The Liberal Member for Forrest has a question (I refuse to learn his name this early in the piece) keeps up the stupid questions from the Coalition, this time with one to Clare O’Neil:

Will the government failed to deliver its commitment to build 1.8 2 million new homes, new taxes on the family home were raised and the government ‘s 3-day talkfest. Will the Minister rule out flooding Australians with new taxes on their spare bedrooms?

O’Neil:

I do not know what bizarre fantasy land those opposite have been living in, what on earth are they talking about? I heard these questions are getting asked over and the other place today and I thought the Housing Minister, the shadow Housing Minister has not had a sweet for breakfast this morning, I do not know what he is going on about the fact that we have got people in the House of Representatives of the ridiculous questions like this, get a clue.

Let me talk about our governments tax policies because they are absolutely clear.

The member for Forrest, who looks like ChatGPT was asked to create a 3D Liberal MP tries to interject, but Milton Dick is NOT having it and tells him to show some respect.

O’Neil:

Our tax policies are absolutely clear, twisty stand for lower taxes, lower taxes that we have delivered to the Australian people and lower taxes that were opposed by those opposite, speaker. Not only did they go to an election thing they did not want lower taxes for every Australian taxpayer, but they said they would come into the Parliament to legislate for higher taxes for every Australian taxpayer. Let me come to the matter of housing taxation.

3D Lib tries again and Dick tells him to sit down.

O’Neil:

Let me come to the question of housing taxation. What a day to ask a question about housing taxation when our party has lowered taxes on it newbuild to rent locations and you are in the Senate today trying to raise taxes on new housing our country. I wish I could say that I was surprised by the unbelievable incompetence. I don’t believe – I do not know what the opposition is doing on housing this this term or any other. The very last people that Australians should listen to when it comes to housing policy are those who sit opposite. Remember for almost a decade they sat on these treasury benches and did nothing about a housing crisis building before their very eyes. They then spent three years being housing hypocrites, complaining about things going wrong in housing and coming into the Parliament and voting against measures that would fix the problem. Now they’re asking nonsensical questions about policies that don’t even exist. Get a clue, people.

Allegra Spender then asks Anthony Albanese:

The last summer was one of the hardest in memory for my Jewish community was terrorised by anti-Semitic attacks including on Lewis’s Continental Kitchen. Today we learned the Iranian government was behind that attack, Adass Israel Synagogue and potentially more.

The security concerns of my community are real and justified, will the government work with the community to keep them safe?

Albanese:

I think all Australians have been concerned about the rise in anti-Semitism and the rise of social division that has occurred and I have visited the synagogue in Bondi Junction there and spoken directly with the community. I have visited the Jewish Museum in the members electorate where we announced additional funding for an expansion and indeed met some wonderful survivors of the Holocaust who went through their personal experiences as well.

The information that ASIO has determined is quite shocking.

This is a perpetrated attack on behalf of a foreign government on Australian soil. The fact that the intelligence agencies as well as the Australian Federal Police have undertaken this work. They worked very closely with the Jewish community and with other communities as well. We informed the Jewish community leaders prior to the one o’clock press conference that was held this afternoon as well. So they could watch what the director-general of ASIO in particular Mr Burgess had to say because that was so important.

The attack on the Lewis continental kitchen of course occurred on October 20. There was another attack that we saw on a restaurant in Melbourne in more recent times as well. People can have different views about the Middle East and it is absolutely legitimate for people to put forward those views.

What is not right is to blame Jewish citizens or to blame Muslim Australians for the actions of Hamas. Or other people. What we need to do is to make sure we advance peace and security for people in Israel and Palestine.

What we certainly can have control over here is making sure that we do not bring conflict here, that we keep social cohesion and I congratulate them member because that is something I know she has been doing, undertaking as the local member for Wentworth.

We have a range of programs including increased security arrangements around schools, around synagogues, the increased support that we have put forward will continue to have dialogue with the community and to work with them in order to ensure that like other Australians, every Australian should feel safe and yesterday, I spoke with the Australian union of Jewish students who are here somewhere here again it, as I have every year for a long period of time.

They tell stories about harassment on campuses just like students in your area have been impacted and there is no identifiable because of their school uniform. It is not the Australian way.

