Australia news live: Peter Dutton labels robodebt royal commission and Morrison ministries inquiry ‘witch-hunts’

Robodebt royal commission ‘a witch-hunt’, says Peter Dutton

The federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was talking to 2GB’s Ray Hadley this afternoon about the inquiry into Scott Morrison’s secret ministries and the royal commission into robodebt.

Hadley suggested that the inquiry into Morrison’s ministries is a “witch-hunt”, to which Dutton agrees. Dutton then suggests that the robodebt royal commission is also a “witch-hunt”:

It’s clearly now turned political. I think the points the prime minister made at the start were legitimate. We’ve said we’d support a process to ensure it can’t happen again. We didn’t agree with the decision that Scott [Morrison] had made. He’s explained it, he’s apologised for it, and the question now is how you make sure it doesn’t happen again, which is a pretty simple process in terms of requiring prime ministers to declare the acting arrangements and that would resolve the matter.

But clearly, the prime minister sees political advantage in this and you know, one thing you know about people like Dan Andrews and Anthony Albanese is they’ve been around a long time; they know lots of tricks in the book and you’re seeing it now with the announcement of a royal commission into robodebt – again, a witch-hunt.

This has become more politicised and it’s morphing into a witch-hunt rather than pointing out a problem that needed to be solved.

‘It’s clearly now turned political’: Peter Dutton. Photograph: Morgan Sette/AAP

Updated at 02.32 EDT

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Australian shipments of foot and mouth vaccine arrives in Indonesia

Australia’s first shipment of foot and mouth vaccine has reached Indonesia as efforts continue to contain the disease, AAP reports.

The 1m doses will be distributed by the Indonesian government, with priority given to areas most in need.

Australian agriculture minister Murray Watt confirmed on Thursday the vaccines had landed, noting the doses will be effective in protecting Indonesian livestock:

We’ve been able to match the doses to the FMD strain present in Indonesia.

This is part of our three-pronged approach to keep Australia FMD free – helping our neighbours deal with the outbreak, strengthening our biosecurity borders and enhancing our preparedness at home.

The vaccine was promised to Indonesia in July after a visit to the archipelago by the minister.

Australia also committed an additional $10m in biosecurity funding to Indonesia in August.

As part of that package, vaccinations worth a further $4.4m are due to be delivered to Indonesia in the coming months.

Foot and mouth was detected in Indonesia in May and spread to Bali in June.

The re-emergence of the highly contagious livestock disease increased the likelihood of it reaching Australia in the next five years, to 11.6%.

Updated at 04.02 EDT

Telstra to offer free wifi at payphones

Telstra has announced today that free wifi will now be available at payphones.

In a press release this morning, the telecommunications company said:

From today, around 3,000 of our Wi-Fi enabled payphones across Australia will offer free Wi-Fi access to anyone, with work already underway on the rest of our 12,000 payphones to provide free Telstra Wi-Fi over the next few years.

This was the next step in ensuring all Australians are able to stay connected and follows our decision last year to make calls from public payphones free.

Australians will now be able to get free wifi at Telstra payphones. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

The decision has been welcomed by Michelle Rowland, the federal communications minister:

Today’s announcement should increase digital access for vulnerable Australians and builds on Telstra’s decision last year to make local and national calls from payphones free of charge. Telstra should be commended for this important initiative, and its ongoing commitment to improving connectivity and digital access across Australia.

Increasing the public benefit from payphones is especially important given that payphones are co-funded by industry and taxpayers under the Universal Service Obligation (USO) funding arrangements. I appreciate Telstra’s confirmation that it will not seek any increase in the USO funding it receives for payphones as a result of Telstra’s decision today.

Updated at 03.51 EDT

Politicians being normal: is it cool or cringe?

The Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and the Finnish PM Sanna Marin made headlines this week while doing normal human activities – having a beer at a rock concert and dancing at a party. We took a look back at the thin line that separates politicians from being cool or cringe.

Cringe or cool: politicians who surprised us with their human side – video

Updated at 03.35 EDT

US deputy envoy says ‘no turning back’ on climate action at ANU forum

A little bit earlier today, ANU hosted a climate change forum featuring the US deputy special envoy for climate, Rick Duke, and the head of the Australian government’s international climate division, Kushla Munro.

As with all these talks, there is never enough time, but the main gist of the conversation was ‘we need to work together more’ to tackle the climate challenge – not just on a global scale, but at home too.

Munro said there was a lot of opportunity for diversification – and from Australia’s perspective, there was a lot to gain from looking strategically at where it can make stronger partnerships for research and technology.

