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Katy Gallagher claims underdog status in Senate race against David Pocock
Sarah Basford Canales
Katy Gallagher was also asked about her future as a senator.
Unlike the states, territory senators are up for election every three years, instead of six. That means, for the ACT, both David Pocock and Gallagher will go head-to-head for the two ACT Senate seats next year.
In the 2022 federal election, Gallagher took first place in the Senate race while Pocock, a former Wallabies captain, knocked Liberal junior minister, Zed Seselja, out of the upper house in a surprise upset. Seselja gained more primary votes but Pocock won more overall votes thanks to preference flows.
But Gallagher says she isn’t so sure that will happen again.
Despite being Albanese’s go-to henchwoman in the Senate, the former ACT chief minister considers herself the underdog to Pocock.
Gallagher said:
Well, my time in politics, I’ve only ever been in a marginal seat contest, and the Senate race in the ACT is a marginal seat contest now.
And I think, personally, I think David Pocock will be elected first and then … it’s the race between Labor for the second seat. I think that’s how it will play out and so that means we’ve got to put a lot of effort in.
The Labor frontbencher said Pocock raised almost $2m for his campaign last federal election and she expected the independent senator to do so again.
She said:
Again, we won’t have that money. We don’t. In my time in politics, I’ve never seen that sort of money in Canberra, and so I’m going to have to campaign on my record and my commitment to this town.
Key events
Three states remain under heatwave warnings as “hot and unsettled conditions” remain in the centre and south-east of Australia.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued the severe warnings for parts of New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, expected to peak over the coming days then ease early next week.
Temperatures from the high twenties to mid thirties were forecast to hit Batemans Bay and Bega on the NSW South Coast, with overnight minimum temperatures in the high teens to low twenties.
The Kimberley, North Interior and South Interior districts in WA were forecast to reach maximum temperatures in the low to mid forties, extending to the Pilbara next week.
In South Australia’s North West Pastoral district, overnight minimum temperatures were expected to reach the high twenties, with maximum temperatures in excess of 40 degrees.
Severe heatwave conditions are expected to peak before the weekend, then ease from the south with a cooler change developing late Friday and extending throughout the warning area over the weekend.
Sydney NYE: nine tonnes of fireworks to be fired from eight floating platforms, 80 new harbour positions
Plans for Sydney’s New Year’s Eve have been released, with fireworks to be launched from 80 new positions on the western side of the Harbour Bridge.
Lord mayor Clover Moore unveiled the schedule this morning, which features fireworks for children at 9pm and midnight for adults.
Moore:
As one of the first cities in the world to ring in the new year, we set the benchmark with a spectacle that reflects what our beautiful city is all about. With 26,500 lights and nine tonnes of fireworks to be fired off eight floating platforms and from 80 new positions on the western side of the bridge, we’ll be lighting up 7km of Sydney Harbour, from Cockatoo Island to Point Piper and beyond.
At 7.30pm, three Tribal Warrior vessels will set sail west of the headland and travel around Circular Quay, to the Opera House where a traditional smoking ceremony will take place with smouldering native plants on board each vessel.
At 8.30pm, Yvonne Weldon AM will present a Welcome to Country, which will be followed by a performance of an original song, Country’s Calling, led by producer, rapper and ARIA award winner, Nooky.
Then, for eight minutes until 9pm, fireworks will light up Sydney Harbour in a “celebration of sky, land and sea”, with projections on the bridge pylons illustrating Barangaroo and her female warriors’ connection to water and fishing in the harbour.
This sunburnt country – Australian summers increasingly likely to feature fires and floods
Bushfires one day, floods the next. The likelihood of back-to-back severe weather events during Australian summers is increasing in a warming climate.
The black summer bushfires of 2019-2020 caused widespread destruction that was followed by downpours and flooding over the next two years, complicating the response and recovery efforts.
Such double destruction isn’t likely to be a one-off. The Climate Council is warning that there is a growing risk that different parts of Australia may face more than one disaster at the same time or in quick succession, with cascading severe weather events a real possibilitythis summer.
“We call it climate whiplash,” a former commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW, Greg Mullins, said during a media briefing today.
We go from heatwaves and fires to floods and storms.
Above-average temperatures are predicted forthis summer in many parts of Australia, based on the Bureau of Meteorology’s long-range forecasts.
This summer will also likely be wetter than normal – especially in December – with a greater chance of unusually high rainfall in parts of Australia’s east and northwest.
But a wet start to summer does not rule out bushfires, with patches of the country, particularly grasslands in western Victoria, eastern South Australia and parts of New South Wales already facing a high risk of fires.
