Being a Monday, (the second worst day of the week after Thursday) private members’ bills will be introduced.

Here is the list for today (you may notice that first one which will get a bit of attention!)

Private Members’ business

Notices

No. 1 —        Repeal Net Zero Bill 2025 — Mr Joyce (New England) to present a bill.  First reading.  Second reading to be moved. (Time allowed — 10 minutes.)

Debate to be adjourned.

No. 2 —        Criminal Code Amendment (Using Technology to Generate Child Abuse Material) Bill 2025 — Ms Chaney (Curtin) to present a bill.  First reading.  Second reading to be moved. (Time allowed — 10 minutes.)

Debate to be adjourned.

No. 3 —        Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Communications) Bill 2025 — Ms Steggall (Warringah) to present a bill.  First reading.  Second reading to be moved. (Time allowed — 10 minutes.)

Debate to be adjourned.

No. 4 —        Student debt — Ms Mascarenhas (Swan) to move motion appearing on the Notice Paper in her name.

In case you missed it, a statue accusing Richard Marles of being ‘Australia’s Biggest Brown Noser’ was erected in Melbourne over the weekend (and taken down that same day)

You can find out more about that, here

Emma Shortis is in The Conversation today speaking about Trump and the Epstein files:

US President Donald Trump is perhaps the most successful conspiracy trafficker in modern American history.

Trump built his political career by trading on conspiracy. These have included a combination of racist birther conspiracies about former president Barack Obama, nebulous ideas about the “Deep State” that conspired against the interests of regular Americans, and nods to a more recent online universe centered on QAnon that alleged a Satanist ring of “elite” pedophiles involving Hillary Clinton was trafficking children.

The main point of this story in the AFR is that the Productivity Commission is recommending some changes to boost productivity, as John Keogh reports:

The Productivity Commission will recommend the federal government offer a more generous immediate tax deduction for new investment by companies as a way of boosting non-mining business spending, which has declined over the past 15 years.

To incentivise new business investment, the commission will this week advise Treasurer Jim Chalmers to move towards a corporate cash flow tax model, enabling companies to receive a larger upfront tax deduction for capital outlays, sources familiar with the commission’s thinking and who were not authorised to speak publicly told The Australian Financial Review

But it should also be noted that there is a lot of American style ‘sources who were not authorised to speak publicly’ creeping into Australian mastheads. It started with the ape-ing of the NYT style of ‘this masthead spoke to XX in the left faction and XX in the right faction’ or ‘after speaking to XX number of MPS’ which is something the NYT does to show how connected it is and some reporters in Australia have decided to start using in their own reporting.

Female academics are being encouraged into engineering roles as part of a bid to boost gender equity and representation in the sector.

The University of Sydney is running a campaign open to international and Australian candidates offering academic roles reserved for women in engineering.

The roles are in the schools of aerospace, mechanical and mechatronic engineering, civil engineering, computer science, and electrical and computer engineering.

About 12 to 17 per cent of continuing academic staff within these schools are women.

But a 2024 Diversity Council Australia report found just 11 per cent of female engineering students qualified and went on to work in an engineering role, while the percentage of those in senior roles was even lower.

Shuying Wu, a senior lecturer in aerospace, mechanical and mechatronic engineering at the University of Sydney, said she had been the only women in the room for many parts of her career.

“There is a lack of female mentors so there can be limited guidance and inspiration,” Dr Wu told AAP.

“But when we design engineering projects, if we have more diversity we can solve problems from different angles as diverse teams create more solutions and think about things from different perspectives.”

Women had historically been under-represented in Australia’s engineering sector, something culture and community associate dean Renae Ryan wants to change at the University of Sydney.

Other universities had run similar campaigns which had successfully improved diversity among academics, she said.

“Increasing diversity is not just about representation, it is also about institutions actively creating opportunities for talent to flourish, develop and grow,” Professor Ryan said.

“Having these kinds of identified rounds sends a strong signal that we are really serious about attracting talented women into our faculty and it also increases student interest because it highlights the pipeline for women engineers.”

As diversity, equity and inclusion programs are wound back in the United States, Prof Ryan expected American researchers and academics to be attracted to the roles.

“There’s a lot going on in research and funding in general in the US and there have been significant changes and a lot of people in the higher education sector are under pressure,” she said.

“It’s something we are conscious of and we would always reach out to the US anyway, but there may be people looking for a change in Australia.”

The parliament will sit at 10am today, which is why it feels like the morning is dragging on a little bit longer.

Monday’s are for senior meetings like cabinet and shadow cabinet (and other associated committees) and then Tuesday mornings are when the party rooms get their say.

The independent crossbench is still pushing for truth in political advertising. David Pocock, Zali Steggall and Kate Chaney are holding a press conference this morning ahead of the private members and private senator bills they plan on introducing to revive the issue in the new parliament.

You can find more information on some of the research behind their push, here.

The government’s big move today is to introduce legislation to meet its election commitment of lowering the price of medicines on the PBS to no more than $25.

From the statement:

The Albanese Government is making cheaper medicines even cheaper – with legislation being introduced to Parliament this week that will mean a prescription on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) will cost Australians no more than $25 from 1 January next year.
 
The last time PBS medicines cost no more than $25 was 2004 – more than 20 years ago.
 
This is another key cost of living measure delivered by the Albanese Government.
 
Having already slashed the cost of medicines – with the largest cut to the cost of medicines in the history of the PBS in 2023 – we’re now going even further.
 
This is a more than 20 per cent cut in the maximum cost of PBS medicines, which will save Australians over $200 million each year.

Making medicines cheaper is a tangible way we’re helping with the cost of living.

Pensioners and concession cardholders will continue to benefit from the freeze to the cost of their PBS medicines, with the cost frozen at its current level of $7.70 until 2030.

The ABC interview with independent MP Kate Chaney has moved on to Israel’s actions in Gaza and asked about Australia recognising a Palestinian state, Chaney says:

Look, I think the immediate priority is stopping children from starving and making sure they’re not being shot when people are trying to access food. So, my focus really is on how we get the humanitarian aid organisations in there, doing what they do best, and making sure that starvation is not being used as a tool of war. Recognition will happen in good time.

I think it’s appropriate for that to happen when it’s clear who will run a state of Palestine, and Hamas can have no role in that. So, I think that needs to follow part of the peace process. Right now, let’s focus on getting the food to the kids who need it.

Q: The Australian Government has made a number of statements in this area now. It’s joined with international partners in doing so. Does the international community need to take more action if Israel and the United States, other influential powers, don’t listen?

Chaney:

I think the time is now and I think, given it looks very likely that Israel is breaching international law, and it’s really important that Australia plays its part in upholding international law, and the time may well be right for sanctions at this point.

Does independent MP Kate Chaney think high property prices is impacting Australia’s productivity?

She tells the ABC:

…We have all this wealth tied up in the country in a non-productive asset, when that money could be going in to supporting businesses to innovate.

So, it’s definitely a factor in the productivity debate. And also just on intergenerational fairness. So, I would love to see a whole range of changes on housing, including changes to our tax system around negative gearing and capital gains tax, which are seen as being politically unpalatable. But I think there’s a much higher appetite for change in those areas in my community than government might expect