Not just the US, although Munro says there is a lot of room for growth there, but also with India, Japan and Korea:

One thing that’s really come under a lot of scrutiny is – for the clean energy transition that we do – where are the solar panels made? And the answer is largely in China. That’s not a bad thing.

It’s just that the scaling up of what we’ve got to do, potentially that diversification of what we’ve seen through supply chains and through Covid is incredibly important.

Duke said he believed there was “no turning back at this point” on climate action, which he said was being driven by younger people, but also by private industries:

There is, I think, no turning back at this point on this as we move into a mode in which we’re going to be investing in all of these industries at a scale that people I think are just beginning to get their heads wrapped around.

That is going to create more buy in, that’s going to be more jobs, that’s going to create more consumer benefit.

It’s cheaper to own and operate an electric vehicle by far – you’re not subject to the whims of oil prices.

It’s cheaper to have a house that’s got solar and heat pumps. And again, you’re insulated from energy price shocks. And if you’ve got jobs in those industries as they expand, you’re going to be on the side of climate action accordingly.

US deputy special envoy for climate Rick Duke (left) and head of division at the Australian Department of Change, Energy, the Environment and Water Kushla Munro (right) speak during a talk at the Australian National University in Canberra on Thursday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA

Updated at 03.47 EDT

Good luck, Sydney train commuters

Peak hour in Sydney is shaping up to be a cracker of a time for all involved.

Updated at 03.09 EDT

Mental health nurses should have more access to bulk billing, college says

In response today’s Guardian Australia story about a lack of bulk-billing psychologists, the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses has urged the federal government to give credentialed mental health nurses greater access to Medicare Benefits Scheme (MBS) items.

The Australian Association of Psychologists has suggested allowing provisional psychologists – in their last stages of supervised practice before achieving full registration – to provide services under Medicare. This could allow more psychologists to see more patients, relieving pressure on an overloaded sector.

The College of Mental Health Nurses said it supports this call, and said giving mental health nurses greater access to MBS items would offer “significantly better impact for the patient population most in need of additional mental health services”.

The college’s CEO Stephen Jackson said:

[Mental health nurses] have an evidenced track record of successfully offering clinical services to those with moderate to complex needs.

They are severely limited in their access to MBS where they would greatly assist in the mental health skills shortage … Let them help.

Updated at 03.04 EDT

Peta Murphy hits back at Liberals on robodebt: ‘Lives were turned upside down’

Labor’s Peta Murphy has returned fire:

It’s just so disappointing to hear David trotting out those lines and continuing what has been the practice and the history of not admitting mistakes and not taking responsibility or being accountable from the previous government.

I mean, what fundamentally changed in July 2015 was people were taken out of the system by the Liberal government, they relied entirely on an algorithm and they reversed the onus of proof on to people who were getting welfare.

People’s lives were turned upside down and some people were devastated because of the way the previous government changed the system and preyed on vulnerable people. Accountability is vitally important.

Peta Murphy, the member for Dunkley. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Updated at 02.55 EDT

Liberal MP David Coleman suggests Labor also responsible for robodebt

The Liberals’ David Coleman seems to be trying to suggest the Labor party were ultimately responsible for the architecture of Robodebt:

The concept of income averaging in Centrelink goes back decades and I was looking today, in 2011, there is a press release from Tanya Plibersek and Bill Shorten talking about the automation of that income averaging process for the purpose of collecting debts in Centrelink.

This inquiry is obviously very politically motivated. If it wasn’t, it would go back to the genesis of this idea, which of course it doesn’t.

It’s transparent as cellophane this is a politically motivated inquiry. That is obviously not unique to this particular area because we see that Mr Albanese has a great desire to launch investigations and somewhat less to actually govern. Clearly this should go much further back if it were to genuinely open a transparent inquiry.

Updated at 02.47 EDT

‘Peter Dutton is our leader’: Karen Andrews on whether she agrees robodebt inquiry is a ‘witch-hunt’

The Liberal frontbencher Karen Andrews followed Shorten, and she was also asked about the robodebt royal commission and whether she agrees with Peter Dutton that it’s a “witch hunt”.

She’s quite evasive on the latter:

Peter Dutton did call it a witch-hunt. He’s gone out very strongly on that and, as leader of the opposition, he is the one that makes the primary calls in relation to this. Peter has made it very clear that in his view this is a witch-hunt.

Journalist: “And you agree with that?”