– AAP.
A mighty thanks to my fellow Cait-based namesake, Catie McLeod.
I’ll be with you until stumps.
I’m signing off for the day. My colleague, Caitlin Cassidy, will take you through the rest of the day’s news. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great afternoon.
Josh Taylor
Federal government to fund customer advocacy ahead of new NBN pricing framework
The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) will be able to provide a voice for customers on how much they’re paying for the NBN in the next pricing determination by the competition regulator, after a $2.5m grant provided by the federal government.
The consumer group will be tasked with advocating for consumers as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sets out the next framework for pricing and NBN expenditure and standards to run from 1 July 2026 until 30 June 2029.
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said:
This additional funding to ACCAN will help ensure Australian consumers are getting access to quality broadband at the best prices. Ensuring that consumer voices are heard and integrated in the development of NBN regulatory proposals is key to providing all Australians with high-quality, reliable and affordable broadband.
NBN’s most recent wholesale pricing overhaul led to some retail providers increasing the prices for lower-speed plans while lowering the higher prices for higher speed plans, leading to criticism of the impact of the changes during a cost-of-living crisis.
The ACCAN CEO, Carol Bennett, said the organisation would advocate for consumers when the next round of pricing was determined.
We look forward to ensuring that consumers receive high-quality, affordable and reliable services through the NBN for decades to come.
NBN’s pricing proposal is due by 2 July 2025, with a final decision by the ACCC expected by 30 June 2026.
RACP says Qld’s ‘punitive’ criminal justice reforms ‘target’ vulnerable children
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) has described the Queensland government’s criminal justice reforms as “punitive” and says they will target vulnerable children.
The RACP – a professional body that represents physicians and paediatricians across Australia and New Zealand – has called on the state’s Liberal National party government to reconsider the new laws.
The premier, David Crisafulli, introduced the party’s headline-making “Making Queensland Safer” bill last week.
It is the first item on Crisafulli’s legislative agenda since the LNP won the Queensland election in October, ending three consecutive terms of Labor government.
The legislation implements the government’s “adult crime, adult time” election commitment by dramatically increasing maximum sentences for youth crimes.
The RACP has released a statement today cautioning against the legislation.
In it, Prof Nitin Kapur, the president of the RACP’s child health division, said he was concerned the bill would “significantly worsen health outcomes across Queensland”.
He said:
It is likely to worsen the overrepresentation of First Nations children in detention, deepening psychological, social, and cultural harm, and perpetuating trauma and disconnection from their communities.
We are keen to work with the Queensland government to address the challenges our children face today but are extremely concerned that the government’s approach will set back developmental and social outcomes for vulnerable members of a generation of children.
As child health experts, we have repeatedly warned that detaining children does not address the main causes of antisocial behaviour.
Kapur urged the Queensland government to work with child health experts to develop reforms that “truly serve our community”.
You can read more about the controversial bill here:
Natasha May
Experts left ‘furious’ at close of NSW government drug summit
Leading experts in drug reform have been left “furious” as the New South Wales government’s drug summit comes to a close with the health minister having ruled out the possibility of decriminalisation.
The Greens spokesperson for drug law reform, Cate Faehrmann, said it was “profoundly disappointing” that halfway through the summit the government wouldn’t consider what the vast majority of people attending say is the number one thing that needs to happen.
At a press conference convened by the Greens with experts and advocates, this afternoon, Faehrmann said the people in the drug reform space hoping for change had been left “furious” at “what seems to be a box ticking exercise”.
Dr Annie Madden, the executive director of Harm Reduction Australia, said experts and advocates had come to the summit in good faith but had been left “angry and devastated” by the minister’s ruling out decriminalisation when the summit was barely under way.
Madden said after having come back from breakout room sessions at the summit where initial recommendations were floated, “the room was in revolt”. Many people felt that the wording was inappropriate and inaccurate, being so vague it risked progress being set back.
“It feels like the government came in not wanting to listen.”
Madden said experts and the community were ready for change, but politicians were not.
Faehrmann said even if the government took decriminalisation to the next election it shouldn’t have to go to voters because this drug summit was the mandate it needed for reform.
People advised to avoid Sydney’s Silver Beach until ball-shaped debris cleaned up
Sydney’s Sutherland Shire council has responded after ball-shaped debris washed up on a beach in its local area, after a similar pollution incident on another Sydney beach.
A spokesperson for the council said it was working with the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority after the balls were found along the eastern end of Silver Beach at Kurnell.
