We are about 20 minutes away from the final question time of the sitting.
And if you believe some of the election obsessives, of this parliament.

We don’t know when the election will be called. And ultimately, it doesn’t matter because government’s call it when they think it is most advantageous, and constant speculation about WHEN THAT MIGHT BE isn’t going to change that.

So go take a break and prepare for a mess.

And then this morning, as part of his weekly love in with Sydney radio station 2GB (a day early for Valentine’s Day, what a shame!) Peter Dutton then whirred up the citizenship debate again.

It was in the context of the Sydney nurses who have been stood down but it very quickly went to stripping people of Australian citizenship.

This is something Peter Dutton tried to do during the Malcolm Turnbull years, but lost that battle to then Attorney-general George Brandis, who despite his faults, is a student of law and was steadfast in how attempts to do what Dutton wanted were ILLEGAL.

A law was put in place for dual citizens. The high court had some things to say about that, so in 2023 Labor passed a new law that allowed for the people aged 14 or older to be stripped of citizenship “if the serious convictions “demonstrate that the person has repudiated their allegiance to Australia”. This includes cases of terrorism, espionage, advocating mutiny, foreign interference, and offences related to the use of explosives or lethal devices”.

Now Australia has just passed hate speech laws which make the line of what a ‘serious offence’ is very blurry. And Dutton is indicating he wants to see dual citizens stripped of their citizenship in cases like this. And he wants to make it an election issue:

As I say, I think it’s a conversation for our country at some point, maybe sooner than later, about how we can say to these people, ‘if you don’t share our values, if you’re here and you’re enjoying the welfare system and you’re enjoying free health and free education, then at the same time you hate our country, well, I don’t think you’ve got a place here’. So, I think there is a time for a public debate about the inadequacies of the system that we’ve got at the moment and how we can address it. “

We are on a very slippery slope here.

LNP senator Paul Scarr, who spoke after Peter Whish-Wilson immediately jumped to the defence of both Advance, and the Atlas Network:

What an extraordinary spray that was! My goodness. I’ve just gone onto the website of Atlas Network, and this is their vision; I’ll quote it for the record:
‘The Atlas Network vision is of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where the principles of individual liberty, property rights, limited government, and free markets are secured by the rule of law’.
What an outrageous proposition, Senator Whish-Wilson!

As part of the general blurb you gave there, can I just say to my friends at the Institute of Public Affairs and the Centre for Independent Studies: what you’re doing must be working. It must be working if you have a Greens senator getting up in this place and giving you such a spray.

Keep doing what you’re doing.

When the people of Australia go to vote at the next federal election, they have every right
to know the detail of the radical, extreme Greens’ economic and social policies, because they’d have a devastating impact upon the Australian people. So more strength to your arm, I say.

Peter Whish-Wilson finished with:

Advance and a proliferation of other dodgy groups have campaigned against offshore wind farms, supposedly saying they kill whales, an entirely false claim that has been at the centre of exactly the same campaign against clean energy mounted by—guess who?—Atlas units in the United States like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which is funded by fossil fuel interests and climate denial specialists
the Heartland Institute, which is, once again, funded by big oil.

This is particularly acute and relevant to us now, and I ask people who are interested in this subject to go onto the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee’s public page for its inquiry into offshore wind, where there is some very telling evidence from Dr Jeremy Walker about how this all works and the extraordinary efforts and resources that have been committed in the United States and here in Australia to undermine the offshore rollout of wind and other renewable energies. The entire pro-nuclear campaign that is now dominating the headlines is also linked to Advance and to the Atlas Network.

I want to talk a little bit more about the news today. It was reported that Advance is now under investigation by the Victorian Electoral Commission for potential violations of campaign finance law after receiving half a million dollars from the Cormack Foundation, the same funding entity that donated a million dollars to the Victorian Liberal Party in 2023-24.

