Australia politics live: more than 20 Rising Tide protesters arrested outside parliament; Bowen challenges O’Brien to televised debate on energy
More than 20 Rising Tide protesters arrested for blocking roads to federal parliament
Jordyn Beazley
More than 20 Rising Tide protesters have been arrested for blocking the roads to federal Parliament House after they took their protest from Newcastle to Canberra today.
It comes after NSW police arrested 173 Rising Tide protesters on the water in Newcastle on Sunday after they paddled aboard kayaks and rafts to disrupt the Port of Newcastle. Organisers say it was Australia’s largest climate civil disobedience action.
Today, hundreds of people joined a rally organised by Rising Tide on the lawns of parliament.
Rising Tide organiser, Alexa Stuart, who is in Canberra at the protest, said around hundred protesters moved to block the road while about 50 others occupied the parliament house foyer.
Stuart said that more than 20 people were arrested for blocking the road after police had issued move on orders. The ACT police have been contacted for comment.
The protesters are calling on the Albanese government to immediately cancel all new fossil fuel projects and end all coal exports from Newcastle by 2030. It is also calling on the government to introduce a 78% tax on coal export profits to fund the transition and support fossil fuel workers.
A 13-year-old was at the protest outside parliament on Wednesday. The 13-year-old was not arrested, but was among the 173 people that were arrested on Sunday for disrupting the Port of Newcastle:
I was one of 31,000 people who lost their homes in the 2022 Northern Rivers flooding. I’m here today because I’m really really angry that our government is sitting in their air-conditioned board rooms watching our future burn and doing nothing about it.
Key events
Peter Hannam
No Xmas interest rate cut but the worst of the cost-of-living crunch may be behind us
As the federal politicians go at it in question time over the October inflation numbers out earlier today, economists are seeing both the good and the bad as they sift the data.
Cherelle Murphy, EY’s chief economist, has said:
Despite some households wishing for an early Christmas gift, [an RBA] rate cut won’t be under the tree this December. Our view is that the Reserve Bank will keep rates on hold for several months yet – with the policies of the incoming US administration another potential hurdle in the fight against inflation in 2025.
The latter is a reference to the return to the White House of Donald Trump on 20 January, bringing a lot of policy whim with him.
In the meantime, there are more indicators of easing price pressures on a few fronts.
Stephen Wu, a senior CBA economist, says a closer look at the underlying inflation figure (3.5%) for October was actually a bit better than expected. As a result, the bank has trimmed its quarterly trimmed mean estimate for the current quarter to 0.6% from 0.7%.
We expect core inflation to undershoot the RBA’s forecast. Even with the revision, we still see the risks as slightly skewed to the downside.
Separately, Roy Morgan research finds that the share of mortgage holders “at risk” has eased since stage 3 tax cuts started flowing. While still a hefty 26.2% share (or 928,000), the proportion has eased by 4.1 percentage points (or 14%) since June.
That’s still high but heading in the right direction and an RBA rate cut will (eventually) help too.
In the House of Representatives, question time has just wrapped up.
Sarah Basford Canales
Lidia Thorpe criticises Labor during another fiery Senate appearance
The independent senator, Lidia Thorpe, has criticised the Albanese government in another fiery Senate appearance in question time.
Thorpe asked why around 90 applicants for justice reinvestment grants were not considered, claiming the decision “reeks of disregard for those fighting to make meaningful change on the ground”.
The question was directed at Indigenous affairs minister, Malarndirri McCarthy, but workplace place relations minister, Murray Watt, has responsibility for answering.
Thorpe repeated “I just want the question answered” while Labor senators explained the redirection.
Labor senator Catryna Bilyk shouted “we’re just trying to help you” off microphone and Thorpe responded:
Shut your mouth, you.
The Senate president, Sue Lines, asked Thorpe to withdraw but the firebrand senator complained she is always the first to face reprimands while others interjecting get away with it. Before withdrawing, Thorpe said:
You don’t hear them, do you? … Open your eyes.
Thorpe then withdrew the comment. Bilyk also stood up to withdraw. Senate question time continued.
Peter Hannam
Renewables provide more than half of NSW power as crunch period approaches
With the 3pm-8pm AEDT crunch time for the NSW grid just starting, a bit more than half of the state’s power was coming from renewable energy, according to the OpenNEM website.
We’ve noted before that quite a bit of coal-fired power generation capacity has been offline this week (about 3 gigawatts of it unplanned).
The tight energy squeeze expected for this afternoon is frustrating for many, particularly those who have long called for more investment in clean energy so we have more capacity for times like these when ageing coal power stations aren’t available.
Stephanie Bashir, chief executive of Nexa Advisory, said authorities “wouldn’t be scrabbling now if they were properly enabling consumers to manage their own demand, and unleashing development and connection of renewables, including through orderly closure of coal plants”.
