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Senate resumes after Hanson interruption
Josh Butler
The Senate has resumed after more than an hour’s suspension. Pauline Hanson has been suspended from the parliament for the rest of today, after refusing to remove a burqa during a stunt earlier in the afternoon.
“Earlier today, the Senate voted to suspend Senator Hanson for the remainder of the sitting,” the Senate president, Sue Lines, said.
She said she’d met with Hanson, who “understands that message from the Senate chamber”.
The Senate has returned to normal business, but it’s likely more will develop in response to Hanson’s stunt.
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BoM issues severe thunderstorm and flash-flooding warning over parts of Queensland
The Bureau of Meteorology is also warning of wild weather and possible giant thunderstorms in south-east Queensland.
Here is its latest warning:
Very dangerous thunderstorms are likely to produce large, possibly giant hailstones, damaging, locally destructive winds and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding over the next several hours in parts of the Wide Bay and Burnett and Southeast Coast districts. Locations which may be affected include Maroochydore, Gympie, Noosa Heads, Nambour, Rainbow Beach and Cooroy.
Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding over the next several hours in parts of the Wide Bay and Burnett and Southeast Coast districts. Locations which may be affected include Brisbane, Caboolture, and Ipswich.
Indigenous legal services organisation condemns expanded social security bill powers
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services has condemned the government’s controversial social security bill, which gives police the power to recommend the cancellation of welfare payments for people charged with serious crimes.
The services’ chair, Nerita Waight, says the bill will have a “disproportionate and grave impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”:
Access to social security should never be determined through a policing approach.
There is clear evidence that policing in Australia is not experienced equally. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are disproportionately subject to racial profiling and over-policing practices.
This measure effectively introduces policing powers into the social security system. This represents a significant and concerning policy shift that requires full public scrutiny.
WA residents ordered to evacuate as Cyclone Fina bears down
Residents on Western Australia’s north-east coast have been told to take shelter and prepare for the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Fina.
Emergency WA has issued a cyclone emergency warning for Cambridge Gulf to north of Faraway Bay.
There is a threat to lives and homes. You are in danger and need to act immediately.
Emergency WA has told people in this region to shelter indoors as “it is too late to leave”.
Stay in the strongest, safest part of the building. Stay away from doors and windows, and keep them closed.
Keep your emergency kit with you. Do not go out on the water while cyclone warnings are active as vessels can become overpowered and rescues may not be immediately possible due to the dangerous weather.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology’s latest update, the cyclone is still producing sustained winds of up to 195km/h with wind gusts to 270km/h.
Sea World helicopter crash inquest opens
Panicking relatives and explosion risks confronted police after two joy flight helicopters collided mid-air outside a theme park, a coroner has heard.
Four people died when the two Sea World choppers collided above the Gold Coast Broadwater and crashed on a sandbar in January 2023 during the busy summer holiday season.
Almost three years later, coroner Carol Lee on Monday opened an inquest in Brisbane into 11 critical issues surrounding one of Australia’s worst air disasters.
Justin Dunn, a supervisor with the Gold Coast water police, arrived on scene within minutes. He appeared before the inquest:
It was absolute chaos, it really was.
Members of the public performed CPR on a woman and gave first aid to an injured young boy, Lee heard.
As Dunn approached an overturned aircraft, he was given a chilling warning by a concerned bystander:
I felt a hand on my shoulder. He said be careful of pressurised fuel lines. As they could explode.
It was a mangled wreck.
- AAP
Hanson claims burqa stunt relates to national security but fails to produce any evidence
Pauline Hanson claims her bill to ban the burqa was in response to concerns about national security - but when asked repeatedly in a press conference, could not point to a single example where cultural face coverings had been a factor in national security incidents.
Hanson and her One Nation colleagues held a fiery press conference in Parliament House shortly after she was ejected from the Senate for refusing to remove the burqa, in a repeat of a stunt she carried out in 2017. Here’s what she claimed:
It is a national security issue. It is about women’s rights, and a lot of women are forced to wear this garb. I don’t like putting this on.
She went on to cite alleged anecdotal examples of hearing stories of people scared to travel to the “western suburbs of Sydney”.
