Peter Dutton misled parliament over au pairs, inquiry finds – as it happened

For all those wondering about the “Ken Wyatt was asked to join Labor” story and where it is – it is because both Wyatt and Linda Burney had flat out denied it happened.

Burney:

A total flight of fantasy, and Ken Wyatt has been on the radio this morning saying it’s exactly a flight of fantasy. He is as baffled as I am, and I cannot comment on the inside machinations of the Liberal party.

When we bring you stories, even just what we are hearing when it is not attributed, we make as many attempts to verify it as possible – with the sources – and don’t add fuel to the ones we can’t independently verify.

On the leak of the TPP minutes, Bill Shorten had this to say:

First of all, let us go to the substantive issue which was being debated last week. The government has signed a trade agreement with other nations which we think has a serious deficiencies.

We are concerned that this government never focuses on Australian jobs and protecting Australian jobs. So that is the debate. Right through my caucus there is concern that this agreement has plenty of problems with it.

Having said that, the debate was how do we [get] some of the benefits for farmers who are going through a drought, for higher education, for our steel and metal industries, and take those benefits and correct the defects in the agreement, on the election of a Labor government, whenever that is. The other people were saying the whole agreement is rubbish and we should not do any of it.

What we saw was, I thought, a thorough and fair dinkum debate. What we should never do in Australia is confuse debate and disagreement with disunity. I welcome the full range of opinions being expressed are my parliamentary team. We are in touch with everyday people. What I don’t do, is confuse that with disunity.

And whether the leak concerned him:

I want to remind you that I myself referred to this debate on the the Insiders ... TV show, ... and said I reluctantly support this agreement and intend to improve it when we get into government. I don’t begrudge journalists getting background briefings. That’s your job.

But seriously, let’s not confuse debate and difference of opinion with disunity. I’m on to my third Liberal prime minister, Tanya Plibersek is on to a new deputy ... [Liberal] leader, Chris Bowen has had three treasurers, Linda Burney has had more social services ministers then you can think of. That’s disunity. Debating ideas – that’s what we are paid to do.

The Australian Services Union has responded to Labor’s superannuation plan as a step in the right direction, but says more needs to be done.

Labor’s announcement that it would pay super to people on parental leave if elected to government is a long-overdue reform, advocated by the union movement for several years and will change lives. Reforms to make it easier for employers to contribute more to women’s super is also positive.

The fact that employers can avoid paying superannuation to those earning less than $450 in a given month is an injustice that clearly discriminates against women who dominate the casual and part-time workforce.

One in every two employed women works part time compared to only one in every five men, and women are 68.6% of all part-time employees, according to official data.

The ASU supports the abolition of the threshold but want to see a faster phase-in of the reform and will work with all sides of politics to achieve that.

A recent survey conducted through Galaxy Research (sample of 1,068) found 76% of Australians thought that those earning under $450 per month from an employer should earn superannuation on their income. Only 16% disagree (8% said they don’t know).

Labor is officially launching its superannuation pay gap bridge plan.

Bill Shorten, Tanya Plibersek, Chris Bowen, Clare O’Neil, Linda Burney and Jenny McAllister have come together to make the announcement.

Plibersek:

We know that Australian women, throughout their working lives, are earning less than men. We continue to see a gender pay gap. They are also retiring with less than men. As Bill said, the gap is about $130,000 on average at the moment, about 40% less than men.

There is a lot of things that we need to do over time to fix the income gap between men and women. Of course we have to address the gender pay gap during the working lives of women. But we also need to address this retirement income gap. Today’s measures are a significant step towards reducing the unequal retirement incomes of men and women.

Today, we are announcing, of course, that we will be paying superannuation to people who are on commonwealth paid parental leave, either maternity leave or dad and partner pay. That is a very big step. We are also progressively getting rid of the $450 per month threshold, below which superannuation currently isn’t paid.

We know that more and more people, instead of working one full-time job, work in multiple jobs. They are working part-time, they working cattle, doing seasonal work – quite often they are missing out on superannuation in all of those jobs.

That is also contributing to the retirement income gap between men and women. These two measures combined and the other measures we are detailing today mean that over time we will reduce the gap between men and women’s superannuation. It is absolutely unconscionable that today, in Australia, the fastest-growing group of people moving into homelessness are single, older women. Addressing this superannuation gap will help reduce that terrible statistic.

