Key events
Earlier in the interview, Katy Gallagher was also asked what her priorities were, among the three-dozen bills the government is hoping to push through the Senate today.
She pointed to the under-16 social media ban as key, as well as migration bills – both of which the Coalition have indicated support for.
On the RBA reforms, the Coalition have said no. Where are negotiations at with the Greens? Gallagher responded:
I think there’s the Greens have been clear … in earlier months about some of the amendments they would want to see – it was around the ability for the treasurer to override decisions, which is, it’s essentially its status quo … They’re very focused on that …
We would have preferred to work with the Coalition. They’ve blocked this bill, so that leaves us no alternative but to work with other parties in the Senate.
Host Patricia Karvelas said the crossbench, or David Pocock at least, would be making Nature Positive a condition of any guillotine support – were does that leave the government?
Katy Gallagher said she was made aware of that view overnight, and “it’s a long way before nine o’clock in Senate time”.
That’s a position that’s been pushed by Senator Pocock. I indicated to the Senator last night that I didn’t believe that that was agreeable to us, because we hadn’t been able to reach agreement on that bill. So I indicated that back to him. Obviously, he’s still pushing for that, so [we] continue to work across the chamber.
Gallagher weighs in on reports regarding Nature Positive
Katy Gallagher was also asked about the Nature Positive legislation. As Lisa Cox and Karen Middleton reported yesterday, Anthony Albanese killed off a potential deal with the Greens to pass the legislation after an intervention by the Western Australian premier, Roger Cook.
Gallagher said she wasn’t in those meetings and “I’m not aware of that” but “we weren’t able to reach agreement to everyone’s satisfaction”.
I don’t think it’s unusual that we would want to fully understand some of the amendments that the Greens were seeking.
There’s absolutely no doubt that Tanya Plibersek was working closely, not just with the Greens, but with others to see if we could land Nature Positive. We weren’t able to do so – just like electoral reform … there’s either a sticking point in relation to electoral reform or further work to be done to understand some of the implications of what was being sought.
Have talks between Labor and the Coalition over election funding reforms reached a last-minute impasse?
Katy Gallagher said a decision was made that the bill would not be proceeded today.
She said it was off the table for today and Don Farrell “will be working over summer with all the senators across the Senate chamber to try and reach agreement for that”.
We want to get big money out of politics. We want to have donation caps. We haven’t been able to land it. The independents, I know, have some strong views about this, and Senator Farrell will work over summer, and we will try and deal with this in February, because we’re really, really, very keen to get this done before the election.
Gallagher says government prepared to sit ‘through the night’ in the Senate to pass raft of legislation
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, has been speaking with ABC RN about the raft of legislation the government is hoping to push through the Senate today, and said “if people want to sit through the night, we’re prepared to do that to get these bills done”.
With around three dozen bills on the agenda, Gallagher said:
We’re very keen to get all of the as much of the important pieces of legislation through the Senate as we can. We’ve already had a number of bills passed this week, about six … and we rate these as equally important. So I guess the position we’ve taken is to be upfront.
How is it actually possible to work through this much legislation in a day? Gallagher said:
The motion sets up how we like to treat the bills through the day, so it allows time on each bills. It allows for such reading on the bills, and we will sit until they’re finished.
There may be amendments coming in late, but there have been months and months of negotiations on these bills – so I don’t accept that people would be learning of things at the last minute … Sometimes those amendments land a bit late but we get the job done if those amendments are important for the passage of the bill.
Youth crime top of agenda in mammoth Queensland parliament day
Moving to Queensland politics for a moment, where controversial youth crime laws will be top of the agenda for the state government today.
As AAP reports, “adult time, adult crime” legislation will be the introduced to Queensland parliament today in what looms as a marathon sitting.
The new LNP Queensland government has vowed to push through the laws, which would see serious juvenile offenders face harsher sentences if they commit a serious crime including murder, manslaughter, unlawful wounding, aggravated break and enter and stealing a car.
The deputy premier, Jarrod Bleijie, said the laws were ready to be presented to parliament, with the government aiming for them to be passed and assented before Christmas. He also promised today would be jam-packed with the government wanting to get to work on their election promises.
The government flagged there would be the introduction of at least two other bills today, leading into a late-night sitting.
Nuclear costings coming ‘in coming weeks and months ahead of election’: Taylor
The shadow treasurer was also asked when the Coalition would release the costings of its nuclear plan.
Angus Taylor said it would be unveiled “in the coming weeks and months in advance of the election”.
