Minister defends watered-down bill – as it happened | Australia news

Here is a wrap of the day’s politics news, in case you missed a bit:

Thats all for today. See you back on the blog tomorrow.

New South Wales police have admitted that when they attend mental health incidents they are often “an escalating factor” and it would be better if experts were deployed instead.

An internal review conducted by NSW police has called for better resourcing so officers are only involved if a crime has occurred or a person is at immediate risk of serious harm.

A summary of the review, released today, said officers would be “unlikely” to be able to properly respond to mental health incidents even if they received significantly more training.

Read the full story from Tamsin Rose and Catie McLeod here:

Miles makes voter pitch as parliament wraps before poll

The countdown to the Queensland election has begun, with the premier, Steven Miles, making his final parliamentary pitch to voters.

Behind in the polls, the premier warned Queenslanders “the stakes are high” at the 26 October election as the Liberal National party threatens to end Labor’s nine-year reign.

Miles claimed Labor was “turning a corner” in the biggest challenges facing Queenslanders – youth crime, health, cost of living and housing.

He believes Queensland would be heading toward the great unknown if LNP leader David Crisafulli was elected as premier.

Miles appeared to be making his last stand in heated scenes as Queensland’s 57th parliament sat for the final time on Thursday, offering voters a choice. He told parliament:

Queenslanders know me. They know that I will do what matters, and I will always listen and deliver – the alternative is void of any plans at all.

So in 45 days, that’s the choice, a choice between my clear and detailed vision and the unknown.

Let’s get locked in now. It’s time to hit the road. Our plan is hot to go.

Miles has been premier for nine months, since Annastacia Palaszczuk’s tearful resignation in December.

– Australian Associated Press

Australia could be global launch pad for green flights

Australia has the potential to be a global green aviation superpower if airlines, manufacturers and governments made major policy changes in the next 12 months, a conference has heard.

But Airbus Australia chief representative Stephen Forshaw warned delays or a failure to act could make the federal government’s plans for a future made in Australia look “more like a future made in Singapore”.

The predictions were made at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit in Brisbane today, which attracted more than 450 representatives from the travel industry.

Forshaw told attenders Australia had a host of advantages for producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), including ready access to the agricultural waste needed to create it. But despite efforts to investigate its production, Australia had yet to launch a refinery:

We have the feedstock in Australia to be a SAF superpower but if we don’t make decisions in the next 12 months and get those decisions flowing into the investments required to build production facilities, a future made in Australia policy will actually look more like a future made in Singapore.

We really are in a global race for decarbonisation and Australia needs to step up and play a leadership role.

– Australian Associated Press

Matthew Newbould had spotted the Garry the gorilla statue at the retirement village in Melbourne’s north-east while buying a chest of drawers with a friend. He then grabbed the statue and loaded it on to a ute hired from Bunnings, the court heard.

An onlooker called police after spotting Garry perched in the vehicle’s tray.

Victoria police’s Airwing helped locate the 1.5m statue in a back yard.

Newbould was arrested on 5 July and a search of his phone revealed text messages to friends, including one that said:

LOL I stole a gorilla, so what?

Magistrate Michael Wighton considered Newbould’s mental health issues and substance abuse struggles in his decision, and opted not to extend the offender’s driving ban, which had almost three years remaining. The magistrate said:

If you breach the order through further offending or through not complying with the order, then you can be returned to court and re-sentenced.

In early July, police returned Garry the gorilla to the Leith Park retirement village where he has lived peacefully ever since.

– Australian Associated Press

Retirement village gorilla thief gets community service

In a slight shift away from the serious business of politics – a gorilla named Garry (a statue, not real) was stolen from a retirement village, and its captor has been charged with community service. Here is the story, courtesy of Australian Associated Press:

Matthew Newbould last month pleaded guilty to stealing a 20kg garden ornament (Garry the gorilla) from a retirement village at St Helena in Melbourne’s north-east on 6 June.

He was also disqualified from driving at the time after losing his licence in July 2023.

Magistrate Michael Wighton convicted Newbould for theft and driving disqualified, sentencing him to 100 hours of unpaid community work over 12 months.

Wighton noted Newbould had already served jail time over more serious charges, and had previously breached a court order. He said:

You’re still getting yourself into trouble for pretty silly things.

I mean, really, really stupid decision making, like stealing things like the gorilla, land you in pretty serious trouble.

(More to come on the abduction of Garry the gorilla in the next post – keep an eye out.)

Rafqa Touma

Thank you to Amy Remeikis for taking us through another packed day on the Australian politics live blog.

I’ll update you with any news that rolls in this evening – stay tuned.

Amy Remeikis

The parliament still has a little to go, but I will hand you over to Rafqa Touma who will guide you through the evening. It is general news blog tomorrow, given that the parliament will rise, but Politics Live will be back with you on Monday for the Senate-only week.

Can’t. Wait.

Until then, please – take care of you.

Dreyfus details anti-doxing laws

On the proposed doxing legislation, Mark Dreyfus tells the ABC:

There are serious criminal offences created here for the malicious release of personal and private data, [the] online release [of data].

