Australia news live: federal watchdog investigating about 40 corruption matters including one that ‘relates to a grants scheme’

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What we learned, Tuesday 4 November

We will be leaving it there, thanks for joining us. Here’s what we covered today:

The Reserve Bank has left the official interest rate on hold at 3.6%, after a surprise jump in inflation.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has confirmed it is investigating a matter which “relates to a grants scheme” relating to a commonwealth official.

The opposition has dumped controversial plans to allow Australian first home buyers to access some of their superannuation savings for a deposit.

Barnaby Joyce claimed credit for the Coalition sitting on the brink of dropping or dramatically altering its net zero emissions pledge, saying he and supporters like Matt Canavan have “just moved the whole agenda to exactly where I want it to be”.

Large streaming services like Netflix will be required to spend 10% of their Australian expenditure on local content like dramas and arts programs, under new content obligations to be introduced by the federal government

The Greens are expected to vote against the EPBC environmental laws in the lower house this week.

The Coalition will oppose Labor’s controversial bill to dramatically curtail freedom of information laws, voicing alarm at new fees to lodge requests and the government’s push to expand cabinet confidentiality rules.

The Senate established two new inquiries into the country’s new aged care system, after the legislative changes came into force this week.

Thirteen people were arrested after hundreds gathered to protest a state government-sponsored defence conference in Sydney, amid criticism that Israel’s largest weapons companies were attending the event.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, defended the state government’s sponsorship of the Indo Pacific Maritime Exposition.

Queensland teachers voted to take strike action in the next three weeks, after knocking back a pay offer from the state government last Friday.

Liberals abandon super for housing policy

The opposition has confirmed it has dumped controversial plans to allow Australian first home buyers to access some of their superannuation savings for a deposit.

Before the May election, the Peter Dutton-led opposition said it would allow first home buyers and older women to access up to $50,000 from their retirement savings to go towards the deposit for their first home. Economists said the plan could push up house prices and do little for people most in need of help getting into the housing market.

On Monday the shadow minister for housing and homelessness, Andrew Bragg, told ABC TV the policy was dead, part of a review of all its election promises.

“We won’t have that policy again,” he said.

I think it’s not necessarily going to solve the problem and I think we need to have more effort on the supply side. There may still be a case for some demand side measures, but I want to reorient … our overall position.”

In Senate question time on Tuesday, the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, called the change in policy “a crab walk away” from the previous policy:

There it went on the floor, on the scrap heap.

Greens express in-principle support for streaming content quotas

The Greens have also responded to the proposed law which would create local content quotas for major streaming platforms.

Sarah Hanson-Young said:

The Greens have long campaigned for local content quotas on streaming platforms to support Australian stories on our screen. Big tech companies like Netflix who make massive profits from Australians should be required to have Australian content.

A country that invests in its community and democracy, invests in its own cultural assets and story tellers.

We will look carefully at the detail of the bill and reserve our position until we know it is strong enough to ensure a strong future for our screen industry, including children’s content.

Australian kids deserve to see themselves reflected on our screens, and not just be fed American rubbish day in day out.

Arts bodies hail streaming content quota announcement as 'vital lifeline' for Australian industry

Industry bodies have responded to the proposed law which could require streaming services with more than a million Australian subscribers to invest at least 10% of their total Australian expenditure on new local programs.

The Screen Producers Australia (SPA) chief executive, Matthew Deaner, said the announcement had come after more than a decade of advocacy, navigating years of challenges, delays, and global complexities:

This announcement marks a landmark day for the Australian screen industry.

For too long, our local production sector has operated in an uneven environment where global streaming services could reap the benefits of doing business in Australia without contributing fairly to the creation of Australian stories.

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), the union representing actors, directors, writers, and crew, described the announcement as a “vital lifeline” for a screen industry that had been left vulnerable by a dramatic downturn in local production. MEAA’s chief executive, Erin Madeley, said the quotas offered “hope and renewed opportunity to thousands of creative professionals whose livelihoods depend on a thriving and sustainable local screen industry”.

The Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG), which had also strongly lobbied for the quotas, said its members worked in a volatile market where streaming platforms wielded enormous power. The AWG president, Peter Mattessi, said the legislation would ensure that those who deliver content will “invest in the importance of Australian storytellers telling Australian stories.”

Greens push for vote on Aukus parliamentary inquiry

The Greens have pushed for a vote for a “full and open” parliamentary inquiry into Aukus at a press conference this afternoon.

Greens senator David Shoebridge said that the inquiry would follow the US and the UK who have had inquiries into Aukus and is a pathway for Australia to move “away from the United States and towards a genuinely independent and foreign policy”.

The Greens also welcomed the government’s announcement of three hours of free solar power a day to households, Shoebridge said, criticising the party as “backwards” for “trying to drag the Liberal party back to the 1950s of coal power”.

The senator went on to call out the Albanese government for lack of transparency about their “first tentative steps” to stop Australian weapons and weapons parts being exported to Israel, which he said is “because they are still too scared to openly stand up to Donald Trump”.

Shoebridge said “it’s great” the Coalition will support the Greens to oppose Labor’s restrictive changes to FoI:

This is a bill with no friends, apart from a prime minister committed to secrecy … We know that the Coalition has its internal troubles, hopefully this is something they can stick together on.

