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Pocock says BHP is “laughing” at Labor’s climate safeguard mechanism
Graham Readfearn
David Pocock has told the government that leaked documents from BHP show the company is “laughing” at the government’s key climate policy, the safeguard mechanism.
In Senate estimates, the independent ACT senator asked the government if it had reviewed the investigation from Guardian Australia and the ABC’s Four Corners into the mining giant’s apparent walking back on its climate commitments.
Pocock raised one document, where he said BHP had concluded internally that the safeguard mechanism would not affect its iron ore operations in the Pilbara for another 14 years.
Company facilities like mining sites captured in the safeguard mechanism can choose to make direct cuts to emissions at their facilities to meet a baseline of greenhouse gas emissions, or pay for offsets.
Pocock told climate department officials:
BHP had [to pay] $8m for emissions [under the safeguard mechanism] last year while getting $379m in fuel tax credits … you have to admit that’s pretty ridiculous … They are spending 2% [of what they receive in diesel tax credits]. That sounds like a joke to most Australians.
The industry minister, Tim Ayres, defended the safeguard scheme, saying it had reduced emissions by 5.5m tonnes in the two years since the government reformed it.
An official told Pocock it did “not make a lot of sense” to compare the company’s payments under the safeguard mechanism with the credits they received under the diesel fuel tax rebate. Pocock responded:
We have a government that’s telling us we are very ambitious and are doing everything we can with all these things in place, then we have leaked documents from BHP who internally they are laughing at the safeguard mechanism and they don’t have to worry about it for 14 years … I am concerned that no one has thought to go ‘hang on, these two things don’t really work together.’
Key events
Taylor calls for a list of businesses getting a carve out on CGT changes (spoiler alert, he doesn’t get it)
Angus Taylor is back and asks the PM to declare which small businesses will receive a carve out from “Labor’s broken promises and higher taxes?”
“Good question” a bunch of opposition MPs shout from the benches, followed by a chorus of laughs as Anthony Albanese begins his answer with, “we support small business.”
Albanese talks up the budget and the reaction business and industry groups. He gets about a minute in when Taylor tries again to make a point of order on relevance.
The speaker, Milton Dick, says he knows Taylor would like a list of the businesses that are getting a carve out, but he’s not getting it.
Albanese continues:
What I am talking about is the lower taxes we’re introducing for small business … We do support small business and the opportunity of young people getting a roof over their head, something those opposite don’t support.
It’s question time!
Angus Taylor starts at the dispatch box and asks if the government will carve out hairdressers, builders, gyms, pharmacies, vets, dentists, landscapers or childcare operators from higher capital gains taxes under the budget.
Anthony Albanese says that small businesses already receive four different concessions, and are eligible for $3.5bn in lower tax measures.
He’s quickly interrupted by Milton Dick who tells everyone to calm down and stop shouting.
Then Taylor is up again to make a point of order on relevance. There’s a bit of back and forth, with Dan Tehan and Tony Burke getting involved, but ultimately Dick tells the PM he can keep going.
Albanese says:
In the budget we announced $3.5bn of support for small business, and they don’t want to hear about it. They want to write it off as if it didn’t happen, because it doesn’t fit the rhetoric of the three rightwing parties and their allies.
This is a mob who think the future is making Tony Abbott the president of the Liberal party.
One Nation to raise money to hire more staff
Barnaby Joyce says recent polling showing a wave of support for One Nation is “humbling” but that it means the party is going to have to start thinking about portfolios and costings.
The rightwing party has been heavily criticised by the majors for not having a solid policy platform, but Pauline Hanson claims she has 29 policies.
Joyce, speaking to Sky News, says that the government hasn’t provided the party additional funding to hire more staff – so One Nation might have to “raise the money to hire the staff to do the job”.
[The polling is] very humbling, but it’s indicative, you do not get carried away with it
It starts to indicate responsibilities you have to take on board, portfolio responsibilities, costing responsibilities.
The party will soon have two lower house MPs (with the election of David Farley in Farrer), as well four existing senators.
Thorpe calls for answers for Kumanjayi White’s family
Tomorrow marks a year on from the death of Kumanjayi White, a Warlpiri man who died after being restrained in an Alice Springs supermarket by police, and Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe says his family and community remain without answers.
Thorpe says that there have been no public findings, official cause of death, or decision about charges against the police officers involved released by the NT Director of Public Prosecutions.
The senator has called for CCTV footage to be released, and for an independent national police accountability body to be set up.
A year ago, thousands of us marched in mourning across the country, calling for justice for Kumanjayi White. Since then, all that has been delivered is silence.
The Albanese Government cannot keep pretending deaths in custody are only a state and territory issue. This is a national crisis and it demands national leadership. We need a national independent police accountability body so police are no longer investigating themselves.
NT government confirms one person has died from diphtheria
Sarah Collard
The Northern Territory government released a statement on Tuesday confirming that autopsy results from an overseas laboratory today has confirmed that a person most likely died from diphtheria in April.
As previously reported, the person, who died at Royal Darwin hospital in April, has been “formally classified as a probable death from diphtheria”.
NT Health stated that media reports of a second patient’s death in Central Australia over the weekend were incorrect, and the death was in no way related or linked to diphtheria.
The Territory’s health minister, Steve Edgington, said NT Health and its community organisations are rolling out a staggered vaccination response prioritising vulnerable and at risk communities.
Our government has taken this situation very seriously, and we are working hard to understand the causes and working to contain the situation.
NT Health is working with the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory, and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, to undertake a Territory-wide vaccination program to address the outbreak, with an initial focus on vulnerable people and at-risk areas. From 30 March, there have been 10,407 vaccinations.
