Australia news live: politicians face losing pay for poor behaviour; committee with three Labor senators criticises deportation bill | Australian politics

Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs get a drenching

Returning to the wet weather hitting the south-east, Victorian Storm Chasers have shared this image showing the 24-hour rainfall totals since 9am on Monday:

Poorly behaved politicians could have their pay docked under a proposed body tasked with investigating alleged misconduct, AAP reports.

Katy Gallagher says a draft for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission has been leaked, but it would impose sanctions on politicians found to be in breach. She told ABC News Breakfast earlier:

That’s the whole point of it. We’ve established the parliamentary workplace support service that does handle complaints … but this other body will be set up, and part of the whole purpose of this body is to look at complaints.

And where complaints are substantiated, to implement sanctions against whoever that may be, whether it be an MP, senator or a staff member who works in this place (parliament).

Former sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins’ 2021 report called for the commission, which would have the power to impose penalties for serious breaches of workplace safety including sexual assault and bullying.

The independent body is supposed to be up and running by October. Asked about the delay in establishing the commission, Gallagher says it hasn’t been done before:

We’re trying to get agreement across the parliament. We’re working really well with the opposition and with the crossbench on this.

The Senate standing committee for the scrutiny of bills has criticised Labor’s deportation bill.

The bill, which the Coalition and Greens sent to a six-week inquiry to report in budget week, threatens unlawful non-citizens with a year in prison if they refuse to cooperate in measures to facilitate their deportation.

The Senate committee, which has three Labor senators, Raff Ciccone, Tony Sheldon and Jess Walsh, criticised mandatory minimum sentences. It says:

While the committee acknowledges that the penalty and minimum sentence are intended to reflect the seriousness of the offence and act as deterrents, the committee reiterates its longstanding view that the use of mandatory minimum sentences impedes judicial discretion.

The immigration minister would be able to write regulations adding visa classes to the list that can receive orders. The committee took a dim view of this:

The committee is of the view that the ability to expand the scope of people that may be subject to removal pathway directions is a significant matter that would more appropriately be dealt with by way of primary rather than delegated legislation.

It also criticises powers for the immigration minister to reverse a protection finding:

[This is] clearly a significant and rights affecting matter and it is not clear to the committee why such a power is necessary as it has not been fully explained in the explanatory memorandum. It is also unclear to the committee whether any procedural fairness protections apply in relation to any decisions made by the minister to overturn an existing protection decision.

Finance minister Katy Gallagher has this morning responded to some of the criticism, which we covered in the blog here.

Australia nabs ‘largest’ defence export deal in history

More than 100 armoured vehicles will be made in Queensland for Germany under a $1bn defence deal, as Anthony Albanese lauds it as the single largest military export agreement in Australian history.

The prime minister will visit Rheinmetall’s Vehicle Centre of Excellence in Ipswich today to spruik the deal, which will support 600 direct jobs in Queensland.

Germany’s parliament has approved a plan to buy the Boxer heavy weapon carrier vehicles. They will be built in Queensland by the German company’s subsidiary, Rheinmetall Defence Australia.

Albanese says manufacturing the vehicles boosted the nation’s sovereign capability while strengthening the country’s security partnership with a European power. He writes in an opinion piece:

Export opportunities like this are a win-win. Sovereignty and safety at home and security abroad is a core priority of my government.

– from AAP

SES expects calls for help to rise, as Victorians warned not to drive through flood water

SES duty officer Erin Mason spoke to AAP about those four flood rescues in Victoria (see previous post), saying:

Mainly, it’s been people driving through floodwater.

So, just a reminder to people to never drive through flood water. If the road is flooded, I encourage people to stop, turn around and find an alternate path.

Mason expects the number of SES callouts to rise in coming hours as the weather system heads east and more residents wake up to find damage to their homes.

The state agency commander of the Victorian SES, David Baker, has been on ABC News Breakfast this morning providing the latest on the weather in Victoria.

As we reported earlier, almost 500 requests for help were made to emergency services as heavy rain, thunderstorms and winds lashed the state on Monday and overnight.