[The penalty] will be six years and where it is directed at someone’s personal characteristics, their religious or race or some other attribute, there will be more serious and carry a penalty of seven years.

It is important we set standards here. Most people would have heard that very often it is directed at women, as part of family and domestic violence and causes tremendous suffering in many cases.

We have other examples of doxing directed at other particular groups and we are determined to get rid of this practice … one way to do that is to criminalise conduct.

The prime minister and I said earlier … we will be bringing a law to parliament to criminalise doxing and that is a lot I have introduced into the parliament today. Another part of the privacy bill gives a legal basis for compensation if someone suffers a serious invasion of privacy.

Cash says Coalition will consider Labor’s proposed laws but has concerns about enforcement

The shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, has also responded to the government’s hate speech bill, telling our Paul Karp:

The bill has been changed significantly from Labor’s original version, which was heavily criticised. For months now, the Coalition has called for our laws to properly deal with the abhorrent rise in antisemitic attacks that we have seen since October 7.

We have asked why existing offences weren’t being used, and whether they should be reviewed. So we will look at these laws carefully.

But the question isn’t just about the words on paper. It’s about how the government will police and enforce these laws.

What is the government doing on the ground? Are we going to see action to help the Jewish community feel safe? Or are we going to see more distraction and false equivalence?

Mark Dreyfus has addressed some of the criticism on the ABC:

We’re legislating as we promised to prevent and criminalise the urging of violence, hate speech and chants. It is a very important step forward. It will go to the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee and no doubt there will be further submissions because this is a contentious area but we are keeping to the commitment the prime minister made earlier this year, to bring forward legislation to criminalise hate speech.

We have got to draw lines here and set standards, we have to resolutely say to everyone that there is no place in our society for hate speech, no place for urging force or violence, particularly when there are more serious penalties for this, particularly when it is directed at someone’s race, religion or who they [love].

Paul Karp

LGBTQ+ and Jewish groups disappointed in Labor abandoning plans to outlaw vilification

LGBTQ+ and Jewish groups have expressed disappointment at Labor’s decision to abandon its plan to outlaw vilification, warning hate speech will not be prohibited under new laws.

On Thursday the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, introduced the Albanese government’s hate crimes bill, which he said “responds to the increasing prevalence of hate speech and hateful conduct in our society”.

“This conduct cannot, and will not, be tolerated,” he said.

The bill expands the existing offence of urging violence and establishes new offences of threatening to use force or violence against groups or individual members of a group. These offences would now protect people on the basis of their race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality, national or ethnic origin or political opinion.

However, despite promising a bill to criminalise vilification and hate speech more generally, the government opted to not criminalise conduct such as inciting hatred, serious contempt, revulsion or severe ridicule.

Josh Taylor has taken a look at the doxing laws Mark Dreyfus introduced to the parliament earlier today:

Lisa Cox

What’s at stake in the environmental laws fight?

Much has been written in recent weeks and months about what the mining industry, particularly in Western Australia, has to say about potential reforms to Australia’s nature laws.

It is worth a reminder that the very reason any reform is being proposed is that a statutory review in 2020 – that occurred under the previous Coalition government with a chair it selected – found successive governments had completely failed to protect Australia’s unique wildlife and beloved animals, plants and ecosystems were in unsustainable decline.

That review recommended an overhaul of Australia’s nature laws, including new national environmental standards. That broad reform is not even what is on the table here. It was delayed earlier this year after the government decided to split up its planned bills and begin with legislation to establish the proposed new regulator and another new agency to handle environmental information.

When his report was released in 2021, Graeme Samuel said the government would be accepting “the continued decline of our iconic places and the extinction of our most threatened plants, animals and ecosystems” if it shied away from the fundamental reforms he recommended.

Lisa Cox

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called on Anthony Albanese “to stand up to the mining industry” and negotiate with the Greens and cross bench to improve a bill to establish a national environmental protection agency (EPA).

Speaking before question time, the Greens environment spokesperson criticised the mining industry for pressuring MPs over promised nature reforms:

All week here in this building, the mining industry have been putting pressure on Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek to weaken their already weak environment protection agency.

We’ve seen this movie before. We know what happens when the mining industry wants to get their way. They get heavy, they lobby hard, and they start to bully parliamentarians.

Earlier this week the Greens and the crossbench offered to work with the government to secure a better deal for the environment. It followed remarks by the prime minister last week that he would consider watering down the proposed EPA model to secure support for the legislation from the Coalition.

Hanson-Young said this afternoon she had been talking to the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, about a pathway through the current gridlock. In comments aimed specifically at the prime minister, she called for the government to “make a choice” to protect the environment.

Do they want to protect nature and save the koalas, protect the climate, or do they want to roll over and be a patsy for Gina Rinehart and the mining lobby?

Peter Dutton is calling the prime minister’s bluff today. He’s having a good old time making it very clear that this prime minister is going to water [the laws down] to get a deal with the mining industry.

I’m sorry, the mining industry don’t have seats in the Senate. The mining industry are not democratically elected. The mining industry have been in here, lobbying and heavying, and the prime minister needs to stand up to them.

The Coalition benches, through the Bowers lens

And this is some of the Coalition during that same question time, as seen by our own Mike Bowers: