Australia politics live: Peter Dutton posts first TikTok video with ‘demure’ joke; Lambie on the attack over military justice

Key events

Clare O’Neil reacts to apparent attempt on Trump’s life, praises Australia’s gun laws

Housing minister Clare O’Neil spoke to the ABC this morning, appearing just after an update on the apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a Florida golf course.

Asked about political violence, O’Neil said:

Firstly, my thoughts are with Donald Trump and his family. It is absolutely awful what has happened this morning and as you pointed out, to come two months after an assassination attempt on a former president. It is a terrible thing that is going on here. Just two really quick reflections.

It worries me because America is such an important and powerful democracy and it does affect us here in Australia. Always at moments like these, I am thinking about Australia’s political culture too. We are very lucky here and I never want Australians to lose sight of that. Firstly, having really good powerful gun laws is an important part of this.

The second is a political culture where we resolve our differences at the ballot box and not through violence. This is not the case in many countries in the world and it is something precious and it is something we have got to value.

It is fragile at times and we need to support it and protect it.

One of the last things O’Neil did as home affairs minister was give a speech on a report into Australia’s democracy and how to protect it, which is an ongoing project within Home Affairs.

Housing minister Clare O’Neil. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Birmingham reiterates call for Australia to list Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp as a terrorist group

Simon Birmingham has also released a statement on Mahsa Jina Amini Day, acknowledging both her death and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement:

The Coalition, in solidarity with the Iranian-Australian community, continue to call for action against the horrific oppression of women, girls, protesters and critics of the Islamic Republic regime in Iran (IRI).

It has now been 18 months since the Senate inquiry on human rights implications of violence in Iran and it is devastating for the Iranian-Australian community that this Labor Government has only accepted two of the 12 recommendations from the report.

The IRI has demonstrated time and again over recent months that it continues to be a danger to its own citizens, and to citizens of many other countries as a result of its sponsorship of terrorism. Australia should play our part in holding the regime accountable for its abhorrent actions.

The Senate inquiry called for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp to be listed as a terrorist group. Birmingham reiterated that call today:

There is no excuse for Australia not to follow the lead of Canada and the US in listing the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, and we call on the Albanese Labor Government to take immediate action so that Australia sends a clear message that we do not tolerate acts of terrorism, no matter who commits or supports them.

The Coalition has repeatedly made clear that we offer our bipartisan support for any actions required to enable the listing of the IRGC.

And on the sanctions announced today by Penny Wong, Birmingham says:

While the Coalition welcomes the application of additional sanctions today it is for the Albanese Government to explain why these actions took twelve months longer for Australia to apply than in the United States, seemingly awaiting anniversaries or media opportunities rather than being taken as quickly as possible.

For two long years, Iranian women and girls have shown bravery to fight for their basic human rights and Australia’s position should reflect their courage. We join with the diaspora community in urging the Government to take stronger action and reiterate our bipartisan support for them to do so.

Woman. Life. Freedom.

Albanese to hold press conference to focus on housing

Anthony Albanese is kickstarting the day with an early Canberra press conference where housing will be the main focus. Clare O’Neil, the housing minister will be with him.

CFMEU report finds ‘cycle of lawlessness’ in Victorian branch

The administrator of the CFMEU Construction and General Division, Mark Irving has released the report from Geoffrey Watson, which was looking at some of the allegations made against the Victorian and Tasmanian of the CFMEU’s Construction and General Division.

The national secretary of the union, Zach Smith, commissioned the report in July 2024, following the airing of allegations in a Nine investigation and before the union was placed into administration.

Irving said the Watson report has made seven recommendations and summarises it in a statement:

The information gathered supports the allegations of criminal and corrupt conduct reported in the ‘Building Bad’ series. Further investigation is needed.

Based on the information uncovered, the Victorian Branch has been caught up in a cycle of lawlessness, where violence was an accepted part of the culture and that the CFMEU had lost control due to connections with Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and organised crime figures.

Victorian Branch officials have not only engaged in threatening and abusive behaviour, they have also been subjected to threats, violence or abuse in connexion with their work for the union.

In the course of Mr Watson’s investigations, serious threats were made to officials of the union who were seen to be cooperating with the investigation.

That on the information available, the Victorian Branch has been infiltrated by OMCG’s (outlaw motorcycle gangs) and organised crime figures.

Despite the removal of some delegates after the media reports, the Victorian Branch had no intention to fix the problem, and even if it did, more needs to be done.

The EBA process is capable of being misused to confer favours or to fulfil corrupt bargains as the result of the infiltration of outlaw motorcycle gangs and organised crime, as well as when CFMEU officers are financially induced to exercise their powers for unlawful or improper purposes.

Irving said he will give a “detailed response in the coming days”.

Birmingham warns Albanese government risks doing ‘destructive’ deals with Greens

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham has kicked off the week with a statement “warning” that “the risk of the Albanese Labor Government doing destructive deals with the Greens is enormous”.

The elephant in the room here of course, is that on some of these bills (housing being the main ones) the Greens are in the negotiating hot seat, because the Coalition hasn’t come to the table. (Others include Future Made in Australia, the RBA reforms and the nature positive/EPA bills)

Birmingham:

Many of Anthony Albanese’s big spending bills are stalled, making the government even more desperate as it tries to clear the decks for a possible early election.

Labor should rule out an avalanche of billion-dollar, economy crushing deals with the Greens in this Senate-only sitting week.