I am part of the Liberal-National party. Peter Dutton is our leader. I think we have to be very careful that Labor doesn’t go into a position where every single inquiry is justifiably called a witch-hunt simply because it is one inquiry after another. And all that they will end up doing is devaluing the intent of inquiry if it is just going to be one thing after another. The former home affairs minister Karen Andrews. Photograph: Trevor Collens/AAP

Updated at 02.49 EDT

Bill Shorten says robodebt royal commission will have ‘tight’ focus

Bill Shorten, the minister for government services, has been speaking on the ABC about the robodebt royal commission. He says it will be tightly focused, and that it “isn’t designed for tens of thousands of people to just come forward”, although it will likely involve victim case studies:

This is a pretty tight royal commission. The voices of the people who went through the ordeals is going to be paramount. It is to identify who knew what and when. How can you create the most unlawful scheme and for all these years ignore the warnings and act as if you are behaving legally when you are behaving illegally.

One of the reasons we have gone for a royal commission is, given the enormous scale of the unlawful conduct by the previous commonwealth government and the sheer numbers of people who were caught up in the net of an unlawful scheme, we need to get to the bottom of it, so it needs to have all the powers it can.

‘We need to get to the bottom of it’: Bill Shorten on robodebt. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Updated at 02.27 EDT

Robodebt royal commission ‘a witch-hunt’, says Peter Dutton

The federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was talking to 2GB’s Ray Hadley this afternoon about the inquiry into Scott Morrison’s secret ministries and the royal commission into robodebt.

Hadley suggested that the inquiry into Morrison’s ministries is a “witch-hunt”, to which Dutton agrees. Dutton then suggests that the robodebt royal commission is also a “witch-hunt”:

It’s clearly now turned political. I think the points the prime minister made at the start were legitimate. We’ve said we’d support a process to ensure it can’t happen again. We didn’t agree with the decision that Scott [Morrison] had made. He’s explained it, he’s apologised for it, and the question now is how you make sure it doesn’t happen again, which is a pretty simple process in terms of requiring prime ministers to declare the acting arrangements and that would resolve the matter.

But clearly, the prime minister sees political advantage in this and you know, one thing you know about people like Dan Andrews and Anthony Albanese is they’ve been around a long time; they know lots of tricks in the book and you’re seeing it now with the announcement of a royal commission into robodebt – again, a witch-hunt.

This has become more politicised and it’s morphing into a witch-hunt rather than pointing out a problem that needed to be solved.

‘It’s clearly now turned political’: Peter Dutton. Photograph: Morgan Sette/AAP

Updated at 02.32 EDT

IPA ‘welcomes’ oil and gas exploration announcement

The Institute of Public Affairs, meanwhile, is right into oil and gas exploration.

Here’s the top-line take from Daniel Wild, deputy executive director of the IPA:

It is absolutely critical, in a time of energy shortages and global instability, that Australia secures its domestic oil and gas supplies. This is why resources minister Madeleine King’s exploration announcement is very welcome.

Updated at 02.05 EDT

Zali Steggall says new oil and gas wells ‘unnecessary and irresponsible’

Independent MP Zali Steggall has come out against new offshore oil and gas exploration announced by the Labor government, saying they are “creating opportunities to make the [emissions] targets impossible to achieve”.

Minister Bowen has repeatedly reaffirmed that 43% emissions reduction by 2030 is a floor not a ceiling, yet the minister for resources Madeline King has released 10 more areas for offshore oil and gas exploration. This totals 46,758 sqkm of commonwealth waters.

These are incompatible statements and will damage the hard work done by minister Bowen to date on the climate change bill, and the indications given by environment and water minister Tanya Plibersek to do better on environment.

New oil and gas wells are unnecessary and irresponsible.

Steggall is calling on the government to reverse the decision to open exploration areas and end seismic testing in Australian waters.

She continues:

Exploration will cause environmental damage, even if no project is ever commissioned.

Updated at 01.43 EDT

We look forward to robodebt royal commission examining whether Coalition knew scheme was lawful, Gordon Legal partner says

Peter Gordon, senior partner at Gordon Legal, which ran the successful robodebt class action, has also issued a statement in response to the royal commission announcement:

The royal commission will serve as an important mechanism to explore how the unlawful robodebt scheme came into existence and the responsibility of individual ministers.

Scott Morrison, Alan Tudge and Stuart Robert all oversaw the ministry during the scheme and the question of what they knew, what decisions they took, remains unresolved. The opportunity to properly examine their involvement was denied by the Coalition while it was in power, which sought to sweep the truth about robodebt under the rug.

This makes it all the more important that a robodebt royal commission, which is appropriately equipped to forensically examine these ministers’ knowledge and decision-making, tackles these issues head on.

In particular, we look forward to the royal commission exercising its powers to request documents that reveal whether the former government knew the robodebt scheme was lawful. These documents were withheld during Gordon Legal’s class action under legal privilege and cabinet confidentiality.

Updated at 01.35 EDT

PM to give first post-election address to National Press Club on Monday

Updated at 01.11 EDT