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The Coalition won’t say whether it will support the government’s legislation on penalty rates, but has expressed concern over the impact it will have on small businesses.
Tim Wilson told RN Breakfast the party, which received the legislation last night, will go through its internal processes, and said the government is doing a “legislative victory lap after the election”.
One of the most disturbing and distressing things was when we put to the minister what’s the impact going to be on small business, and she couldn’t tell us how many small businesses would be impacted.
Asked about the upcoming productivity roundtable, Wilson also said the government needs to figure out its priorities.
We don’t know any of the principles that the government is outlining for its productivity tax and everything else summit right now, this is a proposal that’s been thrown out there by the prime minister… I just think the government should lay out some principles, make it clear what this actual summit is going to be about.
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‘I really hope the government knows what it’s doing’: Coalition MP on beef imports
The opposition says it’s “cautious” about lifting restrictions on US beef, while the government has said Australia’s biosecurity won’t be “compromised”.
Newly returned Liberal MP, Tim Wilson, the shadow industrial relations minister, tells RN Breakfast the government should be making decisions in the national interest.
We’re obviously cautious about lifting any biosecurity measures. Biosecurity shouldn’t be compromised, and I really hope the government knows what it’s doing.
We know that the United States is obviously doing a number of things on the trade front right now, it’s not always in Australia’s national interest… We need to be making decisions in Australia’s national interests and backing our exporters, and so we need to make sure that the biosecurity framework is strong, robust and in Australia’s national interest.
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Penalty rates legislation to be introduced today
Legislation to stop penalty or overtime rates being bargained away for workers employed under the award system will be introduced today, which the government says will be a “safety net” to protect workers’ pay.
The bill is in response to a proposal from the retail employer lobby to the fair work commission, to allow some retail manager to opt out of penalty rates in exchange for a 35% pay rise.
The fair work umpire is still due to make its decision on that proposal, but Amanda Rishworth tells RN Breakfast the government doesn’t want to see penalty rates “eroded”.
There are many award-reliant workers that really rely on penalty rates and overtime when they work weekends and late nights that really make up a large proportion of their take-home pay. We want to put it beyond doubt that penalty rates and overtime in the award can be eroded because we don’t want to see people paid less.
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Updated at 23.20 BST
Rishworth says there is ‘evidence’ of adequate biosecurity controls on US beef
The agriculture department has “evidence” of adequate biosecurity controls on US beef, says Amanda Rishworth.
Doing the media rounds for the government this morning, Rishworth joins RN Breakfast down the press gallery corridor. She says this has been a decade-long process by the department, which has done a “rigorous scientific and risk-based assessment”.
The timing coincides with a strong push from the Trump administration for Australia to drop these restrictions.
The review of the beef, the US beef imports, has been a decade long. So it undergoes rigorous scientific and risk-based assessment by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestries and they have looked at the evidence and they have got enough assurances that control measures will be in place. It is their decision to lift the ban.
Host Sally Sara asks whether the decision is part of a transaction with the US to ease tariff tensions. Rishworth only says that it’s been a decade-long process by the department.
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Updated at 23.04 BST
Paterson has no issue with scheduled $800m payment but says money cannot be only strategy to secure Aukus
It’s “inexplicable” that the prime minister hasn’t yet met with Donald Trump, Paterson says, to smooth over the tariffs issue, and lobby for the Aukus deal.
Yesterday it was revealed the government has sent over another $800m to the US, which Labor says was a “scheduled” payment. Paterson tells Sky News he has “no problem” with the payment, but the government can’t just rely on the money to ensure the deal goes ahead.
I have absolutely no problem with continuing to make the investment in the US submarine industrial base to increase the production of Virginia-class submarines to meet our shared deterrence goals in the Indo Pacific, as long as that is not the government’s only strategy and only plan to secure Aukus…
It is not good enough to hope that Elbridge Colby and the Pentagon will just arrive at the right conclusion.
On a separate issue, Paterson is asked at the end of the interview about the fight within the Coalition over net zero.
He says for the next three years, his party’s position on the issue is largely “academic” and that it will go through a “structured” process.
