Australia politics live: PM says opposition ‘pining for time which has never existed’; Ben Roberts-Smith not attending war memorial event due to illness

NSW budget a ‘lost opportunity for housing supply’

Turning to the NSW state budget budget, there’s been reaction rolling in after it was handed down by the treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, this afternoon.

Property industry lobby group Urban Taskforce Australia, says the budget, which has forecast $8bn less in projected stamp duty and land tax revenue over four years but contains nothing like last year’s $1bn pre-sale finance guarantee for help developers secure loans, was a “lost opportunity for housing development”. It said:

We can only hope that the NSW government is keeping its powder dry for pre-election announcements, because this budget has very little by way of new support for new housing supply..

Committee for Sydney CEO, Eamon Waterford, who has praised cost of living measures and commitments to health and schooling, described this year’s offering as “a fairness budget but without a growth story”, saying it had done nothing to address the stagnation of household income.

But others have praised other landmark commitments, including $184 million in additional funding for frontline family and domestic violence services. The Australian Services Union, which represents domestic violence workers, said the “budget boost for workers on the frontline of the state’s domestic violence crisis will make a difference”.

Sydney’s record-breaking run of June days above 20C has finally ended

Sydney’s record-breaking run of consecutive June days above 20C has finally ended, easily breaking the previous mark of nine days that had stood since 1919.

Sunday marked the 15th day in a row where temperatures had gone above 20C but, on Monday, the mercury only hit 19.3C, the Bureau of Meteorology’s official Sydney record shows.

Temperature measurements have been taken at Sydney’s Observatory Hill since 1859. The average daily maximum over that span of 167 years is 17C.

What caused the run? The bureau has said slow moving high pressure systems over New South Wales had kept the usual winter cold fronts at bay.

When we first reported on the record last Tuesday, one Sydney-based climate scientist said something else was likely contributing to the record. Any guesses?

Read more here:

Thank you all so much for joining me on the blog today, can’t say it wasn’t a huge day in politics!

I’ll leave you now with the excellent Adeshola Ore, and see you bright and early here tomorrow.

• It was certainly a livelier question time today, with the speaker, at one point, threatening to “name” (ie temporarily suspend) Angus Taylor after the opposition leader accused the prime minister of lying.

• The Coalition tried to corner the government over its deal with the Greens, questioning whether Labor would capitulate to any of the minor party’s other demands. The government refused to play the rule-in, rule-out game.

• Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese meanwhile had a huge crack at Angus Taylor over his comments on monoculturalism, and refusing to back multiculturalism, during a press conference before QT. The whole debacle came after Pauline Hanson said Australia should be “monocultural” in her National Press Club address last week.

• Four MPs – three Coalition and one Labor – were booted from the chamber for interjecting too much.

• The independent MP Monique Ryan grilled the government over its controversial aged care integrated assessment tool.

Alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith will no longer attend the opening of the revamped Australian War Memorial tonight due to an illness, a court has heard.

The former SAS soldier last week successfully varied two of his bail conditions so he could attend the ceremony at the Anzac Hall galleries after he was invited as a Victoria Cross recipient.

His barrister, Slade Howell, told Downing Centre local court today that Roberts-Smith would no longer be attending after he “fell ill”.

“As a result has not travelled to Canberra to attend the official opening at the war memorial,” Howell told the court.

Further arguments to vary his bail were expected before the court today after Roberts-Smith also applied to move his home address in south-east Queensland, in part because he wanted to be closer to family.

Last Tuesday, prosecutor Simon Buchen SC urged the court to force the 47-year-old to still attend a police station in NSW as part of his bail condition to report to police three times a week. Buchen said that only an officer of the NSW police force had the power to enforce the bail conditions imposed.

However, on Tuesday, the court heard that a compromise had been made with prosecutors and Roberts-Smith would report to a NSW police station once a week and a Queensland police station twice a week.

Howell told the court the variation to change Roberts-Smith’s address with the court was withdrawn and would go before the court again once an address had been identified.

Judge Susan Horan said the compromise was “sensible” and permitted Roberts-Smith to live in Queensland subject to an address being provided to the court.

Roberts-Smith, 47, was arrested in April and charged with murdering or ordering the murders of five unarmed detainees while deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

In a statement in April, Roberts-Smith said he categorically denied all allegations against him and that he had “always acted within my values, within my training and within the rules of engagement”.

Question time ends

After a final dixer to the education minister, Jason Clare, the PM ends question time. We’re halfway through the sitting week!

Independent pushes Labor over aged care integrated assessment tool

At the end of the previous dixer, Liberal MP Henry Pike also gets yeeted out of the chamber – the 94a casualty list is sizeable today.

Back to the crossbench, independent MP Monique Ryan asks why a man in her electorate, Graham Crossan, an 80-year-old with motor neuron disease who is ventilator-dependent and needs 24–hour care has not qualified for the highest level of support under the government’s integrated assessment tool. She asks how the government can justify the tool that has been controversial to say the least.

The aged care minister, Sam Rae, says he won’t go into specific details of Crossan’s case out of respect for his family’s privacy.

Rae says:

Because of the speed at which the condition of people with MND can change, the government has amended the aged care rules to recognise MND as a discrete, specific condition warranting urgent priority under our aged care system and specifically under support at home.

That change occurred following representations from independent MP Rebekha Sharkie during question time earlier this year.

Angus Taylor is back at the despatch box and asks Anthony Albanese, “When will you stop lying?”

Milton Dick is livid and threatens to “name” Taylor for the question which would result in a suspension from the house for 24 hours.

Dick has been on a bit of a war path over the use of “liar” as a descriptor in questions and answers, ie trying to call the prime minister a liar or accusing him of lying.