She denied she was contributing to social discord by repeating her burqa stunt, and said she was upset at not being given leave to introduce her bill to ban the burqa.
But asked for data about how many incidents of national security risk she was aware of relating to face coverings like the burqa, Hanson said: “Can I suggest you call Asio.”
Pressed further for any details, she could not provide any:
I can’t answer you that question.
Widespread condemnation over Hanson’s ‘disgraceful’ burqa stunt repeat
Josh Butler
Senators across the political divide have strongly condemned Pauline Hanson’s latest burqa stunt. Hanson initially walked in and sat in the wrong seat, and had to be quietly guided to the correct side of the chamber by a colleague.
Greens leader Larissa Waters called the burqa stunt an “insult”. Labor Senate leader Penny Wong, who was clearly angry and upset, said senators should not be “disrespectful of the Senate” and said her conduct was “not worthy” of the parliament and politicians.
Wong pointed back to the 2017 version of Hanson’s stunt, noting the bipartisan condemnation at the time.
Liberal Senate leader Anne Ruston said “this is not the way you should be addressing this chamber”, and called for respect for others.
Lidia Thorpe, interjecting loudly numerous times, called for Hanson to be ejected from parliament. Fatima Payman said Hanson was “disrespecting a faith, disrespecting Muslim Australians... this needs to be dealt with immediately before we proceed, it’s disgraceful.”
s on Hanson stunt: ‘most Australians will look away in disgust’
s senator Matt Canavan has dismissed Pauline Hanson’s stunt as a disrespectful and debasement of parliament.
Here’s what he told the ABC a minute ago:
Pauline Hanson needs some new material because as you said she has recycled this from eight years ago.
While this might attract the interest of a small fringe in our society, I just dont think middle Australia like to see our parliament debased like this.
I think this is disrespectful to Muslim Australians as well, I don’t support you ridiculing people who have certain multicultural dress standards. It is not appropriate.
Doing this kind of stunt… it weakens her case, it cheapens our parliament and I think most Australians will look away in disgust.
Pauline Hanson condemned and ejected from Senate after repeating burqa stunt
Josh Butler
The Senate has been suspended and Pauline Hanson has been ejected from the chamber after repeating her widely criticised 2017 stunt of wearing a burqa into the parliament.
Hanson wore the black face covering into the Senate chamber on Monday afternoon. It was seemingly a protest after having been denied leave to introduce a bill to ban the garment in Australia.
It kicked off instant outrage in the chamber, with opposing politicians calling out “old hat” and “been there, done that”. She had undertaken a similar stunt in 2017.
After Hanson refused to remove the face covering, the Senate resolved to ban Hanson from the parliament until she complied. After again refusing, the Senate was suspended temporarily. The chamber still sits suspended.
After the chamber was suspended, Hanson and her fellow One Nation senators were the last to leave. She yelled comments to supporters in the public gallery, claiming she’d been denied her right to introduce her bill.
Bob Brown on Labor environmental law changes: ‘changing the deck chairs on the Titanic’
The co-founder of the Greens, Bob Brown, was just on the ABC criticising the government’s proposed EPBC reforms, which it expects will pass parliament at some stage this week.
Brown says changes proposed by Labor to secure the Greens support don’t go far enough:
They’re not much more than changing the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Look at logging. In Tasmania and New South Wales, the Albanese government could stop that tomorrow.
It’s the biggest cause of extinction of everything from koalas to greater gliders to critically endangered swift parrots and Tasmanian devils. But the industry is being financed and subsidised by Canberra as well as by state governments.
Search for missing four-year-old in South Australia to resume
South Australian police will resume a search for missing four-year-old Gus Lamont on Tuesday with a focus on six mine shafts close to where he was last seen.
A police spokesperson said officers would use specialist equipment to search the mine sharts that are located between 5.5km and 12km from the Oak Park homestead.
The mines have not been searched and were previously unknown to police.
The state’s deputy police commissioner, Linda Williams, said this part of the search could last for three days:
We are determined to explore every avenue in an effort to locate Gus Lamont and provide some closure for his family
These searches will either locate evidence or eliminate these locations from further investigation by the task force.’