The Minns government is yet to publish its energy plan for NSW. Projects already in the pipeline are clogged inside it.
The pipeline of proposed wind, solar and battery projects might be huge … would that we had a few more available today.
Penrith, meanwhile, in Sydney’s outer west, has recently touched 39.9C, the hottest site in Australia, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Jordyn Beazley
Rising Tide arrests come as City of Sydney donates $22k to organisation
Circling back to news just a moment ago that more than 20 Rising Tide protesters were arrested outside parliament: this comes after the City of Sydney passed a motion on Monday which included a $22,000 donation to the climate organisation.
The motion called on the NSW government to repeal the anti-protest laws after 138 Rising Tide protesters were on Sunday charged under the laws for disrupting the Port of Newcastle.
The laws carry a maximum two years in prison for blockading ports, railways, and roads or a maximum $22,000 fine – the same amount that the council donated to Rising Tide.
The council’s motion also condemned “harsh police practices with respect to protesters” and called “on the NSW police to cease pre-emptive and heavy-handed policing of protests”.
The motion, which was introduced by Greens councillor Sylvie Ellsmore, passed with the support of two Labor councillors and was voted against by one Liberal councillor. Councillor Jess Miller amended the motion to include the $22,000 donation.
City of Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore, said “climate change is an existential threat, and the criminalisation of those who protest is shameful.” Moore added:
In a democracy all people should have the right to protest without being arrested. We must phase out fossil fuels faster, fairly and forever. We need to act with the urgency that this moment demands. If not, people will continue to advocate through peaceful protest and nonviolent civil disobedience. Disruptions can be inconvenient and costly. But let’s put this in context: the continued destruction of the planet is worse.
PM says opposition ‘never so unhappy as when things heading in good direction for Australia’
Back at question time, the shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has got on his feet for a third time to ask about inflation.
The prime minister shot back that “core inflation has come down since we were elected.”
Today, one of the things that strikes me, Mr Speaker, is that [the opposition] are never so unhappy and angry as when things are heading in a good direction for Australia. Their whole position, their whole position is a-wishing and a-hoping for the very worst for Australia. No hope, just nope to everything that comes before this parliament.
Peter Dutton rose on a point of order, saying the PM needs to answer whether core inflation went up today. He responded that monthly inflation “is around one-third of what we inherited at the election and around one-quarter of its peak”.
Sussan Ley also rose on a point of order, saying Jim Chalmers had been interjecting but not sent out. The Speaker, Milton Dick, said he would take it onboard and “it is difficult to maintain order in the house when there is continual interjections”.
More than 20 Rising Tide protesters arrested for blocking roads to federal parliament
Jordyn Beazley
More than 20 Rising Tide protesters have been arrested for blocking the roads to federal Parliament House after they took their protest from Newcastle to Canberra today.
It comes after NSW police arrested 173 Rising Tide protesters on the water in Newcastle on Sunday after they paddled aboard kayaks and rafts to disrupt the Port of Newcastle. Organisers say it was Australia’s largest climate civil disobedience action.
Today, hundreds of people joined a rally organised by Rising Tide on the lawns of parliament.
Rising Tide organiser, Alexa Stuart, who is in Canberra at the protest, said around hundred protesters moved to block the road while about 50 others occupied the parliament house foyer.
Stuart said that more than 20 people were arrested for blocking the road after police had issued move on orders. The ACT police have been contacted for comment.
The protesters are calling on the Albanese government to immediately cancel all new fossil fuel projects and end all coal exports from Newcastle by 2030. It is also calling on the government to introduce a 78% tax on coal export profits to fund the transition and support fossil fuel workers.
A 13-year-old was at the protest outside parliament on Wednesday. The 13-year-old was not arrested, but was among the 173 people that were arrested on Sunday for disrupting the Port of Newcastle:
I was one of 31,000 people who lost their homes in the 2022 Northern Rivers flooding. I’m here today because I’m really really angry that our government is sitting in their air-conditioned board rooms watching our future burn and doing nothing about it.
Transport minister on Greens proposal for curfew at Brisbane airport: they’re ‘dreaming’
Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown has asked a question on the impact of aircraft noise – specifically, why does Sydney have a curfew but residents in Brisbane don’t?
The transport minister Catherine King said she can “understand that community concern” – putting blame on the former Coalition government.
The new runway at Brisbane airport opened in 2020, following approval by the former Coalition government – who did not undertake, frankly, sufficient community consultation in the process, particularly in relation to aircraft noise.
She said Labor committed to establish a community advisory board to hear from locals, and “I’ve made very clear my expectations to air services that measures be implemented to mitigate aircraft noise at Brisbane airport.”
In terms of the Greens’ call for a curfew at Brisbane airport, she said they were “dreaming”.