Baker says that number has grown, with crews responding to over 510 requests for assistance around Melbourne and the outer metropolitan region, into South Gippsland and some of the closer western districts, and Geelong.

Most of the jobs have been water through ceilings, Baker says, but there were four rescues from cars in water.

He says it has been the wettest day in Melbourne since around 5 March, 2020:

Let’s get … through today and just stay safe until we’re through to clear skies, and hopefully settled weather later on in the week.

Gallagher defends handling of deportation bill, says government following advice from agencies

Moving to the deportation bill, Katy Gallagher is asked about criticism it was rushed through parliament. Independent senator David Pocock spoke about this a bit earlier.

Gallagher says “most reports” from the scrutiny of bills committee raises concerns about legislation, so it’s “not that surprising” to her.

The government’s advice from our advisers around how to ensure that we’ve got the most robust migration system was to pass this bill, to pass it last week. That didn’t happen and we’ll work with the Senate about getting it done as soon as possible …

I don’t think it’s a surprise that the Scrutiny of Bills committee, which is a particular committee that looks at legislation and particularly about the technical drafting and where powers exist, has provided feedback on that bill. We’ll work through that as well.

Asked what the rationale is for trying to rush it through parliament last week, she says:

It was the advice from agencies about making sure we had all the tools that we needed ready to go to keep our migration system as strong as it can be. And this was identified as a potential gap in legislation and that, once those gaps are identified, it is pretty important when you’re dealing with the migration system to work to close them as soon as possible.

Gallagher says the government tried to work with the opposition to pass this but it “chose to play politics and not to respond to the advice that we had from our agencies”.

Host Lisa Millar asks whether the government is trying to get ahead of a High Court case due in the middle of April. Gallagher:

Well, there’s a number of cases that are always before the courts, Lisa, and it’s not helpful for me to be in a position where I comment on them.

She again points to the advice from agencies regarding the bill.

Government expects ‘five to 10’ regulated digital ID providers

Katy Gallagher says private companies could “potentially” access the expanded digital ID. Once fully operational, the government doesn’t expect “hundreds of regulated digital ID providers”, but about five to 10, with potentially more over time.

Gallagher says the scheme would be voluntary and “if you don’t want it, don’t have one”.

We’ve got 10.5 million people with a myGov ID in place already; you know, it’s there and it’s safe. And we will review it over time as well to make sure that we are ensuring that people’s trust is maintained.

But, you know, a lot of people use it already. This is about enshrining it in legislation and hopefully providing people with a really convenient way of proving who they are without sharing all their information many, many times over.

Finance minister outlines plans for voluntary digital ID

Finance minister Katy Gallagher was speaking to ABC News Breakfast just earlier about the government’s plan to set up a national voluntary form of digital identification.

She says this system already exists in an unregulated way (pointing to the myGov ID), but this would allow people to have a digital ID , enshrined in legislation, “that works across the economy”.

It’s regulated. People who participate are accredited [and] those important privacy protections are enshrined in legislation, as is the fact that it’s voluntary and that government services need to continue to be provided in a range of ways so that people who don’t want a digital ID don’t have to have one.

Gallagher says the digital ID would be to provide “a lot of documentation” to different businesses or governments, and explains it this way:

The idea is that you would provide your ID [such as license, passport] and that would establish who you were. And then as you engage with other people that will be involved in the system – businesses, private companies, state and territory governments – you’d be able to access that, the myGov ID system, as a way of verifying who you are.

So you don’t have to provide all those pieces of paper ID, or emailed ID, to all of those different providers, and thereby reducing the amount that you have to share about yourself. And also, you control how you engage with those companies using your myGov ID system.

More cocaine ‘bricks’ wash up on Sydney beaches

Five suspicious packages were located along Sydney’s northern beaches on Monday.

It is understood the packages are cocaine “bricks”, which had previously washed up on beaches in New South Wales late last year. As we reported at the time, about 213kg of suspected cocaine was recovered at locations from the south coast to Newcastle:

At about 7.30am on Monday, police were notified of “three suspicious packages” on Sydney’s northern beaches, before two more packages were found at about 8.25am.

Officers seized the items to be forensically examined, NSW police said in a statement.