The blond, curly haired Gus – described by a family member as shy but adventurous – went missing from his family’s outback sheep station more than two weeks ago.
At 5pm on Saturday 27 September, Gus’s grandmother last saw him playing on a mound of dirt at the homestead, which is near Yunta, about 300km from Adelaide.
Malaysia to introduce under-16s social media ban
Malaysia has announced it will follow the Australian government’s lead with plans to ban people younger than 16 from accessing social media.
The country’s communications minister, Fahmi Fadzil, said the government was reviewing mechanisms used to impose age restrictions for social media use in Australia, citing a need to protect youths from online harms such as cyberbullying, financial scams, and child sexual abuse:
We hope by next year that social media platforms will comply with the government’s decision to bar those under the age of 16 from opening user accounts.
Malaysia has put social media companies under greater scrutiny in recent years in response to what it claims to be a rise in harmful content, including online gambling and posts related to race, religion and royalty.
Platforms and messaging services with more than 8 million users in Malaysia are now required to obtain a license under a new regulation that came into effect in January.
Australia’s social media ban will begin on 10 December.
– with Reuters
Krishani Dhanji
Thank you all for following along on the blog with me today, I will see you here bright and early tomorrow!
I’ll leave you with the brilliant Henry Belot for the rest of the afternoon.
Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time
The opposition kept their questions energy-focused, trying to hammer the energy minister, Chris Bowen, and get the government to say electricity bills will drop.
“Part time minister, full time president” was the Liberal party’s phrase of the day – I counted six mentions of it across the hour.
The government tried to push back against the COP criticism and exploit the Coalition’s divisions (Brutus one and Brutus two, said Richard Marles – likely referring to potential Liberal challengers Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie).
The crossbench got stuck into the government over its refusal to so far ban online gambling advertising and respond to late Labor MP Peta Murphy’s landmark report on reducing gambling harm.
Greens say Labor's proposed environmental law changes 'welcome' but 'still not good enough to protect nature'
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The Greens say Labor’s nature laws are “still not good enough to protect the planet” and are demanding further changes in exchange for agreeing to pass them in parliament’s final sitting week of 2025.
The government has so far dangled two amendments in front of the Greens to woo the party to support the EPBC revamp: a promise to exclude coal and gas projects from a special “national exemption” exemption and a commitment to subject native forest logging to national environment standards within three years.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, said the proposed changes were “welcome” but not enough to win her backing.
Whilst we welcome those offers, the bill’s still not good enough to protect the planet. It’s still not good enough to protect nature, and it still fast tracks coal and gas.
The Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, said a three-year timeframe to apply new standards to native forest logging was “far too long”.
Three years to let the loggers get in there and trash our native forest is three years too long. I said that clearly to the government. I said it yesterday. I’ve repeated it again today. Three years is too long.
Hanson-Young dismissed environment minister Murray Watt’s insistence that the bill pass this week, noting that deadline was entirely self-imposed.
The Coalition is also refusing to support the legislation without major changes, leaving Labor without a clear path to get it through the Senate.
If we can’t get this bill fixed this week, and I’m going to do everything I can to help do that, but if the government won’t come to the party and fix it this week, then I put it to the minister, let’s work over summer. Let’s roll up our sleeves.
Question time ends
With a final dixer to the health minister, Mark Butler, the first question time for the week ends.
Labor does not confirm if government will respond to Murphy report recommending gambling ad ban
For something a little bit different now, the Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown is asking a question to the chair of the standing committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, which is Louise Miller-Frost, whether the committee will force the government to take action on the gambling report tabled by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy (who was the previous chair of this committee).
Milton Dick tells Watson-Brown that questions to a committee chair have to go to specific details, so she puts her question to the communications minister, Anika Wells:
It has now been almost 2 and a half years since the Murphy report recommended banning gambling advertising and in that time Australians have lost well over $60bn. Why are you putting the interests of Sportsbet ahead of the interests of Sportsbet ahead of the interests of ordinary Australians?
Wells says she has not met with any gambling companies but has “had meetings with harm reduction advocates, broadcasters and sporting codes as we seek to further minimise harms of gambling”.
She doesn’t say if or when the government will respond to the Murphy review.