The elite billionaire rich-listers backing Advance play as dirty as the coal they so desperately want
to keep digging out of the ground. These people have no interest in progressing policy that would materially benefit working Australians, bring down the cost of living or make people’s lives easier. Advance is not a mainstream voice for Australians; it is a Liberal Party aligned campaign group funded by coal barons and multimillionaire investment managers. It is using the divisive language and campaign strategies perfected by conservative American think tanks to do the Liberal Party’s dirty work.

Have no doubt: Advance wants to turn Australia into America. Is that what we want?

Advance are terrified because analysts are predicting a shared-power parliamentary arrangement after the next election, where the Greens will push to put dental and mental health into Medicare, build more affordable homes and stop new coal and gas projects paid for by Advance’s billionaire donors. This election, the Greens are within reach of winning seats across the country, and Advance are desperately trying to stop that. We wear that as a badge of honour. But we know that, when the Atlas Network and Advance’s mask is ripped off, people will see right through them and their wealthy elites and the way the LNP couples themselves to them and their donors.

What is astroturfing? Peter Whish-Wilson told the Senate:

Astroturfing is the intentional creation and fostering of ostensibly grassroots political action groups by strategic communications experts. The far right uses this tactic to build superficial authenticity in what are in fact highly elaborate, professional, socially and environmentally damaging PR and disinformation campaigns. Advance launders far-right ideology through fake grassroots organisations and Facebook pages, and Advance has no problems using its resources and millionaires’ money to sow division and doubt.

We saw this firsthand during the Voice; we are seeing it manifesting itself in many other ways now. Many Australians don’t know it, but this Voice campaign wasn’t led by Peter Dutton; the Voice campaign was led by two individuals who had their entire political careers generated from the Australian arm of the global Atlas Network of so-called free market think tanks and their spin-off campaign units.

Little information or media attention was ever provided to the Australian people or voters on the organisation Advance—who they were, who they represented and who was paying for it. To better understand Advance, we need to understand where Advance comes from. We need to understand who is behind Advance’s mission to destroy climate action, stop progressive social policy and line the pockets of billionaires and multinational fossil fuel corporations at the expense of working Australians. Advance was spun out of two existing Atlas think tanks in Australia: the Centre for Independent Studies and the Institute of Public Affairs. Its donors include Sam Kennard, a multimillionaire on the board of the Centre for Independent Studies, Simon Fenwick, another multimillionaire on the board of the Institute of Public Affairs, Brian Macfie, a life member of the institute of Public Affairs, and a coal baron made rich by the privatisation of New South Wales coal assets, Trevor St Baker.

Peter Whish-Wilson then went through the Australian connection:

As was once declared on the website of the US based Atlas Network, the Australian Atlas
partners include the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, the Centre for Independent Studies, the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance in Sydney, the Australian Institute for Progress in Brisbane—which, in the last Queensland election, was funded directly by coal mining—and the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation in Perth, which trains interns for so-called scholarships working on political campaigns all around the world.

We all remember the cynical and dishonest recent campaign against the Voice to Parliament in Australia. Professor Marcia Langton recently described this campaign as ‘vicious disinformation’. Evidence is emerging of the role played by third-party think tanks in this travesty, all affiliated with the Atlas Network, such as the Institute of Public Affairs, the Centre for Independent Studies, fossil fuel interests and, of course, the astroturfing group Advance.

Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson has become the latest Greens senator (after David Shoebridge) to mention the Atlas Network in the Australian parliament:

On Tuesday night, Whish-Wilson said:

I wish to shine a light on and warn the Australian people of the international Atlas Network, a little-
known but powerful global network of political actors operating in Australia, the United States, New Zealand and, indeed, 100 other countries. It is producing disinformation on a vast scale through its 580 partner organisations and working to infiltrate and take key roles in public institutions to achieve discipline and control over government policy, legislation, the media, the courts and the public service. It is a many-headed hydra, constantly changing its shape.

