Australia news live: Lidia Thorpe should not remain Greens’ Indigenous spokesperson, Marcia Langton says; severe storm warning for parts of NSW

Lidia Thorpe should not remain Greens’ Indigenous spokesperson, Marcia Langton says

Langton went on to say she did not think it was appropriate that Thorpe remains the Green’s spokesperson for Indigenous Australians, adding Thorpe had shown a “significant lack of judgement” and that the Greens should largely ditch their current set of policies:

I think the portfolio should be taken away from her.

I have to draw the conclusion she does not have the judgement to handle the Indigenous affairs portfolio which anyone must surely understand consists of a range of extremely complex matters such as Closing the Gap, the referendum on the Voice and so many other issues.

I would like the Greens to totally ditch their present set of policies which look like they were written on the back of a bar tab and seem to amount to about $7m for reparations. There are no policies as such. The resistance to the Voice that the Greens have shown, taking Senator Thorpe’s lead, has been a nonsense and destructive.

Langton was also asked if the Greens were displaying a “particular form of racism” by keeping Thorpe in her position as Indigenous affairs spokesperson:

They have chosen a person with apparently no common sense or an inability to understand the rules and a willingness to break the rules. I despair that because people like Adam Bandt must surely be thinking or perhaps trying to give the impression that all Aboriginal people are like Senator Thorpe and that’s simply not the case.

Updated at 02.07 EDT

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What we learned today, Friday 21 October

And that’s where we’ll leave you this evening. Here’s what we learned:

Updated at 04.06 EDT

Energy Australia hacked

Energy Australia has announced it has been the target of a “cyber incident” that has resulted in 323 customer accounts being breached.

Those included in the breach include residential and small business accounts, with the company now forcing customers to implement a 12-character password for their accounts.

The data gathered include name, address, email address, electricity and gas bills, phone number, and the first six and last three digits of credit cards.

In a statement, Energy Australia says there is no evidence customer information was transferred outside its systems, and that information regarding sensitive documentation such as driver’s licences or passports, and banking information, have remained secure.

Energy Australia’s chief customer officer, Mark Brownfield, apologised for the situation:

We apologise for the concern that this issue may have caused our customers.

While this incident was limited in terms of customers affected, we take the security of customer information seriously and have been working hard to put in place additional layers of security to ensure the protection of all customer information.

Updated at 04.06 EDT

Australia must be better prepared for cyber crime, says O’Neil

Earlier this morning, the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, said Australia has to “muscle up’” against cybercrime, after a series of data breaches rocked major companies including Optus and Medibank.

O’Neil was on Sunrise when she said cybercriminals were the “bag snatchers of the 21st century,” before assuring people that some of “Australia’s smartest people” are working to improve Australia’s cybersecurity:

I understand for Australians this looks very much like an Australian problem. But Interpol, the global police organisation, this week released a statement saying that cybercrime is their major crime concern around the world at the moment.

The truth is, this is the future for us. These cyber thugs are the bag snatchers of the 21st century and the Australian government and citizens have got to muscle up and understand that this is our future. Our job is to [make sure] that our country is better prepared when things like this happen.

I want Australians to understand the smartest people in Australia are working on this problem at the moment. They work in cyber security for the Australian government and they are fully occupied in this problem.

If you’re a Medibank customer, be careful at the moment. Don’t click on any links that look in any way suspicious.

Updated at 03.42 EDT

AFP arrest

The AFP have released a statement announcing they have arrested a man in Melbourne for allegedly threatening a senator online.

AFP say they arrested a 27-year-old at his Brunswick West home, while executing a search warrant and seizing electronic devices, including a laptop and a desktop computer.

Investigators say the man was responsible for make online threats, including threats to kill, towards a senator, via a social media platform in September and October 2022.

The man faced two charges at the Melbourne magistrates court today, including two counts of use a carriage service to make a threat to kill, and one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.

Updated at 03.43 EDT

Hume opposes Covid inquiry

Earlier today, the opposition finance spokesperson, Senator Jane Hume, told Sky News she was opposed to a royal commission into Australia’s Covid response, adding that she thought Australia had fared “comparatively well”.

