It’s been a privilege sitting in for Amy today. Thanks for tuning in.

Amy will be back in the first week of October when Parliament resumes, with just the House sitting and Senators busy with Estimates, which is always great fun.

Like everything involving Parliament this year, it’s a reduced fixture of Estimates and a three-day sitting week, because of the public holiday in some states and territories.

Don’t forget to keep your eye on The Australia Institute website for all our research, opinions, podcasts, events and much, much more.

Something very special is coming soon!!!!!

The ABC is reporting that Ben Roberts-Smith has failed in his final bid to overturn his long-running defamation case.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-04/nsw-ben-roberts-smith-special-leave-application-rejected-court/105733410?

Here’s how Mike Bowers saw Question Time in the “other place”, where Senator Lidia Thorpe was asked to cover a tee shirt with an “offensive” image.

The ABC quoted this post Trump made on his social media platform Truth Social, which it said was a “barbed response”: “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America.” But it’s nothing new that China, Russia, and North Korea are friendly with each other, and Trump knows that.

Is it perhaps possible that, here, Trump was just being sarcastic? Of course there is geopolitical tension in the air, but not everything contributes to it all the time. Elsewhere, Trump had this to say of China’s military parade: “I thought it was very, very impressive, but I understood the reason they were doing it, and they were hoping I was watching—and I was watching.” And he immediately followed up saying “My relationship with all of them is very good.”

Trump was the first US President to meet with a leader of North Korea since the nation was created with the end of the Korean War, and it’s been less than a month since he rolled out the red carpet for Putin’s visit to Alaska. The spectacle of heads of states meeting together is just one part of international politics; a lot of it happens in the background, including the gradual shifts in countries’ economic and military strengths. So we would be better off to keep these spectacles in perspective as well.

The footy.

The final siren has sounded.

Question time – and this parliamentary fortnight – is over.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:

Mr Speaker, having had questions from this side about cost of living, wages, economic growth, AUKUS, social cohesion, Robodebt, social security and Medicare, I ask that further questions be placed on the notice paper and I suggest to those opposite that they go touch grass during the break and get in touch, get in touch with what Australians are concerned about.

Dai Le asks about the cost of net zero and battery rebates.

Prime Minister isn’t it true that your government’s approach to net zero is leaving almost zero dollars in the pockets of families and small businesses and how exactly will the household battery rebate help them?

Chris Bowen takes it.

The Member for Fowler has said in a previous life the cheaper home batteries policy is of little use in her electorate.

People in the outer suburbs understand cheaper home batteries is one way they can reduce their bills permanently.

Kate Chaney rises on a point of order, claiming Barnaby Joyce has used language she’d prefer not to repeat in front of children in the gallery. He’s warned (that he might get a warning!)

Back to the debate.

OH, LORD. PLEASE CAN WE END THIS?

Chris Bowen puts us out of our misery.

We will continue to act on cost of living full-time with full energy not part-time.

The Attorney-General is on her feet again, taking a dixer on Robodebt:

Today the Albanese government reached an historic agreement to settle knocks and the Commonwealth, an appeal from the original Robodebt class action settlement in 2020. Today’s settlement demonstrates this government’s to addressing the harms caused to so many Australians by the former Liberal government through their disastrous and illegal Robodebt scheme.

None of us should forget former minister Tudge saying to former Australians, ‘We’ll find you, we’ll track you down. You will have to repaper those debts and you may end up in prison.’

The Robodebt scheme has cost taxpayers over $1 billion. Yet the most significant cost of Robodebt cannot be measured in dollars and cents. It can only be measured in human terms because the Robodebt scheme destroyed lives. The Albanese government has been left to clean up this shameful mess left by those opposite and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

While the objective of those opposite was to attack innocent Australians, this government’s objective in settling this matter is clear, to get a fair outcome for the victims of Robodebt.

Kate Chaney asks about AI nude fakes:

Front-line police are being overwhelmed by the increasing scale and depravity of child sexual abuse driven by AI tools. Next week is National Child Protection Week and the theme is shifting conversation to action. The government has a crackdown nude apps which is a part. We need action. Will the government implement that announcement and go support my bill to criminalise the use of AI tools designed to create this horrific material?

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland:

Thank you. I thank the member for her question and the very constructive engagement we have had on this matter. Of course, it is absolutely of great concern to not only the government but to all of civil society that some of the applications we have seen and some of the technology that we have seen developed is so harmful not only to people generally in our society but particularly to young people. Of course, we know that the member has a bill that she has presented, which will, of course, be given due consideration by the government. I will make three key points. This is precisely the reason why this government, in the last term, brought forward the statutory review of the Online Safety Act by a year. We have now had the release of that report brought forward by the member for communications in terms of the government’s response and as has been made very clear, which is my second point, has been made very clear by this government we are considering not only those issues very closely but also we have announced that we will take steps in relation to these apps which have no place.

The LNP’s Phillip Thompson attempts another clumsy question about Daniel Andrews. He gets there eventually. Not really worth transcribing.

The Prime Minister swats it away.

Everyone should comply with the law. It’s as simple as that. Everyone should comply with the law. Simple as that. That’s my job. This is a rather bizarre question.

In 2015 when the Abbott Liberal government introduced Robodebt, the slated net savings were $1.5 billion over four years. His successors as PM, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison were in charge as this policy ran its devastating course.

These projected savings have now been entirely outshone by the resulting legal fallout. Today the Federal Government agreed to pay a $548.3 million settlement, taking the total payout to $2.4 billion. This does not factor in all the government’s legal costs, nor the uncounted hours of public service time spent in the fallout and resulting inquiries.

Robodebt was only uncovered through institutions that safeguard accountability, notably the Commonwealth Ombudsman and Senate committees. Unfortunately, the government is actively trying to weaken our transparency laws through amendments to Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, according to the ABC:

[The changes] would also “clarify” the rules about when documents could be deemed confidential because they related to cabinet processes, an avenue the Robodebt royal commission found was routinely abused by public servants as an excuse to refuse FOI requests.

The details of this “clarification” are not yet known, but the ABC understands the change may lead to more documents being labelled as cabinet confidential, not fewer.