Key events
Thanks for joining me this morning, Emily Wind is taking the reins, and we’ll keep you updated on all the drama from parliament house today.
Ben Doherty
Continuing from our last post: Sarah Dale, principal solicitor at the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (Racs), which is representing the man before the federal court, said the government was attempting to exile people to Nauru without any consideration of the harm they could face there, or the impact of deportation on their physical and mental health.
It is deeply alarming that Australia would engage in such a process as to remove a person, seemingly permanently and without hope, to a place that is not their home.
This will be a dark precedent if Australia is able to proceed with its intent on expelling people from our country in such a troubling way.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said the government had been prepared for legal challenges.
“The government said on day one that this arrangement with Nauru was likely to be challenged in the courts,” he said. “This is no surprise.”
Burke said the government was confident in the validity of the new laws, and its power to remove people to third countries.
These are violent criminals who broke Australia’s laws. Because of the government’s new laws they are still in detention, rather than being out in the community … We will proceed with removal to Nauru as soon as possible.
“NZYQ” is a stateless Rohingya man who faced the prospect of detention for life because no country would resettle him because of a conviction for raping a child.
Members of the NZYQ cohort have lost their Australian visas on character grounds, typically for criminal conviction.
Court blocks asylum seeker’s deportation to Nauru amid legal challenge
Ben Doherty
The federal court has halted the removal of a second asylum seeker facing deportation to Nauru while his case is before the court.
The man, a member of the NZYQ cohort of non-citizens, had been told he would be deported on Monday. But at a hastily convened hearing on Sunday, the federal court ordered he remain in Australia while it considered whether the original cancellation of his visa was lawful.
The NZYQ cohort numbers about 280 non-citizens who previously faced indefinite immigration detention because their visas had been cancelled on “character grounds” but who could not be removed to their home countries because they faced persecution, or because those countries refused to accept them.
In November 2023, the high court ruled in the NZYQ case it was unlawful for the government to indefinitely detain a person if there was “no real prospect” of them being removed from Australia “in the reasonably foreseeable future”.
Earlier this month, three of the NZYQ cohort were re-detained, after the Nauru government gave them 30-year visas under a secretive deal it signed with Australia. The Australian government has refused to say how much it has paid Nauru – or what other inducements it has granted – for the tiny Pacific state to accept non-citizens for long-term resettlement.
One of the three men took his case to the high court, and the government agreed not to remove him from the country while his case was before the court. Sunday’s federal court ruling related to the second man. A legal challenge is also expected for the third man.
How will the bulk-billing increase be paid for?
There’s been criticism of the opposition that their support of the $8.5bn package hasn’t come with a plan to pay for it.
Ruston has told RN the money will come from other areas of the budget.
We’ve been very clear about the things that we don’t think that the federal government should be investing in. I mean, we’ve done things like, you know, we don’t believe [in] the federal government’s rewiring the nation, as an example, the national reconstruction fund, all of these things we’ve voted against, you know, we believe that public servants in Canberra are not what we need. We actually need frontline services, service workers, like doctors, like nurses which this policy addresses.
Ruston says Labor planning health ‘scare campaign’ in lead-up to poll
Shadow health minister Anne Ruston is speaking to RN Breakfast. She says Labor will use ‘lies’ and ‘distractions’ on health during the election campaign.
The opposition is also accusing the government of having a poor record on maintaining bulk billing, saying rates have been dropping over the past three years.
We are going to have to expect, unfortunately, a scare campaign. I mean, yesterday, at the launch, the Prime Minister and [Mark] Butler spent more time talking about Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party than they did about themselves. So I think we can expect a scare campaign. But the facts don’t lie. The truth of all of this is quite clear in the statistics. under their watch, the health system in Australia has been significantly diminished.
When asked about the Coalition’s attempt to introduce a $7 co-payment for the GP, Ruston says “we need to focus on the here and now”, and backs in support for primary care.
Josh Butler
Labor MP says Coalition’s public service job cuts could ‘make us less safe’
The public service is “on the ballot” at the coming election, assistant minister Patrick Gorman says, welcoming a fight with the Coalition on public services and the size of Australia’s bureaucracy.
In a speech to be delivered to the Sydney Institute on Monday night, Gorman – the assistant minister to the prime minister and for the public service – will say all Australians should “cherish” the Australian public service, and criticised Peter Dutton’s plans to slash the APS.
Australia now faces the most challenging set of strategic circumstances since world war II. Is it really the time to be launching an attack on the public service?
At best, deep cuts to the public service will take our nation backwards. At worst, deep cuts will make us less secure, less safe and unable to shape the world around us.
The Coalition has given mixed signals on how many public servants it would cut, but indicated it would seek to reduce many jobs.
Gorman claimed the APS today was proportionally smaller than it was under former Coalition prime minister John Howard, even as the responsibilities of the public service have grown with Aukus, the NDIS and the national anti-corruption commission.
The public service also has a fundamental role in the functioning of a democracy.
Medicare campaign a ‘Loch Ness monster’ – Joyce
Going back to Sunrise earlier, cabinet minister Tanya Plibersek was joined by Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, with the two sparring over the bulk-billing announcement.
While Plibersek took a jab on the Coalition’s record freezing bulk-billing rates, Joyce had a more creative description of how the debate over medicare is shaping up.
