Lambie furious over ‘disgusting’ One Nation video calling Hastie a ‘traitor’
Jacqui Lambie, an independent senator and defence veteran, has blasted Pauline Hanson and One Nation’s cartoon video calling Andrew Hastie a traitor after he gave evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith in his failed defamation trial.
Lambie doesn’t mince her words. Like Hastie, Lambie says the video is an attack on all veterans and says Hanson is showing her “true colours”.
She tells RN Breakfast the cartoon should be removed immediately:
What she’s doing in those cartoons is absolutely disgusting. They are full of bloody violence. I mean, how people can watch that rubbish is beyond me. But attacking Andrew Hastie, a veteran that has served in our Afghanistan war, or any other veteran, is the lowest ebb you can possibly do. That woman is nothing less than a bloody coward.
I tell you what, you’re seeing her true colours start to shine now. You watch this, the Australian people. Here comes coward Hanson. What needs to happen? I think what she should do is instead of saying, oh, it’s everybody else’s, these cartoons, those cartoons that she’s running out there, they are disgusting. They are absolutely disgusting. And she should remove that one of Hastie down right now today. And any veteran out there thinking about voting for One Nation or standing for them, I tell you what, you had better think twice.
Key events
Greens support strengthened powers for eSafety commissioner on social media ban
The Senate is currently voting on the government’s bill to increase the powers of the eSafety commissioner in her quest to crack down on tech platforms breaching the under 16s social media ban.
The government sold it as pretty uncontroversial legislation that gives the commissioner powers like being able to compel more hard evidence like paper documents from tech platforms to show they’re doing the right thing.
The Greens are voting for the legislation, but the Coalition aren’t.
Benita Kolovos
Former Liberal MP Moira Deeming announces she will join Family First party
Moira Deeming, the former Victorian Liberal MP, has announced she will lead the conservative Family First party at the November state election.
Joined by the party’s leader, Lyle Shelton, at parliament this morning, Deeming told reporters Family First was a “good fit”.
A lot of parties invited me [to join] … and it was very flattering and very gracious to them all. But I had to have a really good think about it. And as I said, I’ve known Lyle for so long, and I know that he’s a man of good character and I know that he’s never going to ask me to be quiet about child safeguards and sex-based rights.
Deeming, who sits in the upper house for the Western Metropolitan Region, quit the Liberals in July after she was disendorsed by the party. It came after she accused fellow Liberal MP Matthew Guy of grabbing her “violently” in a headlock, but later said she misunderstood the meaning of headlock.
Her first term in Victorian state parliament has been marred with controversy, including when she successfully sued former Liberal leader John Pesutto for defamation after he falsely claimed she was associated with neo-Nazis who crashed a rally she attended.
Jumping back to that press conference on the national gas reservation scheme, the government says it’s long overdue.
Tim Ayres says:
We are the only gas producing economy in the world on any scale that does not have an obligation on our domestic producers to secure gas for our own industry and its own households
Madeleine King says that the east coast and west coast will be treated as two different markets. Why? Because they currently produce gas separately and there’s no connecting pipeline between them, which means the east coast won’t be able to fill their reservation requirements just by selling to the west and vice versa.
Hanson says she has never called Hastie a traitor
Pauline Hanson was tight-lipped on her way into parliament this morning when swamped by journalists at the doors.
This is all she said:
I have never called him a traitor. End of question.
Andrew Hastie has said Hanson should take ownership for the language in the One Nation cartoon, which is pinned to the top of her X account.
Labor confirms watering down of gas reservation plan
The government will require gas producers to save “up to” one-fifth of their production for the local market instead of a hard 20%, in a watering down of the policy.
Labor is releasing the draft legislation for the scheme this morning – the energy minister, Chris Bowen, industry minister Tim Ayres and resources minister, Madeleine King, are holding a press conference.
Here was the original plan, where the government said an oversupply of domestic gas would help to reduce prices for households and businesses.
But now the government has slightly changed its tune after consultation. Bowen says:
There is an obligation to supply gas to Australian industry. But there are other things where we’ve had suggestions about how we can effectively achieve that modest oversupply that we said all along was our objective and we’ve incorporated that in the design. So this sets us up for the future.
It’s good policy for certainty, it’s good policy for our environmental credentials as well. Our requirement in many ways, despite the complexity is modest. Keep up to 20% of your gas for Australians. So Australian gas should be for Australian use.
King says existing contractual obligations will remain the same.
