Greens delayed help-to-buy vote to give Labor more time to negotiate: Adam Bandt
Back to the housing bill mess, Adam Bandt has said his party rejected the government’s attempt to have one of the bills put up to vote because it wants the government to negotiate with them.
Bandt told the ABC:
We want the government to stop bulldozing, trying to get their bills through the Senate and start negotiating to actually fix the housing crisis. Two bills that you referred to, one pushes up the price of houses for 99.8% of renters and the other pushes up rents by giving public money in the form of tax breaks to developers to build expensive apartments that they will build anyway.
We are in the middle of the housing crisis and the government is coming up with Band-Aid answers that make the problem worse and what we need is the prime minister to stop bulldozing, start negotiating so we can tackle the causes of the housing crisis.
There’s only a few months until the election, this is all Labor has on the and what we’re saying like we did with the Housing fund before is in the middle of the housing crisis, you can do much better but you have to drop this my way or the highway.
Key events
Emergency operation under way to rescue man who fell into a mineshaft in Hunter Valley, NSW
A police operation is under way in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales to locate a man who is believed to have fallen down a mineshaft.
Emergency services were called at 12.45pm today to Dry Creek Road, Ellalong, where police were told a man had fallen into a decommissioned mine shaft. NSW police said:
Officers attached to Hunter Valley police district remain on scene and are being assisted by Police Rescue, NSW Ambulance, and Fire and Rescue NSW.
The operation is expected to be ongoing for some time, and further information will be released when available.
Ticketmaster says ‘market value’ tickets match secondary market prices
Ticketmaster has responded to concern around tickets for Green Day’s 2025 Australian tour being as high as $500 due to what it calls “In Demand” pricing that saw ticket prices for some tickets in the presale surge.
A spokesperson said tickets cap out at $500 and Ticketmaster does not set the prices – the artists and their teams that do so. The “market-priced” tickets are a manual adjustment of a “small portion” of tickets closer to the full market value revealed in resale markets, the spokesperson said.
Rather than fans paying limitless prices on the secondary market and being unsure if tickets are actually genuine, the relatively small number of tickets that some tours price at ‘market value’ enable the general price of the majority of tickets to be more affordable by a larger number of fans.
The revenues are also retained within the live music ecosystem with the relevant taxes and performing rights payments being made rather than only benefiting the scalpers selling them. This is particularly important as artists have become more reliant on touring as their main source of income and are seeing touring costs rise.
Pricing isn’t about charging people more; it’s about looking at prices fans are already paying on secondary [markets] and shifting that value back to the artist.
Earlier today, we reported that more than 150 places of worship around the country are hanging banners this week calling for action on climate change and renewable energy as part of a week of action from faith communities.
Here is a photo from one of the events today of Very Rev Andreas Loewe outside St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne.
Greens call on government to support UN motion recognising ICJ ruling on illegal Israeli occupation
Just following on from our earlier post on the upcoming UN vote on Palestine, the Greens are calling for the federal government to support the motion recognising the ICJ ruling, being voted on Wednesday at 1am AEST.
Jordon Steele-John, the Greens senator and party spokesperson for peace and foreign affairs, said:
The Australian government must formally recognise at the United Nations the State of Israel’s prolonged and deliberate effort to undermine peace and self determination of the Palestinian people.
This is a chance for Australia to be on the right side of history. To acknowledge and help work towards the resolution of decades of intentional provocation by the State of Israel. This policy has seen in the West Bank and Gaza forced displacements, a spiral of violence and an apartheid system that Palestinians are forced to live under every day.
Amy Remeikis
The fallout from the housing bill kerfuffle will continue and Josh Taylor will guide you through the rest of the evening (as well as covering off some of the other news that is about).
The Canberra team will have updates for you as well. We will be back with day three of the Senate-only week, which is getting a little bit messy (it wouldn’t be the Senate without some mess) and it seems as if everyone would rather not be sitting in a chamber together at this point.
Who would have had double dissolution threat on their Tuesday bingo card?
Until we see what tomorrow brings – take care of you.
