Gulfs Weekly
From 1h ago Penry Buckley Following on from our last Icac post ... This afternoon, the developer Jean Nassif has described how Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis , who he has referred to as as “the boys”, met with him in 2019 to convince him to pay registered lobbying company Beckington, saying they could help “ease off the media attack” on his developments. He said he subsequently met and befriended Charles Perrottet , who would speak to him to convince him to pay Beckington, claiming Perrottet would say “the boys need it for for recruitment and for Liberal activities”.
Greenwood and Charles Perrottet have denied payments from Nassif were for political outcomes. Nassif said he could not recall if he discussed with the men an alleged plan to get rid of former Liberal minister David Elliott or building commissioner David Chandler, and disputed whether he had paid for the recruitment of party members to branch stack against centre-right Liberals, asking Dwyer: “Did you investigate if my money recruited?”He claimed: “My money is still in their account.” Dwyer, responded: “Mr Nassif, I’m just talking about what they promised you.” The inquiry again heard messages between Ellis and Greenwood in which the latter complained of non-payment by Toplace , writing: “If that fuckwit doesn’t pay, we can’t access our term deposit till March 19”, and writing that Nassif was “fucking the relationship”. Dwyer said to Nassif: “I don’t mean to be hurtful, Mr Nassif, but the person they’re referring to as a fuckwit there is you.” Key events 39m ago What we learned – Monday 14 September 1h ago Alcohol taxes and marketing need review, inquiry finds 2h ago Federal government announces $10m dollar support package for Whyalla workers 2h ago Australia records first bird flu case in pelican 3h ago Three Australians found dead in Bali in suspected murder-suicide 3h ago Fugitive developer Jean Nassif details feud with David Elliott 3h ago Hundreds of jobs cut at Whyalla steelworks in SA 3h ago Australia’s old tech is vulnerable to AI hacking, top intelligence chief says 3h ago Sussan Ley appointed to Snowy Hydro board 4h ago ‘I’m not even the decision maker’: Albanese denies involvement in golf club grant 4h ago Albanese says Coalition’s golf club grant question ‘wasn’t so much a question as a smear’ 4h ago Jean Nassif tells Icac ‘I’m going to speak my heart’ 4h ago Question time begins 4h ago Fugitive developer Jean Nassif appears at NSW Icac inquiry 5h ago Hastie says expected closure of Whyalla steelworks is a ‘brutal blow’ 5h ago Australia must reject Pauline Hanson’s ‘toxic agenda’, Indigenous Australians minister says 5h ago Coalition still unhappy about digital duty of care bill 6h ago Middle East escalation to drive up petrol prices 7h ago OpenAI says it wants to train models in Australia 8h ago Hastie says Australia will be ‘supplicant state’ without US AI deal 9h ago First female high court justice Mary Gaudron remembered 9h ago Victorian premier vows ‘no more buck passing’ after motorcyclist’s death 9h ago Hanson’s comments on Albanese’s mum ‘inappropriate’: Taylor 9h ago What’s in One Nation’s migration policy? 10h ago Pensioners to pay for half of Labor's $3bn private health savings 10h ago Joyce stands by Hanson’s comments disparaging Albanese’s mother 11h ago One Nation reveals ‘net-negative’ migration policy 12h ago Bumper weekend for auctions 12h ago Labor announces $300m grants for crisis accommodation 12h ago Save $5,000 by electrifying, organisations say What we learned – Monday 14 September That’s where we’ll leave our live coverage for the day.
Before we say goodnight, let’s recap the top headlines. Australian households could save $5,000 a year by electrifying their homes and cars, and more than 30 organisations will call for incentives and stronger policies in Canberra as part of a national campaign . The government is giving $300m in grants to build crisis and transitional accomodation that will deliver 500 new homes and support around 19,000 vulnerable Australians.
One Nation is targeting international students and the families of skilled migrants in its newly proposed immigration policy . Universities Australia has accused the party of threatening to destroy “one of Australia’s biggest exports”. Barnaby Joyce has defended Pauline Hanson ’s comments that a person shouldn’t be allowed to live in public housing for multiple decades because there isn’t enough housing.
She directly criticised the length of time Anthony Albanese’s mother had lived in housing commission housing. Hanson has also garnered criticism for resurfaced comments calling First Nations Australians “primitive”. Indigenous senators have criticised the One Nation leader , saying the comments show “wilful ignorance”.
Mary Gaudron , Australia’s first female justice of the high court of Australia, has been remembered as a woman who broke down barriers for women across Australia, for her intellect and courage. The federal government has announced a $10m joint support package for the 500 Whyalla workers who face losing their jobs , their families and the broader community affected by the decision to abandon efforts to restart the plant’s troubled blast furnace. Thanks for reading along – see you bright and early tomorrow!