The scheme will commence on 1 January 2027.
Andrew Hastie being dubbed a traitor is ‘disgraceful’, the Greens’ David Shoebridge says
They may not align politically, but Greens senator David Shoebridge has also come out swinging in defence of Andrew Hastie and his fight with One Nation.
Shoebridge tells News24 it’s “disgraceful” for One Nation to attack Andrew Hastie for giving evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith in his failed defamation trial.
And he sounds pretty furious too.
I disagree with pretty much everything that comes out of Hastie’s mouth, like his whole suite of policies are things that I tend to oppose. I’m not saying it 100%, but pretty much everything comes out of his mouth.
But for the life of me, I can’t work out how any political party can stand by an attack on somebody because they go into court and they tell the truth as they understand it. And doing it in circumstances where you’re facing a whole bunch of pressure and the idea that you make that your political attack on somebody.
I mean it’s actually pretty fucking disgraceful to attack him for that.
‘No graver accusation’ than One Nation labelling Hastie a traitor, Paterson says
The shadow defence minister, James Paterson, has come out to bat for his colleague Andrew Hastie in his fight against One Nation.
Speaking to News24 earlier, the Victorian senator said the rightwing party had crossed a line and said they “should be ashamed of themselves”.
Paterson echoed the call of Hastie, that Pauline Hanson should take responsibility for the One Nation cartoon video labelling the SAS veteran a traitor, and called her weak for not owning it.
I’m conscious that I’ve not served today in uniform. And like Pauline Hanson and James Ashby and most of One Nation, I would never dream of accusing someone who has served in uniform for our country of being a traitor. There’s no graver accusation to me particularly about someone like Andrew Hastie.
I think they should be ashamed of themselves. And I think Pauline Hanson showed her weakness last night in her interview with Chris Kenny, where she refused to take responsibility for a cartoon, which is pinned to the top of her X page, which she authorises, which she provides the voiceover for … she refused to take responsibility, but she also refused to repeat those words about Andrew Hastie. I think that shows weakness and I think, frankly, she should toughen up and take responsibility.
Lambie furious over ‘disgusting’ One Nation video calling Hastie a ‘traitor’
Jacqui Lambie, an independent senator and defence veteran, has blasted Pauline Hanson and One Nation’s cartoon video calling Andrew Hastie a traitor after he gave evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith in his failed defamation trial.
Lambie doesn’t mince her words. Like Hastie, Lambie says the video is an attack on all veterans and says Hanson is showing her “true colours”.
She tells RN Breakfast the cartoon should be removed immediately:
What she’s doing in those cartoons is absolutely disgusting. They are full of bloody violence. I mean, how people can watch that rubbish is beyond me. But attacking Andrew Hastie, a veteran that has served in our Afghanistan war, or any other veteran, is the lowest ebb you can possibly do. That woman is nothing less than a bloody coward.
I tell you what, you’re seeing her true colours start to shine now. You watch this, the Australian people. Here comes coward Hanson. What needs to happen? I think what she should do is instead of saying, oh, it’s everybody else’s, these cartoons, those cartoons that she’s running out there, they are disgusting. They are absolutely disgusting. And she should remove that one of Hastie down right now today. And any veteran out there thinking about voting for One Nation or standing for them, I tell you what, you had better think twice.
Israeli government’s policies and actions ‘unconscionable’
Julian Hill says he’s been “extremely outspoken” about the increasing settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, but won’t say how far the government will go with new sanctions.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, this week announced the government would take more action against the settlements but wouldn’t follow the UK in implementing trade bans.
Hill tells RN Breakfast:
This is against international law and the current Israeli government’s policies and actions are unconscionable. The government has already taken significant steps. We’ve sanctioned Israeli ministers, we’ve sanctioned individuals, we’ve sanctioned entities.
We never speculate on specific measures before we take them. Sanctions are ultimately an expression, a serious powerful legal tool, an expression of our national interest looking at the international circumstance. And when the foreign minister signs off on new measures, she’ll announce them at that time.
Labor introducing new laws to crack down on illegal tobacco
Labor will introduce new laws to make it easier to prosecute criminals involved in the illicit tobacco trade, as the government fights an uphill battle against the exploding black market.
The new laws will target organised crime, distributors and retailers selling illegal cigarettes.
The assistant customs minister, Julian Hill, is announcing legislation that he says will target organised crime, distributors and retailers selling black market cigarettes.