There’s a real risk that this week could give Australia a taste of just how destructive a future Labor-Greens government could be in the event of a hung parliament.

Birmingham doesn’t want Labor to turn to the Coalition – he just wants the government to drop the legislation.

Birmingham:

None of this legislation will lower inflation but it will add billions to public spending, green tape to economic activity and risk the independence of the Reserve Bank.

Labor’s bad policies need to be defeated in the Senate, not made even more costly and interventionist at the hands of the Greens.

What is interesting about this statement is that it continues a very recent trend we have seen from the Coalition – pointing to a hung parliament following the next election, and releasing the statement version of spooky music about what it could mean to have the Greens in a balance of power situation.

Opposition Senate leader Simon Birmingham. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Wong announces sanction against five more Iranians

Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong has announced sanctions against another five Iranians on what is the second anniversary of the imprisonment and death of Mahsa Jina Amini.

Wong:

Mahsa Jina Amini’s death galvanised months of protests in Iran, which were brutally quashed by Iranian security forces.

The individuals sanctioned today include senior security and law enforcement officials who have been complicit in the violent repression of protests in Iran.

The human rights situation in Iran remains dire, particularly for women and girls. In early 2024, Iranian authorities launched a new campaign to enforce mandatory hijab laws through increased surveillance and harassment. Female human rights activists continue to be detained and handed death sentences.

Today’s announcement means Australia has now brought sanctions against 195 Iran-linked individuals and entities across multiple sanctions frameworks, including almost 100 individuals and entities linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

To learn more about how Australian sanctions work, you can visit the sanctions page on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

A picture of of Mahsa Jina Amini, who died after being detained by the morality police in September 2022 in Tehran, the capital of Iran. Photograph: Tolga Ildun/Rex/Shutterstock

Daniel Hurst

Jacqui Lambie takes out ads calling for release of report on military justice watchdog

The crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie has launched a radio advertising campaign in an attempt to pressure the federal government to release a report on the military justice watchdog.

The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF) is an independent “umpire” that is responsible for overseeing “the quality and fairness of Australia’s military justice system”.

Last year the government appointed the former federal court judge Duncan Kerr to conduct a review of the office of the IGADF, with the report due to be finished by March this year.

In a 30-second advertisement to be run on 3AW, 2GB and 4BC from today, Lambie calls for the report to be released immediately:

We have just had a royal commission on veterans’ suicides and they won’t release the damn report.

The defence and veteran suicide royal commission was a separate exercise. The royal commission report, tabled in parliament last week, identified “many factors in the military justice system that can cause or aggravate poor mental health outcomes and contribute to risks of suicide and suicidality”, including a lack of consistency and “opportunities for the ‘weaponisation’ of administrative sanctions against serving members”.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, Lambie said 18 of the 122 recommendations in the royal commission report were focused on the military justice system, and that underlined the importance of having the IGADF review released.

She said some ADF members who were suffering were “not going to report their issues to military justice because they don’t trust it”. The Tasmanian senator vowed to keep running the advertisements for “as long as it takes” to get the IGADF report released.

The IGADF website states that the completed review “is currently under consideration and a response will be announced in due course”. Marles said last week that the defence and veteran suicide royal commission report was “really significant” and its recommendations would “make a huge difference”.

Senator Jacqui Lambie. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Good morning

Hello and welcome to politics live: the Senate, with the red chamber enjoying its time in the sun (and the political focus) for a Senate-only week.

Playing catch-up from estimates, the senators will be dealing with some of the backlog of legislation from the house. Chief among those bills is the second tranche of the government’s housing agenda, which is stuck between a rock (the Coalition) and a hard place (the Greens) because the government won’t bend on any negotiating point.

That will play out this week, as the Greens push the government to return to the negotiation table to try and find some common ground.

In better news for the government, it will announce the first round of funding from the Housing Australian Future Fund, which is set up to deliver social and affordable housing.

In other news, Anthony Albanese has confirmed the government will bring its social media age verification legislation to the parliament before the end of the year.

Speaking of social media, opposition leader Peter Dutton has posted his first video on the platform that the Coalition was once pushing to have banned in Australia; Tiktok. The official account now has 52 followers, and his first video (along with a demure joke, which we think gen Z moved on from two weeks ago) is about housing. Specifically about how Australia wasn’t meant to be a nation where people rented their entire lives. He links it to migration numbers, and not building enough homes. The migration numbers only tells part of the story; numbers under the last Morrison government were projected to be higher, there’s been a rush because the borders were closed for so long, and includes international students who are more likely to live in student accomodation. The former Reserve Bank governor, Phil Lowe, had previously pointed to the fact that after the pandemic lockdowns, people wanted their own houses, which cut down on supply (you may have remembered his “live in the spare room” clumsy point. And Dutton himself was a key part of a government that was in power for almost a decade and Australia’s housing issues didn’t emerge in a vacuum.

Still, it points to the Coalition returning to housing and cost of living as one of it’s main issues in the lead-up to the election.

We’ll cover all of that, and more, as the Senate-only week gets under way.

You have Karen Middleton, Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst, Josh Butler and Sarah Basford Canales with you in Canberra, as well as the entire Guardian Australia brains trust to help round out your day. And you’ll have Amy Remeikis with you on the blog for most of the day.

Third coffee is on the stove. Ready? Let’s get into it.