Penry Buckley Following on from our last Icac post ... This afternoon, the developer Jean Nassif has described how Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis , who he has referred to as as “the boys”, met with him in 2019 to convince him to pay registered lobbying company Beckington, saying they could help “ease off the media attack” on his developments. He said he subsequently met and befriended Charles Perrottet , who would speak to him to convince him to pay Beckington, claiming Perrottet would say “the boys need it for for recruitment and for Liberal activities”.
Greenwood and Charles Perrottet have denied payments from Nassif were for political outcomes. Nassif said he could not recall if he discussed with the men an alleged plan to get rid of former Liberal minister David Elliott or building commissioner David Chandler, and disputed whether he had paid for the recruitment of party members to branch stack against centre-right Liberals, asking Dwyer: “Did you investigate if my money recruited?”He claimed: “My money is still in their account.” Dwyer, responded: “Mr Nassif, I’m just talking about what they promised you.” The inquiry again heard messages between Ellis and Greenwood in which the latter complained of non-payment by Toplace , writing: “If that fuckwit doesn’t pay, we can’t access our term deposit till March 19”, and writing that Nassif was “fucking the relationship”. Dwyer said to Nassif: “I don’t mean to be hurtful, Mr Nassif, but the person they’re referring to as a fuckwit there is you.” Penry Buckley Jean Nassif says he is not in communication with someone else during Icac evidence The NSW Icac’s Operation Rosny has now concluded for this afternoon.
Jean Nassif , who has told the commission he has to attend a meeting in Beirut this morning local time, will return to give evidence at 2pm tomorrow afternoon. Earlier counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asked Nassif if he had a phone with him in the room while he is giving evidence. After he said yes, she asked him if he was in communication with anyone, to which he insisted he was not.
Dwyer asked him if he has been in contact with former Toplace executive and lawyer Sharangan Maheswaran , who is named in a separate Icac allegation, and has previously denied any wrongdoing. He said he was not in contact with Maheswaran today, but had previously asked him if he could help him find legal representation, and that Maheswaran was unable to help. Nassif was asked earlier if he was reading from a document while giving evidence.
He said: double quotation mark No, I don’t have any document because ... the police raided my home, my offices, and ... took all the evidence. Alcohol taxes and marketing need review, inquiry finds Melissa Davey A parliamentary inquiry into the health impacts of alcohol and drugs has tabled its final report, recommending new mandatory alcohol advertising and marketing regulations be developed along with national standards for the online sale and delivery of alcohol. The way alcohol is taxed should also be reviewed, the inquiry recommended, with many of the health groups giving evidence to the inquiry that a uniform volumetric tax across all alcohol products is needed.
Spirits, pre-mixed drinks and beer are currently taxed volumetrically with the amount of tax paid determined by the volume of alcohol within the product. Wine and cider are taxed based on their wholesale price, rather than alcohol content, leading to cheap wine with high alcohol content. Many previous government reviews have recommended a volumetric tax for wine.
Ayla Chorley, the CEO of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, said the recommendations “provide a clear pathway to reduce alcohol-related harm”. She said: double quotation mark This harm is not inevitable. The way alcohol is marketed and sold should be determined by governments, not the industry that profits from a harmful and addictive product.
Dr Erin Lalor , the CEO of the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, said the report was a milestone. She said: double quotation mark This report highlights the significant harms associated with alcohol and other drug use, including long term chronic health conditions, relationship breakdowns and violence against women and children. Photograph: Julia Gomina/Getty Images/iStockphoto One Nation migration plan would badly damage international education, universities warn Universities Australia has accused One Nation of threatening to destroy “one of Australia’s biggest exports”, warning that “slashing international student numbers would do lasting damage”.
The comments follow Pauline Hanson ’s announcement of the party’s immigration policy, which would cut the number of temporary migrants in Australia by more than 750,000 over three years. The plan targets international students and family members of skilled migrants in a “net-negative” migration policy. Universities Australia’s chief executive, Luke Sheehy, said the major political parties were competing in “a race to the bottom on international students”.
In a statement, he said: double quotation mark A vote for dramatically fewer international students is a vote for a poorer, less skilled Australia. You can’t take skills, jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity out of the country and pretend there will be no consequences. International education is one of Australia’s biggest exports.
It supports jobs across the economy, helps build the skilled workforce we desperately need and strengthens our relationships around the world. It also helps keep our universities going. For years, governments have asked universities to do more while public funding has failed to keep pace with the cost of teaching, research and infrastructure.
International education has helped fill that gap. If politicians want to rip that revenue out of the system, they need to tell Australians what replaces it. Read the full story here: ‘Four policies in four weeks’: Canavan questions detail of One Nation’s latest immigration policy The Nationals leader.
