At his earlier doorstop to talk about the shrinkflation consultation, Andrew Leigh was also asked about the neo-Nazi supported rallies on the weekend and said:

The last thing we need in Australia is Neo-Nazis taking the platforms to demonise immigrants. Apart from Indigenous Australians, all of us are migrants or the children of migrants. Migration has greatly strengthened Australia.

Migrants aren’t just mouths to feed, they are muscles to build and minds to inspire. The story of migration is a proud story for Australia, as is the strong story of multiculturalism and the way in which we’ve managed to show the world how we can build a peaceful and tolerant democracy. I was really
troubled by some of the scenes yesterday, including some of the attacks on police. There’s no place for that kind of hate mongering in Australia this and I’m troubled by the fact that some politicians seem to think that it’s okay to fuel fear for direct partisan gain.

The Australian Tibet Council has attended parliament, asking for support on the issue of the Dalai Lama’s succession. Tibet (and the Dali Lama, 90) want the Dali Lama to choose his successor, not the Chinese government.

The ATC urges the Australian Government to adopt a clear policy: only recognize a Dalai Lama chosen through Tibetan Buddhist practices and traditions, without Chinese Communist Party (CCP) interference.

In their meetings with federal parliamentarians on Monday delegates will highlight urgent concerns for Tibet’s future and global human rights.

Delegates will also press for an end to China’s repressive policies and transnational repression against Tibetans, including those living in Australia. The CCP continues to monitor, intimidate, and weaponize relatives in Tibet against exiled Tibetans in Australia, denying them true freedom.

Jim Chalmers has announced the pilot ‘Investor Front Door’ program which is designed to “make it quicker and easier for investors to back big projects that create jobs and opportunities for Australians”.

(The name is designed to look like action and be politically appealing)

Chalmers says it is “streamlining how investors and business interact with the government” which means – cutting regulations usually. And in this age of ‘Abundance bros’ that is exactly what will happen. What could go wrong?!

Chamers:

Whether it’s homes, energy or essential infrastructure, this will mean more projects get off the ground more quickly.

The pilot phase will support a select number of projects of national significance. These projects will need to demonstrate they:

•       Have the potential to deliver transformational opportunities to Australia.

•       Will generate benefits for Australia.

•       Can benefit from the Investor Front Door’s services.

•       Have reasonable prospect of success.

Projects selected for the pilot phase will have a dedicated engagement manager who will provide a faster way to navigate regulatory and approval requirements and identify suitable government financing opportunities from existing specialist investment vehicles. 

By participating in the pilot phase, these projects will be part of testing and refining of the Investor Front Door’s services.

The pilot phase will also be used to gather evidence on overlaps and gaps in Australia’s regulatory environment and project financing arrangements and inform the government of areas for improvement.

The Seven Network had Tanya Plibersek and Barnaby Joyce on for its weekly ‘debate’ and focused on the collapse of two for-profit superannuation funds, Shield Master Fund and First Guardian, which has cost members billions in retirement savings – which means they may have lost all of their superannuation.

People want the government to cover the losses from the for-profit funds. Plibersek says:

This is a devastating situation for the people who’ve lost their money. And of course ASIC, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, is looking very closely at the people involved. They’ve had their assets frozen. The people who are thought to be responsible for this had their assets frozen. They’re prohibited from travelling overseas. They’re being investigated very closely by ASIC and the matters are before the Federal Court.

So, we’re a little bit limited in what we can say. What I would say is that the Assistant Treasurer, Daniel Mulino, is guiding this very closely to make sure that it is properly investigated and people are held to account if they’ve done the wrong thing.

And can I advise that ASIC has a Moneysmart website. It is a great idea now for people to have a look at that Moneysmart website if they’re thinking about changing where their superannuation is, please check before you do, rather than go into to these higher risk, higher return areas, it is really important to get good, unbiased, unbiased financial advice.

Yes, the population increase in recent years is higher than the long run average, but it comes after immigration was halted during the pandemic.