Police conducted patrols but no further packages were found. They have urged the public to report any suspicious package to authorities.

Almost 500 requests for help were made to emergency services as thunderstorms, damaging winds and heavy rain pummelled Victoria, AAP reports.

There have been close to 250 reports of building damage and 110 flood-related incidents across the state in the 24 hours to 7am, the SES said.

Some 63 call-outs related to trees down on roads during the wild storm.

The suburbs of Melton, Altona and Point Cook in Melbourne’s west are among the areas hardest hit, along with Lara near Geelong and Horsham in the state’s west.

A severe weather warning for heavy rainfall and damaging wind gusts remains in place for much of Victoria’s east stretching from parts of Melbourne down to southern Gippsland and the High Country (more details on this earlier in the blog here).

As Guardian Australia flagged two weeks ago, a Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail aircraft will return to Australia this week after a six-month deployment.

According to a statement from Defence, the E-7A aircraft supported the multinational effort to provide early warning for potential threats from Russia outside of Ukraine:

​In providing a rapid response option, the E-7A Wedgetail contingent flew around 250 hours, with missions averaging five hours in the air. Up to 100 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel deployed to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, in support of the E-7A’s mission.

Defence says Australia’s military assistance to Ukraine will continue under the expanded training element of Operation Kudu, which comprises up to 90 personnel providing vital training to Armed Forces of Ukraine personnel in the UK throughout 2024.

National security should form part of electric vehicle transition debate, Pocock says

David Pocock says he is “disappointed” that Australia’s fuel efficiency standards have been “watered down a little bit”.

He suggests national security should form part of the discussion because Australia is “so reliant on imported fuels”.

Price and choice [for electric vehicles] is largely due to us not having fuel efficiency standards. It’s us and Russia, we don’t have those standards, which means that we don’t have the same sort of choice that Europe [has] when they go to buy an EV. And when it comes to range anxiety we need a lot more more charging stations.

This is an opportunity for Australians to be saving thousands of dollars every year and I would argue that national security should come into this argument because we’re currently just so reliant on imported fuels. This is a way to actually get rid of that and to be using sunshine and wind power to get people around the country.

Pocock: religious discrimination bill debate must not ‘become a culture war’

Moving to another piece of legislation, senator David Pocock is asked about the government’s religious discrimination bill.

The government says it wants opposition bipartisanship on the matter. In case you missed it, Paul Karp has written this fantastic explainer on the issue:

Pocock says he hasn’t seen the legislation and can “understand” the prime minister’s desire for bipartisanship, but argues the government can get support for “ambitious” action with the crossbench:

The crossbench is pushing the government on these issues but instead he’s choosing to deal with [opposition leader] Peter Dutton. And I’d say that the Coalition has not shown a willingness to work constructively with the government on difficult issues …

Pocock says it’s important for leaders to conduct this debate “in a way that ensures that religious discrimination legislation doesn’t become a culture war”.

We’ve seen it happen in the past and we know that some of the most vulnerable people in our community will suffer if that happens. I haven’t seen anything to suggest that the Coalition isn’t willing to use this to whip up fear.

Government unclear on why deportation bill is so urgent, Pocock says

Independent senator David Pocock is speaking to ABC RN about the government’s deportation bill, which was delayed by the senate last week:

Pocock is scathing of the bill and say “I don’t think anyone believes that this is good governance” when discussing how quickly the government attempted to push it through parliament.

This is the third time now that the government has dropped surprise migration legislation on the parliament and tried to ram it through in less than 24 hours. Obviously, the Senate voted to send this to a Senate committee …

It was very unclear why this is so urgent … the government [was] pretty cagey as to the urgency of this.

Pocock says the proposed legislation gives some “pretty extraordinary powers” to the executive, “being able to ban anyone from a country being able to visit Australia”.

Rightly, there’s a lot of Australians who are concerned about what that means for their family and friends who may want to come and visit Australia …

We may want to move them to other countries, but we still have international obligations to them and should be respecting their human rights. But also to Australians who have moved here [and] now callthis incredible continent home, what does this mean for the countries that they come from?