The Coalition has previously pledged to announce its costing before Christmas – is this no longer the case? Taylor responded:
We will not be announcing it on your program this morning, as much as you might like me to.
Taylor takes aim at government over inflation, spending
Angus Taylor also weighed in on inflation, after yesterday’s figures showed it remaining steady:
The shadow treasurer argued that core inflation had gone up, meaning prices are rising at a faster rate.
The government is in denial about it. The prime minister refused yesterday confirmed that is the case. That is the case – underlying inflation is going up.
Will the Coalition keep the energy rebate if it wins government? Taylor responded that “you cannot subsidise your way out of an inflation crisis”, taking aim at the government for “reckless spending”.
Shadow treasurer weighs in on electoral reform legislation
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, spoke with ABC News Breakfast earlier, to discuss some of the legislation the government is hoping to push through the Senate today.
On electoral reform, he said the right balance needs to be struck “between making sure we have that transparency – that I think is so important – but also making sure small businesses and others can get on and do what they want to do”.
Is that the sticking point – small business, and being worried about donations? Taylor said:
One of them is sure we’re not imposing unnecessary administrative burden on individual Australians or small businesses.
Obviously, big businesses can deal with things when they make bigger donations – that is up to them, same with the unions and other. But we don’t want to create unnecessary administrative burden [and] we do want to see reasonable levels of transparency.
These things always about balances. Reasonable people can have reasonable different views on what the right balance is and we certainly are taking a few on that and will continue to work with the government in a constructive way.
Coalition inquiry to recommend relaxed lending standards for first home buyers
Paul Karp
Today the Senate economics committee, chaired by the Liberal shadow assistant minister for home ownership, Andrew Bragg, will report back on its inquiry about how financial regulations can encourage home ownership.
In October the committee received evidence that financial rules are making it harder to own a home, which Bragg summarised in a statement that:
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The “blunt” 3% serviceability buffer is damaging first home ownership;
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There is no structural focus on home ownership; and
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Different risk weightings would change pricing and access.
Guardian Australia understands that the inquiry will recommend changes to relax lending standards for first home buyers in line with these three observations.
It will do so by recommending a direction to the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority for new guidelines to allow a reduced serviceability buffer tailored for first home buyers.
That would mean that instead of banks testing a mortgage application to ensure a prospective borrower can pay back the current interest rate +3%, there would be flexibility to apply a smaller buffer when interest rates are at the top of the cycle. For example, if interest rates are 6% and expected to fall, a first home buyer would be eligible if they could repay an 8% interest rate, down from 9%.
The committee also wants to change the rules on mortgage risk weightings, which some witnesses told the inquiry would effectively mean a first home buyer mortgage could be 0.29% cheaper by making other owner-occupiers and investors pay 0.06-0.07% more. That would amount to a saving of $37,000 to a first home buyer over the life of the mortgage.
Good morning
Emily Wind
Emily Wind here, signing on for blogging duties on the final sitting day of the year – we’re officially in the home stretch.
As Karen Middleton reported overnight, and Martin flagged earlier, the government is seeking to ram around 37 bills through the Senate today, including key legislative measures on migration, electoral reform and the social media ban for under-16s.
It feels almost like the calm before the storm right now, after an absolutely jam-packed day yesterday. I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage today alongside the whole Canberra team – Karen Middleton, Paul Karp, Josh Butler and Sarah Basford Canales, as well as Mike Bowers, capturing all the action.
Let’s get into it.
Adam Morton
Bowen says reliance on ageing coal-fired power stations ‘magical thinking’
The government has also released sections of an annual statement to parliament to be delivered today by the climate change minister, Chris Bowen. It focuses on problems with the country’s ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations and the need to make a rapid shift to renewable energy.
According to the excerpts, Bowen will say Australia’s coal fleet is becoming increasingly unreliable, with 90% of capacity expected to retire by 2035. He will say more than 2.5GW of ageing coal-fired capacity was either broken down or out for maintenance during a heatwave this week, forcing the market operator to “juggle the grid” to keep supply going, and there had “not been a single day” in the past 18 months without an unplanned coal-fired capacity outage.
The notion that Australia’s ageing coal fleet should, or in fact could, be relied on to an even greater extent to power our system, is nothing short of magical thinking.
The opposition climate change spokesman, Ted O’Brien, will get to respond to Bowen. He has said a Coalition government would back increased use of coal and gas power, allow less renewable energy than Labor’s planned 82% of generation by 2030, and use taxpayer-funds to build nuclear energy at seven sites.