Matt Canavan. has questioned the detail and viability of One Nation’s latest immigration policy, saying the party has failed to provide clear costings or explain how its proposed migration cuts would affect key industries. Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Canavan said: double quotation mark It’s a bit hard to judge this policy. It’s the fourth migration policy One Nation has had in four weeks, and still we don’t really see proper costings.
There’s no indication of exactly what the numbers would be, that 750,000 figure is over three years. That’s really important. Those details are really important to industries like farming.
There is no doubt we need to get migration numbers down, a lot lower than what the government has them at the moment or even what they want to get them to. There is a reason One Nation has had four policies in four weeks. They have gone off half-cocked a number of times; they haven’t quite understood the complexities of the system.
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Tim Ayres accuses Coalition of politicising Whyalla steelworks job losses Industry and innovation minister Tim Ayres has accused the Coalition of trying to politicise the collapse of the Whyalla steelworks while hundreds of workers face losing their jobs. The comments came after several Coalition MPs, including shadow industry minister Andrew Hastie, blamed the development on the government’s clean energy transition policies. Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Senator Ayres said: double quotation mark After their fellow Australians in Whyalla, people who don’t just put on high-vis shirts for press conferences but put them on everyday and turn up before these guys have even got out of bed and work hard to secure the future of the blast furnace ...
Mr Hastie, Mr Fanning and Senator Canavan came here and said that this was all about energy costs and net zero. I mean, that is a lie. It’s trying to politicise the effort and struggle of ordinary Australians in manufacturing who are doing their very best – working together with unions, the business, the administrator, the governments, the joint taskforce.
Everybody is throwing themselves at this giant task, and all these guys can do is turn up and try to use them as political pawns in some contest between One Nation, the Nationals and the Liberals. Industry minister Tim Ayres. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP Federal government announces $10m dollar support package for Whyalla workers The federal government has announced a $10m joint support package for the 500 Whyalla workers who face losing their jobs, their families and the broader community affected by the decision to abandon efforts to restart the plant’s troubled blast furnace.
The package will provide career support, transition assistance, skills recognition and funding for workers who want to upgrade or expand their skills. Wellbeing services and financial counselling will also be available. Speaking in Canberra, employment and workplace relations minister Amanda Rishworth said that while it was “a very difficult day”, the decision was not unexpected and support measures had been planned. double quotation mark The Peter Malinauskas and the Albanese Labor government have been working to plan for the event if this was to occur, so we’ve been able to immediately stand up worker support.
This package has been thought through and will provide support to those workers and, importantly, their families, because we know that these workers are not the only ones affected. Importantly, we will be working with the South Australian government to ensure that workers who are affected and will no longer have work as a result of this closure get other job opportunities. Employment and workplace relations minister Amanda Rishworth.
Photograph: Aaron Bunch/AAP Australia records first bird flu case in pelican Donna Lu Australia has recorded its first case of H5N1 bird flu in a pelican, South Australian authorities have confirmed. The pelican was found at Edithburgh on the Yorke Peninsula, one of five detection events included on Monday in the state’s latest testing update. It comes after South Australia recorded the first bird flu death of an endangered Australian sea lion on Sunday.
On Sunday, the state’s environment minister, Emily Bourke , said the sea lion was found dead at Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island, Australia’s third-largest colony of the animals. As of the latest federal figures, Australia has recorded more than 500 confirmed events of H5 bird flu in more than 30 species of wildlife, the vast majority of cases in greater crested terns, a common native seabird. South Australia accounts for nearly 300 cases.
Australian pelicans in South Australia. Photograph: Auscape/UIG/Getty Images Three Australians found dead in Bali in suspected murder-suicide Nick Visser The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) is assisting the family of three Australians who died in Bali. The ABC reports Balinese police are investigating the deaths as a suspected murder-suicide after a man and his two children were found dead inside a home in Kuta on Sunday morning.
Dfat said in a statement: double quotation mark We send our deepest condolences to the family at this difficult time. Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment. The ABC says a welfare check was conducted at a bungalow rented by the family after the man’s wife had left for Jakarta.
On arrival, authorities discovered the bodies. A city police official told the broadcaster: double quotation mark Investigators are carrying out enquiries, including crime scene analysis, reviewing CCTV footage and interviewing witnesses, including the victim’s wife to establish the exact cause of death. The Guardian has reached out to Balinese police for comment on the matter.
Achol Arok Thanks to Krishani Dhanji for being our guiding light through this jam-packed day. I’ll be here to guide you through the rest of this afternoon’s news. Krishani Dhanji Thank you all so much for following along on the blog today!
I’ll leave you with the fabulous Achol Arok and see you here bright and early tomorrow. Fugitive developer Jean Nassif details feud with David Elliott Penry Buckley Returning to Jean Nassif ‘s appearance at the NSW Icac, questioning has focused on the property developer’s feud with centre-right Liberal figures, including David Elliott, who he says were “rejecting all my properties across the suburbs and putting blocking on it”. Asked about comments by Elliott in 2019 about constituents complaining of defects in apartments built by his company Toplace, Nassif describes Elliott as “a racist person and ... corrupt politician”.