He tells RN Breakfast the customs rules were designed for small-scale “revenue fraud, you know, under-declaring, smuggling a little bit of stuff in” and need to be completely overhauled.
The new laws think about it as a list of observable indicators, very simple, fact-based things like: is the tobacco appropriately packaged? Is it a menthol cigarette even hiding in plain packaging? Is it being concealed? Does it have paperwork at the border?
Or my personal favourite: is the retail price of this packet of cigarettes less than the amount of excise and GST combined? If any of these facts are proven, just one of them, that establishes the reasonable suspicion of the criminal offence of importing, possession, or conveying. It’ll give powerful new tools to Border Force but every state and territory police force to go after the crooks.
‘Disappointed he thinks I’m a coward’: Joyce
Barnaby Joyce says he doesn’t believe Andrew Hastie is a traitor and has respect for his military service, after Hastie accused him and Pauline Hanson of being “lying cowards”.
Joyce yesterday told Guardian Australia he wasn’t aware of the One Nation cartoon video that calls Hastie a traitor.
This morning Hastie said he would make the fight a politically costly one for Hanson.
Joyce was stopped by reporters on his way into parliament this morning and said he had reached out to Hastie last night:
I said, look, my door’s open if you want to talk about this. I don’t know why he thinks I’m a liar. I don’t quite know why he believes I lied about it.
I’m disappointed he thinks I’m a coward. I don’t know how he came to that opinion but that’s up to him. I don’t think he’s a traitor. I absolutely respect the services given to our nation, like my family, has given to the service of New Zealand and Australia. Democracy’s a robust thing.
Hastie labels Hanson ‘weak and glass jawed’
Andrew Hastie has continued to step up the fight against One Nation, after one of its cartoon Please Explain videos referred to the Liberal MP and SAS veteran as a “traitor” after he gave evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith in his failed defamation claim.
Hastie tells RN Breakfast the cartoon effectively attacked not just him but all veterans.
Yesterday he told News24 Hanson should “own” the cartoon because Hanson said she hadn’t called Hastie a “traitor”, or take it down. Hanson then refused to take down the video and accused Hastie of making a “mountain out of molehill”.
Hastie this morning says he won’t take legal action against Hanson, because she’s backed by mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, but promises to make it a costly battle politically.
She’s not fit to govern this country. And she’s also cast a massive slur on veterans around the country who think that Australian soldiers should hold high standards of conduct on the battlefield.
It’s actually an attack on veterans, not just an attack on me, because you’ve got to remember more than 20 plus SAS combat veterans were called to give evidence in the federal court. Are they traitors too? This question she won’t answer and I think it shows weakness from her.
I’m not after legal action, particularly when she’s financed by Australia’s richest person. Why would I walk into a fight that I can’t win financially? But yes, I’m going to impose costs politically.
‘We need to explain Australia doesn’t have a migration crisis’: Malinauskas
Peter Malinaukas says he understands the concerns of Australians worried about migration and the housing shortage in Australia, but that the answer is politicians need to explain there is a housing crisis not a migration crisis happening.
He tells the ABC’s AM program that Australia will soon have more people over 65 than under 15 and migration will be essential to replace the ageing workforce.
We need to explain that Australia doesn’t really have a migration crisis so much as a housing crisis. If we have a housing crisis, we would do well to focus our skills policy on making sure that we’re bringing in the very workers that we require in the housing construction industry. You know, Australia’s got a massive shortage of almost every trade.
Everyone, I think, accepts that it needs to be a well-calibrated, balanced migration program. My point is that we haven’t seen much evidence in the political discourse in this country in the last few years making the case for migration. Just to be seeing be a lot of culture wars being executed against migration. And I think that’s self-defeating, and we’ve got a responsibility to stand up against it.
But when asked what the magic number is for a well-balanced migration program, Malinauskas won’t say.
Instead of coming up with an arbitrary number and then cutting different parts of the migration program, Malinaukas says governments should work from the ground up, determining the skills shortages, and growth in regional areas, and then coming up with a target.
Don’t appease One Nation on migration, Malinauskas warns
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has warned the Albanese government not to join the “madness” of cutting migration to appease One Nation.
In a speech in Sydney last night, Malinauskas – whose grandparents migrated to Australia after the second world war – said the wave of populist politics has “more than arrived in Australia”, but the government should push back.
Above all else, [we must] preserve our strong migration program … The correct political response to anti-immigration politics and populists is not appeasement.
