for a good result.

I think that Australians, like Americans, understand the stakes of this election, what exactly Donald Trump promises to do to the United States and the world. And I think that they feel very similarly to us.

Peter Hannam

Kennedy schtum on advice over education debt cut impacts

The Liberal senator Jane Hume has been pressing the Treasury secretary, Steven Kennedy, and fellow Treasury officials in Senate estimates about the impacts of the Albanese government’s plans to cut student debt on $16bn in loans by 20%.

Hume tries to provoke a response by citing economists such as Chris Richardson, who said it was a “fairness fail”, while others cited called the plan “an abominable idea” or that there were many good ways to spend $16bn.

Kennedy declines to take the bait, saying, “I’m not an economic commentator”.

Hume says, “but you’re an economist”, to which Kennedy responds a tad sardonically: “I am, thank you, yes”.

As to the wider effects, a colleague of Kennedy’s (I missed his name) said: “We don’t think the effects are going to be substantial on inflation.”

Paul Karp

Ankle bracelet ruling a ‘victory for fundamental freedoms’, lawyer says

The Refugee Legal executive director, David Manne, who acted for the plaintiff YBFZ in his high court case has commented on the ruling striking down electronic monitoring and ankle bracelets.

Manne told Guardian Australia:

This is an important ruling, it underscores the bedrock principle that the government doesn’t have the power to punish people by stripping them of fundamental rights of freedom and dignity.

The invalidity of the curfew and electronic monitoring is a victory for fundamental freedoms and the rule of law. Everyone, whether citizens or non-citizens, should have the same protections of freedom and dignity under the law.

The curfew and ankle bracelets constitute punishments which seriously infringe our client’s liberty, and the government doesn’t have power to do that. Under our constitution only courts, and not the government, can impose punishment.

Manne said the ruling means that everyone in the cohort released from immigration detention because their removal is not practical “will no longer be able to be held in their houses eight hours a day and subject to the invasive humiliation of ankle bracelets”. He called on the government to abide by the ruling immediately and remove the conditions from everyone on bridging visa Rs.

He said:

After they are freed from immigration detention they will not be subject to further punishments, [which make] it impossible to lead ordinary lives let alone to get a job, nor be under constant fear if they’re late home by one minute or don’t recharge the bracelets they’ll be imprisoned for a minimum of one year.

Peter Hannam

UBS shifts back its guess on when the RBA will start cutting rates

As mentioned, the big four banks still have February as the time when they think the Reserve Bank of Australia will start cutting its cash rate.

Yesterday’s comments from the RBA governor, Michele Bullock, sounded to this correspondent as more “hawkish” than that (barring some global surprises).

Among the big four, NAB perhaps is the most uncertain about its February guess on a rate cut:

Overall the path to a February rate cut which had already narrowed following recent data, looks even more narrow following today’s presser.

CBA, which lately pushed its forecast of a December rate cut back to February, is also wondering if another shift might be needed:

Our base case sees the RBA on hold until the February 2025 board meeting when we expect the RBA to commence an easing cycle. The risk clearly sits with a later start date for the first interest rate decrease.

ANZ and Westpac also have February as their first RBA cut.

UBS, an investment bank, has had one of the better prediction records. Its chief Australian economist, George Tharenou, was on a streak of about a dozen correct RBA rate calls, when he stumbled.

Anyway, he’s pushed back his call until May:

Thereafter, we still see the RBA easing cycle to be relatively gradual with -25 basis points per quarter, to a terminal low of 3.10% in Q2-26 (was 2.85%).

So, the “higher for longer” mantra for rates might become “not dropping as low as hoped”.

Of course, a lot might happen between now and June 2026, so nobody really knows.

Josh Taylor

Encrypted messaging app Session criticises ‘wildly overreaching powers’ of Australian law enforcement

Earlier we brought you comments from the Australian federal police (AFP) about its approaches to the encrypted messaging app Session that resulted in the company shifting operations to Switzerland.

The AFP said the agency was doing its job, and there was child abuse material being shared on the app.

The Session director Alex Linton has responded in a statement today. He said Session understands the AFP work and has attempted to explain the limited capacity for Session to assist in investigations – due to how the app works.

However, given neither the organisation nor employees have been subject to any investigation, it remains unclear how an interaction such as an unannounced visit to the home of an employee was either helpful or appropriate.

Still, the true problem stems from the wildly overreaching powers which Australian law enforcement agencies possess. These powers will intimidate and discourage anyone building or offering privacy technology to Australians, and whether it is the spectre of backdoor legislation or an actual notice forcing a company to compromise its own encryption – the result is these skills are leaving the country and Australians less safe online.

The barrister who has agreed to represent Bruce Lehrmann in his appeal against his defamation loss wishes to remain unnamed until the court sets a date, to avoid being trolled or harassed, the federal court has heard.

In April, Justice Michael Lee found Lehrmann was not defamed by Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson and last month the former Liberal staffer was granted the right to appeal against the judgment.