Its tentacles firmly clutch Australia.
The forces at work creating this torrent of divisive, dishonest and dangerous politics are indeed deep, dangerous and murky, and you won’t see them by looking at the surface. Staying afloat against such a toxic tide firstly requires a much better understanding of the forces shaping these dangerous undercurrents and where they want to lead us.
We need to see with clear eyes what we are truly up against. The election and brazen madness of this Trump administration and the ascension of Mr Dutton in the polls didn’t happen overnight. This happened over many, many decades

Look at that – normal weather means better than predicted financial results for insurance companies. Because as they say – even if you don’t believe in climate change, your insurance company does.

As AAP reports:

Insurance Australia Group shares have plunged to a more than two-month low after the insurance giant reported better-than-expected profit but an underwhelming payout to shareholders.

IAG on Thursday said its net profit after tax for the six months to December 31 was up 91.2 per cent to $778 million, thanks in part to favourable weather that meant fewer natural disaster claims.

IAG said it made an insurance profit of $857 million, as its natural peril claims, which have been elevated over the past four years, came in $215 million below allowance. 

“Our results reflect the volatility of our sector and the fact we’re often subject to factors outside our control,” said chief executive Nick Hawkins.

“The good years help us weather the bad and be well-positioned to pay future customer claims.”

The recent storms, floods and the Los Angeles wildfires were a stark reminder of the need to be a well-prepared nation, Mr Hawkins added.

The company behind the brands NRMA Insurance, SGIO, SGIC and CGU paid out $5.2 billion in claims during the half-year.

IAG said it would pay a 12 cents per share interim dividend, up from 10 cents from a year ago, but under analysts’ predictions.

In mid-morning trading, IAG was the worst-performing ASX200 component, down 9.3 per cent to $8.095.

Last night, Liberal Senator Jane Hume announced they’d done a deal with the Albanese Labor Government on electoral laws – and some twelve hours later, it became law, having been rushed through both houses of parliament.

Labor’s compromises with the Coalition have worsened the bill even further:

• Instead of a disclosure threshold of $1,000, which would have revealed cash-for-access payments from lobbyists and corporate interests, the threshold has been raised to $5,000. Since the Albanese Government normally charges between $1,500 and $5,000 for privileged access, expect to see a lot of $4,999 fundraisers in the future. A lobbyist would have to be a repeat customer to have their cash-for-access payments revealed under the higher threshold.
• The Government’s rhetoric of keeping millionaire influence out of politics is looking thin with the increased donation cap of $50,000 (up from $20,000). Since the major parties have nine branches, and they can take four donations per donor every three years, that means a single person or company could give $1.8 million to a major party every election cycle.
• A carve-out for peak bodies means the Business Council of Australia, the Minerals Council of Australia and other lobby groups for vested interests can take up to $250,000 from each member, five times the $50,000 that actual Australian voters are capped at.

It has been a rushed, secretive and dismissive process to pass the laws through Parliament. Last night, the Senate was expected to debate the bill without even seeing what amendments Labor and Liberal had prepared. The biggest changes to election laws in 40 years should have faced proper scrutiny by a multi-party parliamentary inquiry. 

Fortunately, the laws do not come into effect until the election after next, around 2028. That means there is still a chance for the next parliament to address the transparency gaps, major party loopholes and unfair treatment of independents and new entrants.

Just returning to my favourite thing to happen today – Ted O’Brien and the Coalition admitting that yes, nuclear power would take a shit tonne of extra water to run by pretending it is the same thing as environmental buy backs from the Murray Darling scheme, Ted O’Brien and the Coalition have also admitted there that they have no idea what they are actually even proposing.

Incredible areas, 10/10.

“Given the nuclear technology for Australia is yet to be selected, this claim by Labor is completely flawed,” O’Brien says in his statement.

So what are those costings the Coalition is using to claim it won’t actually cost $500bn to get this plan up and running (not that it intends on making nuclear a reality but still – this is their argument).

So what did Frontier Economics cost then (the costings the Coalition are using) and if the nuclear technology for Australia is yet to be selected, how can the Coalition argue that it WON’T cost another $500bn?

God I love this job sometimes.