More troubling is the prospect of mainstream politics entering a political race to the bottom for who can cut migration numbers the most. This is not unfortunate – this is madness.
There could be no greater act of national economic self harm at this time than to slash migration numbers for political purposes.
He also warns against cutting international student numbers, calling it “crazy”.
Imagine if we did this to the mining industry, there world be an ad on every television station and mobile phone about how we’re killing the goose that lays the golden egg. It is crazy.
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you for the final sitting day of the fortnight.
We’ll be hearing more on migration today with the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, overnight warning the Albanese government not to join the “race to the bottom” against One Nation in cutting migration. The premier is doing the media rounds this morning.
Speaking of One Nation, the stoush between Pauline Hanson and Andrew Hastie continues – we’ll be following that closely.
And expect some more fight over the grants program that gave Labor seats a majority of funding, as well as the government’s digital duty of care bill, it’ll be an interesting issue for the Coalition – we understand there’s a pretty wide spread in opinion across their party room over the bill.
There’s plenty to get to, so let’s get stuck in!
Adeshola Ore
In Victoria a car is stolen or broken into every 43 minutes: data
Melbourne recorded more insurance claims for stolen and broken-into cars than all other Australian capital cities combined, according to the Insurance Council of Australia.
Property crime data released by the ICA showed Victoria had the highest rates of car theft and home burglary claims in the country in the last financial year. Analysis of Insurance Statistics Australia (ISA) data showed that there were more than 12,300 claims – costing insurers $244m – lodged in the state for cars stolen or broken into.
In the same time period, every other state and territory recorded a decline.
The ICA’s chief executive, Andrew Hall, said in Victoria a car was stolen or broken into every 43 minutes while a home is broken into every two hours.
The insurance data shows Victoria has a crime problem, and it is being felt directly by households, businesses and communities.
The ICA has called for a statewide strategy and better intelligence sharing, the establishment of centrally coordinated clean-up arrangements, and the abolishment of stamp duty on business, home and contents insurance products.
It also called for improving insurance affordability for healthcare professionals, community organisations and live music venues by “modernising civil liability laws”.
Adeshola Ore
Hopes Australia would join UK trade ban on Israeli settlements in West Bank
Speaking to the ABC’s 7.30, Emily Thornberry, the chair of the UK’s foreign affairs select committee, was asked whether she hoped Australia would join the UK’s trade ban decision:
I think it was hoped that they might but, you know, all countries have their own decisions to make. We all want the same thing and nobody says this is easy.
On Tuesday, the UK government announced it would ban imported goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories. Australia is preparing another round of sanctions against Israel but has stopped short of joining the UK’s trade ban.
Thornberry said she had a “a lot of time” for the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong:
I don’t know the basis upon which she’s made a decision not to be involved with us, but I’m sure that you know she believes that what she’s doing is in the interests of Palestinians and in the interests of justice.
She later added:
I’m always happy to talk to my Australian friends and maybe even persuade them.
On Wednesday, Wong said she was concerned a blanket ban could have “unintended consequences” for Australian businesses, Palestinians and Israelis and reiterated the country would continue to protect the prospect of a two-state solution.
Australia should ‘put shoulder to the wheel’ on multilateral diplomacy: Rudd
Tom McIlroy
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd is in Canberra for a round of high-profile speeches this week, marking his return to Australia after serving as ambassador to Washington DC.
Rudd spoke at the Australian Institute of International Affairs on Wednesday night and will be at the National Press Club today.
He said Australia must continue to push multilateral diplomacy, even as Donald Trump withdraws the US from a range of important global institutions. Australia, as a leading middle power, should promote the United Nations system, which has support across Asia and Europe, according to Rudd.
There remains an opportunity for Australia, in partnership with other middle powers around the world, to put our shoulders to the wheel in supporting those UN multilateral institutions which now find themselves under financial and institutional pressure as a result of the US withdrawing.
Australia remains active in the UN, the IMF and the World Bank. We remain active in the G20 and in APEC.
We remain active in major regional institutions, such as the Pacific Islands Forum, where the government has once again registered a remarkable series of foreign policy achievements.
Rudd said this kind of serious engagement would “put flesh on the bones” of the plan outlined by the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, at Davos earlier this year.
And it would mark a deeply practical contribution to sustaining the multilateral rules-based system as America resolves its internal domestic debate on its future posture within it.
Good morning
Welcome to Guardian Australia’s live coverage for Thursday.
Krishani Dhanji will join us shortly.
Let’s begin.
