Sussan Ley claims Anthony Albanese is taking the low road and hurling insults when he is pushed for more detail on the Indigenous voice to parliament. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Sussan Ley claims Anthony Albanese is taking the low road and hurling insults when he is pushed for more detail on the Indigenous voice to parliament. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Sussan Ley: ‘it’s OK to vote no’ in voice referendum
Josh Butler
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley has told parliament “it’s OK to vote no” in the Indigenous voice referendum, saying “millions” of people will vote against the constitutional change.
In a speech on the referendum, expected to be one of the last before the lower house votes on the bill, Ley branded the PM, Anthony Albanese, “the self-proclaimed ‘moral arbiter’ of Australia’s national conscience, not as a leader seeking consensus”.
She claimed:
Again, and again when given the opportunity to provide the detail, the prime minister takes the low road and hurls insults instead.
Ley called on the government to pull back on its plan for the referendum and instead legislate the voice while changing the referendum question to one of simple constitutional recognition for Australia’s Indigenous people. The government has committed to enshrining the voice as a form of constitutional recognition, pointing to the long-held rejection of simple rejection by Indigenous-led processes.
But Ley accused Albanese of “moral blackmail” on the referendum. She said:
It’s OK to vote no and still remain part of the national effort to help your Indigenous brothers and sisters, as you look on with anguish at what is happening in their communities. It’s OK to vote no and still demand better action from all politicians when it comes to closing the gap.
It’s OK to vote no, full stop. And it’s OK to vote yes, too.
The debate on the bill is likely to come to an end tonight, before votes on the bill tomorrow. It will then go to the Senate, which sits in two weeks’ time (this week being another round of estimates hearings).
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for today – thanks so much for joining us. Here is a wrap of the day’s biggest stories:
A gunshot fired into a Macquarie Fields primary school classroom in Sydney midday was “without much weight behind it”, being stopped by a blind after shattering a window. The incident is being investigated and there were no reports of injuries to any students or staff at the school.
Demolition work has begun on the century-old Sydney hat factory that was destroyed in a once-in-a-decade blaze, as police speak with a fourth teenage boy over the incident.
Senator Mehreen Faruqi has revealed she has “experienced racism in the Greens” as leader Adam Bandt declined to rule out that the party had received complaints about alleged racism beyond one expected from Lidia Thorpe.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, made a stirring voice plea during a speech in Adelaide, saying all Australians would wake up on referendum morning with “the strongest sense of ourselves”.
Meanwhile, the independent senator Jacqui Lambie has threatened to disrupt the Senate “every hour for two weeks straight” unless the government releases more information about the potential stripping of medals from former commanders of Australian special forces in Afghanistan.
The Australian Taxation Officer commissioner, Chris Jordan, has just given an opening statement about how it became aware of PwC’s alleged breach of confidentiality.
Jordan said the ATO became aware in 2016 of a “handful of multinationals suspiciously and quickly seeking to restructure” in response to a new multinational tax avoidance law.
Jordan said the ATO commenced a number of reviews and audits. It was hampered by inappropriate claims of legal professional privilege. The ATO was concerned by “artificial schemes marketed by PwC” and discovered a matter of “significant concern” in the Collins matter, a potential breach of confidentiality, he said.
Jordan said the ATO lacks “criminal investigative powers” so was not able to investigate further because the breach of confidentiality was “not a tax offence”. It referred information to the Australian Federal Police in 2018 and 2019, and formally referred it to the Tax Practitioners Board in July 2020.
Jordan reassured the community “we got on top of this early ... we stopped any tax loss from this egregious behaviour”.
Jeremy Hirschhorn, the second commissioner, said this was because the two or three companies which had restructured reversed those actions, and other companies proposing to decided against it.
Sussan Ley: ‘it’s OK to vote no’ in voice referendum
Josh Butler
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley has told parliament “it’s OK to vote no” in the Indigenous voice referendum, saying “millions” of people will vote against the constitutional change.
In a speech on the referendum, expected to be one of the last before the lower house votes on the bill, Ley branded the PM, Anthony Albanese, “the self-proclaimed ‘moral arbiter’ of Australia’s national conscience, not as a leader seeking consensus”.
She claimed:
Again, and again when given the opportunity to provide the detail, the prime minister takes the low road and hurls insults instead.
Ley called on the government to pull back on its plan for the referendum and instead legislate the voice while changing the referendum question to one of simple constitutional recognition for Australia’s Indigenous people. The government has committed to enshrining the voice as a form of constitutional recognition, pointing to the long-held rejection of simple rejection by Indigenous-led processes.
But Ley accused Albanese of “moral blackmail” on the referendum. She said:
It’s OK to vote no and still remain part of the national effort to help your Indigenous brothers and sisters, as you look on with anguish at what is happening in their communities. It’s OK to vote no and still demand better action from all politicians when it comes to closing the gap.
It’s OK to vote no, full stop. And it’s OK to vote yes, too.
The debate on the bill is likely to come to an end tonight, before votes on the bill tomorrow. It will then go to the Senate, which sits in two weeks’ time (this week being another round of estimates hearings).
Gunshot fired into Macquarie Fields primary school was ‘without much weight behind it’
Police have just finished speaking to the media about a shot being fired into the window of a Macquarie Fields public school around midday today.
