Bill Shorten calls Stuart Robert’s cabinet solidarity defence ‘peak bizarre’
We begin with government services minister Bill Shorten, who was on RN breakfast this morning criticising the idea that cabinet solidarity would result in ministers misleading the public.
This comes after former minister Stuart Robert yesterday admitted to the Robodebt royal commission that he had said things he believed were “false” because of “cabinet solidarity”:
Here’s Shorten’s take:
I think it’s peak bizarre that you can say that cabinet solidarity allows you to give false statements. Cabinet solidarity means you’ve got to support a policy but I don’t think it means that you’re allowed to make up facts to support the policy
Cabinet solidarity, in essence, is a doctrine which says that cabinet ministers can talk through policies in the sanctity of cabinet. But once a decision is made they all have to support it. That’s fine.
But I do not believe that the doctrine of cabinet solidarity extends to giving permission for people, for ministers, to give false statements about the lawfulness of their actions or to misrepresent facts.
Shorten was then asked if there could be any “consequences” to misleading the public:
This is new ground, I think in terms of someone just saying what they said the royal commission still has to make a determination. So if listeners can hear some hesitation on my voice, I don’t want to get ahead of the royal commission.
You’re meant to resign if you don’t agree with the policy and you can’t support it. Mr Roberts evidences that they had massive personal misgivings but clearly not enough to make him resign.
Robert’s extraordinary admission is analysed in an excellent piece this morning by Luke Henriques-Gomes:
Key events
‘Melbourne is back’: pedestrian traffic figures hailed
Melbourne’s deputy lord mayor, Nicholas Reece, has claimed “Melbourne is back” after sharing that pedestrian traffic in February 2023 was higher than February 2019.
It’s the first time that Melbourne has had a month that was higher than pre-pandemic levels and, with a series of events being held at major cities around the country, it might not be exclusive to Melbourne:
PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC in Melbourne for FEB 2023 was HIGHER than FEB 2019 (100.7%). First time we have had a month that was higher than pre-pandemic. It has been a hard road but MELBOURNE IS BACK!!! Lots more still to do but this is a milestone to be proud of. 👏🏾👏🏻👏👏🏾👏👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/HIXtzLPEs6
— Nicholas Reece (@Nicholas_Reece) March 1, 2023
Media attacks on proposed super changes ‘hyper-stupidity’, Wayne Swan says
Former Labour treasurer Wayne Swan has called media criticism of Labor’s proposed superannuation changes “hyper-stupidity”, adding that the changes were only “modest”.
Speaking on Nine’s Today show he said that while the government had faced some criticism for the proposed changes, it was “just doing what every Treasury has ever done”:
Jim Chalmers is the 41st treasurer of Australia. Every other treasurer of Australia before him would have handled the announcements the way he has.
The difference here is hyper-stupidity in the media and some of the stories that have beaten it up to the point it’s not even recognisable as the original proposal.
Swan defended the government, saying it was attempting to “legislate the purpose of super, which is for retirement, and to make sure that most Australians have a decent retirement with a decent accumulation in their super scheme”:
You can’t achieve that objective if there are parts of the system where there is a large amount of public money going to people on very huge incomes. Superannuation is about a decent retirement for average Australians.
Bill Shorten calls Stuart Robert’s cabinet solidarity defence ‘peak bizarre’
We begin with government services minister Bill Shorten, who was on RN breakfast this morning criticising the idea that cabinet solidarity would result in ministers misleading the public.
This comes after former minister Stuart Robert yesterday admitted to the Robodebt royal commission that he had said things he believed were “false” because of “cabinet solidarity”:
Here’s Shorten’s take:
I think it’s peak bizarre that you can say that cabinet solidarity allows you to give false statements. Cabinet solidarity means you’ve got to support a policy but I don’t think it means that you’re allowed to make up facts to support the policy
Cabinet solidarity, in essence, is a doctrine which says that cabinet ministers can talk through policies in the sanctity of cabinet. But once a decision is made they all have to support it. That’s fine.
But I do not believe that the doctrine of cabinet solidarity extends to giving permission for people, for ministers, to give false statements about the lawfulness of their actions or to misrepresent facts.
Shorten was then asked if there could be any “consequences” to misleading the public:
This is new ground, I think in terms of someone just saying what they said the royal commission still has to make a determination. So if listeners can hear some hesitation on my voice, I don’t want to get ahead of the royal commission.
You’re meant to resign if you don’t agree with the policy and you can’t support it. Mr Roberts evidences that they had massive personal misgivings but clearly not enough to make him resign.
Robert’s extraordinary admission is analysed in an excellent piece this morning by Luke Henriques-Gomes:
Good morning, Mostafa Rachwani with you today, to take you through the day’s news.
