Australia politics live: NSW weighs bail reforms for violent offenders; Malinauskas calls for restrictions on child access to social media

For those who missed it (how I envy you) here is an example of the weekly ‘debate’ between Tanya Plibersek and Barnaby Joyce.

Just before this, the pair had spent a good minute talking over each other about the budget, with Joyce focused on government debt (which is forecast to be lower under Labor than under the Coalition at the same time) and then moves on to Plibersek saying:

And the other thing, of course, is on Thursday, Peter Dutton will have close to an hour to lay out his alternative economic policy. So will he spend more; will he cut more; where are the nuclear reactors going to go and how much are they going to cost?

Joyce: Well, hang on.

Plibersek: He’s going to have close to an hour to talk to the nation. ‑‑

Joyce:

Why are you talking about us, you’re the Government. Talk about yourself. Why are you talking ‑‑

Plibersek: No, no, I’m just saying we’re a year out from an election, Barnaby ‑‑

Joyce: Why are you talking about us? You’re the Government. You’re going to be in budget tomorrow night, Tanya.

Plibersek: We don’t know anything about what Peter Dutton is planning. ‑‑

Joyce:

Talk about Jim’s great budget.

“Community-led groups representing First Nations people, welfare recipients, renters, criminalised people, students and young people” have come together ahead of time to announce a budget score card to rate the government spending on some of the most marginalised people in Australian society.

The Antipoverty Centre, Anti-Poverty Network South Australia, Anti-Poverty Network Qld, Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union, Better Renting, Black People’s Union, National Network of Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Women & Girls, National Union of Students, Renters & Housing Union, Sisters Inside, Sweltering Cities and Tomorrow Movement have joined together for the initiative, which will see how much the government has done in key areas to address poverty – the top being, raising the rate of Jobseeker above the Henderson poverty line (which is $88 a day).

The results will be released on Wednesday, as part of the budget reaction.

South Australia has asked former chief justice Robert French to look into what governments would need to do. Peter Malinauskas says:

As governments, we regularly intervene in regulating products and services where we determine that it’s doing children harm. I just don’t see social media being any different.

It’s not about being a troglodyte or anything, but for children under the age of 14, they’re not getting access to these platforms where it’s doing their harm.

And for 14- and 15-year-olds, it should be with parental consent. I think that’s within our capability of a government with the full powers empowered to us. But there’s a way for it to be implemented, and we’ve engaged a former judge of the High Court, no less.

The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, wants to bring more controls around kids under 14 having access to social media apps like Instagram and TikTok.

Malinauskas says political leaders need to act, even though it wouldn’t be easy.

He told the ABC:

If a 13-year-old wakes up this morning in Australia and decides they’re going to download a sports-betting account and try to set up their own account, they won’t be able to do it. Now, we’ve been able to achieve it for sports betting or online bookmakers. I think we should be able to achieve it with social media platforms.

Now, look, I don’t want to be naive about the fact that, you know, there are going to be difficulties associated with this. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to do something about it. And I think we’re past the time now where we can just sit on our hands and cross our fingers that the altruism of big, massive tech giants is going to see us through here.

I just don’t believe that’s the case.

I think that governments have a responsibility to regulate in this area, notwithstanding the difficulties. We’ve got to start working our way through the issues.

The NSW government is taking bail reforms aimed at bolstering protections for victims of domestic violence to cabinet, with legislation to be tabled in parliament this week, AAP reports.

The premier, Chris Minns, says the legislation will make it more difficult for the most violent offenders to receive bail. He told Sydney radio 2GB:

We’re particularly focusing on high risk offenders that are facing serious charges in the court whether they’ve got a criminal history or not, who pose an ongoing risk to their former intimate partner.

We’re particularly looking at that question around bail or remand.

The death last month of Forbes woman Molly Ticehurst, allegedly at the hands of a former partner who was already on bail on charges of raping, stalking and intimidating her, has spurred calls for urgent legal changes.

A woman has been killed every four days in Australia in the year to date, sparking mass rallies and calls for political action at all levels of government.