Tanya Plibersek visited the ABC this morning to talk about Labor’s superannuation plan:

There’s two main measures that we are talking about. The first is paying superannuation when someone’s on parental leave – so maternity leave or dad and partner pay.

We know that one of the big reasons that women retire with less superannuation than men is because they are taking time out of the workforce to care for their families.

The second measure is another really important one. At the moment, if you earn less than $450 a month you don’t get paid superannuation. And what we know is that more and more people are making up one income from lots of small jobs, part-time or casual jobs.

So they are missing out on superannuation in each of those jobs. We want to make sure that we move that $450 limit over time, over the next few years. We will phase it out, so that whatever job you are working, if it’s a few hours a week, you will end up getting superannuation on that job.

We are also going to make it easier for employers to make voluntary contributions to women’s super, if they want to do that. We will make sure that when we make changes to superannuation, we consider the gender impact of those changes.

Jordon Steele-John has been leading the latest push to have abuse against the disabled included as part of the aged care royal commission.

The Greens senator broke down in parliament earlier in the week while asking Mathias Cormann why it was being ignored.

Last night, he used parliamentary privilege to name some of those who had died, while in care. It’s horrific reading, but important:

Tonight, I’d like to read a passage from a speech given by my fellow disability activist and advocate Craig Wallace, who, in 2015, as part of the White Flower Memorial to commemorate all those who died in institutional and residential care, spoke to the sorrow and pain of our community.

In concluding, he said, ‘I call for those who have left us to be remembered, for their names and stories to be said out loud in the sunlight and amongst the people who love them’.

Tonight, I seek to speak their names, and though the sun does not shine in this place I hope that their stories will move the hearts of those who have it within their power to see justice done.

The following names are those who have died in the lead-up or subsequent to the Senate inquiry which called for a royal commission.

Shellay Ward, aged seven, was found locked in a room without sunlight, surrounded by faeces. Shellay died from starvation and thirst, and she weighed only nine kilograms—a third of her expected body weight. She had severe autism and was considered to be profoundly disabled.

Levi Bonnar, seven years old, was found beaten, tortured and finally killed by the people who were meant to care for him.

Hayley Dea Bell was eight years old. When she was found in 2013 she was starved, suffering from pneumonia and her hair was infested with lice and matted with dirt.

Isabella Leiper was nine. She died from a combination of internal injuries which paediatricians said were caused by blunt force to the stomach, such as a fist.

Julian was 11. He was left to freeze to death in a shed. He had first been hosed with water after having faeces rubbed in his face.

Liam Milne and his younger brother.

Craig Sullivan, 17, who was arrested for a minor driving offence and later bashed by another inmate at the Ashley youth detention centre, died in isolation from a massive brain haemorrhage.

Brandon Le Serve suffered severe learning difficulties and was killed by a family member.

Jack Sullivan, 18, died in state-funded care in the ACT from drowning.

Lara Madigan, 20, was returned to her parents’ care at 19, despite stating that they could not look after her. Nine months before her death, authorities were warned she would die if the situation was not addressed. Two weeks before her death, both of her legs were amputated to attempt to stem infection. She died covered in her own faeces and urine in a room infested with cockroaches.

Sarah Hammoud, 22, a disabled young woman who was unable to speak and reportedly half-dragged and half-carried herself from a taxi after a shocking incident, allegedly witnessed by community workers, later died in hospital in 2016 of septicaemia.

Christopher O’Brien, aged 22.

Neil Summerell.

Rebecca Lazarus was found with multiple stab wounds in her chest and abdomen in a group-care home.

Jamie Vincent Johnson, age undisclosed. His care plan stated that he should not be left alone with water because he would drink it without stopping. He died after being left alone in the shower.

Carney Schultz died in a group home. She had a seizure at 2.23am that was documented by staff and was found dead seven hours later.

Shona Hookey, 29, died as a result of medical neglect in an institutionalised setting.

Stephen Ind, 29, a quadriplegic man who made complaints of sexual assault and misconduct by his carers. He was left face down and suffocated to death.

Stuart Lambert.

Melanie Cutmore, who died in the same hospital and under similar circumstances as Shona Hookey.

Brett Ponting, 33, died after being left unsupervised in a bathtub for an extended period of time. His carers were blamed for negligence.