National Farmers Federation expresses support for UAE trade deal
But the National Farmers’ Federation’s Tony Maher, is a fan, “commending” Don Farrell for his “leadership”:
The deal will deliver $50 million each year in tariff savings to Australian farmers and food producers and further support trade diversification, improving their profitability and competitiveness.
Australian farmers export more than 70% of what they produce, so gaining new and diverse market access is critical to the sector’s resilience.
This agreement also marks a strategic opening into the Middle East, a growing market of more than 58 million people with a heavy reliance on food imports.
ACTU president says UAE ‘among the worst countries in the world for workers’ rights’ as trade deal looms
Returning to the UAE trade deal Don Farrell announced earlier today (agreed, but not yet signed) the ACTU are not in favour of it.
The ACTU president, Michele O’Neil, said:
Australian Unions support trade expansion when it is both free and fair. The UAE ranks among the worst countries in the world for workers’ rights and would be one of the most repressive countries any Australian government has ever done a bilateral trade agreement with: trade unions, political organisations and political parties are illegal.
We have expressed our opposition to Australia doing a deal with the UAE without strong and enforceable labour rights. The text of the agreement has not been released and we are concerned that the government has announced its intention to sign the agreement without any public scrutiny of the commitments it contains.
The UAE is an absolute monarchy, with a notorious record on human rights, including modern slavery under the kafala system of labour migration.
In the UAE migrant workers in particular are vulnerable to exploitation, for instance, no punishment for sponsors who confiscate workers’ passports and withhold wages, and domestic workers frequently work more than 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with few or no holidays, and are subject to widely documented psychological, physical and sexual abuse.
We do not support the government entering into this trade agreement while labour standards are not enforceable, while workers have no right to join independent trade unions and collectively bargain, and while the fundamental architecture of the kafala system remains in place.
Bandt labels threat of double dissolution ‘astounding’
On the double dissolution threat Anthony Albanese let out today, Adam Bandt says:
I think that is astounding that the prime minister’s first point of call is to start threatening an early election rather than say he will negotiate to get legislation through the Senate.
… Why is he talking about it all? The parliament, the Australian people in the last election elected a record number of Greens and third voices to parliament and part of that is people are increasingly moving away from the old parties because they can see the talker began but don’t actually tackle the crisis.
We are saying in this parliament that we will work with the government but you have to actually take them to the cause of the housing crisis and the government talks about threatening an early election. That strikes me as the prime minister playing politics and being willing to see the bill failed rather than negotiate its passage.
PM would rather see the housing bill fail than negotiate, says Bandt
On why the Greens won’t just vote the legislation down, Adam Bandt said:
We would like to see the parliament take action on the housing and rental crisis. As we speak there are people who are skipping meals to pay the rent. Rents have gone up 31% since Labor came to power. There are people who are under enormous mortgage stress. They need help now and there are things the government can do right now to help.
What we’ve seen from the prime minister today is … sheer arrogance that says it’s my way or the highway. If you rewind and look at what happened with the Housing Australia Future Fund the minister was boasting about, because the Greens pushed for more, there’s an extra $3bn going to build those public and community houses the minister is talking about. It is astounding that the prime minister would rather the bill failed then negotiate, which seems to be his approach.
Greens delayed help-to-buy vote to give Labor more time to negotiate: Adam Bandt
Back to the housing bill mess, Adam Bandt has said his party rejected the government’s attempt to have one of the bills put up to vote because it wants the government to negotiate with them.
Bandt told the ABC:
We want the government to stop bulldozing, trying to get their bills through the Senate and start negotiating to actually fix the housing crisis. Two bills that you referred to, one pushes up the price of houses for 99.8% of renters and the other pushes up rents by giving public money in the form of tax breaks to developers to build expensive apartments that they will build anyway.
We are in the middle of the housing crisis and the government is coming up with Band-Aid answers that make the problem worse and what we need is the prime minister to stop bulldozing, start negotiating so we can tackle the causes of the housing crisis.
There’s only a few months until the election, this is all Labor has on the and what we’re saying like we did with the Housing fund before is in the middle of the housing crisis, you can do much better but you have to drop this my way or the highway.