This comes after a damning independent review that found many of the pandemic policies hurt underprivileged communities.

Can we learn some things from this? Absolutely – and in fact a government that doesn’t reflect, risks making the same mistakes twice.

But Australia had some of the best health and economic outcomes compared to other developed nations – so is a royal commission the right way to do this? I don’t think so.

Updated at 03.43 EDT

Palaszczuk pleased work will start on coalmine

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has told reporters she is “very pleased” that work can start on a thermal coal mine expansion west of Brisbane.

New Hope Group’s proposed expansion of the New Acland coal mine near Toowoomba was granted a water license on Thursday, the final obstacle before work could begin.

This has come after a long battle to prevent the mine from expanding, and after the state government said it would phase out coal-fire plants by 2035.

Palaszczuk said she backed the project, which will produce up to 7.5m tonnes of coal annually for 12 years.

I’m very pleased to see that all of those approvals now have been given.

The project … means a lot of jobs to the Toowoomba economy, and as my government said, we would wait for the outcome of the court cases.

Those court cases have been closed and those approvals have now been finalised.

Countries still need coal, we are still using coal in our coal-fired power plants.

Updated at 03.44 EDT

Mihailuk resignation fallout

Earlier today, NSW Labor leader Chris Minns held a press conference, where he was asked about Bankstown MP Tania Mihailuk’s resignation from the party.

Mihailuk announced yesterday she was walking away from the ALP, where she said the party had not “cleaned up its act” and was “not ready to govern”.

Minns gave a typically defensive answer, but added that Canterbury-Bankstown council has appointed an independent investigator to look into the claims Mihailuk’s made:

Look, at the end of the day, he’s going to make political statements about the Labor party and his own political position as we head into March 2023. And we have to and we’re determined to make this election about the people of NSW and that means tackling the big issues, whether it’s environmental protection, or the huge impost and cost of tolls on the people of NSW. And I would say this, if Dominic Perrottet believes that somebody is corrupt, he’s got an obligation to produce evidence.

As it stands Canterbury Bankstown council has appointed an independent investigator, indeed the former president of the Bar Association, Arthur Moses to investigate the claims that have been made. The Icac reportedly has already looked at the matter and called the accusations baseless and there is all ready integrity agenciesc, auditor general as well as the NSW Police for anyone and everybody to make an allegation or to pursue a line of inquiry. In fact, you’re positively bound to do it if you’re a public official, and you know of corruption.

Updated at 03.46 EDT

Lidia Thorpe should not remain Greens’ Indigenous spokesperson, Marcia Langton says

Langton went on to say she did not think it was appropriate that Thorpe remains the Green’s spokesperson for Indigenous Australians, adding Thorpe had shown a “significant lack of judgement” and that the Greens should largely ditch their current set of policies:

I think the portfolio should be taken away from her.

I have to draw the conclusion she does not have the judgement to handle the Indigenous affairs portfolio which anyone must surely understand consists of a range of extremely complex matters such as Closing the Gap, the referendum on the Voice and so many other issues.

I would like the Greens to totally ditch their present set of policies which look like they were written on the back of a bar tab and seem to amount to about $7m for reparations. There are no policies as such. The resistance to the Voice that the Greens have shown, taking Senator Thorpe’s lead, has been a nonsense and destructive.

Langton was also asked if the Greens were displaying a “particular form of racism” by keeping Thorpe in her position as Indigenous affairs spokesperson:

They have chosen a person with apparently no common sense or an inability to understand the rules and a willingness to break the rules. I despair that because people like Adam Bandt must surely be thinking or perhaps trying to give the impression that all Aboriginal people are like Senator Thorpe and that’s simply not the case.

Updated at 02.07 EDT

Adam Bandt’s decision to strip Thorpe of deputy senate leadership doesn’t go far enough: Indigenous leader

Indigenous leader Marcia Langton was just on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, and was asked extensively her thoughts on Lidia Thorpe and her undisclosed relationship with a former bikie boss.

