Lidia Thorpe calls on federal police to intervene over Camp Sovereignty incident
Senator Lidia Thorpe has called for neo-Nazi protesters who targeted Melbourne’s Camp Sovereignty to be investigated for hate crimes.
“This is a hate crime and it needs to be seen for that,” she told the ABC just now.
The senator continued:
Camp Sovereignty is a sacred space; it is our place of worship. If it were a mosque or a synagogue, it would be taken more seriously, and people would be up for hate crimes.
I’m calling on the federal police to step in here and investigate hate crimes related to Camp Sovereignty.
Key events
Dave Sharma: Katter’s behaviour towards a journalist ‘menancing’ and ‘unfair’
Dave Sharma says Bob Katter’s behaviour towards a journalist who questioned him about his Lebanese ancestry was “pretty menacing”.
The Liberal senator told the ABC a short time ago:
I watched the exchange and I think it was pretty menacing. And it was unfair to the journalist concerned [who] was asking a legitimate question.
Joining him on Afternoon Briefing, Labor MP Josh Burns agreed.
“In no way do I think the journalist was being out of order. I also agree that the standards that apply to us as elected representatives should [never] depend on who the representative is,” he said.
Read more here:
Benita Kolovos
Allan: ‘I never expected to come face-to-face with a neo-Nazi’
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has posted a video on Instagram after being confronted by neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell at a press conference earlier today.
I never expected to come face-to-face with a neo-Nazi in the early parts of a Tuesday morning at a press conference, but it reminded me of the work my government is doing every single day to continue to support Victorians – regardless of which background they’re from, whoever they pray to, whoever they love – that they have the right to do so freely and safely in our great state. And I’ll continue to fight for every single Victorian and push back against this odious, evil behaviour of such a small number of people who I know that’s not who Victorians truly are.
Allan said over the course of the day she had been reminded Victoria is a “fair” “united” and “strong society”.
There is no place for this evil behaviour. There is no place for this division, and I’ll keep fighting for the strong, fair Victoria we all know and love.
In a separate post on X, Allan revealed she met with multicultural and multi-faith groups in Hampton Park, in Melbourne’s south-east.
“Memo to no one in particular: this is what the real Victoria looks like. And we’re better for it,” her post read.
Different families, different faiths, but the same Victorian values: love for our neighbours, respect for each other, and pride in ourselves.
Lidia Thorpe calls on federal police to intervene over Camp Sovereignty incident
Senator Lidia Thorpe has called for neo-Nazi protesters who targeted Melbourne’s Camp Sovereignty to be investigated for hate crimes.
“This is a hate crime and it needs to be seen for that,” she told the ABC just now.
The senator continued:
Camp Sovereignty is a sacred space; it is our place of worship. If it were a mosque or a synagogue, it would be taken more seriously, and people would be up for hate crimes.
I’m calling on the federal police to step in here and investigate hate crimes related to Camp Sovereignty.
Benita Kolovos
Thomas Sewell and associates arrested for attack on Melbourne’s Camp Sovereignty, police say
Victoria police have confirmed Thomas Sewell and two associates were arrested outside court in relation to the attack on Camp Sovereignty, an Indigenous protest site, on Sunday.
In a statement, they said:
Detectives from Melbourne Crime Investigation Unit attended Melbourne magistrates court about 3.20pm this afternoon. Officers arrested a 32-year-old man from Balwyn, a 23-year-old man from Mooroolbark and a 20-year-old man from Ardeer. They are being interviewed in relation to an ongoing investigation into alleged assaults in King’s Domain about 5pm on 31 August.
Opposition senator Paul Scarr: immigration putting pressure on housing, services
Senator Paul Scarr, the shadow immigration, citizenship and multicultural affairs minister, says the Albanese government’s decision to keep the permanent migration intake at 185,000 comes with “no explanation” as to how the figure will reflect “the very real pressures” faced by Australians.
In a statement, Scarr says “Labor’s decision to bring in one million people in just its first two years of government has put enormous pressure on housing, infrastructure and essential services. Families are struggling to find a home, communities are feeling the strain, and the cost of poor planning is being carried by every Australian”.