Critics say this approach would increase costs and emissions and make the power grid less reliable as a single nuclear plant would not be possible until after 2040.
Only five large nuclear projects have reached construction in North America and western Europe this century. Four suffered delays, taking roughly twice as long to build as forecast, and cost somewhere between double and six times initial estimates. The fifth was cancelled.
We’ll bring you more on “climate Christmas” during the day.
Adam Morton
Emissions report suggests Australia on track to meet 2030 target
The government has also given journalists a snapshot of a departmental emissions projections report that we expect to be released in full today. The snapshot suggests Australia is on track to meet its 2030 target of a 43% cut in climate pollution below 2005 levels. It says under current policies it should reach at least 42.6%.
We haven’t seen all the numbers underneath that yet, but there is some broad context that we do know, including where the reductions are coming and what is counted towards the target. We have a story setting that out. You can read it here.
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Annika Reynolds says the headline numbers show the government has made “solid progress” in cutting emissions from electricity generation. But the 2030 target is “far too weak” as it is consistent with more than 2C of global heating, and that means “longer heatwaves, more intense bushfires and worse flooding for Australians”.
Reynolds says the government is also allowing further global heating by approving new and extended fossil fuel developments for export.
Approving coal and gas projects is the opposite of climate action.
Adam Morton
Household power bills projected to fall over next 10 years
Continuing on from the previous post, the government has also released some headline numbers from a separate report by the Australian Electricity Market Commission.
It says household power bills are projected to fall over the next 10 years. In a barely veiled reference to the Coalition’s plan to slow the roll out of large-scale renewable energy, it emphasises that delays in solar and wind being built will increase costs.
It says the AEMC has found that an average household that “fully electrifies” – that is, has solar panels and replaces cars and gas appliances with electric alternatives – could cut their annual electricity spending by 70%, or $3,500.
‘Climate Christmas’ as government releases key reports
Adam Morton
Today is what some people call the Albanese government’s “climate Christmas”, when it releases a handful of reports on the country’s response to the crisis. They include a progress report by the Climate Change Authority, an annual statement by the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, projections of what will happen with emissions between now and 2030 and the quarterly greenhouse gas inventory update.
But wait, there’s more. The government has also promised new figures on renewable energy growth this year from the Clean Energy Regulator and a report on electricity price trends from the Australian Energy Market Commission.
The government has been dripping out selected excerpts from some of these reports over the past couple of days.
They have included a look at the Clean Energy Regulator data. According to what has been released, we should expect a significant boost in the share of electricity coming from renewable energy late next year. This year will set a record for solar and wind installations, with Australia set to add 7.2-7.5GW of capacity. Nearly half of this rooftop solar, mostly on homes.
More than 4.2GW of large-scale renewable energy plants are expected to be approved this year, including the 923MW MacIntyre windfarm in Queensland, which the operators have described as the biggest power station of its type in the southern hemisphere.
The government says the regulator is forecasting that the average share of electricity from renewable energy will reach 45% next year, up from about 39% over the past 12 months. It says:
This significant new generation capacity is mainly wind (70%) and will result in a material step up in the share of renewables as these new power stations reach full generation in the second half of 2025.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live blog from Canberra on what promises to be a very busy day in Parliament House. I’m Martin Farrer, bringing you the best of our overnight stories before Emily Wind gears up to helm the day’s coverage.
The Albanese government is going to try pushing 36 bills through the Senate today as the session heads towards a frantic conclusion. However, a law to increase tax on super balances over $3m will most likely not be among them. We’re reporting exclusively this morning that the government has all but abandoned its contentious plan to increase the tax on superannuation balances over $3m. Guardian Australia understands that the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, fears the policy, planned by the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, could expose Labor to a repeat of the damaging franking-credits campaign that helped cost it the 2019 election.
Among the key pieces of legislation likely to be pushed through today are the government’s trio of migration bills giving government extensive powers, from deporting non-citizens to allowing sniffer dogs in immigration detention centres. They have been supported by the Coalition amid strong condemnation from rights advocates and today we hear from Priya Nadesalingam, the Tamil woman who won a long fight for her and her family to stay in Australia. She says the government’s immigration detention bill would have made it “impossible” for her to succeed and enable her family to return to Biloela in Queensland.
Today is known in some parts as “climate Christmas” because the government is releasing a slew of reports detailing where Australia is at with its attempts to tackle the climate crisis. These include a projection on emissions between now and 2030; Chris Bowen to claim that “fully electrified” households will see bills fall for the next 10 years, and the state of the country’s fleet of ageing coal-fired power stations. More details coming up.
