More funding has been made available for those impacted by the north Queensland floods:

The Albanese Government is extending financial assistance to more communities in North Queensland affected by flooding and heavy rainfall through the Disaster Recovery Allowance (DRA).

From 2pm local time on Thursday 13 February 2025, the DRA will be extended to the Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Carpentaria, Cook, Croydon, Douglas, Flinders and Wujal Wujal.

DRA is available to individuals who live or work in the declared LGAs and have lost some or all of their income due to the disaster. To be eligible for DRA, a person’s income must have fallen below the average Australian weekly income as a result of the floods.

As at 11 February 2025, Services Australia has paid out more than $2 million in Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP) and DRA support to affected people in North Queensland.

Anthony Albanese spoke at a breakfast this morning commemorating the 17th anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generation (the one Peter Dutton boycotted).

Here is some of his speech:

The Apology was never intended as the end of the story, rather – as Prime Minister Rudd said – the beginning of a new chapter.
 
We put behind us the old chapter that took from you the most profound of rights: to grow up safely in your own family.
 
And together we write a chapter of self-determination.
 
The new chapter must be an Australia in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the same choices as non-Indigenous Australians.
 
An Australia in which the Government works carefully with you towards a future in which Indigenous Australians have the economic security of a job and a home.  
 
What guides my Government every day is the instinct to ensure all Australians get the same chance in life.
 
To work towards the reality in which all Australians have power over their destiny.
 
And this all began when you – and all survivors – through patience, persistence and grace at last found your nation was ready to hear your hard truths.
 

Which are lovely words, but it is also worth pointing out that since the referendum loss the government has done nothing to forward a truth-telling commission, or treaty.

While we are looking at electoral funding and how it works, ABC Wimmera has an interesting story about some of the ‘rules’ for MP’s funding – after Nationals MP Anne Webster used taxpayer funds set aside for a satellite office (MPs with big electorates are granted additional funding for smaller offices) on billboard style advertising on an empty shop front.

Webster has told the ABC she has done nothing wrong. You can read the story, here (It is also an excellent example of the work regional and rural ABC journalists do, everyday)

There is more coming from the Climate Integrity Summit as well – but yesterday revealed some hidden truths

Over in the house, the senate has returned the amendments it passed on the government’s electoral spending change legislation and the government has put those up for a vote lickety split – it of course, passes.

The bill will go for royal assent and then be in place in 2026 for the election after this coming one.

The parliament sitting day is under way – first up in the house, Labor MP Susan Templeman will table the report from the inquiry into family violence orders.

Expect a bit of gamemanship today – even if parliament sits as scheduled in March, there are not that many sitting days left for Labor to clear its agenda before the election.

Crossbench MPs will join the Institute’s Bill Browne at parliament this morning in launching a new range of measures the parliament could adopt to improve transparency.

The Australia Institute’s Democracy Agenda for the 48th Parliament proposed reforms include:

• Adopting Senate Innovations: Reforming the House of Representatives by introducing measures such as private members’ motions, simpler suspension of standing orders, and reforms to Question Time.
• Independent Staffing Allowances: Ensuring equitable staffing resources for crossbench and opposition members to improve the legislative process.
• Fixed three-year terms: Committing to full three-year terms to allow better planning of legislation and inquiries.
• Integrity and Open Government: Protecting integrity agencies such as the National Anti-Corruption Commission, strengthening whistleblower laws, and improving transparency in lobbying and political advertising.
• Political Finance Reform: Enhancing the transparency of political donations, including through real-time donations.

It is ‘Science meets Parliament’ day, when scientists and researchers from all over the nation come to Canberra to talk to MPs about their work and the importance of research fields.

How hard is it to get MPs to speak with people who know what they are talking about?

Ed Husic tells the ABC:

That is a really good question. When you look at what prompted Science Meets Parliament, it was a predecessor of mine, Barry Jones, telling scientists that they need to step up and need to, you know, advocate their case and talk about the value of their work because we do need to – I think us backing and investing in our own ideas matters. I think a lot of Australians get that, and the things that our minds have come up with here in Australia have changed lives literally, and scientists are at the – and researchers are at the forefront of that.

On criticisms of his electoral spending changes, particularly that independent candidates are capped while political parties have another pool of money they can spend in an electorate on top of their candidate cap (the senate spend) Don Farrell says:

“Can I say that they are completely wrong about that?“

I mean, sure, he can say it. But he would be wrong.

Farrell continues:

That [way things are] at the moment, there is no cap at all on how much candidates or parties can spend.

The major parties, the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, have voluntarily capped the amount of money that they can spend on an election, so that in fact, it’s the opposite of the criticism that is being made about this legislation, we’re actually reducing the amount of money that major political parties can spend on an election, and that is to the benefit of all candidates.

And can I say this – we’ve kept the amount of money you can spend on a single electorate at $800,000 if you can’t get your message out to the Australian people with a spend of $800,000 then there’s something wrong with with your campaigning

This is going to get tiring very fast, but Farrell is deliberately ignoring that political parties CAN spend more in an electorate under these changes. While independents are limited to $800,000 an electorate, political parties can spend that, and then on top of that, they are allowed a $200,000 spend for senate candidates in every electorate a state has. Which means you can just send out a bunch of general party advertising and say its for the senate in the authorisation – while you outspend a community independent.

This doesn’t make it impossible for an independent to be elected – Dai Le did it against Kristina Keneally with just $80,000 in donations. But it’s not exactly an even playing field now is it?

Over on ABC radio RN Breakfast, trade minister Don Farrell is asked about Donald Trump’s top trade advisor Peter Navarro‘s claim that Australia broke a verbal agreement to limit aluminum shipments to the US after it was made exempt from the first round of Trump tariffs, made during the Turnbull/Morrison years.

The notes app version is in 2018, Australia received an exemption from tariffs under the Trump administration. But from 2019/2020, there was an increase (what the US now says is a ‘surge’) in Australian aluminum imports, which was largely under the Biden administration. Biden officials were not upset, but Trump officials, now back in office, are (the implication being that Australia should have stuck to whatever deal the Trump administration throught it had forever, even when Trump wasn’t in office).

It takes Farrell awhile to get there, but after some good, focused questioning from Sally Sara, he says:

I understand that there’s a ceiling to how much we we export to the United States. Of course, in the middle of all of this, you had the Russia, Ukraine war. And I understand that because of difficulties in arrangements between getting Russian aluminum into the United States, we increased the amount of aluminum that we supplied into the into the American market, but all of that was done with the full knowledge of the American government. We haven’t done at any stage, anything that the American government has not been comfortable with.

So the answer is – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine set off supply chain issues and Australia increased its shipments of aluminum to the States to fill the gap, and that was done with the full knowledge of the then-US administration.