NT Health continues to engage and consult with Aboriginal health organisations and primary care services to inform the community and increase vaccination. This includes contact tracing, testing, regular education sessions with vaccine providers and increased vaccination in communities.
Pocock says BHP is “laughing” at Labor’s climate safeguard mechanism
Graham Readfearn
David Pocock has told the government that leaked documents from BHP show the company is “laughing” at the government’s key climate policy, the safeguard mechanism.
In Senate estimates, the independent ACT senator asked the government if it had reviewed the investigation from Guardian Australia and the ABC’s Four Corners into the mining giant’s apparent walking back on its climate commitments.
Pocock raised one document, where he said BHP had concluded internally that the safeguard mechanism would not affect its iron ore operations in the Pilbara for another 14 years.
Company facilities like mining sites captured in the safeguard mechanism can choose to make direct cuts to emissions at their facilities to meet a baseline of greenhouse gas emissions, or pay for offsets.
Pocock told climate department officials:
BHP had [to pay] $8m for emissions [under the safeguard mechanism] last year while getting $379m in fuel tax credits … you have to admit that’s pretty ridiculous … They are spending 2% [of what they receive in diesel tax credits]. That sounds like a joke to most Australians.
The industry minister, Tim Ayres, defended the safeguard scheme, saying it had reduced emissions by 5.5m tonnes in the two years since the government reformed it.
An official told Pocock it did “not make a lot of sense” to compare the company’s payments under the safeguard mechanism with the credits they received under the diesel fuel tax rebate. Pocock responded:
We have a government that’s telling us we are very ambitious and are doing everything we can with all these things in place, then we have leaked documents from BHP who internally they are laughing at the safeguard mechanism and they don’t have to worry about it for 14 years … I am concerned that no one has thought to go ‘hang on, these two things don’t really work together.’
Joe Hockey ‘a little nervous’ about delivery of US Virginia-class submarines
Former ambassador to the US Joe Hockey says he’s nervous for the first time that about the delivery of the Virginia class submarines.
Australia is supposed to receive three to five Virginia class nuclear submarines from the early 2030s under the Aukus agreement.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, Hockey says the feeling comes after a “few conversations on the Hill”, but says it’s not because of the relationship between the US and Australia, but two other factors.
Hockey says “there’s no one internationally Donald Trump is getting counsel from or listening to”, unlike his first term where he was speaking to former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe weekly. The other issue, is that “the US just has not got the production of the Virginia up to speed”.
He’s asked explicitly if he’s concerned that the submarines won’t arrive on time or Australia won’t receive the number pledged. Hockey says:
You know, for the first time I’m a little nervous about the Virginias.
I think the risk has increased and we need, again, to have a full court press on the ground in Washington. Our best friends are always going to be in Congress, in the house, in the Senate. There’s a lot of good will, it’s good that we are getting a new American ambassador here which will come up pretty quickly.
Hockey says that the government needs to build more “political buy in” from the US, but that the risk is “manageable … at this stage”.
Bondi Hanukah event given lowest risk profile by police, royal commission hears
The royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion has heard further evidence about NSW police “taskings” for the Chanukah by the Sea event at Bondi on 14 December, which was attacked by two gunmen who killed 15 people.
The beachside celebration was categorised as a “tier 1” event – the lowest of three levels of police tasking for a public community event.
The NSW police superintendent and commander of Eastern Suburbs police area command, pseudonymised before the royal commission as ABQ, was asked about police categorisation of the event, which was expected to attract about 1000 members of the Sydney Jewish community.
Counsel assisting the commission, Richard Lancaster SC, asked:
Do you accept the proposition that treating the Hanukah Bondi event as a tier 1 community event was a categorisation that was obviously too low?
ABQ responded:
No, because we treated the event based on the information we had at the time. It was a local community event. We were dealing with community fear and antisemitic incidents. I had no specific intelligence of a direct threat to the Hanukah event.
Lancaster put it to ABQ: “I suggest to you that allocating it or treating it as a tier 1 community event significantly understated the risk associated with the event occurring. Do you agree with that?”
ABQ:
The event was planned with the information available to us at the time and we allocated resources that, I believed at the time, were appropriate.”
Lancaster further asked:
In hindsight, do you accept it was a mistake to treat this event as a tier 1 community event?
ABQ:
No, I don’t accept that it was a mistake. But in hindsight, knowing what I now know, I absolutely think this event should be dealt with similar to Jewish High Holy Days [ie a higher risk profile and police tasking]
In pictures: protesters at Parliament House demonstrate against treatment of flotilla activists by Israel
Sarah Basford Canales
Coalition agrees to support NDIS bill in lower house
The Coalition has agreed to pass the Albanese government’s sweeping NDIS changes through the lower house, amid speculation it could withdraw support for the controversial overhaul.
In a joint party room briefing this morning, the opposition reaffirmed it would support the bill designed to curb the NDIS’s growth through the House of Representatives ahead of a committee’s final report on the bill due mid-next month.
It was the first time the Liberals and Nationals had met formally since new polling released in the Australian Financial Review over the weekend predicted the near-total demise of the Coalition by One Nation if an election were held this month.
However, Guardian Australia understands the minor party’s rise was not mentioned by a single person in the room.
Instead, the leaders spoke about how the opposition was at its best when it had something to fight against and to fight for. Labor’s most recent federal budget has apparently given them that.
We have more details coming in on the protest activity around parliament.
Guardian Australia has seen a dozen protesters sitting on the floor in the corridor in the basement of parliament, as the larger group of approximately 50 people shuts down the main entry into the building.
Three or so security guards are taking the smaller group in the basement out one at a time from the building.