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Updated at 23.14 BST
Coalition demands biosecurity reassurances after US beef trade deal news
The opposition is a little less welcoming of the decision to lift restrictions on US beef.
James Paterson in February. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
James Paterson, the shadow finance minister, tells Sky News the prime minister should stand up and explain exactly how the government has been able to deal with previous biosecurity concerns.
Paterson says the government also needs to reassure farmers there will be no ongoing biosecurity risks.
The prime minister himself has said that we couldn’t relax the restrictions on the importation of US beef because of serious biosecurity concerns. So if the government has found some way of dealing with that issue, protecting our domestic agricultural industry from the introduction of foreign diseases and pests, then they should say so.
He [Albanese] should stand up today and explain to beef farmers in Australia that there is no risk to their biosecurity, that he hasn’t watered it down.
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Updated at 23.22 BST
Labor defends $800m Aukus payment
Labor frontbencher Amanda Rishworth has defended the government handing the US another $800m for the Aukus while they review the submarine deal.
Rishworth tells Sunrise it was part of a “schedule of payments” that was in place when the deal was signed, and the government expects the deal to continue.
She’s asked whether Australia gets the money back if the deal is tanked or the US increases the price of its submarines, but Rishworth won’t answer directly and says the agreement has already been signed.
It’s not surprising that the US is reviewing this, but we expect that this agreement will continue … So this was part of the schedule of payments that was always in place when we signed the deal.
We have signed an arrangement. We’re committed to that arrangement. We intend to see it through.
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Updated at 22.38 BST
Labor childcare bill to pass with Coalition support but opposition flags more to do
The government’s childcare bill will pass this sitting fortnight, says the Coalition, who will support its passage through parliament.
The shadow education minister, Jonno Duniam, told RN Breakfast this morning the Coalition is “satisfied” with the legislation but it “only goes so far” and the next step will be working with states and territories to tighten regulations.
Duniam said he’s also concerned about what happens if a childcare centre isn’t up to scratch but it’s the only one available in a “childcare desert”. He said the Coalition’s been given assurances that those issues can be dealt with.
[If] either a centre is shut and no services are available, or in some cases, when under these arrangements funding would be withdrawn, they might then send a bill for 100% of the cost to the parents, and that, given the cost of these things, would be unacceptable.
So state and territory regulators have got measures in place because they can already shut centres for a range of reasons to work with parents around alternative care provision. Specifically, what that looks like, we are not sure, but they have given us an assurance that there are ways of dealing with this.
Asked about the use of CCTV in centres, Duniam said he was “baffled” it wasn’t already mandatory.
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Updated at 22.39 BST
Australia to lift restrictions on imports of US beef
Australia will lift restrictions on imports of US beef, removing a key reason from the Trump administration to place tariffs on Australian agriculture.
The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, says her department is “satisfied” by strengthened control measures by the US to “manage biosecurity risks”.
The US has had beef access into Australia since 2019 but this will significantly expand access for US farmers to export beef sourced from cattle born in Canada or Mexico which are legally imported and slaughtered in the US.
Collins says Australia will “never compromise on biosecurity”.
The US beef imports review has undergone a rigorous science and risk-based assessment over the past decade.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is satisfied the strengthened control measures put in place by the US effectively manage biosecurity risks.
Australia stands for open and fair trade – our cattle industry has significantly benefited from this.
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Updated at 22.13 BST
Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji with you for the final sitting day of the week. Thank you to Martin Farrer for getting us started this morning.
Childcare and Hecs legislation are still top of the government’s agenda, they will likely be debated more today.
Amanda Rishworth, the employment minister, is doing the media whip around this morning, to talk about legislation to lock in penalty rates for more than 2 million workers which will be introduced today.
We’ll also be keeping a close eye on the Nats and whether they arc up any more on net zero or on the future leadership of their party (read: yesterday Michael McCormack and Barnaby Joyce said repealing the net zero commitment wasn’t about testing leadership, and David Littleproud said he was “relaxed”).
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Updated at 22.12 BST
Joyce denies being agent of chaos on net zero
Barnaby Joyce says he has no intention of challenging David Littleproud’s leadership of the Nationals, despite taking the spotlight vowing to introduce a private member’s bill to ditch net zero.
