Australia news live: Katy Gallagher says ‘my conscience is clear’ after Linda Reynolds demands apology for questions over Brittany Higgins allegations
Reynolds uses final Senate estimates appearance to seek apology from Gallagher
The former defence minister Linda Reynolds has used her final Senate estimates appearance to request an apology from finance minister Katy Gallagher.
She requested an apology to herself, her staff and family “for all of the damage that has been wrought on them by you and by others in the Labor Party”. Gallagher said she had already spoken to this in the chamber, facing two weeks of questions from the opposition on this, but offered:
I am sorry that you have been hurt by all of this. But I – and I’ve gone back and had a look at the questions I’ve asked – I believe the questions I ask, in my role, when you’re a minister and you’re accountable for what happened in your office, were reasonable.
Reynolds interjected, saying “so that’s a no” on whether Gallagher would apologise. Gallagher went on:
No, that is not a no … You were a minister, you were accountable for what happened in your office, and we asked questions about an alleged sexual assault in this building. And I would believe that other senators in a similar circumstance would ask exactly the same questions.
But did I seek to cause harm to you or anyone else? No. I asked questions that I think most people would expect would have been asked with such serious allegations about what has happened in this building and the changes that we have put in place since to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again.
Reynolds stood up and left, again stating “so that’s a no”. Gallagher said that was her “editorialising”. LNP senator James McGrath interjected and the exchange became heated. Gallagher told him:
My conscience is clear … An alleged rape had happened in this building …
Key events
Winter crops drop after record season
The Australian Bureau of Statistics says there was a 27% drop in winter broadacre crop production sold in 2023-24, with 50m tonnes of production sold.
Rob Walter, ABS head of agriculture statistics, said the drop in production sold drove a 29% drop in value to $18.7bn:
After having one of the best seasons on record in 2022-23, the drier conditions across large parts of Australia lead to 27% less winter broadacre crop production being sold nationally and generally lower yields.
Wheat, barley and canola made up 93% of total winter crop production sold and was valued at $16.5bn. There were 28m tonnes of wheat sold in 2023-24, a 32% fall from 2022-23. The local value of wheat fell 35% in 2023-24 to $8.8bn.
Australian winter broadacre crops covered an area of 20.5m hectares in 2023-24, 3m hectares less than the previous season, the ABS said.
Australia also produced 29.9m tonnes of sugarcane in 2023-24, 2.7m tonnes less that in 2022-23. Despite this, local value rose by $692m to $2.2bn off the back of strong sugar prices, the ABS said.
Pacific worker labour scheme wage boost changes delayed
Pacific island workers in Australia under a working visa scheme will have to wait nine months longer for changes that would boost their wages, AAP reports.
Workers from 10 countries can come to Australia and be employed across a range of sectors including agriculture and meat processing to fill labour gaps under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (Palm) scheme.
They have to be paid for at least 120 hours a month, but this was set to change to at least 30 hours a week from 1 July. Hours would be averaged over the course of a month, meaning that in some weeks, workers could do 20 hours and more than 40 in other weeks.
By ensuring people need to be paid for 30 hours a week, this could increase wage payments as businesses would need to account for extra hours in slower weeks, and then still pay overtime in busier weeks.
This change has been pushed back until 31 March 2026 as the federal government reviews the terms following consultations. The employment minister, Murray Watt, said it was “best to leave the Palm settings as they are for the moment while we better understand the impact of the changes that we’ve made”.
His department has been reviewing the scheme’s minimum hours requirement to ensure Pacific workers are adequately paid and not suffering from any unreasonable cost deductions during their time in Australia.
There were around 27,000 participants in the scheme working across almost 500 businesses in December.
NSW records first Japanese encephalitis death since 2022
New South Wales has recorded its first death of a person with Japanese encephalitis (JE) since May 2022.
NSW Health said a man in his 70s from northern Sydney died on 23 February in a Sydney hospital, where he had been receiving care for JE since early February. A statement said it is likely the man acquired JE while on holiday in the Murrumbidgee region in January.
This is the state’s third confirmed death from JE since the virus was first detected in NSW in 2022. NSW Health expresses its sincere condolences to his loved ones.
NSW Health said an additional case of JE has also been identified in a woman in her 60s in northern NSW, who likely acquired the infection on her rural property in Tenterfield Shire. She is receiving care in hospital.
NSW Health’s executive director of health protection, Dr Jeremy McAnulty, said it is important “all people take precautions against mosquitoes, not just those living in affected regions.” He said JE was “a risk you must consider” if travelling west of the Great Dividing Range.
