And on that note, I am going to close off the blog. But don’t worry – we will be back tomorrow, if not bright, certainly early, to bring you day two of the mess.

A very big thank you to Greg Jericho, Bill Browne, Emma Shortis and all the researchers and friends of the blog who send in tips and directions and posts, and no thank yous, as always, to the Coalition who refuse to put me on their list (but there are enough MPs in their ranks who love to have a chat so it all works out *waves*)

And as always, the biggest thank you goes to you, for all you do to keep us going. Truly -thank you. It means a lot.

It’s rough out there, so take care of you Ax

In case you have been away from the socials for the last couple of days, American journalist, lecturer and author Chris Hedges had his forthcoming speech at the National Press Club cancelled.

In the ensuring questions over why (Hedges is writing a book documenting some of the stories of the Gaza genocide and planned to speak on the failure of western journalists to advocate for their Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, which is the deadliest place on earth for a journalist at the moment, with an estimated 278 journalists having been killed by Israel in the past two years) the NPC said Hedges was never actually confirmed to speak.

The Australian Friends of Palestine, which was helping to coordinate Hedges event has just released this statement:

AFOPA is responding to the Statement published on 4 October 2025 by the National Press Club of Australia ( NPC) in relation to their cancellation of Chris Hedges’ confirmed appearance at the National Press Club on 20 October 2025. 

The National Press Club Statement declares that Chris Hedges’ appearance was “ tentatively agreed to”. This is untrue. AFOPA received  written confirmation from the NPC’s Chief Executive on 8 September 2025 as follows:

“I write to confirm arrangements for Chris Hedges to appear at the National Press Club of Australia on 20 October 2025”. 

Furthermore, in an email on 28 September 2025 to AFOPA’s Chairperson in relation to the cancellation, the NPC’s Chief Executive wrote:  “For clarity I am withdrawing our confirmation”.

For the National Press Club to therefore state that Chris Hedges’ appearance was “tentatively agreed to” is as astonishing as it is false. Perhaps the National Press Club needs to include a disclaimer in its written confirmations that a confirmed booking is actually not a confirmed booking! 

The National Press Club’s Statement that the “proposed address was never published on our website” is also untrue. Chris Hedges’ appearance was on the Australia Press Club website( with photo and price of ticket – $95) on 8 September 2025, published by “NPC Coordinator”, at approximately 4pm

The day is getting pretty stupid and we have a very long couple of days ahead of us, so I am going to give you all permission to take an early mark (if you are Victorian, please just google it, we have been through this a few times now)

I’ll keep the blog open just in case (famous last words) but I’ll be turning to other projects – and so should you. Like wall staring. And trying to remember all the words to Favourite Things from the Sound of Music. Both much healthier activities then whatever is happening in the parliament right now.

Meanwhile the crossbench is still trying to get action on gambling ad reform:

Ugh. It truly doesn’t take much to just plunge you right back there, does it.

So what did we learn?

The opposition seems to have learnt one lesson this year following the aged care home packages and wisely have decided to keep the focus on domestic issues. That is a smart strategy – but for it to work, it needs to have a goal. With the home care packages, the goal was to force the government to release more packages, earlier.

With the 000 failure, it is unclear what it thinks the goal is, rather than just highlight that it happened. The aged care focus worked, because the crossbench and Greens were also on board – and they kept it grounded in policy reality, with eyes remaining on the prize of forcing the government to change its own legislation or risk defeat in the senate.

With 000, Helen Haines had a good point about what is being done in the future to stop the risk of a failure during bushfire season, but the opposition appears to have run out of steam on what exactly it wants done.

Also worth noting, given how big a deal Michaelia Cash and others in the right/hawkish faction have been trying to make the ‘Australians return to Australia from Syria’ issue (which the Coalition, with an assist from NewsCorp is calling ‘ISIS brides) is the complete absence of the issue from House question time – one of the few areas Ley has influence over.

Melissa McIntosh is back and wants to know when Anika Wells was personally notified about the 000 failure.

Wells:

The triple-0 outage from Optus occurred on 18th September, on the Thursday. I was made aware by my office Friday afternoon, late Friday afternoon that there had been more than 600 calls impacted and three deaths.

Let’s see how the other star of question time has been going (if you are going to target Wells, you have to have done your homework – in terms of preparation and being across the brief, Wells understands her job and she does the work. Doesn’t make her a perfect minister, but it does make her a fairly safe pair of hands for the government in terms of handling f*ck ups

Let’s see how Operation: You Can’t Sit With Us is going (for all my Millennials – Hastie quit the shadow front bench on October 3, which is International Means Girl day (iykyk) which has elevated him straight to the top of the Means Girl burn book. Icon behaviour really. Regina George would be proud.

Nationals MP Anne Webster asks: Can the minister confirm to the House that neither she nor her office were notified of the catastrophic triple-0 outage that occurred on 18 September before the afternoon of the 19th September?

Anika Wells:

Yes, I can confirm we were not notified of the catastrophic outage until late afternoon of Friday 19th September.

Independent MP Helen Haines asks a question in the same sphere as the opposition, but without the politics, so it actually tackles something that needs to be done:

Multiple inqueries into triple-0 outages recommend temporary roaming during natural disasters and outages. This would keep Australians connected to emergencies no matter who their providers are. Minister, the bushfire season is fast approaching. You said that your telcos have agreed to go faster from the Bean Review. Will you give the telco a deadline to implement disaster roaming?

Anika Wells:

The government accepted and agreed in principle with recommendation 14 of the Bean review that work currently being undertaken by rooming during natural disasters should be followed by work on temporary roaming, though is acknowledged the industry had identified some feasibility issues. It’s drafting a memorandum of understanding to support this development, and let me be clear, it is my expectation that industry will make that work. Subject to the outcomes that have work, my department will examine the extent to which roaming could be available during other outage events in as recommended in the Bean review.

I would also highlight the government’s commitment to the universal outdoor mobile obligation which will allow connectivity across Australia and this will provider in level of redundancy to outages of all kinds.

To the second half of your question, that was absolutely the subject of the Minister for Emergency Services and myself when we met with the three CEOs of our office today. We asked NEMA to attend and they spoke to the particular perils of disaster season, the matters outstanding and we committed to get back together and do a simulation drill in a couple of weeks to stress test where this system is not currently working for people, particularly in places like regional Australia. You would know, of course, the Minister for emergency manage sent is always forward thinking and I will assure you that we are sincere in that work and that work will continue.