You may have seen some Andrew Bragg about today on his super for housing plan.
The PBO have published the analysis they did at his request:
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has published the following response to a request for budget analysis provided to Senator Andrew Bragg: Impact of super for housing on commonwealth rent assistance for 35 to 59 age cohort.
It is available on the PBO website at www.pbo.gov.au/publications-and-data/publications/costings/impact-super-housing-commonwealth-rent-assistance-35-59-age-cohort
Daniel Hurst
Australia mulls UN vote on recognising ICJ’s ruling on occupation of Palestinian territories
The Australian government says it has been “clear with Israel” that it must respect the international court of justice’s decisions.
The government has also indicated it has not yet finalised how it will vote on a looming UN general assembly resolution on the matter.
In an advisory opinion in July, the ICJ found that Israel’s continued presence in the territories it has occupied since the 1967 war was “unlawful” and must end “as rapidly as possible”, and that all other countries were “under an obligation not to recognise as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence”.
The Coalition today called on the Albanese government to vote against a proposed UN resolution drafted by the Palestinian Authority, with senator Simon Birmingham calling the wording “one-sided”.
A spokesperson for the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said this afternoon:
The stated purpose of the UN general assembly resolution being discussed is to give effect to an ICJ advisory opinion on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
As you would expect of a responsible government, we are engaging with other countries on the text of the resolution, its implications, including with regards to international law, and whether it appropriately reflects the ICJ advisory opinion.
We all know UN resolutions can be the subject of major revisions right up until they are voted on.
Australia respects the independence of the International Court of Justice and its critical role in upholding international law and the rules-based order.
We have been clear with Israel that it must respect the ICJ’s decisions.
It is understood Wong instructed her department and Australia’s mission to the UN in New York yesterday to ensure they pursued diplomatic efforts to address “concerns” with the draft resolution, including working with likeminded countries. Wong has also contacted some of her counterparts directly.
Migration to help address need for construction workers, O’Neil says
On the issue of migration and apprenticeships, Clare O’Neil says:
Some of the experts that advise government talk about numbers in the order of 90,000 additional construction workers, so there will be debates about exactly how many.
I think we can all agree that we need more tradespeople in our country, so as I mentioned, there has been 500,000 fee-free Tafe places provided by our government since we have been in office. We have invested very heavily in apprenticeships, which is a big issue. We see a lot of young people start apprenticeships [who] don’t go on to finish them so there are those investments happening there.
But as I said, [migration] is going to be part of the mix here and that is something we’re working with the sector on.
O’Neil accuses Greens and Liberals of ‘focus on politics’ at expense of solutions to housing problems
The housing minister, Clare O’Neil, is speaking to the ABC about the housing bills:
Our government is not going to give up on home ownership for working and middle-class Australians, even if the Greens and the Liberals try to stand in our path, and you are seeing us make great progress on housing despite the intense obstruction we face from the Greens in the Liberals and Senate.
You’ve seen our government do that really important work with the states, trying to unlock land and skills so we can build construction numbers.
You seen it in the assistance for renters through national cabinet and in the 120,000 Australians that we have helped into home ownership through the Home Guarantee Scheme, so – I understand the Liberals and the Greens have got to focus on politics. In a sense, I am beyond expecting anything better from either of them.
I would tell you that we are the only party that is actually trying to solve the problems of housing that Australians are facing in their lives.
What I truly and deeply wish is that we have the opportunity to see other people set politics aside and let us get on with what we said we would do, which is help more people into home ownership.
The Greens have moved in the Senate for a further two months to negotiate on help to buy.
So that is the formal move here.
Here is how that vote went down:
They say they have moved to delay the vote in the Senate to “give the government more time to negotiate” with the party on the housing bills.
So what has happened?
The government tried to suspend standing orders to bring help-to-buy to a vote. Every non-government senator, other than Tammy Tyrrell voted no.
So the motion is lost.
That means the government can’t bring on the bill for a vote, which it wanted to do to prove that the Greens and Coalition were voting together to defeat the bill.