JE virus is spread by mosquitoes and can infect animals and humans. Here is an explainer on the virus from 2022:
Sarah Basford Canales
Public service officials discuss releasing confidential chapter of robodebt royal commission report
Public service officials say they’ve held discussions about the public release of a confidential chapter within the robodebt royal commission’s final report, a Senate estimates hearing has heard.
The “sealed” chapter, which contains the names of public servants and other government officials referred to the Australian federal police and the National Anti-Corruption Commission among other bodies, has remained hidden from the public view while further investigations are under way.
Earlier this month, the Nacc announced it was re-opening its investigation into six individuals referred to the body by the royal commission for potential corrupt conduct after it had earlier dropped the investigations.
At a Senate estimates hearing this afternoon, the Australian Public Service Commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer, confirmed his agency had been in discussions with the attorney general’s department regarding the possible public release of the sealed chapter.
The public service minister, Katy Gallagher, said she had also received advice from “relevant agencies” regarding its release but declined to comment further.
I don’t think I can [say what’s been discussed], at the moment, while there’s matters ongoing. We are just, you know, mindful of the work of the Nacc.
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told the National Press Club in July 2024 ongoing processes meant the government hadn’t quite closed the curtain on the robodebt royal commission’s response.
The following month, the former government services minister, Bill Shorten, said he had not yet “won” the argument in convincing his colleagues to publicly release the sealed section.
Kelly Burke
Past creators of Venice Biennale’s Australia Pavilion call for transparent inquiry
Continuing from our last post:
The open letter also calls for a transparent inquiry into the processes of selection, invitation and withdrawal, which the curators say has put the future of the Australian presentation at the Venice Biennale into question, eroded the respect and international recognition of Australian art accrued by mutual efforts over decades, and threatened the principle of artistic independence.
We are stunned that in these fraught times, the Creative Australia board and CEO took no time to defend their decision against uninformed comments on Sabsabi’s early works by those who had not even seen them. Rather than fostering civil discussion of complex subjects, their reactive move has inflamed a polarised debate.
Kelly Burke
Past creators of Venice Biennale’s Australia Pavilion pen open letter to Creative Australia
Another open letter of protest over the dismissal of artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino has been sent to the board of Creative Australia and its chief executive, Adrian Collette, this one from past curators of the Venice Biennale’s Australian Pavilion stretching back more than four decades.
The petition has been signed by a dozen past curators, from Grazia Gunn who curated the Arthur Boyd exhibition back in 1988, to Ellie Buttrose who curated last year’s Golden Lion award-winning exhibition by Archie Moore.
The open letter calls for the reinstatement of Sabsabi and Dagostino, who had the biennale contract withdrawn by the government’s principal arts investment and advisory body just six days after being announced as Australia’s representatives for the prestigious 2026 world event.
The open letter says past curators express their “dismay and disillusionment” at Creative Australia’s “abrupt, unexplained and unprecedented reversal” of its decision.
Creative Australia was established to ‘uphold and promote freedom of expression in the arts’ and ‘to support Australian arts practice that reflects the diversity of Australia’. Today these defining words have a hollow ring, at odds with our prior understanding of the role of Australia’s peak arts body.
Domino’s shares battered as store closures hit profits
Traders have taken a slice out of Domino’s Pizza’s share price, AAP reports, after restructuring costs from store closures hit profits.
Shares in the Australian-based offshoot of the American fast food chain plunged more than 11% this morning as investors chewed a $22m loss for the six months ended 29 December.
The loss was a result of Domino’s incurring $115.6m in restructuring costs, of which $80.6m was related to the recently announced closure of 205 loss-making stores, the majority of which were in the struggling Japanese market.
Domino’s chief executive Mark van Dyck said the “decisive” closures were among the first outcomes of a comprehensive business review intended to simplify the company and improve profitability.
Excluding non-recurring items, which also included legal costs and the rollout of a new finance and supply system, Domino’s recorded a 5.7% drop in net profit after tax compared to the same period the year prior.
Network sales fell 2.9% to $2.08bn, including a negative impact from foreign exchange fluctuations and store closures.
On a positive note, franchisee profitability rose 13.7% and same store sales grew 1.3%.
Catie McLeod
H7N8 bird flu detected on fourth poultry farm in Victoria
The H7N8 high pathogenicity avian influenza (bird flu) has been detected at a fourth poultry farm in Euroa, in north-eastern Victoria.
