Albanese tells steel workers ‘we have got your back’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been speaking to reporters at Lake Illawarra.
He was asked about modelling from treasurer Jim Chalmers about the impacts of the 25% tariffs on Australian steel from the US – will the government release this?
Albanese said his message is: “We support steel works here”.
Some voices can be heard shouting in the background as the PM speaks. He continued:
We continue to support jobs in the Illawarra and we support the steel works. My message to them today is we have got your back …
We have put a very strong case [forward] and we agreed, myself and President Trump when we talked, we agreed on the words that we used. And in President Trump’s own words he said Australia would be given great consideration for an exemption. We continue to put forward our case which is a very simple one.
Key events
Cait Kelly
Australia’s tax system fuelling wealth inequality, Anglicare report shows
Anglicare Australia has launched a report showing that Australia’s tax system is fuelling wealth inequality.
As we flagged earlier, “Paying it Forward” profiles ten OECD France, Belgium, Finland, The United Kingdom, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, The United States and Canada. It found that:
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Australia is one of the only countries that does not tax inheritances or estates
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This is fuelling wealth inequality
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Superannuation has become a tool for wealthy families to build inheritances, instead of being used to fund retirement.
The executive director, Kasy Chambers, said Australia is “becoming more unfair and more unequal.”
We should be using our tax system to make Australia fairer. Instead, government policies are driving inequality and making it worse. The good news is that we know what needs to be done to turn this around.
We are calling on the government to look at an estate or inheritance tax, to make sure we stop more and more wealth from being concentrated among fewer and fewer people.
Adam Morton
Environment organisations request mission to examine if salmon farming affecting Tasmanian world heritage area
Fourteen environment organisations have written to the World Heritage Centre asking it to send a mission to Macquarie Harbour, on Tasmania’s west coast, to examine whether salmon farming is affecting the state’s world heritage area.
The letter highlights the plight of the Maugean skate, an endangered ray-like fish species that has lived in the region since the time of the dinosaurs and which is at the centre of a heated political fight over the future of fish farms in the harbour.
The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, is reconsidering the future of salmon farm licences in the harbour after a legal request by environment groups.
Scientists have advised the Australian government that fish farms are the greatest threat to the species’ survival and recommended it be dramatically scaled back or removed. The salmon industry and the Tasmanian Liberal government and Labor opposition have responded forcefully, pledging to fight any decision that affects jobs.
The Australia Institute and 13 other organisations have now asked the World Heritage Centre to visit the harbour later this year. A third of the harbour is in the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness Area.
The institute’s Tasmanian director, Eloise Carr, also called on the government to release its written response to a UNESCO letter on the issue in April last year. She said a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the letter was refused.
What could the Australian government possibly have to say to the World Heritage Centre that they can’t say to Australians?
The government has been asked for its response.
Marles says peace talks between Ukraine and Russia must be on Ukraine’s terms
Sarah Basford Canales
Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia must be on Ukraine’s terms, Richard Marles says, after US president Donald Trump announced he began negotiations with Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier this week.
The defence minister told ABC radio this morning he welcomed efforts to resolve the conflict, which began in early 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, but said the conflict must be resolved on Ukraine’s terms.
It really matters this conflict is resolved on Ukraine’s terms and the reason for that is it was Russia who was the aggressor. It was Russia who broke international law, it was Russia who invaded a smaller neighbour, not by reference to international law, but really by reference to power and might. And that example cannot be allowed to stand.
Trump said he would be “OK” with Ukraine not gaining Nato membership and added it would be “unlikely” Ukraine would regain much of the territory Russia has taken control of.
The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had spoken to Trump and supported peace talks but would not be able to accept any agreements without Ukraine’s involvement in negotiations.
Support for Ukraine unchanged, PM says
Sticking with international news, Anthony Albanese was also asked about Donald Trump’ s indication he and Vladimir Putin have agreed to begin negotiations to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine, and responded:
We have a position of support for Ukraine and that is unchanged.
‘We regard this action as unsafe’: PM on interaction between Australia and China in South China Sea
On the interaction between Australia and China in the South China Sea this week, Anthony Albanese was asked if this is a step backwards in the diplomatic relationship between Canberra and Beijing?
He was also asked if he would pick up the phone to president Xi Jinping? The PM responded:
We have made representations through our normal diplomatic channels. We regard this action as unsafe. We have made that clear. We have made it public as well as in private.
Albanese tells steel workers ‘we have got your back’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been speaking to reporters at Lake Illawarra.
He was asked about modelling from treasurer Jim Chalmers about the impacts of the 25% tariffs on Australian steel from the US – will the government release this?