Kumanjayi Walker inquest continues
More Northern Territory police force members are due to give evidence at a coronial inquest into the death of the Indigenous teenager Kumanjayi Walker.
The inquest continues on Friday after hearing on Thursday about a series of controversial text messages sent by a NT police sergeant and forwarded to Constable Zachary Rolfe after Walker’s death.
At the inquest, the sergeant called the messages a “horrible mistake” which he hoped would not mean Aboriginal people in the NT lost faith or confidence in the police.
Rolfe fatally shot Walker, 19, three times as he resisted arrest in Yuendumu, north-west of Alice Springs, on 9 November 2019. He was found not guilty by a supreme court jury of Walker’s murder.
Read Guardian Australia’s coverage of yesterday’s inquest hearing here:
Politicising national security ‘dangerous’, Clare O’Neil warns
Daniel Hurst
The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, says the government is working to restore trust with the community on national security threats, warning that the public will stop listening if the issue becomes a matter of partisan politics.
In an interview with the Australian National University’s national security podcast, O’Neil said she felt “really troubled” that the previous government’s approach involved a “reflex willingness to politicise national security issues, and particularly to talk about China in a way that I felt was highly politicised”.
She expanded on some of the points about foreign interference and democratic resilience she made in her National Press Club speech in December and in an earlier podcast interview with Guardian Australia’s Katharine Murphy.
O’Neil told the ANU’s Prof Rory Medcalf:
I really want people to understand politicisation of these issues is dangerous, it reduces the government’s ability to help protect Australians. And if I can pick one thing that will change under the new government in Australia, it is that we’re here for the national interest. And these things are too important to be toyed with, we can’t do anything that reduces government’s power to solve these problems with the population.
O’Neil said Australians “are really smart, and they know when politicians are politicising matters”. That meant people had “stopped listening – and we can’t afford to have that happen”.
She also vowed to push for more “transparency and openness” about national security threats, saying she read vast amounts of intelligence reporting “and you can’t read these reports and think anything other than the Australian people have to know more” about the ways in which “people are trying to interfere without our politics and our security”. The government had “tried to open up the doors a little bit”.
Wong urges China not to supply weapons to Russia after talks in India
Daniel Hurst
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has urged China not to supply weapons to Russia after she met with her Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in India yesterday. She said she had also raised trade issues, human rights and consular cases.
Wong’s meeting was with Qin Gang, who has been serving as China’s foreign minister since late 2022. Wong previously held talks with then-minister Wang Yi in Beijing in December, after earlier meetings on the sidelines of last year’s G20 and UN general assembly events. Wong told reporters in New Delhi after the latest meeting:
I will continue to assert that both parties [Australia and China] can grow our bilateral relationship while safeguarding our national interests if we both navigate our differences wisely. I was grateful for the opportunity to engage on important matters including trade, human rights and consular matters as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Wong repeated the argument that “it would be in both countries’ interests for those trade impediments to be removed” – referring to China’s tariffs and other restrictions on a range of Australian export sectors including barley and wine.
Asked about China’s proposed peace plan in relation to Ukraine, Wong began by saying the responsibility for the war in Ukraine and the flow-on impacts on global energy and food insecurity – as well as the suffering of the Ukrainian people – “lies at the feet of Russia and we must never forget that and never resile from that”.
She said China was one of the five permanent members of the UN security council:
I’ve previously said that the world does look to China for its responsible leadership when it comes to Ukraine, particularly given its closely relationship with Russia. I would note that President Zelenskiy himself has said he wants to believe that China will do the right thing and not supply weapons to Russia – and that is not only Australia’s call but the call of all countries.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian Australia live blog. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be trying to bring you up to date with the overnight breaking news before Mostafa Rachwani comes along.
Our top story this morning is about a legal challenge by an Afghan man who argues that Karen Andrews’ decision to cancel his visa in 2021 is void because Scott Morrison’s multiple ministerial appointments displaced her as home affairs minister and meant that she didn’t have the authority. It could lead to all decisions made between April 2021 and the 2022 election being challenged.
From one home affairs minister to another – and more backwash from the former Coalition government – come in comments from Clare O’Neil, who says her predecessors had a dangerous tendency to politicise national security issues. She tells a podcast that she felt “really troubled” that the previous government had a “reflex willingness to politicise national security issues, and particularly to talk about China in a way that I felt was highly politicised”. More coming on this interview very soon.
The big foreign news overnight is that US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had a stormy meeting on the sidelines of the G20 in India, after which the latter accused the west of blackmail. Australia, meanwhile, has joined other western nations to urge China not to supply arms to Russia to help its war against Ukraine. Penny Wong said the world looked to China “for its responsible leadership when it comes to Ukraine”. More coming on that, too.
