Opposition leader distances herself from Nampijinpa Price’s immigration claim
The leader of the opposition, Sussan Ley, has rejected claims from Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price that federal Labor was promoting migration by specific ethnic groups, including Indians, to grow its electoral support.
Singling out Indians coming to Australia, the outspoken Northern Territory senator said sections of the community were concerned at “the core number, or the type of migrants that are coming in”.
I think Labor like to be able to ensure that they’re going to allow those in that would ultimately support their policies, their views, and vote for them as well.
Speaking on Sky News earlier, Ley was asked about Price’s claims that migrants were being “brought in from India to boost the Labor vote”.
She said Price had corrected her comments and Australia’s migration policy was “non-discriminatory”.
Every day that I’m opposition leader, I’m fighting for every single Australian, no matter where you came from. And our Australian Indian community is amazing, you contribute as Australian Indians so much to our country. We know how hard you work, your family values, and the contribution you make across this country. And as opposition leader, I value that incredibly.
It doesn’t matter how you vote, we’re here for everyone because we know that the values of the Liberal party; aspiration, hard work, reward for effort and building this community in this country are something that will resonate in a serious, credible, compelling agenda.
Key events
Greens back student calls for university divestment from weapons manufacturers
Deputy Greens leader and higher education spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has called on universities to “end dirty partnerships” with weapons companies after thousands of students voted for divestment in a referendum on Palestine.
More than 5,000 students voted in the first National Union of Students (NUS) referendum in the union’s four-decade history, passing two motions to censure the Australian government for its “complicity in the genocide in Gaza”, and demanding universities cut ties with weapons manufacturers.
In February, Faruqi introduced a bill that would require universities to disclose and divest from any partnerships with “dirty industries”, including weapons manufacturers, gambling, fossil fuel and tobacco companies.
Faruqi said “for the first time in decades, thousands of students have spoken with one voice, demanding that their universities stop profiting from war, militarism and the machinery of genocide”.
University leadership cannot ignore this. Students have given their universities a clear, democratic instruction: end the dirty partnerships with the weapons companies profiting from Israel’s genocide in Gaza. History will not be kind to those who ignored this moment — university vice-chancellors must cut the bloody ties now or forever wear the shame.
‘We don’t want them in this country’, Sussan Ley says of deal to send foreign-born former detainees to Nauru
Circling back to Ley, she was also asked about findings at a parliamentary inquiry that a proposed resettlement deal with Nauru could cost $2.5bn over three decades.
The group of noncitizens set to be banished for 30 years face a potentially hostile reception because they have been described as “violent” and “appalling” by the Australian government.
The forcible transfer of the so-called NZYQ group – and potentially thousands more under legislation currently before parliament – to the tiny island is being quietly resented by Nauruans.
Ley said it was a “massive expenditure by the government to fix up a mess of their own making”.
They committed crimes, they were locked up, they were let out, they committed more crimes, so we don’t want them in the country. But we really do want Labor to get this right because their first duty is to keep Australians safe.
The minister should step up and use his own preventive detention regime that we helped him pass. We’ve had to help the government fix up these laws a few times. We stand ready to do the same thing, and of course, we need to interrogate what this spender actually achieves.
You can listen to more on the deal here:
Lead applicant says she hopes robodebt class action outcome sends message to government
One of the lead applicants in the robodebt scheme, nurse Felicity Button, takes the microphone.
She says she hopes today sends a message to the government that “it doesn’t matter how vulnerable a population is, and it doesn’t matter where you come from or what your circumstances are, there is no room in Australia for unethical and illegal conduct”.
For me today, it is the first step forward to rebuild that trust with the government … We didn’t need to march the streets, and we didn’t need to inflict violence on anybody. Even though what happened to us was unfair, unjust, cruel, torturous and inhumane, we didn’t retaliate in kind. We used the legal system for what it’s there for.
And justice prevailed, and for the first time, I think in my whole life, I can say that there was a bit of fairness – not just justice in our system. Often you can’t leave those two terms together when it comes to the law. But today felt fair.