Albanese said his message is: “We support steel works here”.
Some voices can be heard shouting in the background as the PM speaks. He continued:
We continue to support jobs in the Illawarra and we support the steel works. My message to them today is we have got your back …
We have put a very strong case [forward] and we agreed, myself and President Trump when we talked, we agreed on the words that we used. And in President Trump’s own words he said Australia would be given great consideration for an exemption. We continue to put forward our case which is a very simple one.
Cait Kelly
Better funding needed for men’s behavioural change programs: report
Men’s behavioural change programs need to be better funded to provide tailored, holistic and timely services that can support meaningful behaviour change, an evidence brief from Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (Anrows) has shown.
Men’s behaviour change programs are group-based interventions for men who have used domestic, family, and sexual violence against a current or former partner or other family members.
While these programs are a key intervention for people who use violence, the report highlights that they are not a stand-alone solution. The Anrows chief executive, Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, said:
People who use violence must be held accountable. But men’s behaviour change programs can’t do this on their own. The evidence is clear that accountability must extend beyond individual programs to a coordinated system that spans the justice, social service, housing and community sectors.
A whole-of-system approach is needed for lasting change in men’s behaviour that brings safety for victims and survivors.
Clare weighs in on Dutton’s call to toughen citizenship-stripping laws
Circling back to Jason Clare’s interview on Sunrise earlier this morning: He was asked about calls from Peter Dutton to make changes to Australia’s citizenship regime, after a viral video of two Bankstown nurses saying they would not treat Israeli patients under their care attracted widespread political condemnation.
The male nurse has since apologised through his lawyer.
As Sarah Basford Canales reports, Dutton said a “proper process” should be in place to “understand how this individual became an Australian citizen and where the failing in the system originated and how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again”.
Guardian Australia understands one of the nurses gained citizenship in 2020, years after fleeing from Afghanistan to Australia as a child, while Dutton was home affairs minister.
Asked what he thinks of the calls from Dutton, Clare said the individuals should be “utterly condemned by every right-thinking person in the country” and that their comments were “absolutely vile”.
At the moment the way that the law works, your citizenship can be taken off you as a dual citizen and you have committed a serious offence. That is the law of the land from the Labor government.
I think Peter Dutton is saying he wants an investigation into how this person became a citizen as you rightly pointed out. The reason that he is a citizen today is because of Peter Dutton.
‘It really is a moving feast’: Warnes on network disruptions
Asked about negotiations moving forward and what it would take for a deal to be finalised, Toby Warnes said:
I heard the minister this morning extended an olive branch. We’d be willing to talk to him about an olive branch to continue negotiations but last night we didn’t get one. We asked him to rescind the 471 notices and they refused.
On disruptions to the network and how prolonged this might be, he said this cannot be predicted because of the lockout notices:
No one can predict the level of disruption that this is going to cause, because you’ve essentially enabled 5,000 decisions to take place across the network by 5,000 different workers from 5,000 different experiences.
Some people might not be able to lose a day’s pay, so they’ll come to work. Other people might say, “I don’t like how I’ve been treated for the past nine months”, and decide not to come to work. It really is a moving feast.
With that, the press conference wrapped up.
Warnes on $4,500 payment in enterprise agreement
Continuing to take questions from reporters, Toby Warnes argued the only reason the $4,500 figure was raised was because the union offered to forego this in favour of a pay increase in year three:
The only reason the $4,500 came up is because we sought to bargain with the government and say, we can forego the $4,500, we’ll delete that clause from the enterprise agreement, in order to increase the pay increase in year three.
That was the only sticking point we had left. The only reason the government was, I believe, alerted to the fact that Transport [for NSW] hadn’t taken this clause out was because we tried, in good faith, to move that money from a one-off payment in the first year to a pay rise in the third.
Warnes says union didn’t issue any formal direction to members last night
Toby Warnes maintains that the union did not issue any formal direction to members last night, telling reporters:
I don’t control what my delegates out in the floor say. If I did, I’d be a much busier man than I am. We didn’t issue any formal direction to our members to do anything last night. If local workplaces who are angry about the 5,000 lockout notices take that point of view, then that’s their prerogative.
He said the union did instruct members “what their rights were, what their obligations were, what would happen if they went to work [and] what would happen if they didn’t go to work”.
What I said was, if workers came to work today and performed work and were deemed by Sydney Trains as taking the go slow – which is an action subject to the lockout for even one minute during the day – they would lose the entire day’s worth of pay, even though they’ve performed an entire day’s worth of work.