He added the delay in the government’s announcement of the figure was “unacceptable”:
There is no explanation regarding how this announcement of the permanent migration intake reflects the very real pressures facing modern Australia. It is made on 2 September, more than two months after the financial year began. That delay is unacceptable and shows a government with no plan for one of the most important portfolios shaping our future.
‘I will not be intimidated by those buffoons’ says Labor’s Josh Burns
With the government’s permanent migration intake set to remain at 185,000 people, Labor MP Josh Burns suggests a “sensible conversation about migration” is needed – but that recent anti-immigration rallies were not the right way to have that conversation.
“We need to find the right balance of skills, of workers, making sure we have enough people to serve the different parts of our economy” the Labor MP told the ABC just now.
Outside the steps of parliament, having neo-Nazis giving the keynote address – that is not a sensible conversation about migration. That is an ugly, bigoted and hurtful display.
You cannot have neo-Nazis running up and down the street [in] black uniforms pretending that they are tough. These people have no place – that sort of behaviour has no place, those attitudes have no place in Australia and they must be confronted … Victorians will not be intimidated, Australians will not be intimidated, I will not be intimidated by those buffoons.
Benita Kolovos
Thomas Sewell arrested outside Melbourne’s magistrate court
Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell has been arrested outside court just hours after he confronted the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, at a press conference.
Footage shows a large group of police and protective services officers handcuffing Sewell and an associate outside Melbourne’s magistrate court on Tuesday afternoon.
Victoria police have not confirmed the reason for Sewell’s arrest.
Tom McIlroy
Procedural motion could force progress on aged care
The Greens, crossbench senators and the Coalition are losing patience with the government on aged care and look set to force a vote on important amendments tomorrow.
Labor has reorganised bills in the Senate this week to delay votes on its aged care legislation, coming as non-government senators expect to pass amendments which would immediately allocate home care places.
Labor is delaying those allocations until after new rules come into force on 1 November.
The new rules were originally slated to start on 1 July but were put off to allow extra time for the transition.
Greens spokesperson Penny Allman-Payne said a procedural motion planned for tomorrow could force the issue.
“Every day that Labor delays action is another day that our parents and grandparents are going without the help they need,” she said.
Labor needs to act on this now, and if they aren’t prepared to do so, the Senate will do it for them.
The aged care minister, Sam Rae, faced another round of questions in the lower house this afternoon. He was pushed to say how many older Australians have died while waiting for home care packages.
“In the last financial year that number was 4,812 as provided by the department to the Senate in the hearings last week,” Rae said.
‘This has nothing to do with the release of home care packages’ says Ruston
In Question Time a little earlier, the minister for aged care, Sam Rae, would initially not provide a number for how many elderly Australians had died waiting for a home care package – but he did say the deferral was previously supported by the opposition.
When asked why she had changed her mind, shadow minister, Anne Ruston, told the ABC just now:
No, let’s be clear, I haven’t changed my mind at all. I did agree that the government wasn’t ready for the reforms to be in place by the first of July, and that was through their own fault. They had been warned, but nonetheless, we didn’t want to see older Australians adversely impacted by a change in system before it was ready.
This has got nothing to do with the release of home care packages. Home care packages have been released for many, many years, and the only thing standing in the way of the government releasing home care packages right now to older Australians … is the government’s refusal to release them.
So I think the minister’s being a little disingenuous today to try and suggest that the reform framework, in any way relates to providing care.
Daisy Dumas
Good afternoon and thank you, Krishani Dhanji. Let’s get straight on with the remainder of the day’s live news coverage.
Krishani Dhanji
Fatima Payman: ‘a rizz-less, aura-less, unc prime minister is running the show’
That’s it from me today. Thanks so much for following the blog, you’ll now be in the very capable hands of Daisy Dumas.
But before I go, I leave you with Labor turned independent senator Fatima Payman’s ‘brainrot 2.0’ speech to the Senate.