Agriculture Victoria said the new detection is within the 5km restricted area and in close proximity to the three other infected properties.
Before today, the latest detection had been on 20 February.
Victoria’s acting chief veterinary officer, Dr Cameron Bell, said the new detection was “not unexpected” given how close the affected properties were to each other.
This detection is the result of comprehensive and ongoing surveillance activities by Agriculture Victoria staff within restricted and control areas.
Control orders have been in place since the H7N8 strain was first detected on a poultry farm on 8 February.
The orders restrict the movement of poultry, poultry products, equipment, and vehicles on or off properties in designated zones around the infected properties to prevent the spread of the disease.
These zones include a restricted area covering a 5km radius around the farms, with a broader control area spanning the Strathbogie Shire east of the Goulburn Valley Freeway, and including the townships of Euroa, Violet Town, Longwood, Ruffy, Avenel and Strathbogie.
Krishani Dhanji
Government questioned on whether it will pursue Treaty and Truth following previous election promise
Over in legal estimates, the shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, has been testing the government on whether they’ll pursue Treaty and Truth, after promising to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full at the last election.
Don Farrell is in the hot seat, representing the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, and won’t bite on Cash’s attempt to force Labor to rule out pursuing Treaty and Truth if it’s returned to government.
Farrell says Labor had promised a referendum on the voice and delivered on that, but won’t tell the next government what to do.
With time ticking down before the election is called, Farrell says, “what the government will take to the next election will be very clear”.
Cash has also levelled an accusation at Dreyfus, saying he’d said to someone at an event that the government would try to “circumvent” the referendum result, but hasn’t provided any details on when or where that occurred. Farrell says he won’t “dignify that [accusation] with a response”.
Shortage of funnel-web spiders puts anti-venom program at risk, Reptile Park says
The Australian Reptile Park says it is urgently seeking more funnel-web spider donations to help sustain its venom program.
The park said this year’s funnel-web season had been slower than usual but upcoming humid and wet weather across Sydney was set to increase sightings of the spider.
Funnel-webs seek out sheltered, shady spots during rain, making houses and gardens the perfect environment. The park said it had received far fewer spiders than normal for this time of year, “which could have deadly consequences”.
No funnel-web bites have led to death since antivenom was introduced in 1981, but the park said:
Without a steady supply of spiders, the program is at risk.
Spider keeper Emma Teni is urging the public to catch any funnel-web spider they come across:
Every spider received could be the one that saves a life. The venom program relies entirely on public donations of these spiders, and without them, the production of antivenom— which has saved countless Australians— would not be possible.
To learn more about how to safely capture a funnel-web and donate it you can have a read online here.
Government releases response to review of paid family and domestic violence leave
This morning the government released its response to an independent review of the paid family and domestic violence leave.
The review found the leave was “life changing” for those accessing it and that there was broad stakeholder support from employers and unions.
In a statement from the minister for finance and women, Katy Gallagher, social services minister Amanda Rishworth and employment minister Murray Watt, they said the government accepts all five recommendations from the review. Work is now under way on:
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Integrating the leave as an ordinary workplace practice across Australian workplaces.
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Providing tailored guidance for priority cohorts, such as First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse and casual employees.
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Training programs for first responders, health, allied health and community frontline workers who commonly interact with victim-survivors on the entitlement.
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Additional strategies to improve awareness and access to the entitlement.
The review also found that “ongoing stigma around family and domestic violence was a barrier to workers accessing the leave”, the joint statement said. The statement said resources would be updated and re-promoted to incorporate feedback from the review.
Cait Kelly
Everybody’s Home says ‘poll after poll’ shows support for winding back negative gearing and capital gains tax
Continuing from our last post: Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said the “worst housing crisis in living memory is smashing Australians” and “voters are ready to turn their pain into political power”:
Poll after poll has shown us that voters are open to winding back investor tax breaks like negative gearing and the CGT discount. This poll shows that voters strongly favour affordable homes over investor tax breaks. Twice as many voters say funding affordable housing, rather than property investor tax breaks, is the fairest way for the federal government to address housing affordability.
Phasing out investor tax breaks isn’t just fair, it will make housing more affordable. Every dollar that goes to property investors through tax breaks is a dollar that could build social housing for Australians.
Voters are demanding the next federal government make commitments that match the scale of the housing crisis. That means building more social housing, ending investor tax breaks and strengthening renter protections.