The Australian way is to respect each other, regardless of people’s faith, regardless of their origin and to engage in constructive dialogue about issues not to engage in the sort of activity which we have seen. We have taken strong action against Iran as a result of this by government stands by, I know it received the support of the opposition and I’m sure the member for Wentworth as well and I would hope every member of this Parliament supports a strong action which we have taken which is entirely appropriate given the revelations and findings that the ASIO director-general and the Australian Federal police have found.

We then get a bunch of questions on all the very poor, mistreated people with family trusts, who have only been doing the right thing by minimising their tax through the creation of a trust to do just that and do not deserve to have to pay the same tax as the rest of us.

This includes a question on ‘Australia’s farming families’ which is a very emotional invoking of a cohort of people who we are never supposed to consider millionaires who might also want to minimise their tax. Obviously not all farmers are millionaires, but there are some very, very wealthy people who are ‘farmers’ and ‘work the land’ and are also exceptionally wealthy and have their tax affairs set up to avoid paying what they usually would without some of these trusts.

It is also worth pointing out that Jillian Segal also blamed ‘hate left unchecked’ for anti-Semitic attacks in her report to the government on anti-Semitism:

From the report:

From hate-filled chants outside the Sydney Opera House, preventing others attending the site, to the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue, we are shown what happens when hate is left unchecked.”

And:

“2.1 A national crisis by the numbers

From October 2023 to September 2024, antisemitic incidents surged by 316%, with over 2,000 cases reported – threats, assaults, vandalism and intimidation. In October and November 2023 alone, episodes increased over 700% compared to the previous year, reflecting incitement by those with extremist views and misinformation in the media and online. These figures exclude much of the hate online, where antisemitism has exploded.

Notable incidents include the firebombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue, firebombing of a childcare centre adjacent to a Synagogue and school, firebombing of cars in residential areas and the repeated targeting with graffiti of Jewish schools and places of worship. …”

Sussan Ley, Julian Leeser, Andrew Hastie and Michaelia Cash have released a statement on the Iran decision:

Today we have learnt of one of the most egregious acts of foreign interference against our nation since the darkest days of the Cold War.

All Australians are shocked to learn of the serious and chilling foreign interference which has been perpetrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran on Australian soil.

The Coalition supports the expulsion of the Iranian Ambassador and the listing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.

As the Director General of Security has explained today, the Iranian government has been confirmed as having directed at least two attacks against Australia’s Jewish community, including the fire-bombing of the Addas Israel Synagogue.

Australians rightly expect zero tolerance for foreign-backed terror and antisemitic violence on our soil. These revelations lay bare just how severe Australia’s antisemitism crisis has become.

The Coalition called for the expulsion of the Iranian Ambassador last year, when he praised the Hezbollah terrorist leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The Coalition has been urging the Government to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation for more than two years — and we will back any legislative changes needed to get it done.

Our Jewish community deserves safety, not excuses; this must be the start of a broader crackdown on Iranian regime proxies, foreign interference and intimidation in Australia.

Sussan Ley asks Anthony Albanese:

The Prime Minister said “The only tax policy that we implement is the one that we took to the election. ‘ however, when asked about possible tax changes, the treasure was open-minded, saying it is a metaphor cabinet. Can the Prime Minister confirm that having successfully eliminated the member for Chifley and Isaacs from cabinet, the Treasurer is now working on eliminating Australian savings with a fresh round of taxes?

I implore Ley’s team to stop with the attempts at dra-mah. It is very boring and it doesn’t do what you think it is doing.

Albanese:

Credit where credit is due. It takes guts to talk about division in the party room from people who have just come from a room over there where they were queueing up…the leader of the Liberal Party in the Senate… in the Senate led the charge to abolish net zero in the party room today… and they were queueing up, one after the other, one after the other. They are all over the shop, Mr Speaker. All over the shop. We now have two former deputy prime ministers getting together.

One of the great romances we have ever seen in this place, Mr Speaker. The member for Riverina and the member for New England…

Above all the interjections, Alex Hawke has another point of order.

Unsurprisingly this is on relevance. Every question the Prime Minister is not addressing anywhere near the subject matter of the question, he seems obsessed with the coalition he has asked about matters affecting the government and its policy and he refuses to answer. The last and so he didn’t even get to the question. This time he is following the same pattern.

Milton Dick says he agrees, but the question was broad so he asks the prime minister to get to the point.