Gordon is asked whether the fact the federal government was not going to fight this in court tells you.
He says “they knew that the result in court was going to be even worse than the massive amount that they’ve paid out today”.
Pointed to the royal commission’s scathing report which said robodebt had led to suicides, he says:
Whilst in legal terms and in other terms, this is a spectacular result, for some, there are wounds that will never heal and we can never do justice to those people, and the system can’t.
But what we do hope and feel is that people today feel that their voices have been heard. That there’s been some serious vindication … some kind of compensation for the pain, the suffering, the distress, the consequential economic loss … to punish the government for what it’s done.
The court approval process for the settlement will take six months to roll out.
‘For some, there are wounds that will never heal’: Peter Gordon
Gordon says more than 450,000 Australians have or will benefit from this settlement.
It is, of course, far and away the largest class action settlement in Australia’s history … And while it is satisfying for lawyers to achieve a local result of $2.4bn, it is, frankly, infuriating to know that our own commonwealth government caused so much suffering to its own people, and that it arose out of wilful misconduct.
We at Gordon Legal are deeply grateful to our clients who kept faith in us, and that the class action system found a way. We hope that most will feel at least some sense of vindication in today’s announcement. We understand that for some, there are wounds that will never heal.
He pays tribute to politicians including Bill Shorten who “took courageous stands” and journalists who “asked relentless questions of those in power”.
And finally, as the senior partner and founder of Gordon Legal, I want to acknowledge the extraordinary work of the lawyers seated behind me and led, of course, by my partner, Andrew Greg … in the 47 years of my legal career, theirs is the finest work, and the most extraordinary work ethic that I’ve ever seen.
Lawyer Peter Gordon outlines history of robodebt saga and class actions
Peter Gordon goes over the history of the robodebt saga, starting with the final report of the robodebt royal commission handed down in July 2023, almost two years after Gordon Legal had settled the first class action for $112m.
He says that was almost a decade after the “evil automated robodebt system began to inflict its damage on ordinary Australians”.
The royal commission report demonstrated an extraordinary diaspora of dishonesty, bad faith and misconduct at high levels of the Australian government. The biggest revelation was that most of the damning evidence was never handed over in the original class action which Gordon Legal began in 2019.
We were outraged to learn this in 2023 in July, and we wrote to the prime minister, suggesting that his government work with us to revisit the question of robodebt victims’ rights. Clearly, if those damning documents had been handed over, we would never have settled the first class action on those terms.
When we received no satisfactory response from the government in 2023 to our request, we issued fresh legal proceedings to appeal the previous robodebt settlement.
Gordon says the new case first went to court in October last year, with a full hearing due to be heard by the full court of the federal court on 28 July.
The week before that hearing and arising from mediation talks, which had been ordered by the federal court, the commonwealth government has today agreed to pay victims a further $548,500,000.
Australia a nation ‘ruled by laws and not by kings’, robodebt lawyer says
In Melbourne, Peter Gordon of Gordon Legal who ran the class action for the victims of robodebt is addressing the media after the commonwealth agreed to pay $475m in additional compensation, in the largest class action settlement in Australian history.
He said today was a day of “vindication and validation for hundreds of thousands of Australians afflicted by the robodebt scandal”.
Today, they know that their voices have been heard. Today is a day of warning not to attack the people who elected them or who they were hired to protect.
Today is also one more vindication of the principle that Australia remains a nation ruled by laws and not by kings. Laws which even hold the government accountable. Long may that be the Australian way.
Opposition leader distances herself from Nampijinpa Price’s immigration claim
The leader of the opposition, Sussan Ley, has rejected claims from Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price that federal Labor was promoting migration by specific ethnic groups, including Indians, to grow its electoral support.
Singling out Indians coming to Australia, the outspoken Northern Territory senator said sections of the community were concerned at “the core number, or the type of migrants that are coming in”.