Warnes questioned on text apparently sent to members from union convener
Reporters have asked Toby Warnes about a text message to members, signed by Rail, Tram and Bus Union convener Adam Doyle, which told train drivers to “fuck the network up”.
Warnes said this message was not endorsed by him:
As I said, you’ve got 5,000 people that [were] issued these lockout notices. You’ve got a government that’s treated [them] very poorly for the past five months. It’s unsurprising you see that sort of attitude come from what is really quite an aggressive move by the government in response to what is really quite a low-level industrial action.
He said the lockout notices were the “employer issuing a direction to each worker individually to say, either come to work and do your full duties or don’t come to work at all”.
Warnes said he “acknowledge[s] that the messaging in that message wouldn’t provide people with comfort” but returned to his point regarding the lockout notices and said the government should have rescinded these.
Warnes ‘annoyed’ government didn’t rescind lockout notices
Taking questions, Toby Warnes said he was “annoyed” the government had the chance to rescind the lockout notices last night but chose not to.
When you send 5,000 notices to 5,000 people in the age of social media, you’re always going to have chatter about what people want to do … They could have rescinded it. They could rescind it at any point of time today.
The action that we’re seeing today isn’t actually caused by us. The only action we notified was a go slow, 23km/h less than the posted speed limit, over 80km/h.
Warnes says negotiations with government hit ‘sticking point’ when they requested clause be taken out of enterprise agreement
Toby Warnes said the union was negotiating into the night with the NSW government but it “hit a sticking point” when Transport for NSW requested a clause be taken out of the enterprise agreement.
That particular clause entitled our members to a one-off $4,500 payment that is payable at the beginning of each agreement. It’s a clause that we negotiated with the last government, with David Elliot when he was transport minister … and when you put something into the enterprise agreement, it becomes subject of future bargaining and can only be taken out as a bargaining claim.
He said it was “completely disingenuous” for the government to say the union wants an extra $4,500.
If Sydney Trains, New South Wales Trains and Transport for NSW’ industrial relations departments can’t read an enterprise agreement, then they really should be in a different line of work.
RTBU addressing media in Sydney
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW secretary, Toby Warnes, is speaking to reporters from Central Station in Sydney.
He said delays across the network are “entirely attributable to the government issuing, last Friday, 5,000 individual lockout notices to train crew workers” across the state.
Those lockout notices were intended to take effect on Wednesday … at midnight, those notices were postponed by the government in an effort to try and reach a deal on the Sydney NSW trains enterprise agreement. But last night, after negotiations fell over, the lockout notices took effect once again, at midnight last night.
So we have workers who are either showing up today and risking not getting paid by the government, or we have workers who have chosen not to attend work today because of those lockout notices.
RTBU to address media shortly on industrial action
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW secretary, Toby Warnes, is due to address the media at 9am this morning, in less than 10 minutes, on its industrial action and the delays to the state’s rail network.
We’ll aim to bring you the latest here on the blog as soon as we can.
In a statement this morning, Warnes said commuters were experiencing delays this morning “as a result of Transport for NSW’s decision to lock out its rail workers from Friday morning”.
Over 5,000 lock-out notices have been issued to employees on an individual basis. This is what happens when this sort of extreme industrial strategy is rolled out on vital public transport infrastructure.
He said claims from the state government that rail workers threw an extra payment into the mix are “completely untrue.”
The payment in question is an existing entitlement contained within the enterprise agreement – it is nothing new at all. In fact, the payment in question was offered up by the union in exchange for a pay rise in the final year of the agreement.
The government’s tactics of attempting to whip up public fury and using legal strategies to silence and intimidate workers needs to be put behind us.
China responds to accusations from Australia over ‘unsafe and unprofessional interaction’ in South China Sea
Circling back to earlier news about the interaction between Australia and China in the South China Sea on Tuesday:
The Department of Defence yesterday released information about an “unsafe and unprofessional interaction” between Australian and Chinese aircraft, where flares were allegedly released near the Australian plane.
In a press conference, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, was asked to respond to the accusations from Australia and said:
The Australian military airplane deliberately intruded into China’s airspace over Xisha Qundao without China’s permission. Such move violated China’s sovereignty and undermined China’s national security.
The Chinese side took legitimate, lawful, professional and restrained measures to expel the airplane. China has lodged serious protests with Australia and urged it to stop infringing on China’s sovereignty and making provocations and stop disrupting peace and stability in the South China Sea.
Earlier this morning (see post), the education minister, Jason Clare, said suggestions by China that Australia had impeded its sovereignty were wrong:
It is international airspace. I know this is contested but that is international airspace. The actions of that Chinese pilot were wrong.