Albanese:

I missed the question. I just heard the sledge. I am responding to it as I responded to sledges across the chamber. But what it boils down to, it’s hard to follow the plots over there, the Liberals fighting each other, the Nationals fighting each other, Liberals fighting the Nationals. When they go to their party conferences, it is everyone fighting the leadership of the Liberal Party and the National Party. I mean, they go to a party conference up in Queensland, they say that you should argue in favour of modernisation and we should support net zero and we need to learn the lessons of the past by what we see, what we see is just division, no policy being put forward, and now we are reduced to just sledging.

Hawke jumps up to say the prime minister is DEFYING the speaker’s order, but Albanese has decided he has finished answering and sits down.

Rebekha Sharkie asks Sam Rae:

85,000 older Australians were assessed and waiting for home care. Today, the figure is estimated to be over 100,000. Older Australians are dying while waiting for aged care. What justification does the government have for delaying the promised home care packages from July to November this I give the call to the year?

Rae:

I thank the member for her question. I acknowledge her legitimate interests and commitment to ensuring that all older people across her community can access safe, dignified and high quality aged care. In the last term of Parliament, my predecessor, the now Minister for Communications, worked across the Parliament to pass the new aged care act.

With bipartisan support from the opposition and constructive contributions from the crossbench. We’re prepping to implement that new act on 1 November, along with the supportive home program, the updated program replacing the current Home Care Packages Program. These are once in a generation reforms.

And they will deliver world class aged care services to the older people who work so hard to build our country and to whom we owe the very best care. Support at home will deliver a system that helps older people to stay at home for longer, by making a higher level of care available in the home. This is an entirely reformed program, it’s not an extension of the current program, it is an adapted model of care in the home. As our population ages, we have seen demand for in-home care grow very, very fast.

There are now more than 300,000 people accessing home care packages today, compared to just 150,000 people back in 2020. Mr Speaker, as I said before, we’re currently delivering more care to more people than ever before.

When support at home starts on 1 November, we’ll roll out an additional 80,000 home care places in the first 12 months. Until then, my number one priority is ensuring that older people continue to have receive care and services, and until November, we’ll continue to assign packages every single week. The average since September last year is – the weekly average is 2700 packages a week.

I can assure the member people who are assessed as high priority will continue to receive their packages within a month. Mr Speaker, the brief deferral of the commencement of the new aged care act is to ensure that programs like support at home are ready for older Australians and their families. The Labor government continues to deliver more care for more Australians, and we have given aged care providers more time to prepare their clients, support their workers and get their systems ready for these historic changes.

The Coalition are now moving on to tax. Sussan Ley:

My question is to the Prime Minister: During the government’s 3-day talk fest, the introduction of a new housing tax, new death tax, new wealth tax, new tradie tax, and new levies on Australian businesses were floated. Is the Prime Minister aware of any work the Treasurer has commissioned on these proposals?

There are heaps of interjections about this question and Milton Dick has to call for calm before Anthony Albanese gets up.

I thank the member for her question and for a question about tax policy, not from the government, but by people who attended a roundtable, maybe it was the Shadow Treasurer who was raising these things. (The Coalition objects to this)

Because there were people that the Shadow Treasurer, I heard him actually say, that everything was up for review. And they had an open mind. I do know this – that two days before the last election, the member for Hume (Angus Taylor), former shadow treasury minister, snuck out the Coalition costings.

And they revealed a $75 billion higher figure in personal income taxes. They went to the election on, including the former Deputy Leader of the Opposition, vote for us, you get $75…

Dick has to ask Taylor to withdraw a heckle and there are more interjections.

Albanese continues:

So, they had $75 billion in personal income tax increases over there, they had higher taxes on the resources sector, and on the manufacturing sector, because they wanted to abolish production tax credits which reduced taxes for the resources sector, they had higher taxes on motorists through their abolition of the EV concession that was put in place. This will be good….

Alex Hawke, the manager of opposition business gets up to do a point of order

He’s heckling me. I take a point of order in relevance. In no way was he asked about coalition policy. The only thing he has answered his question about, the Prime Minister, is Coalition policy. So he was asked about modelling. Is he aware of any modelling the Treasurer has done on socialist policies, yes I wasn’t invited. You’re correct.

Milton Dick then has to tell people it is not an open mic session and then says the prime minister has to be relevant.