Greens senator moves to force Labor to hand over controversial Nauru interview translation

Over in the Senate, Greens senator David Shoebridge is moving a motion to force the federal government to hand over any and all translations of an interview given by Nauruan president, David Adeang, shortly after Nauru agreed to take people released into the Australian community after the NZYQ high court ruling.

If you need a quick reminder, this happened back in February, and while it was difficult to find a person able to translate Nauruan to English, Guardian Australia was able to report parts of the interview. Apparently, it might have been a task for the federal government too, and a translation cost the department thousands of dollars.

After the Greens and the Coalition teamed up, the motion was passed on Tuesday afternoon but whether any documents will actually be delivered is another matter.

We will find out either way when the deadline is up tomorrow at 5pm.

Labor blocks s MP from speaking in apparent payback for Senate revolt

Labor appears to be beginning its payback on the Coalition opposition over the Senate question time revolt last week, blocking s MP Kevin Hogan from speaking on a daily “matter of public importance” debate and instead moving on with legislation.

Avid blog-watchers would remember last week’s record-breaking Senate question time, after David Pocock led non-government senators in a revolt over government secrecy and transparency. Labor foreshadowed some retribution on the Coalition for helping upend tradition and convention in the Senate. We may have seen the first of it today in the House of Representatives.

Usually after question time in the house, a member can propose the chamber debate a “matter of public importance” – any important topic, not strictly related to legislation, where members can have their say. Hogan, the s MP, proposed the topic for today to be “This Government’s betrayal of regional Australia is hurting family budgets and businesses” (the topics are often politically charged and partisan, with the government often proposing discussing how great their policies are).

But the leader of the house, Labor minister Tony Burke, sprang to his feet when the debate was called on, moving for it to be ignored and regular government business to occur instead. That doesn’t happen very often – but in the house, where Labor has a majority unlike in the Senate, the government won that vote and the MPI was abandoned.

Coalition members could be heard yelling “shame” at Burke after the vote. Burke didn’t give a reason for the lesser-used tactic, but it’s understood that Labor MPs in the house have been keeping a close eye on what’s been happening in the Senate – so this may not be the last procedural back-and-forth we see on this.

Federal corruption watchdog investigating about 40 matters including one that ‘relates to a grants scheme’

The Commission will finalise this investigation after the procedural fairness processes required under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2022 have been undertaken.

Federal ministers considering giving state ministers longer speaking time at upcoming NDIS meeting

The federal NDIS minister, Jenny McAllister, says she and the disability minister, Mark Butler, are “considering” a request from state and territory ministers to be allowed to speak for more than two minutes at an upcoming NDIS meeting.

The country’s disability ministers are due to meet this Friday for the first time since Butler’s surprise announcement (according to some ministers) at the Press Club in August to develop the $2bn Thriving Kids program designed to divert children with mild to moderate developmental delays from the NDIS.

Last Friday, state and territory ministers warned they would boycott the meeting unless they were given 10 minutes to discuss changes to the nearly $50bn program. At the moment, they have two minutes.

McAllister told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:

Yes, we are talking with counterparts and considering their requests and we are interested in what they prioritise. There is a lot on the agenda and it is an important meeting and I hope it goes away in the way it is planned.

Labor to force streaming services to invest in Australian content

Large streaming services like Netflix will be required to spend 10% of their Australian expenditure on local content like dramas and arts programs, under new content obligations to be introduced by the federal government – which fall short of what some in the screen industry had called for.

The arts minister, Tony Burke, and communications minister, Anika Wells, announced on Tuesday afternoon that a new obligation on streaming services with more than a million local subscribers will require them to invest at least 10% of their total expenditure for Australia – or 7.5% of their revenue – on “new local drama, children’s, documentary, arts and educational programs”.

“This will give vital support to our domestic screen sector and arts workers by ensuring quality local stories continue to be produced in Australia,” the ministers said.

But some in the screen industry had called for a 20% local quota. The announcement had been delayed, after the Labor government had earlier promised a quota system by mid-2024.

Burke said:

Since their introduction in Australia, streaming services have created some extraordinary shows. This obligation will ensure that those stories – our stories – continue to be made. These platforms are having no problem getting their content into Australia.

Wells added:

Many streamers are already producing great Australian shows like Apple Cider Vinegar, The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Boy Swallows Universe; this announcement makes sure shows like these continue to be part of our national identity.

Senate inquiries to examine aged care home supports and in-home care

The Senate has established two new inquiries into the country’s new aged care system, after the legislative changes came into force this week.

Pushed by the Greens, the first inquiry will look at the planned transition of the Community Home Support Program (CHSP) into a new scheme. Currently CHSP provides at-home support for more than 800,000 people, through block funding grants to organisations like Meals on Wheels.

A separate inquiry will consider the new Support at Home program for in-home care, including the impacts of new pricing mechanisms and co-payments introduced on 1 November.

Senator Penny Allman-Payne, the Greens’ spokesperson for aged care, said more scrutiny of Labor’s plans were required as more than 200,000 Australians remain on wait lists for care services:

Older people across the country – hundreds of thousands of whom are on fixed incomes – are copping increased costs for their care at home so that privatised aged care providers can make bigger profits. That’s a broken system.

Older Australians are still dying waiting a year or more for care, and rather than boost needed supports like the Community Home Support Program, they’re planning to close them.

The CHSP inquiry will report in April next year, while the inquiry into Support at Home will run until November.