I think Labor like to be able to ensure that they’re going to allow those in that would ultimately support their policies, their views, and vote for them as well.
Speaking on Sky News earlier, Ley was asked about Price’s claims that migrants were being “brought in from India to boost the Labor vote”.
She said Price had corrected her comments and Australia’s migration policy was “non-discriminatory”.
Every day that I’m opposition leader, I’m fighting for every single Australian, no matter where you came from. And our Australian Indian community is amazing, you contribute as Australian Indians so much to our country. We know how hard you work, your family values, and the contribution you make across this country. And as opposition leader, I value that incredibly.
It doesn’t matter how you vote, we’re here for everyone because we know that the values of the Liberal party; aspiration, hard work, reward for effort and building this community in this country are something that will resonate in a serious, credible, compelling agenda.
Perhaps it is inevitable that the two most persistent evils in human societies – racism and misogyny – can be at times difficult to define and pin down.
It’s like the elephant in the archetypal parable about the blind men who each touch one part of the beast and assume they know its nature.
One touches the tail, and conceives a snake-like creature. Another the flank, and thinks of pillows and comfort. Another the tusk, and perceives danger.
Read the Margaret Simons’s take on media coverage of the anti-immigration protests here:
Tom McIlroy
Pocock’s register of lobbyist interests to go live next month
Earlier, we brought you the news that independent senator David Pocock is pursuing Labor and the Coalition over lobbyists’ access to Parliament House and the inadequacies of existing transparency measures like the national register for people trying to influence decision-makers.
He has set up a voluntary register to publish information about lobbyists with access-all-areas passes in Canberra and has written to MPs asking them to voluntarily disclose who they sponsor under rules put in place by the Department of Parliamentary Services.
Currently the rules do not require lobbyists employed directly by business or other organisations to join the register administered by the Attorney-General’s Department.
Pocock, the Greens and other crossbench MPs want improvements to the rules in this term, but Labor and the Coalition have given little indication they’d support greater transparency.
Pocock’s new register will go live next month at www.passregister.com.au.
Tom McIlroy
Labor should be ‘technologically agnostic’ in renewable energy rollout, Coalition moderate says
Coalition moderate Andrew Bragg has told the Senate Labor is bungling the renewable energy rollout, and putting at risk community support for net zero policies.
Bragg’s comments are a significant intervention as the opposition grapples with an intense internal debate about future support for net zero, led in part by Nationals figures including Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan.
Bragg said Labor was bringing an aggressive approach to net zero and renewable take up and should instead be “technologically agnostic”. He said capital markets had made up their mind on renewables but Labor needed to do more to build community consent.
Renewable energy is very good and very desirable, and in many cases it can be very inexpensive, but when you are managing a transition from a largely coal fired power based energy system to a fundamentally different system – and bearing in mind the impact that energy has on the overall economy – you must be very careful and very prudent.
It has been the regional communities that have largely paid the price here.
Bragg said better consultation was needed on transmission infrastructure and developments like offshore wind.
I think for the government to pursue this policy at any cost and trample over regional communities and not give them a proper say… I think that then imperils the whole question of community support for getting to net zero, which is a very important objective for our economy.
Thousands of university students vote in grassroots referendum on Palestine
More than 5,000 students have voted in the first National Union of Students (NUS) referendum on Palestine, expressing overwhelming support for an end to weapons companies on campus.
The referendum took place at around 20 university campuses across Australia, calling on students to vote on two motions, including censuring the Australian government for its “complicity in the genocide” and for all Australian universities to cease partnerships with weapons companies.
The NUS education officer, James McVicar, said on every campus the two motions were passed almost unanimously.
He said it was the largest nationwide student vote in decades and the first ever called by the NUS in its four-decade history:
Students in Australia have come together to demand an end to the genocide and an end to Australia’s institutional complicity. They have given their national union a mandate to fight for sanctions on Israel and an end to our universities’ complicity in militarism and war.