Man dies in Parramatta River

A man has died after being pulled from the Parramatta River, New South Wales police say.

Police media says that emergency services were called to a bridge on Church Street in Parramatta about 7.10pm after reports a man had fallen into the river.

Police pulled the man from the river and started CPR before paramedics arrived, however the man died at the scene.

A report is being prepared for the coroner.

More details on government’s plan to cap international student numbers

The government has released a little more information on its plan to cap international students in a bid to ease housing shortages and clamp down on sub-standard education providers and agents. It will introduce legislation next week which will:

• Prevent education providers from owning education agent businesses.

• Pause applications for registration from new international education providers and of new courses from existing providers for periods of up to 12 months.

• Require new providers seeking registration to demonstrate a track record of quality education delivery to domestic students before they are allowed to recruit international students.

• Cancel dormant provider registrations to prevent them being used as a market entry tool by unscrupulous actors.

• Prevent providers under serious regulatory investigation from recruiting new international students.

• Improve the sharing of data relating to education agents.

In addition, the government will prohibit agent commissions on student transfers between providers in Australia to remove incentives for unscrupulous agents and providers to “poach” students

Coalition energy plan to be released ‘at a time of the Coalition’s chossing’

The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, is now speaking to ABC RN Breakfast, where she is attempting to sell the Coalition’s nuclear plan, while also saying there shouldn’t be subsidies for the energy sector, while supporting the gas strategy, while painting the government as being in chaos.

It’s quite the dance.

On nuclear:

[The Coalition will announce its] energy policy not at the time of the media’s choosing or at a time of the government’s choosing but a time of the Coalition’s choosing.

But it will be very clear in advance of the next election the way we want to go about opening up a new energy source for Australia. That will deliver emissions free energy and lower energy prices by increasing the mix of types of energy over the long term.

(Peter Dutton had indicated that the nuclear plan would be announced before the budget, but that is obviously not happening. The new foreshadowing is sometime in June or July, so hold on to your hat.)

‘Obviously, we need a strong and viable university system’

Given the government is going to force universities to cap the number of international students they accept, as part of the bid to curb migration, will the government be giving universities some additional funding to help make up for the loss in revenue?

Katy Gallagher doesn’t say yes, but she doesn’t say no:

The budget will have a focus on universities and you’ve seen some of those announcements.

Obviously, we need a strong and viable university system.

Government ministers are meeting with representatives from the higher education sector this morning, where that issue will be the main topic of conversation.

Gallagher: more details of Future Made in Australia plan in budget

Katy Gallagher is asked about the Future Made in Australia plan, which is the renewables/manufacturing roadmap the government announced last month but for which there is not a lot of detail available.

Gallagher says your questions will be answered in the budget:

You’ll see, the you know, the whole picture of that tomorrow.

We can have a discussion then – but it’s not about the government picking winners.

That last comment is in reference to criticism that the plan is new age protectionism with the government to pick winners and losers in the energy space. The government has been pushing back against that criticism, but if you read between the lines, there does seem to be some winners and losers.

Gallagher on budget: ‘It’s not just the quantum of the spend – it’s the quality’

Katy Gallagher is continuing her defence of the budget not including any raise for people on jobseeker and associated payments.

She tells Fran Kelly on ABC radio RN Breakfast:

It’s a combination of measures really that go to to putting the final budget together … it’s not just the quantum of the spend – it’s the composition, it’s the timing, it’s the quality of the spend.

It’s dealing with some of those issues that are, you know, big challenges that we’ve inherited after 10 years of no decisions.

So housing, housing supply, the energy transformation, these are all things that government is responding to, but we’re responding to it in a measured way through each budget.

Without free-to-air TV ‘we don’t have a democracy’: Joyce

Over on Channel Seven, Tanya Plibersek and Barnaby Joyce held their weekly “debate” on the political issues that the Seven producers deemed the most consumable.

Among those this morning were free-to-air sport.

Here is a bit of a primer on the issue in case you are just catching up:

Joyce found a way to blame the voice for the lack of legislation:

If the Labor party had spent more time on this rather than the voice, you might have this legislation through.