As well as a press conference Joyce held about the issue, on Wednesday the Australian reported Joyce said he would “happily” back former leader Michael McCormack to return to the role, but wasn’t agitating for a spill.
Appearing on ABC’s 7.30 program, Joyce denied his political career has evolved into his “being an agent of chaos”, insisting it was devoted to advocating for regional Australia as “the powerless against the powerful”.
Asked about The Australian interview, Joyce said:
David’s safe. It’s got nothing to do with David. This is about net zero. This is about trying to help people in regional Australia.
I have no intentions of challenging. It is not about that at all. It is about what is best for this nation.
Although Littleproud had already tasked Senator Matt Canavan with reviewing the national park net zero policy, Joyce said “there’s no there’s no divine law that says you can’t have a review and move the private member’s bill”.
Asked about what happens to the Coalition if the Liberals want to keep net zero but the Nationals want to get rid of it, Joyce said “I don’t know. Give me a crystal ball. I don’t know”.
Barnaby Joyce in the press gallery at Parliament House in Canberra yesterday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 21.59 BST
Morrison says nations must ‘know what your red lines are’ when dealing with China
Moolenaar asked Morrison what advice he would give to the current leaders of western nations in how to deal with the threat from China.
Morrison replied that countries must “know what you believe in and why your country believes that. And know what your red lines are”.
He said he presented the list of 14 demands to G7 leaders when he was hosting a meeting in 2021. He asked leaders if there was any point on which they would relent. “The answer was none,” Morrison said.
“Know that you believe in and keep investing in those things,” Morrison advised.
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Updated at 21.57 BST
More from Scott Morrison’s appearance in Washington
Morrison warned US lawmakers that western countries were “kidding” themselves if they thought that discussion and engagement with Beijing would change the regime’s “mindset”.
Responding to an invitation by the committee’s chairman, Republican John Moolenaar, to comment on Beijing’s infamous list of 14 complaints about Australia issued to his government, Morrison said the Communist party “fundamentally has a problem with representative democracies”.
“There are some irreconcilable differences between an authoritarian regime in China … and the activities of free and open states.
A free and open Indo-Pacific – that is a threat and a challenge to regime security in China.
And I think we have to be clear-eyed about this and not pretend that somehow it will be resolved through discussion.
Discussion is fine, engagement is good – it’s better than the alternative.
But if we think it that is going to produce change in the mindset of Beijing then we’re frankly kidding ourselves.
He said that the west had to work to avoid conflict and that “that requires deterrence and a wide-eyed appreciation of what the Chinese state is all about”.
He went on:
Even most moderate leaders like Jiang Zemin … still said that the US was looking to destroy their socialist system. They won’t change so we have to deal with that reality.
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Updated at 21.56 BST
Morrison says Australia becoming less willing to resist Chinese pressure
Scott Morrison said the ability of the Australian political system to resist pressure from China was “somewhat in jeopardy” when he appeared at a hearing of the US House of Representatives committee on China in Washington overnight.
The former prime minister warned US lawmakers that it was vital for western nations to “build internal resilience” and resist what he said were attempts to interfere in politics and curb free speech.
Citing polling by the Lowy Institute, the former prime minister told US lawmakers that “for the first time in quite a number of years there is a greater value on the economic partnership with China than concerns about the security threat”.
“That is an objective of the CCP [Chinese communist party],” Morrison told the committee. “That western democracies go to sleep on the threat.”
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog, for another day of the first week of parliament’s new term. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
Scott Morrison has warned that the ability of the Australian political system to resist pressure from China is “somewhat in jeopardy”. Giving evidence at a hearing of the US House of Representatives committee on China in Washington overnight, the former prime minister said the objective of the Chinese state was to undermine democracies and that the west had to be “clear-eyed” about the threat.
Barnaby Joyce says he has no intention of challenging David Littleproud’s leadership of the Nationals, despite taking the spotlight vowing to introduce a private member’s bill to ditch net zero. Speaking to ABC’s 7.30, he denied his political career has evolved into his “being an agent of chaos”. More coming up.
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