Authorities launch crackdown on Sydney business employing migrant workers
The Fair Work Ombudsman and Australian Border Force (ABF) officers from the Department of Home Affairs are targeting around 40 Sydney businesses employing migrant workers this week as part of surprise compliance inspections.
The areas being targeted include Blacktown, Cabramatta, Chatswood, the Hills District, Hurstville and Parramatta, with most businesses operating in fast food, restaurants and cafes as well as hair, beauty and health services.
Fair Work Inspectors are checking time and wage records, including pay slips, to ensure that vulnerable migrant workers are being paid their correct wages and entitlements.
The ombudsman, Anna Booth, said the inspections were part of a continuing national program of audits to check compliance from approved sponsors of temporary migrant workers:
Workplace breaches that involve migrant workers can be particularly serious as these workers can be vulnerable to exploitation. We find they are often unaware of their workplace rights or unwilling to speak up if something seems wrong.
The ABF’s commander of field operations and sponsor monitoring, John Taylor, said migrant workers play a “key part in the economy” and there was “no place in Australia for employers who exploit them”. Criminal penalties under the migration laws include up to two years’ jail and a fine of up to $118,800.
Government to pay additional $475m in compensation to robodebt victims
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The commonwealth has agreed to pay $475m in additional compensation to robodebt victims in the largest class action settlement in Australian history.
The federal government announced on Thursday it had agreed to settle Knox v The Commonwealth, an appeal from the original robodebt class action settlement in Prygodicz v The Commonwealth.
The total deal amounts to $548.5m, with up to $60m set aside to administer the settlement scheme and up to $13.5 to cover the applicants’ reasonable legal costs.
The compensation, which still requires federal court approval, would be in addition to the amount paid following the original robodebt class action settlement in 2020.
In a statement, the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, said:
Today’s settlement demonstrates the Albanese Labor government’s ongoing commitment to addressing the harms caused to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Australians by the former Liberal government’s disastrous robodebt scheme.
the royal commission described robodebt as a ‘crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal’. It found that ‘people were traumatised on the off chance they might owe money’ and that robodebt was ‘a costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms’.
Settling this claim is the just and fair thing to do.
Patrick Commins
Bullock says there ‘may not be many interest rate declines left to come’ after latest household spending numbers
Michele Bullock, the Reserve Bank governor, says “there may not be many interest rate declines left to come” if the strong household consumption revealed in yesterday’s national accounts continues.
Bullock, in a Q&A session following a speech in Perth yesterday evening, said the bank had been expecting a lift in household spending as “real disposable incomes have been rising for about a year now”.
Wealth is rising because housing prices are rising, and normally, under those circumstances, you would expect to see consumption starting to rise … and that’s welcome.
What it means for the future of interest rates, I don’t know at this stage, but all I would say is that, if anything, probably it’s (consumption) a little stronger than we thought it would be.
So that’s good, but it does mean that it’s possible that if it keeps going, then there may not be many interest rate declines left to come, but it all depends.
Financial markets are also repricing the chance of future rate moves.
Last week, traders were fully factoring in a rate cut by November, and now see only an 80% chance of a move that month, according to ANZ analysis.
And while borrowers should still have another cut by December, financial markets are no longer sure of a follow-up cut in early 2026.
No reports of Australians killed or seriously injured in Lisbon funicular crash: Dfat
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is making “urgent enquiries” after at least 15 people were killed when a funicular railway in Lisbon derailed and crashed on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Dfat said they were not aware of any Australians who had been killed or seriously injured, but the department was providing consular assistance to one individual.
The Australian government offers its deepest sympathies to those affected.
Authorities said some foreign nationals were among the dead but would not identify the victims or disclose their nationalities. At least 18 people, including a child, were injured, five of them seriously, emergency services said.
“It’s a tragic day for our city … Lisbon is in mourning, it is a tragic, tragic incident,” Carlos Moedas, the mayor of the Portuguese capital, told reporters.