Labor is still “capping” she says (which means lying in Gen Z speak) and calls Anthony Albanese a “rizz-less, aura-less, unc” prime minister, (unc is basically an out of touch uncle).
“When a rizz-less, aura-less, unc prime minister is running the show, a chopped government is what follows,” Payman says.
“It’s so performative,” she continues, of the government (unironically).
There are too many references to you sigmas of Australia – so I’ll let you watch the video here.
Here’s what happened in question time
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The opposition used all their questions – bar one – to pile pressure on aged care minister Sam Rae about the government’s decision to defer the rollout of more than 80,000 additional home care packages.
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It was a tactic the Coalition also followed yesterday – and tried to get the minister to apologise, and say how many elderly Australians have died waiting for a home care package since he became the minister (he wouldn’t do either).
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Energy minister Dan Tehan was kicked out of the chamber, after a verbal brawl with the prime minister, and Anthony Albanese begrudgingly withdrew an unparliamentary remark he made.
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The government used its first couple of dixers to taunt the Coalition, after Matt Canavan revealed he would try to introduce a bill to scrap the 2050 emissions reduction target in the Senate.
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There were two climate questions from the crossbench – Monique Ryan tried to press Chris Bowen on the 20-year methane leak at a Santos plant in Darwin, while Allegra Spender pushed Albanese on tackling climate change before the Pacific Islands Forum next week.
Sarah Basford Canales
Snap committee to examine bill to fast-track deportation of NZYQ cohort
The Albanese government’s bill to expedite the deportation of about 280 members of the NZYQ cohort will face a snap committee inquiry tomorrow night.
A motion, put forward by the Coalition in the Senate, was agreed to shortly after the upper house’s question time today, which means there will be a hearing tomorrow from 5pm for about two hours.
The Coalition had already agreed to pass the bill subject to the short committee hearing.
It was introduced last Wednesday before the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, announced on Friday a $400m deal with Nauru for it to accept more members of the NZYQ cohort.
The bill would remove natural justice and procedural fairness for non-citizens on a pathway for removal from Australia. This means the changes could affect more than the original 280 within the NZYQ cohort
Indigenous affairs minister getting security briefing on far-right attack on Aboriginal protest site
Josh Butler
Far-right attacks on Melbourne’s Camp Sovereignty were “reprehensible”, federal Indigenous affairs minister Malarndirri McCarthy say.
Circling back to the Labor party room meeting a few hours ago (it’s been a big day), one Labor MP asked about startling footage of violence and damage at the Indigenous encampment, after rallies on Sunday against immigration.
The discussion in Labor’s meeting came after Anthony Albanese said “not everybody there was associated with neo-Nazis”, but raised concerns about polarisation, radicalisation and people going down “rabbit holes” to extremism.
One Labor MP asked McCarthy, the Northern Territory senator, about the attacks at Camp sovereignty in Melbourne. The minister described the events as “absolutely reprehensible”, and added “I have never seen this kind of attack in my parliamentary career”. She claimed those responsible did not care if they were seen.
The minister said she was receiving security briefings on the topic.
After a final dixer on Medicare – where Mark Butler says ‘neglect’ what feels like a near record number of times in two minutes, question time is over for another day.
Albanese says he will attend Pacific Islands Forum next week ‘not as a block to climate action’
Allegra Spender asks the PM next what the government is doing to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees, and what – before attending the Pacific Islands Forum next week – assurances he’ll provide to the Pacific that Australia is doing enough to reduce emissions.
It follows more warnings from ex-defence force chief Chris Barrie, who joined Spender and other cross benchers today, urging greater action to tackle climate change.
The government is also under pressure with a decision on the 2035 targets and the release of the climate risk assessment due this month.
Albanese says he’ll be attending PIF next week as a participant, “not as a block to climate action”.
The PM mentions the agreement with Tuvalu to bring 280 Tuvalu citizens to Australia each year under a climate migration deal.
The member quite rightly quotes Adm Barrie and the fact this is a national security issue and it is.