‘It must be embarrassing to all of the members of the parliamentary committee on law enforcement,’ Marcia Langton says. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Langton was first asked if Greens leader Adam Bandt had gone far enough by stripping Thorpe of her deputy senate leadership, to which Langton gave a frank answer:

No. This is, I would have thought, an extremely embarrassing thing for him as the leader of the Greens.

It must be embarrassing to all of the members of the parliamentary committee on law enforcement, to other parliamentarians and constituents like myself who live in the state of Victoria and are represented by her in the Senate, in as much as she is a senator.

Updated at 01.40 EDT

Pressure to undo stage-three tax cuts doesn’t have best interest of the Albanese government at heart: Turnbull

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull has told the Tax Summit that any potential tax reform would be political suicide.

Turnbull gave wide-ranging answers on the topic, saying the Labor party had “boxed itself in” by pursuing a small-target strategy, and that any push for tax reform would face a “fevered” debate amid pressure from the media.

Turnbull added that he believed pressure to undo the stage-three tax cuts didn’t have the best interest of the Albanese government at heart:

The problem Albanese has is that he’s been elected to office in large part on the issue of integrity and morals. They won a narrow majority and a lot of it hinged around Morrison’s, and by extension, his government’s perceived untrustworthiness – telling lies, gaslighting, that sort of stuff.

So those people on the left who are encouraging Albanese to break his election promise to not undo the stage-three tax cuts don’t have his best interests at heart … in politics, your friends can get you in as much trouble as your enemies.

Turnbull went on to describe how and why it is so difficult to have a conversation on tax reform, adding a barbed criticism of how his treasurer (and successor) dealt with the media:

It should be possible but historically, it has proved [difficult] … Governments should be able to consider options but they get pressured [by the media] to rule things in or out.

One of the problems I used to have with Scott Morrison when he was treasurer was that Scott used to front-run things in the media, ideas for tax changes, economic changes … this was more briefing than leaking … I’m happy to accept he genuinely thought this was a way of, you know, floating ideas and flying kites. [But] it was catastrophic for us. Because if you float something you have to provide an answer – are you going to do it or not going to do it? You get into a terrible tangle.

Updated at 01.19 EDT

David Pocock calls for more transparency amid ‘troubling’ Thorpe revelations

Independent senator David Pocock has called for greater transparency from MPs, after it emerged Greens senator Lidia Thorpe had been in an undisclosed relationship with a former bikie boss.

Pocock was speaking at the Transport, Aviation and Transport Summit earlier today, and said the revelation was “troubling”:

Not declaring things is an issue.

I’ve been shocked at just how little you actually have to declare as a politician.

I don’t have to declare who I’m giving lobbying passes to, I don’t have to declare any of my spouse’s interests.

I don’t see the downside of having more transparency when it comes to these sorts of things.

I guess the really troubling thing with senator Thorpe is not disclosing that, when you are on that sort of committee.

It’s such a privilege to be in there and represent your state or territory or your electorate. And with that privilege comes responsibilities.

I see that she has apologised … but I think it’s something that I would like to see the standard sort of raised in the parliament and MPs and senators taking responsibility when it comes to that.

Updated at 00.46 EDT

States agree to work with Labor to protect Australia’s landmass and marine areas

State and territory environment ministers have agreed to work with the Albanese government to achieve its target of protecting 30% of Australia’s landmass and marine areas by 2030.

The agreement was included in a communique released after the first meeting of environment ministers since Labor won the May federal election. It will raise questions about what qualifies as a protected area. Scientists have estimated about 22% of Australian land is currently protected, leaving an area more than double the size of Victoria still to be conserved.

The joint communique noted the federal government’s plan to establish a “national nature repair market” – previously described as a biodiversity market – and said governments from across the country would work together to “make nature positive investments easier”.

It also said they would work with the private sector to achieve a circular economy by 2030, a process that would “design out waste and pollution”.

The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, declared the “environment is back” under Labor.

There’s always more to do – but we’re getting on with it as fast as we can.

Updated at 00.34 EDT