We still don’t have legislation on something they talked about three years ago and it hasn’t happened.

If we don’t have a free-to-air state we don’t have a democracy.

I hate to say it – ABC, Channel Seven, News Corp, Channel Nine – they do the investigative journalism so people like myself and Tanya, you can keep an eye on us.

Joyce then got to the issue of sport, in a very Joyce way:

There is no journalist in your local town or suburb from Netflix or Stan or Binge, and if you journalists to dig into how the nation works you have to make sure enterprises like that make money and if they don’t have free-to-air sport, they won’t make money.

It is important we can watch the AFL or NRL grand final.

I think the government is doing the right thing in the budget, but I don’t know, because there are no journalists around anymore.

Brisbane airport baggage chaos

If you are headed to Brisbane airport this morning, you might want to factor in a bit more time than usual – there have been issues with the baggage check in system, which has created a bit of chaos.

It appears to have been an issue with the conveyor belts, which stopped passengers from being able to check their bags in this morning. It appears to have been addressed, but still – maybe build in a little more time this morning if you have some bags.

Labor looking at migration reform to address ‘big increases when we see them’, Gallagher says

Katy Gallagher was also asked about the increase in the number of international students, as the government is attempting to put some brakes on the sector.

The finance minister says:

We have been trying to make sure that we’re putting in place reforms to the migration system to make sure that we’re dealing with some of these big increases when we see them, but also putting integrity at the heart of the migration system and working with the universities.

This is something that the universities want to work with the government on. There’ll be further discussions this morning about that but I think it is right that the government in conjunction with the universities should consider and should have a say about, you know, all of the people coming to Australia and the conditions that they arrive as students and I think that’s part of a responsible and mature discussion for the government to have.

Katy Gallagher asked about housing and jobseeker

Finance minister Katy Gallagher spoke to ABC News Breakfast a little earlier this morning, where she was asked why the government isn’t doing anything to increase the base jobseeker rate, given the evidence it can help women escaping violence. Gallagher was also asked about the cost of housing, given how much that is a barrier to people trying to leave violent relationships as well. She said:

We do look at payments every budget and, you know, you’ll see the culmination of those decisions in the budget when it’s handed down on Tuesday. Those payments are indexed, of course, to make sure that they are keeping up with some of the increases in costs.

You will see that on the weekend with our announcement on housing, we are absolutely focused on making sure that we’re working with the states and territories to increase options, particularly for women and women with children who are leaving domestic violence situations.

Gallagher said it was a work in progress:

We have been talking about that in the last fortnight or so, but really it’s work that’s been before us for a long time and we’ll continue to do that.

Good morning and welcome to the 133rd day of the year.

It’s also the Monday before the budget is handed down, which is a strange time in the political calendar. The budget has been printed and is set in stone, but we don’t know what is in it. So it’s a day of rule in, rule out, otherwise known as the “treasurer’s 20 questions”.

This budget has been pretty well telegraphed by the government – no rise to jobseeker, but some increases to other payments like the energy supplement, wage increases for early education childcare workers, stage-three tax changes, and a renewables spend that the government hopes will offset anger over its gas strategy. Oh, and inflation remains the big focus (of course) so don’t expect any direct money in your pocket.

Jim Chalmers foreshadowed some good news in TV interviews on Sunday, indicating that the budget would show inflation falling faster than the Reserve Bank has suggested. The government later released figures indicating it could be back below 3% by the end of this year – a year earlier than the RBA has forecast.

At the same time, the economy is slowing – December’s mid-year forecast of 2.25% real GDP growth for 2024-25 has been downgraded to 2%, and from 2.5% to 2.25% the year after.

Still, we won’t know until we know, so today has more than a bit of a Schrodinger’s cat about it.

We’ll cover that all off for you as we mix politics and general news to keep you all across what you need to know.

In non-political news, Chris Dawson, who in 2022 was convicted of the murder of his wife in 1982, will be back in court as he asks for his conviction to be overturned.

Dawson has alleged he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

We will bring you all the news as it happens – you have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day, and my second coffee is brewing.

Ready?

Let’s get into it.