The net outcome of the two? Australia’s population is actually ever so slightly below where it would have been if the pandemic hadn’t happened.

One of the biggest concerns has been house prices. It is claimed that we are not building enough homes to meet the increase in population.

The data shows that the population has increased by 16% in the last 10 years. That means we need to build 16% more dwellings just to meet that increase. But we have actually built 19% more houses. We are building homes at a faster rate than the population is increasing.

More housing supply would help make housing more affordable. But a lack of supply is not the problem. It is an increase in demand from the capital gains tax discount and negative gearing that is driving house prices higher. Cashed up investors are outbidding first home buyers and locking people out of home ownership rates. If we tackle these two tax concessions we can make housing more affordable and raise tens of billions of dollars.

As a reminder – the issues with the export gas industry are not new. This is from 2023:

The ABC’s Investigation unit has the story, which is based on FOI documents released to the Environment Centre NT, which revealed that Santos’ gas export hub in Darwin has been leaking methane gas for almost twenty years. In case you need a reminder – that is not great.

The Greens are writing to the environment minister and the minister responsible for the CSIRO, Tim Ayres to ask what’s up.

They will also write to the auditor-general requesting “a review of how federal regulators conducted themselves in investigating this leak, so the public better understands why no actions were taken against a politically protected gas corporation”.

The Greens will also use the Senate this week to order the production of relevant documents from regulators overseen by federal Ministers.

Waters:

These revelations are very disturbing. I commend the Environment Centre NT for uncovering what is either a spectacular failure of regulators or a deliberate cover up by successive governments to protect a gas corporation’s profit margin. 

The responsible Ministers must urgently explain why their regulators knowingly allowed Santos to leak methane, an extremely potent heat-trapping gas that has a higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide, for almost two decades. 

Ministers Bowen, Ayres and King must also explain if they were aware of what their regulators knew. Their climate credentials are on the line.

The International Energy Agency has already revealed that Australia is underreporting methane emissions by at least 64% because coal and gas corporations are allowed to guess their methane emissions instead of actually measuring them. The Climate Minister agreed to fix this absurd loophole in negotiations with the Greens in the last parliament, but no progress has occurred. Methane is more than 80 times more damaging to the atmosphere over 20 years than carbon dioxide.

Furthermore, Minister Bowen must immediately assure the public that Santos will be compelled to repair the leak. Anything less would be unacceptable for the Darwin community and the climate.”

Here is some more of that interview on the Nine Network with Anika Wells where she was asked about the weekend events:

Oh, awful. They were awful scenes. And there were also known racists who were trying spread division and hatred. And I think it is particularly appalling the people that were aggressive and violent towards our police officers. Australia police are having a very hard week at the moment. They’re just trying to keep our community safe. I think that was particularly egregious.

Q: Well, particularly in Melbourne, right where we saw the resources so stretched. I mean, you’ve got people, neo-Nazis who were given a mic. They were given a platform to espouse their beliefs. Those interviewed proudly said they were neo-Nazis and proud racists. At a time when the government is trying to lower tensions around anti-Semitism. These people are openly admitting to being neo-Nazis.

Wells:

That’s right. And in my federal Minister, I can make clear to your viewers this morning there is no place for hatred in this country. And the vast majority of people were not at these protests, are horrified by these protests, and want to work together with other people in their community to make sure these people are the vast minority and cannot demonstrate their hate.

Q: Anika, I’m not sure whether you saw the image. I think it was in Adelaide where was Dezi Freeman’s picture was held up right. He is wanted fugitive at the moment, accused of gunning down two police officers. That is alarming. Are you worried that these kinds of movements are actually gaining strength in parts of Australia?

Wells:

I certainly am, and you would have seen Anne Aly who’s one of our experts and federal ministers, speak to that across the past few days. And as Minister for communications, my concern is how we are, how we stop this from spreading online. I think everybody in Australia has uptick in in seeing this kind behaviour because people are able to organise online and part of what drives us is the [challenge of making] online spaces safer, prevalence of this kind of thing and doing what we can, where we can.