They said:
Beachgoers are strongly advised not to enter the beach until the clean-up is complete.
While the spread of debris is limited to the [parts of] Botany Bay facing Silver Beach at present, council will continue to monitor other local beaches to ensure this debris is not affecting other areas of our coastline.
In October, seven Sydney beaches including Bondi were closed after dark balls of debris washed ashore.
Environment authorities initially said they believed the balls had come from an oil spill, but testing later revealed they were made of products such as motor oil, hair, food waste, animal matter and wastewater bacteria.
You can read more here:
Katy Gallagher claims underdog status in Senate race against David Pocock
Sarah Basford Canales
Katy Gallagher was also asked about her future as a senator.
Unlike the states, territory senators are up for election every three years, instead of six. That means, for the ACT, both David Pocock and Gallagher will go head-to-head for the two ACT Senate seats next year.
In the 2022 federal election, Gallagher took first place in the Senate race while Pocock, a former Wallabies captain, knocked Liberal junior minister, Zed Seselja, out of the upper house in a surprise upset. Seselja gained more primary votes but Pocock won more overall votes thanks to preference flows.
But Gallagher says she isn’t so sure that will happen again.
Despite being Albanese’s go-to henchwoman in the Senate, the former ACT chief minister considers herself the underdog to Pocock.
Gallagher said:
Well, my time in politics, I’ve only ever been in a marginal seat contest, and the Senate race in the ACT is a marginal seat contest now.
And I think, personally, I think David Pocock will be elected first and then … it’s the race between Labor for the second seat. I think that’s how it will play out and so that means we’ve got to put a lot of effort in.
The Labor frontbencher said Pocock raised almost $2m for his campaign last federal election and she expected the independent senator to do so again.
She said:
Again, we won’t have that money. We don’t. In my time in politics, I’ve never seen that sort of money in Canberra, and so I’m going to have to campaign on my record and my commitment to this town.
Sarah Basford Canales
Labor frontbencher Katy Gallagher says cuts to public service would result in more failures like Robodebt
The public service minister, Katy Gallagher, says she has “no doubts” the Coalition’s proposed cuts to the federal bureaucracy would again lead to system failures, such as the illegal robodebt scheme.
At a press conference after a speech to Canberra’s top mandarins about reforms across the government workforce, the ACT senator said the opposition’s suggestion it would slash 36,000 jobs across the public service would be disastrous for Australians.
As we mentioned earlier, the number of public servants employed under the Albanese government has grown substantially since May 2022.
There are about 26,000 – or 16.4% – more roles now than there were three years ago.
While the number of permanent staff has increased, Labor says there has also been a decrease in the use of private sector contractors and consultants as a result.
The opposition has warned it will look at trimming the increase in staff to save the budget billions of dollars.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, said the “first thing” a Coalition government would do in government would be to “sack” 36,000 bureaucrats in Canberra.
At a Minerals Council conference in September, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, queried whether the extra workforce was needed.
In response, Gallagher said earlier today:
There’s no doubt that the lack of independence and the control of executive government had a lot to do with how long robodebt went on for.
It was a thirst for savings to run a fiscal strategy that actually caused, in some instances, the death of innocent Australians. I mean, it is the most extraordinary public administration failure, and I would hope we never go back there.
I think the APS is less likely to go as far back as that. But if you cut 20% of the APS’s resourcing, there will be failures of systems. I have no doubt about it.
Asked whether she was running a scare campaign in Canberra to win ACT votes, Gallagher responded:
I think it would probably be negligent on me not to raise it, and I don’t know how you talk about public sector reform and looking at what you do next when there is this big shadow of a threat to cut 36,000 jobs from the public service.
So I tried to navigate that. It’s not scare-mongering at all. It’s simply saying the facts.
Ball-shaped debris being cleaned up on Sydney’s Silver Beach at Kurnell
Sydney beaches have been graced with yet more ball-shaped debris, the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has confirmed.
The EPA was alerted by a member of the public to the balls at the eastern end of Silver Beach at Kurnell, in the Sutherland Shire on Tuesday. Council immediately placed signs at the beach warning of contamination, and it is handling the cleanup.
The debris varies in size, shape and colour with some rounded and golf-ball size while larger ones are more irregular in shape. They range in colour from whitish or pale through green, grey and black.
Samples will be tested and compared with balls found in the past two months, which were identified as ‘fatbergs’, and attributed to a source that releases mixed waste.