Ben Roberts-Smith must pay portion of legal fees of publishers after failed defamation suit, court rules
Kate Lyons
Ben Roberts-Smith will have to pay lump sum costs to the publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Canberra Times, to cover some of their legal fees, over his failed attempt to sue the newspapers for defamation, a court ruled on Thursday.
The federal court in Sydney determined it was appropriate that Roberts-Smith pay a lump sum of costs to the newspaper publishers and gave the two parties 14 days to decide on an appropriate figure.
Justice Nye Perram ruled that the former SAS soldier should not have to pay costs on an indemnity basis, as requested by the publishers, which allows for a higher payment of costs and is ordered by the court for reasons including if parties have brought a hopeless case, behaved unreasonably or improperly in the proceedings or committed an abuse of process.
The defamation suit was brought by Roberts-Smith, a Victoria Cross recipient and one of Australia’s most decorated soldiers, in 2018. He lost that case, with Justice Anthony Besanko finding in 2023 that Roberts-Smith had, on the balance of probabilities, committed war crimes while deployed in Afghanistan.
Roberts appealed the decision, but lost that appeal in May, with three justices of the federal court agreeing he was not defamed by Nine newspapers and journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters through reports which claimed he had committed war crimes
In a summary of the judgment, the appeal justices wrote that they were “unanimously of the opinion that the evidence was sufficiently cogent to support the findings that the appellant murdered four Afghan men”.
The legal costs of the marathon legal battle are believed to exceed $35m. Roberts-Smith, 46, was awarded Australia’s highest military honour, the Victoria Cross, in 2011, for single-handedly taking out machine-gun posts to protect pinned-down colleagues in Afghanistan. He has always denied the allegations against him.
He has received support from wealthy backers, including Kerry Stokes, the chairman of Seven West Media, who agreed to pay the costs of Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation action. Gina Rinehart – the mining magnate and Australia’s richest person, who criticised a “relentless attack” on Roberts-Smith – has donated to a fund designed to support the legal costs of former SAS soldiers but declined to say whether she personally funded Roberts-Smith’s legal costs.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price describes anti-immigration march as a ‘demonstration of unity’
Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has described the March for Australia rallies over the weekend attended by confirmed neo-Nazis as “a pro-Australia march” attended by “quiet Australians” and a “demonstration of unity”.
In a doorstop this morning, Price said Australia had “come under attack” from the left after she was forced to remove an Australian flag in the Senate on Wednesday.
I implore others around the country to take up wearing the Australian flag. I think it’s a wonderful thing to do. I think we need to teach our children to be proud to call themselves Australian.
Asked if protests over the weekend had stoked division, she said they “weren’t necessarily protests” but were a “pro-Australia march”.
For so long, Australians who are proud to call themselves Australian have been under attack – particularly by the left – and have been told that we are a racist country. And this has been brewing for some time … What happened was, the quiet Australians came out and decided to be loud. That’s what that was about. To say no, no, no, let’s be proud of who we are.
I saw some beautiful footage of members of the migrant community standing with white Australians … and singing our national anthem together happily, joyfully and so proud in doing so. That to me was a demonstration of unity.
AI and deepfakes top most concerning trends for parents, anti-bullying review finds
A federal government review into bullying in schools has received more than 1,700 submissions, its co-chair has revealed. Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Jo Robinson said the submissions had spoken to the “complexity of bullying and its nature”, which was amplified by “broader societal pressures”.
They don’t just occur in the school playground anymore – they can follow you home and they can be hard to escape from.
Probably the most concerning trend for parents, young people and teachers would be the evolving space of technology: AI, deepfakes. There’s a real challenge in trying to stay ahead of what’s required in order to be able to respond effectively to it …
Some of the other things that we’ve heard is a really strong support for national leadership and guidance around this issue. The work that we’re doing will lead to some recommendations around what a national standard could look like for bullying across the country.
The education minister, Jason Clare, said recommendations from the review would be presented to he and his counterparts when they next meet in Queensland in mid-October.
That’s when I’m hopeful … ministers will agree to those recommendations. And then we’ll have to set out the plan for how we implement them.