Darren Kingma died in his respite facility as a result of an unexplained incident in which he broke his neck. He was left on the floor for over an hour after his support workers gave up trying to pull him up, saying that he was being non-compliant.

David Veech.

Miriam Merten, a mother of two who was left naked and covered in faeces at a Lismore psychiatric hospital.

Amanda Gilbert, 47, who had an acquired brain injury as a result of attempted suicide and was placed in the Graylands hospital psychiatric care centre in my home state of WA. She was raped and assaulted 111 times and died as a result of complications used in the medication to sedate her. The WA coroner believes this to have been an underestimation of the number of times that she was raped.

Leah Elizabeth Floyd died when a pressure sore she had received at her care home became septic. The inquest heard about serious issues in the facility that she lived [in].

Julie Jacobson, a 51-year-old amputee who died a preventable, avoidable death after a private disability support provider withdrew essential supports.

Sandra Deacon, 59.

Janice and Robyn Frescura, 68 and 50. A family friend of the three people who died in a shooting near Hervey Bay says it was a mercy killing.

Shirley Thompson.

Janet Mackozdi.

Julie Betty Kuhn. A 81-year-old from Armadale was charged over his elderly partner’s apparent mercy killing. It was described as a beautiful act of mercy for his wife.

These are the names that don’t get spoken. These are the reasons. These are the human beings. These are the loved ones, the mothers, the fathers, the sons and the partners who need justice, who demand justice, whose lives were worth living, in whose memory I tonight wear a white flower and whose passing fills me with an ironclad determination. I will not stop and I will not rest until they find the justice that is so desperately owed them

Speaking of the Nationals and the ABC, Catherine Marriott, who accused Barnaby Joyce of sexual harassment (which Joyce has denied) spoke to Leigh Sales for 7.30 last night.

Gabrielle Chan reported on what she said, with the interview coming after the Nationals were unable to come to a finding on the allegations:

Marriott did not describe the incident in detail, saying she did not want to be defined by it, but she struggled over whether to make a complaint.

“[After the incident] I walked up to my hotel room and I burst into tears. I then couldn’t sleep that whole night. I didn’t actually sleep for a week.

“I rang two of my closest friends and I told them what had happened, and they said they couldn’t believe … they were just absolutely shocked, and they said, ‘You can’t tell anyone. You cannot tell anyone … you will be destroyed if this comes out’.”

Bridget McKenzie spoke about the strawberry crisis – and for growers, who are facing ramifications not just this season, but next, it is absolutely a crisis – and said consumers needed to keep it in perspective:

We have a great food safety system and we have been coordinating daily meetings between state and territories to keep abreast of the situation. You have seen commentary on social media, whipping up concern where maybe it is unnecessary.

Earlier in the week we had three punnets contaminated out of 800,000. We need to keep it in perspective. Australians need to be assured that what they are eating is safe, but we need to put it in perspective because this has huge far-reaching implications when people stop purchasing or indeed retailers such as Coles taking all strawberries off their shelves. That has flow-on effects for businesses and thousands of Australian employees that we need to consider when people go off half-cut.

The deputy Nationals leader was chatting to the ABC there.

For some reason* this bill is back on the agenda – the treasury laws amendment (working holiday maker employer register) bill 2017

Basically, it would stop the tax commissioner from making a public register that backpackers could access to see if their employers comply with tax obligations.

As a general rule, those who are transparent tend to be less exploitive employers.

The register was part of the backpacker tax legislation, which was passed in 2016. (Doesn’t that feel like a lifetime ago?)

The bill to remove the register popped up in February last year, and then last hit the Senate in May. It went away, but now is back. And all of a sudden – it didn’t hit the agenda until late yesterday.

Labor’s Andrew Leigh is against it:

We’ve heard too many reports about the exploitation of vulnerable working-holiday makers and that’s why Labor was pleased when the Libs committed to a public register of those employers that have employed working-holiday makers.

Now they’re trying to go back on that. There [is] backing in the Senate a bill that would kill off the public register. Less transparency means more exploitation and it means Australians are less likely to see the taxes paid that ought to be paid.

The Senate should vote down this bad bill. We need more transparency, stronger protection for working-holiday makers and better compliance with Australia’s tax laws.

* The reason is the government has run out of legislation after taking the Neg and company tax cuts off the table, and is yet to start working out what its policies are under Scott Morrison, creating a lag in legislation.