It’s a tense moment in the chamber with Taylor and Dick going back and forth over the language, and Dick telling the opposition leader to respect the traditions of the House.

Dick says:

You’re not gonna be able to rephrase or withdraw. I’ve made it crystal–clear, yesterday and this time before. You are demeaning the dignity of this house. For 125 years, those sorts of descriptives have not been used. Traditions and conventions are important in this House of Representatives.

Out of respect for the leader of the opposition, he’s not being named. But if this continues, I will be left with no other choice.

Dick skips the entire question from the opposition.

New One Nation MP asks about water security

One Nation MP David Farley from Farrer just asked a relatively practical question about Australia’s irrigated water capacity, asking if it’s “strong enough to secure Australia’s food supply” for both humans and stock operations in the event of the next prolonged drought.

The question was directed to the minister for emergency management, Kristy McBain, but she passed the baton to Tony Burke.

Burke pointed to the Murray–Darling Basin plan, saying Farley would be “more aware than most people in the chamber” that different regions had different water security concerns.

For example, in the southern areas of his electorate, there are areas which have very low water security. Whereas the licences in a place like Griffith on the Murrumbidgee tend to have very high water security.

PM grilled by Nationals MP on ‘Greens’ demand’ on tax

There’s lots of ruling in and ruling out questions from the Coalition today, but there’s no ruling in or ruling out answers from Labor.

Nationals MP Jamie Chaffey is next and asks Anthony Albanese if he will rule out “agreeing to the Greens’ demand to impose a tax on the family home?”

This time Albanese goes straight to the attack lines against Taylor’s answers on monoculturalism (how many times can I write monocultural in one day?).

The PM says:

I suspect that there might have been a change of mind from those opposite. Because earlier on, when the leader of the opposition gave a press conference and was asked at least six occasions about monoculturalism and whether he supported it or not, he was saying that he was opposed and they were going to reverse the legislation that’s before the Senate.

But what they’ve done is come into question time and they don’t seem to oppose anything that is going through the Senate, because what they’re doing is talking about everything but.

Chaffey tries to make a point of order on relevance because Albanese isn’t ruling in or ruling out a tax on the family home.

The speaker, Milton Dick, says the PM doesn’t have to give a yes or no answer.

Albanese spends the remainder of his time spruiking Labor’s housing policies.

It feels like every answer from the government today is going to include a swipe at the opposition leader over his language on monoculturalism.

Nationals MP Sam Birrell asks the prime minister if he will rule out agreeing to the Greens demand to abolish the diesel fuel rebate, after his “dangerous deal” with the minor party on the tax changes.

Anthony Albanese repeats previous lines, saying that he finds it strange the opposition say the legislation “is so terrible that they had to rule out any support for it before they’d even seen it”.

Albanese then points to Taylor and calls him the “chief yapper”.

My job isn’t to give advice to this bloke, but my advice is how about you stand up to One Nation on something? How about you prepare to follow this bloke’s leadership and not bend the knee when asked questions like, “Do you support monoculturalism for Australia?” Not a complex question, because we’ve never been a monoculture …

This is pining for a time that has never existed in this country.

At the end of the answer, Liberal frontbencher Tony Pasin gets the boot from the speaker for interjecting too many times.

‘One Nation tail wagging the Liberal and National party dog,’ says Albanese

The claws are well and truly out today; the government is not holding back on its attacks against the Coalition and Angus Taylor’s comments (or lack thereof) on multiculturalism.

Now before Liberal MP Melissa McIntosh can even start her question, Alison Penfold, the Nationals MP for Lyne, gets kicked out for interjecting too much.

McIntosh is asking a question now about Labor’s deal with the Greens, asking if the prime minister will rule out a demand from the party to “remove grandfathering on negative gearing”.

Albanese responds with criticism for the Coalition, pointing to the Liberal party’s pledges to repeal any tax changes should they be elected to leadership. The prime minister said:

What they chose to do was do what they consistently do, which was to just say no before they’ve seen any detail, before they’ve seen the legislation. And then now they’ve promised to repeal it.

He then goes hard on Taylor:

Unlike this leader of the opposition, who allows the One Nation tail to wag the Liberal and National party dog, what we do is we stand up for our values, and our values is to make sure, make sure that grandfathering is there in negative gearing and in the changes that we’ve made.

Over to the crossbench, Bob Katter asks the treasurer about the number of international students in Australia and asks how the government will handle “the financial situation arising from these appalling numbers?”

Jim Chalmers says migration numbers have dropped 45% from their peak in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic restrictions.

Then he turns his attention to the Coalition – and Angus Taylor’s attempt to “out-One Nation, One Nation” by failing to back multiculturalism in his press conference just before QT.

Taylor’s copping a bunch of flack for the answers (he was pushed by reporters more than four times but kept trying to dodge questions). Chalmers says:

If you have a look at the quite ridiculous answer, for example, that the leader of the opposition gave to a very simple question about the monoculture today, you can see that what’s going on over there.

One of the reasons why the Liberal party is dying in his arms, Mr Speaker, is because his efforts to out–One Nation One Nation are becoming increasingly pathetic.

The opposition tries to make a point of order on relevance, but because Katter is Katter, he naturally asked a question with a lot of preamble so Milton Dick says: “If you asked a question with a lot in it, you’ll get an answer with a lot.”

Chalmers then continues to stick the knife in.

This side of the house recognises in Australian values, the vast and important contribution made by multicultural Australia, Mr Speaker. Not for this side of the House, this rubbish, playing footsie with the monoculture language, being pushed around by the One Nation party.