The officer said a bullet was fired into the classroom of a Year 1 and 2 class but it was stopped by the blind.
They just heard a window smash in their classroom.
It was a totally reckless act by somebody who is acting in a way with a firearm that is very dangerous to the community.
[The students have] heard a windows smash, the bullet has come into the classroom, but it’s been stopped by the blind. So it hasn’t come into the classroom with any speed or velocity. It’s just enough to smash the window.
The officer said it was “a bullet without much weight behind it”.
Size doesn’t matter, it’s about the force behind it, so it hasn’t had that much force behind it.
… we believe it could come from a distance but it could have hit something … so we can’t say exactly what happened until the … team had finished [investigating].
There were no reports of injuries to any students or staff at the school following the shot, and the school was not placed into lockdown.
Campbell says he encouraged deputy PM to seek independent views on command accountability for military in Afghanistan
Angus Campbell also told the hearing it was open to the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, to seek additional advice from a third party about the issue of command accountability in Afghanistan.
The chief of the Australian defence force told the Greens senator, David Shoebridge:
Senator, I can assure you, although I appreciate that you would wish an independent assurance, that this has been done in meticulous consistency. And the deputy prime minister – I have encouraged that he seek independent views.
General Angus Campbell outlines how he avoided conflict of interest in reviewing own performance as a commander
The chief of the Australian defence force, Gen Angus Campbell, says he considered appointing one of his predecessors to review his own performance as a commander in Afghanistan, but “didn’t want to give them that pain”.
Campbell has provided more details about the review into command accountability, in response to questions from the Greens senator David Shoebridge in a Senate estimates committee hearing this evening.
Readers will recall that earlier today Campbell said his own performance was included in a review into command accountability in Afghanistan. He had said the focus was on “a small number of persons who held command appointments during particular periods of operational service in Afghanistan” and that the matter was now being considered by the defence minister, Richard Marles.
During this evening’s hearing, Campbell confirmed that he was the one who undertook the review. Asked by Shoebridge how he had dealt with that “conflict of interest”, Campbell said there was a three-step process. Marles would consider the issue next and then ultimately it would be for the governor general to sign off any any recommended action.
Campbell said Marles had “access to all of my considerations” and had the power to act if he “were to regard my considerations inadequate, inconsistent or self interested”. Campbell said he did not feel he could appoint someone else from within the ADF to review his command accountability, because that idea “suffers from the reality that they are all under my command”. Campbell added:
I did consider whether I might refer myself to some of my predecessors. But quite frankly, with the level of emotion and unintentional and also intentional disinformation about this issue, I quite frankly, didn’t want to give them that pain.
MP Rick Wilson will dissent from Liberal party on voice issue
Liberal MP Rick Wilson has revealed himself as one of the “authorised dissenters” who will vote against the constitutional alteration bill, due to a legislative quirk which would have otherwise barred the Liberal Party from contributing to the official information pamphlet for the referendum.
As we brought you earlier, the Liberals have have picked a group of MPs who will vote against the bill – even as the party itself backs the bill in principle. This, as we’ve reported before, comes down to a legal quirk where only those MPs who vote against the alteration bill can have input into the referendum pamphlet sent to all homes.
So because the Liberals will let the referendum occur, even though they oppose the referendum, they wouldn’t be able to help write the pamphlet – unless some MPs oppose the bill. So the Liberal whips oversaw a process to choose some MPs to vote No.
The Liberal whips’ office hasn’t responded to our requests for more info, but Wilson – MP for the West Australian seat of O’Connor - just told the parliament he would be voting no on the bill to allow the referendum.
He said he was “very much looking forward” to contributing to the pamphlet, but stressed he wasn’t voting no because he didn’t want the referendum to be held - he was just voting no in order to help write the pamphlet.
The deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, is due to make a speech of her own shortly.
If all of this talk about #Melbourne earthquakes makes you think you're feeling things - well, if you were in Ferntree Gully at 5:02pm it wasn't your imagination. It was magnitude 2.1 #earthquake in the metropolitan area. pic.twitter.com/SpJZTYe5vC
Qantas calls for eco-friendly fuel rules in Australia
Qantas has called on the federal government to mandate sustainable aviation fuel, arguing all Australian airlines should be forced to cut pollution from air travel, AAP reports.
The call came as the national carrier revealed it had created a $400 million “climate fund” to invest in biofuel projects with Airbus, and for further research in the field.
The announcement, made during the airline’s investment event on Tuesday, also follows the Queensland government declaring it would work with Qantas to create an eco-friendly fuel refinery in the state.
Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is considered a major pathway to cutting emissions within the aviation industry, which has pledged to reach net zero by 2050.
Qantas will use $290m from its $400m climate fund to invest in domestic fuel production with Airbus, including the biofuel refinery project in Queensland, while the remaining $110m goes towards other projects and research in the field.
Police are expected to front the media within the hour following a report of a shot being fired into the window of a Macquarie Fields public school today.
Around 12.45pm, officers were called to the Sydney public school after receiving a report that a classroom window had been broken by a metal projectile.
A crime scene was established and an investigation was commenced.
There were no reports of injuries to any students or staff at the school, and the school was not placed into lockdown.
Investigations have revealed that the object is a small calibre bullet, which has been seized and will be forensically examined by specialist police.