The EPA said this incident was much smaller than the balls that plagued Sydney’s eastern suburbs in October, with fewer found and over a smaller area. Further debris has not been found on nearby beaches, however a small number were discovered on Botany Bay at Dolls Point Beach, which have been cleaned up.
Former X-Factor contestant has murder charge withdrawn
A former X-Factor contestant who had been accused of killing a baby girl has had a murder charge against him withdrawn.
Mitchell David Callaway, 39, was arrested and charged with a single count of murder in June 2023 after a five-year police investigation. He did not formally plead.
On 23 July 2018, a nine-month-old girl was found unresponsive in a home at Binnaway, south of Coonabarabran in central-west NSW. Paramedics took the baby to Coonabarabran hospital, where she died a short time later.
Callaway was arrested at a home at Bowraville in the mid north coast hinterland after police executed a warrant at Binnaway the month before.
But the prosecutors formally withdrew the charge at Dubbo Local court on today, nearly 18 months after the court proceedings were launched.
Callaway had previously been granted bail and did not appear at the court in person.
The singer competed and came seventh in series three of X-Factor Australia in 2011. His season was won by then-teen star Reece Mastin.
– AAP.
Nationals’ David Littleproud: Coalition’s nuclear costings ‘imminent’
The leader of the Nationals, David Littleproud, has flagged costings for the Coalition’s nuclear power policy are “imminent” and will be announced “very soon”, while falling short of nailing down a date.
Speaking on Sky News today, Littleproud was asked if there would be a “sneak peek” of the costings for the plan for seven nuclear power plants. A report released in September and dismissed by the opposition, estimated the plan would add $665 a year to an average power bill.
Littleproud:
We will be announcing this very soon; it’s imminent in terms of the costings. But what we wanted to do is … gain social licence in the communities in which we determine where these nuclear power plants will go.
And that’s what we’ve gained, and we’ve been able to go into those communities, educate them and let them understand about the opportunities and the transition that nearly 80% of them that work in a coal fired power station can transition across into a nuclear power plant.
The costings will be out very soon as well as our total grid showing and demonstrating that we’re not going down an all-renewables approach … I think that if we’re given a mandate after the next federal election, there will be a very powerful mandate for everyone to work collectively to get on with the job and get started immediately.
Liberal senator Simon Birmingham joins ANZ South Australia
The Liberal senator, Simon Birmingham, has been appointed the head of Asia Pacific engagement and chair of ANZ South Australia after his resignation from parliament last week.
In a statement released today, ANZ said Birmingham would be working closely with the chief executive officer, Shayne Elliott, to “expand and strengthen” ANZ’s trade relationships and capital flows across the region.
Elliot:
Birmingham has had a distinguished career as a senator for South Australia and Australian cabinet minister … his significant experience and knowledge of trade, investment and the economies and governments of the Asia Pacific will help ANZ and our customers to create opportunities across the region.
Birmingham’s knowledge of and commitment to his home state will allow us to deepen our support for our South Australian customers and the state’s economy. His understanding of many of the state’s key industries – such as agriculture, tourism, defence, and education – will help drive opportunities for our South Australian customers, including those exporting to the world.
Birmingham said ANZ had “long played a strong role” in promoting trade and capital flows through the Asia Pacific.
I look forward to working closely with ANZ’s customers and the bank’s leadership, both at home and across the Asia Pacific region.
Birmingham will join ANZ in February next year.
Caitlin Cassidy
International report shows growing inequality in Australian education system
An international report about the performance of year 4 and 8 students across mathematics and science points to growing inequalities in our education system, the Australian Education Union (Aeu) says.
The latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss) results, released yesterday, were Australia’s best for year 4 students, while stagnating for year 8 students and showing an increase in very low performers.
It also highlighted large performance gaps between socioeconomically disadvantaged students, regional students, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their peers.
Aeu federal president, Correna Haythorpe, said with public schools teaching 80% of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the results underlined the urgent need for full funding of the system.
The results from Timss 2023 should signal a wake-up call for the Albanese government about the urgent need to fully fund our public schools. While we are pleased to see some improvements in year 4, the stagnation in year 8, particularly among our most disadvantaged students, is deeply concerning.
Without increased investment in our public schools, the gap between students from low and high SES backgrounds, as well as between Aboriginal students and Torres Strait Islander students and non-Indigenous students, will only continue to grow.
The education minister remains in a standoff with New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria over who will front an ongoing 5% gap in public school funding. Jason Clare has proposed the Commonwealth increase its share from 20% to 22.5%, while the states and the Aeu pushing the federal government to lift its funding to 25%.