Let’s compare what happens at Sydney airport, where movements are capped at 80 movements per hour. It is the busiest airport in the country. What the Greens want is a cap at 46 movements per hour. In Sydney, what that has meant – the 80 movements per hour – we are now building a second airport, because that airport is at capacity. If you are saying that Brisbane airport is at capacity at 40, you are dreaming.
Chris Bowen wants televised debate with Ted O’Brien on energy
Liberal MP Colin Boyce got up to ask a question, criticising the government’s so-called “renewables-only approach”.
The energy minister Chris Bowen, in response, has been criticising nuclear energy – pointing to overseas research showing increasing energy prices.
Professor Bill Grace from the University of Western Australia … has pointed out that the only way to make nuclear power work in Australia is to switch off cheap renewable energy, to stop exporting electricity from your rooftop solar system. Forget feed-in tariffs. The system has to call on baseload nuclear power first or the system makes no sense.
Bowen claimed that the shadow energy minister Ted O’Brien said no to a debate on Q&A – but he would be up for it.
The 7.30 report has suggested a debate. I said yes. I await the answer of the member for Fairfax.
Albanese says Coalition has only two settings: ‘no and no way’
Liberal MP Melissa Price has got up to ask a question on the economy – specifically successive rate rises, “with no relief in sight”.
The prime minister Anthony Albanese said the “fact is that the member for Durack was part of – sometimes as a minister – spending nine years in government creating the problems, but they’ve spent every day in opposition stopping the solutions”.
They only have two settings, Mr Speaker, no and no way. That is the only settings that they have.
The PM took aim at the Coalition for opposing their housing legislation and said – maybe harking back to Bob Katter’s earlier question – that they were “blocking the Australian dream”.
Chalmers takes aim at ‘pre-cooked points of order’ from opposition
The shadow treasurer Angus Taylor is back up to ask another question on the economy, again ending with the well-repeated catchphrase the opposition has adopted this week – how can Australians afford another three years of Labor?
Jim Chalmers says he has “a lot of nerve asking about incomes and living standards and inflation after the mess that they left us to clean up.” The treasurer continues:
And Mr Speaker, if you look right across the board, inflation was higher and rising on their watch. Living standards were falling substantially already when we came to office … So how dare they come in here, Mr Speaker, and talk about living standards and wages and inflation when inflation was three times higher on their watch …
Taylor rose on a point of order, and a Labor MP was sent out for interjecting. Chalmers resumed speaking:
No amount of pre-cooked points of order that somebody has typed out for him in order to make him look spontaneous is going to make up for the fact that living standards were falling when we came to office, real wages were falling when we came to office and inflation was three times higher under them than under us.
Bob Katter asks Chalmers about the Australian housing dream
Bob Katter has got up to ask a question on the Australian dream – does it still exist, or “does the reality of crippling debt traumatise young couples”? He continued:
Treasurer, why don’t you become a federal government, cut the Gordian knot and wreak destruction upon power-drunk state and local government regulators?
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, began responding with this:
Now, when it comes to young people and the beautifully nostalgic Queensland childhood that the member for Kennedy describes in his question, which is a little bit familiar to me from a couple of generations later …
After a bit of laughter across the chamber, Chalmers went on to acknowledge that “in our economy, too often, younger people and younger families get the rough end of the pineapple when it comes to the way that some of our policies are set up”.
The treasurer said he agrees more can always be done to help young people, with housing being a part of that. He said he would convene the state treasurers here in Canberra on Friday to address some of the issues he has raised.
If his question is, is there a role for the commonwealth? Yes. We embrace that enthusiastically. If his question is is there a role for states and state regulators, of course there is, and if we’re to build the homes we need to deliver a sense of intergenerational justice he’s talking about, we’re doing our bit and the states need to do their bit as well.
Sarah Basford Canales
Senate president has advised parliament’s workplace support service of incident between Hanson and Thorpe
The Senate president, Sue Lines, says she’s advised the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service of the incident between Pauline Hanson and Lidia Thorpe this morning.
Lines read out a joint statement with the deputy president before Senate question time commenced, saying she was “incredibly disappointed” in the behaviour.
Earlier this morning, Hanson attempted to have independent senator Fatima Payman investigated for an alleged section 44 citizenship issue, before Thorpe threw papers at the One Nation leader and flipped her middle finger as she stormed out of the chamber. Lines said:
It is incredibly disappointing that three years into the implementation of the recommendations of the Jenkins review, senators appear all too ready to descend into disorder rather than seeking to conduct themselves in a safe and respectful manner. We must do better …
Debate, of course, in this place is often lively, but senators must conduct themselves in an orderly fashion. Physically threatening behaviour will not be tolerated. It is up to each and every senator in this place to find ways to take the heat out of the chamber.
The president said it was a matter for the Senate to deal with it but she had advised the PWSS anyway.
Lines said the Senate could consider a process forcing senators to explain their conduct or apologise for it. She added senators could also be suspended.
Lines said she would consider “next steps” after meeting with party leaders and the deputy president.