Q: One of the key challenges face as that they are finding legitimate cause of grievance in this country, right, and hijacking talking about an issue like housing, which is a legitimate so many Australians. But it’s because you lot haven’t built enough houses, both parties, not just the Labor Party in government. Now, the previous government as well. It feels hopeless for so many out there.

Wells:

Well, Sarah, I would not for one second give any credence to the grievances of these people as legitimate.

Q: The point is, they’re finding legitimate issues in Australia, and they’re hijacking it. That’s the concern here because you’re not facing it. Mostly sovereign citizens based themselves off one conspiracy theory, and then it grows from there and being able to navigate and organise online where previously [it was more difficult] So is there a housing concern?

Wells:

I think we’re two different issues here, and I’m at pains not to conflate that. Of course, the Albanese government you would have seen all last week Parliament we were doing announcing our new scheme to get first home, first home buyers into homeownership more quickly, you know, reducing the the 20% down to 5% so that people can actually consider this to be a realistic goal.

Minister Clare O’Neil has full shoulders to the wheel, trying to get as much done as we can at a federal level and working with our state It’s absolutely a problem. Housing affordability is absolutely something that comes up across the board. Let’s not conflate that with this very separate, serious issue.

OK, now that we have spent the morning looking at all the silly buggers being played, let’s take a look at some of the interviews from this morning.

Communications minister Anika Wells has seemingly suggested that liking K-Pop Demon Hunters, which has been in at the top of the most watched Netflix shows since its launch, could help prove that you are 13. Perhaps Wells is unaware of the absolute obsessed K-Pop Idols fandom out there, which is mostly made up of…adults (Huntrix forever).

Australia isn’t going down the road of making you show your ID to access social media sites under its age verification legislation, and instead will make the social media sites cross-reference your posting habits to see how old you are.

Which makes my brain-candy guilty pleasures of My Little Pony, K-Pop Demon Hunters and Care Bears suddenly look very confusing.

Wells told the Nine Network:

The trial has found that age assurance can be private, efficient and effective, and that there is no excuse for social media platforms in this country not to have age verification methods ready for 10th December, when our social media minimum age restrictions come into place.

And I don’t know if your viewers are keen age policy experts, but effectively it comes in three forms age verification, like when you show your driver’s license at the Bottle-o.

If you look less than 25 years old, age estimation where you get your face scanned like you might do with face ID when you’re logging on to a new phone, and age inference where by the data that you give social media platforms, if they’re seeing you talk to 65 year olds about caravanning, they might infer that you are 65.

If they see that you’re talking to 13 year about K-Pop Demon Hunters, they might infer that you are 13. Those are the three different methods in the broad and in the in the in the tech ecosystem in Australia. There are many effective ways that platforms can use to assure themselves of age come December.

The parliament will start at 10am this morning and the first order of business in the House is….LNP Bowman MP Henry Pike’s private members bill to stop anyone from moving Australia Day from January 26. Pike is re-introducing the bill which he first introduced in 2023 (it went nowhere).

You can find details on the previous bill, here.

This of course, comes after neo-Nazis supported marches across the country yesterday. Some of those marchers stormed into the Indigenous Camp Sovereignty site and attacked the people peacefully occupying the camp, in a completely unprovoked attack that left four people injured and one woman taken to hospital. The footage of the men, clad in black, running towards the camp is horrific and terrifying. They ripped down and stomped on the Aboriginal flag as well as attacking people at the camp.

Pike claims the bill is to ‘protect Australia Day’ because the date ‘can be changed at the whim of Australian politicians’.

IT WAS ESTABLISHED AT THE WHIM OF POLITICIANS. It wasn’t even a national holiday until 1994, when it became a legislated public holiday across all jurisdictions (before then it usually moved around as the last Friday/Monday of January to make a long weekend). And even that wasn’t a thing until 1988 when it was part of the 200 years of settlement celebrations. It was literally created at the whim of politicians.

Pike is older than the Australia Day public holiday. Let that sink in.