At a case management hearing this morning, Lehrmann’s lawyer Zali Burrows said the barrister’s name was confidential until a formal date was set.

“Until I have the hearing date for the appeal, and I have formally briefed him, he wishes to remain unnamed, just on the basis he doesn’t wish to be trolled or harassed, for example, as I’ve experienced,” Burrows said.

Justice Wendy Abraham asked Burrows to write his name on a piece of paper and hand it to her and to Sue Chrysanthou SC, representing Lisa Wilkinson.

The date for the appeal is yet to be determined but will be in the second half of 2025.

Peter Hannam

Aged care and childcare workers underpaid, Treasury boss says

The Treasury secretary, Steven Kennedy, says aged care and childcare workers were underpaid.

Senate estimates, so far, hasn’t spent a lot of time on inflation, and the RBA’s likely stance that interest rate cuts are still some way off. (See here from yesterday.)

Markets, for instance, only estimate there’s about a one-in-four chance of an interest rate cut by February. The big four banks have had that month – two RBA meetings away – as when they expect the first cut to land. (I expect they will push that back.)

Anyway, the Liberal senator Jane Hume has been picking up on the weak productivity growth, which is also a worry to the RBA. As the bank said yesterday: “Wage pressures have eased somewhat but labour productivity is still only at 2016 levels, despite the pick-up over the past year.”

The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, chimed in with this response:

The lack of productivity growth over a longer time, including for the decade that you’re in government, is something that the government is … also focused on.

The conversation shifts to whether Kennedy thinks there has been underpayment in the care sector, particularly aged and childcare.

“Yes,” is his response:

It’s Fair Work Commission’s view that the relative wage cases show there has been some underpayment there.

My judgment would be that it’s going to be difficult to attract people into those sectors, and, frankly, improve productivity in those sectors.

Therein lines some of the key challenges in the economy, and in bringing inflation down.

Bridget McKenzie to update register after failing to declare more than a dozen flight upgrades

Josh Butler

The Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie did not declare more than a dozen flight upgrades she has received over the years, but is expected to update her official register of interests after a self-audit of her own travel schedule.

The Australian Financial Review reported overnight the shadow transport spokesperson had failed to declare more than a dozen free Qantas and Virgin flight upgrades in her time in parliament. It came after McKenzie, who has led the Coalition’s attack on Anthony Albanese over his own dealings with Qantas and reported upgrades, was found to have received upgrades of her own.

Guardian Australia confirmed on Wednesday that McKenzie’s office has now received correspondence from Qantas, Virgin and Rex airlines, after she’d asked them for information about upgrades she may have received. We understand the senator’s office is going through those letters, and cross-checking them against flight upgrades she has previously properly declared in her register, but that there may be more than 12 upgrades which were not properly declared.

McKenzie is likely to update her register with those outstanding upgrades in the very near future. It’s taken this long because the last letter she was waiting for only arrived last night, we understand.

We’ll bring you more on this as it develops through the day.

Other politicians across the parliament are also updating their register of interests to note flight upgrades they’ve recently received. The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, last week disclosed she’d received two Qantas upgrades last month which “were not requested” on Melbourne to Canberra flights, which happened “while I was boarding the plane, as on both occasions economy was overbooked”; the Labor senator Lisa Darmanin similarly disclosed that a domestic ticket “was unexpectedly and unsolicited upgrade to business class”.

One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts yesterday declared “a very recent gift” of “membership to Chairman’s Lounge provided by Qantas – early to mid July 2024”.

High court strikes down regime of ankle bracelets and curfews imposed on released detainees

Paul Karp

The harsh regime of ankle bracelets and curfews imposed on non-citizens released from indefinite immigration detention has been struck down by the high court.

On Wednesday the court ruled in favour of a stateless refugee from Eritrea whose challenge argued the visa conditions breached the separation of powers and amounted to punishment.

The decision will result in ankle bracelets and curfews being lifted from more than 100 unlawful non-citizens, in a major headache for the Albanese government.

Electronic monitoring and curfews, which are usually from 10pm to 6am, were imposed on unlawful non-citizens released as a result of the high court’s November 2023 decision that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful.

In Senate estimates on Monday home affairs officials revealed that by mid-October some 215 non-citizens had been released as a result of that decision, 143 of who are subject to electronic monitoring and 126 with the curfew condition.

The court’s ruling is a loss for the Albanese government, which legislated the new visa conditions with Coalition support after caving to opposition demands to toughen the regime with mandatory minimum sentences for breach of visa conditions and for the conditions to be applied as a default.

The case was decided with five justices in the majority, with Justices Simon Steward and Robert Beech-Jones dissenting, and of the opinion that both visa conditions were valid.

The loss is likely to spark fresh recriminations from the Coalition about handling of those released.

On Monday the home affairs department general counsel, Clare Sharp, said the department had engaged in “very extensive planning for all possible outcomes” of the challenge, including possible further legislation.