Nassif says: “I want to stop at that for now, because I’ve got plenty to say”. Elliott, who has told the commission that Nassif began to target him after he opposed his developments, is not accused of any wrongdoing. Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asks how Nassif came to know with Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis, who, alongside Charles Perrottet , are alleged to have taken $2m in prohibited donations from Nassif.
Greenwood and Charles Perrottet have rejected that payments were for political outcomes, while Ellis, who has moved to the UK, is not expected to give evidence. Nassif says he spoke at a function to the Liberal figure JP Abood and the former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott , during which he says he complained to Abbott about “my problems with the centre-right”, including federal and state Liberal MPs. Nassaf says Abood suggested he speak to Ellis and Greenwood, claiming Abood said: “They might take over the Hills soon, so talk to them and see if they can help you.” Abbott is not named as a person of interest in Icac’s inquiry and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Jean Nassif is giving evidence to a NSW Icac inquiry from Lebanon. Photograph: Icac Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time (already feels like an eternity ago) The PM was pressed on the $6m grant awarded to a golf club in his electorate that he is an honorary member of. Asked if the grant was making his property down the road more valuable, he said it wasn’t so much a “ question as a smear ”.
Andrew Wallace brought a fat stack of papers to the chamber with 10,000 signatures on it calling for a reduction in private health rebates for over 65s to be reversed. Independent Dai Le asked if the government would cut the fuel excise to give people more cost of living relief. And shadow treasurer Tim Wilson was the sole MP to face Milton Dick’s wrath today – kicked out around the two thirds mark for making too much noise.
Hundreds of jobs cut at Whyalla steelworks in SA Jonathan Barrett About 500 Whyalla steelworks employees will lose their jobs after officials abandoned efforts to restart the plant’s troubled blast furnace. The decision is expected to put about 500 out of work, according to the plant’s administrators KordaMentha, taking the workforce from the steelworks, the port and the associated mine down from about 1,700 to about 1,200. The decision to abandon further revival efforts shuts down Australia’s sole local manufacturer of rail steel and idles one of only two integrated steel facilities in the country.
The Whyalla steelworks were part of British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s metals empire until early last year, when the South Australian government tipped the operations into administration after years of underinvestment. The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas , said today that the blast furnace’s “days were numbered”. double quotation mark There was always the intention that it would close. We would have liked it to last a little bit longer, but, alas, it hasn’t been able to.
Last year, the federal and state governments unveiled a $2.4bn support package to keep the plant running, pay employees and creditors, upgrade infrastructure, and ultimately entice a new buyer to reinvigorate the plant. The coal-fired blast furnace has been offline since April. Administrators are seeking a buyer to restore operations.
Australia’s old tech is vulnerable to AI hacking, top intelligence chief says Luca Ittimani One of Australia’s top intelligence agencies has warned that old technology is leaving Australian businesses and governments vulnerable to AI attacks. Abigail Bradshaw , director general of the Australian Signals Directorate, has told the Sydney Dialogue to take note of Anthropic’s recent warning of AI agents and hacking risks. She said the ASD did not know how many agents were on the internet: double quotation mark I think that prospect of getting some sort of definition or calculation of how these agents are out there is really remote, and I would just say a lot.
She said Australian systems faced “enormous” hidden costs of maintaining outdated technology but said they needed to be addressed: double quotation mark If we don’t move fast enough, almost certainly it would be legacy technology which is first compromised in a major AI-enabled attack. Government and business had the same issue and neither had the funding to replace all of its old systems, she said. But she said partial replacement had to start immediately and that would mean taking down systems that Australians expect to be available all the time. double quotation mark What AI calls for, because of the ease and speed in which vulnerabilities are detected, and the need now to patch not every Tuesday, not every two weeks, but potentially within 48 hours, means that we are asking people to make a different decision.
We are asking private owners of infrastructure to actually optimise security over system availability. And that means we’re all going to have to be a little bit patient and do it. Australian Signals Directorate chief Abigail Bradshaw.
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Sussan Ley appointed to Snowy Hydro board Tom McIlroy The Albanese government has named the former Liberal leader Sussan Ley to the board of Snowy Hydro Limited. Ley, who quit politics after being rolled as opposition leader by Angus Taylor in February, was appointed by the energy minister, Chris Bowen , and the finance minister, Katy Gallagher . Snowy Hydro, the massive hydroelectricity project in regional New South Wales, is a government owned corporation.
The government also appointed Merryn York, the former chief executive of Queensland’s Powerlink and a former executive with the Australian Energy Market Operator. Former opposition leader Sussan Ley. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP After a final dixer to Chris Bowen on cheaper home batteries, the PM calls time on QT.
Source: The Guardian