We are framing up the Lock Ness monster campaign. When they have run out of things to say, they say there’s a monster in the lake. Medicare, they want to sell Medicare. Who would want to sell it? It’s a government service. And who would want to buy it? We have no intentions of doing that. Where does this come from?
Health will no doubt be a key focus of the election, and you can see Labor’s attacks on the Coalition’s medicare history are having an impact.
For a little more context on why it took Peter Dutton less than a day to match Labor’s $8.5bn bulk-billing commitment, have a read of my colleague Josh Butler’s analysis here.
Labor swipes at opposition’s past health policies
The Labor frontbench is also out in full force backing in the GP bulk-billing announcement this morning. Despite Peter Dutton promising to match the announcement dollar for dollar, the government is continuing its attacks on the Coalition’s health policies of the past.
Tanya Plibersek was on Sunrise earlier:
He [Dutton] tried to introduce the $7 GP co-payment. He said too many visits to the doctor were bulk-billed, tried to put up the cost of medicines and cut $50 billion from hospital funding … Now, five minutes before an election, he says something else. I remember when Tony Abbott promised no cuts to healthcare and then he came in and he slashed and he burned.
Finance minister Katy Gallagher is on RN Breakfast now, and has also pointed to Dutton’s past as healthcare minister. Gallagher says she was health minister for the ACT when Dutton was her federal counterpart.
We judge Peter Dutton on his record, and his record as health minister is about cuts and reducing services and cutting back Medicare. And you know, some of the problems we have with Medicare right now, some of the pressures that people have been seeing when they’ve been going to see a doctor that don’t happen overnight, they happen as a result of those six years of freezing of income for GPs.
Butler says bulk-billing package’s November start is ‘pretty quick’
Health minister Mark Butler is doing the media rounds this morning, promoting the bulk-billing package that the government says will lead to nine in 10 Australians not paying out of pocket to see a GP by 2030.
The announcement has been well received by advocates and doctors groups including the Australian Medical Association (AMA). It’s the largest investment in medicare in its history and the announcement is being billed as a key cost-of-living measure.
Butler is on AM, asked why the changes will only begin in November rather than coming into effect now.
The first of November is when the changes to these rebates typically occur, that gives practices time to update their software. And you know, we think that that’s a pretty quick start to a very, very substantial change in how Medicare operates. And as I said, for the first time, we’ll be giving bulk-billing support to all Australians, including those who don’t have a concession card.
Butler’s also asked about calls to restructure Medicare around people who have more chronic illnesses in Australia’s ageing population.
Butler says he agrees with those calls from the AMA:
The current structure of Medicare really suits the patient profile of the 1980s and 90s, more than it does the patient profile of today, someone who is more likely to have complex chronic disease. So I agree very strongly with the AMA on that, and we’re starting to roll out some programs to structure funding to deliver multi-disciplinary care that wraps around the patient, rather than single episodes of care.
Josh Butler
Coalition denounces Moscow over ‘horrors and heartache’ of Ukraine war
Peter Dutton has again condemned “Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and abominable invasion of Ukraine” on the third anniversary of the war.
In a joint statement with shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie and shadow foreign minister David Coleman, the opposition leader spoke of the “horrors and heartache of war” and described Ukraine as a “country of heroes”.
Three years ago, Putin expected a quick victory. He thought the people of Ukraine would swiftly surrender. But Putin miscalculated. He underestimated. He was wrong.
Despite US president Donald Trump’s recent criticisms of Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as a “dictator”, Dutton’s Coalition has stood firm in backing Ukraine. Dutton’s statement didn’t mention Trump but set out its position on questions of dictatorship.
President Zelenskyy has been a brave and inspirational leader in staring down a murderous dictator.
The Coalition statement went on to call for a resolution of the war that “does not reward the murderous despot Putin, as any reward would embolden other revanchist autocrats to follow in his tyrannical footsteps”.
Josh Butler
Labor condemns Russia’s ‘immoral’ war in Ukraine on anniversary
The Albanese government has condemned Russia on the third anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine, again calling for Vladimir Putin to immediately end the conflict.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese, deputy prime minister Richard Marles and foreign minister Penny Wong, in a statement to be delivered on Monday, demanded Russia abide by international law. They’ve released an advance excerpt from the government statement.
Today marks three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For three years, Ukraine has bravely resisted Russia’s illegal and immoral war of aggression.
Australia mourns the loss of life of Ukraine’s citizens and defenders, and the generational toll of Russia’s brutality. Australia continues to stand with Ukraine.
Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/EPA
The government said it had committed over $1.5bn to help Ukraine defend itself, including more than $1.3bn in military support.
Albanese, Marles and Wong said:
Once again, Australia calls on Russia to immediately end its war and adhere fully to its obligations under international law, including in relation to the protection of civilians and treatment of prisoners of war.
Working with Ukraine and our partners, Australia supports a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.
Welcome
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji here with you for this Senate estimates week.
You can certainly feel the election getting closer with that huge $8.5bn bulk billing announcement the government made yesterday, which the opposition hurriedly matched. There’s already plenty of reaction to that package this morning.
There’ll also be plenty coming up from Senate estimates today, it’ll be the last opportunity before the election for the opposition and crossbench to test a lot of Labor’s announcements and programs, and we’ll bring you that as it comes.
So put your seatbelts on, it’s going to be a big one!