Albanese:

I’m being directly relevant to what I was asked about, which was policies from non-government members raised last week. Now, I know that after their party room things are a bit difficult there, but we saw – we saw the Manager of Opposition Business just say he didn’t want to go to the roundtable. Well, talk to the bloke next to you. He was there. He was there. He got an invite. And he was keen, Mr Speaker. He even came to drinks at the Lodge and he was very welcome. He was very welcome. He was very welcome. He was… He was very (INTERJECTIONS) welcome. He was very welcome. And the – they also had of course a policy that they’re trying to implement tonight. The higher taxes on the housing construction industry by abolishing build to rent. We want to assist the building of more homes, they want to abolish those concessions. They also of course went through with higher student debts for more than 3 million Australians….

He is out of time.

Mike Burgess has released the statement he made at this afternoon’s press conference. In case you missed it, here it is in its entirety:

In this year’s Annual Threat Assessment I warned Australia’s complex, challenging and
changing security environment is becoming more dynamic, diverse and degraded.


Dynamic, because we are confronting an increasing number of threats.


Diverse, because some nation states are using criminal proxies to undertake acts of
foreign interference, espionage and politically motivated violence.
Degraded, because authoritarian regimes are more willing to engage in reckless, high-
harm activities.
Unfortunately all three of those characteristics apply to this case.


For the past ten months, anti-Semitism has been one of ASIO’s most pressing priorities,
involving the full use of our capabilities and powers.
We have investigated dozens of incidents targeting Jewish communities, places of
 worship, businesses and prominent individuals.
ASIO now assesses the Iranian Government directed at least two and likely more attacks
on Jewish interests in Australia.
Our painstaking investigation uncovered and unpicked the links between the alleged
crimes and commanders in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC.
The IRGC used a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement.


This is the sort of obfuscation and boundary-blurring I warned about earlier this year.
It’s important to understand that ASIO is both a collector of intelligence and an assessor of
intelligence.
Formal assessments such as this one are not done quickly or taken lightly.
Our analysts carefully weigh and weight every piece of intelligence.


In this case, their conclusions are clear.
ASIO is still investigating possible Iranian involvement in a number of other attacks, but I
want to stress we do not believe the regime is responsible for every act of anti-Semitism in
Australia.
It goes without saying that Iran’s actions are utterly unacceptable.
They put lives at risk.


They terrified the community.
They tore at our social fabric.
Iran and its proxies literally and figuratively lit the matches and fanned the flames.


I want to assure all Australians that ASIO and our law enforcement partners take these
matters extremely seriously; you do not just have the right to be safe, you have the right to
feel safe.

Tony Burke then takes a dixer on the same topic so he can say:

I want to pay tribute to the work first of all of ASIO, the Australian Federal Police, and to all the state and territory police forces. In particular, all members of Parliament are thinking of the Victorian state police force today as well.

I know the significant amount of work and there’s analytical rigor that goes into ASIO assessments, they do not reach these conclusions lightly. This is an unprecedented attack on our society, it is aimed at creating fear. It’s stoking internal divisions and eroding our social cohesion. And while after the attacks it was described in the media that no-one was injured, that’s true, but people were harmed.

The people who are part of that community at the Adass Israel synagogue were harmed. The owners of the Lewis continental kitchen and all their customers were harmed. The local communities around were harmed, the Jewish community was harmed, and we as a nation were harmed. There is anti-Semitism in Australia, it is real, it is ugly, it is debilitating. And while this particular attack commenced with anti-Semitism originating in Iran, nothing changes the fact that these were anti-Semitic attacks.

And the impact was identical. The impact on our communities, the impact on our nation. For some anti-Semitic elements in Australia, as a result of these attacks they felt emboldened, but any anti-Semitic attack, any attack that relies on any form of dehumanaising bigotry is an attack on Australia.

This extraordinary attack that occurred on our soil means we have to adapt our response to a changing threat. That’s why, as the Prime Minister said earlier, the government intends on changing the criminal code so that we can list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. This sends the strongest possible signal that this conduct has reached a new and totally unacceptable low. The existing criminal code clauses that were designed decades ago were intended to deal with different threats to what we’re now facing.

The anti-Semitism that drove this attack as I said began in Iran, not Australia, but importantly we must not allow the blame to fall on Australians of Iranian descent. That’s exactly the kind of disunity and division these attacks were designed to create. Instead, Australia stands together, these attempts at division will fail, they already have. We stand together as a nation in unity and strength.