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As it happened: Greens agree to safeguard mechanism legislation; PM tells Liberal MP to have courage on Voice

Caroline Schelle and Megan Gorrey
Updated ,first published

Key Posts

Consumer spending slows, heaping pressure on RBA to hold rates
Coalition condemns ‘disturbing pattern of behaviour’ towards female MPs
Labor’s $15 billion reconstruction fund gets crossbench support
Mental health help unaffordable, hard to access as rising costs bite
NSW health minister backs Medicare, aged care reform
WA revives spirit of COVID border in bid to stop drug trafficking
Charlie Teo should be ‘rejected as a witness of credit’, hearing told
Andrews meets China’s education minister in Beijing as trip criticised
Watch: Question time
Former SAS soldier granted bail over alleged war crime murder

That’s a wrap: Tuesday’s headlines at a glance

By Megan Gorrey

That’s where we will leave our live blog for the day, thank you for joining us. We’ll be back bright and early tomorrow. If you’re just tuning in, here’s a quick rundown of Tuesday’s main headlines:

  • NSW Premier Chris Minns and his interim ministry have officially taken the reins of government after being sworn into office this morning. Labor’s majority is in doubt after several close seat races narrowed in vote counting, with ALP candidates behind in all five seats still in contention.
  • Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been accused of paying lip service to press freedom after shunning journalists on his trade mission to China and providing limited details of his itinerary on his first day in Beijing.
NSW Premier Chris Minns (right) and Health Minister Ryan Park (left) talk with a patient in the endoscopy ward at Liverpool Hospital, shortly after they were sworn in on Tuesday.Kate Geraghty
  • Also in Victoria, Liberal leader John Pesutto says controversial MP Moira Deeming is off to a bad start by tweeting inconsistent views he claims do not honour the outcome of Monday’s party room meeting. Deeming avoided expulsion and was suspended for her involvement in a rally outside Parliament that was gatecrashed by a group of masked men who performed the Nazi salute.
  • To the cost of living crisis, and 10 successive interest rate rises are forcing Australia’s shoppers to slash their spending on non-essential items as evidence grows the Reserve Bank will need to pause its aggressive tightening of monetary policy at its next meeting.
  • Mental health support is not affordable or accessible at a time when Australians’ mental wellbeing is deteriorating under the weight of rising rents, increased mortgage repayments and income pressures, leading experts to warn the federal government must act in the next budget to save lives.
Children from The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, hold hands as they are taken to a church after the shooting.AP

Consumer spending slows, heaping pressure on RBA to hold rates

By Shane Wright

Ten successive interest rate rises are forcing the nation’s shoppers to slash their spending on non-essential items as evidence grows the Reserve Bank will need to pause its aggressive tightening of monetary policy at its next meeting.

As Treasurer Jim Chalmers revealed he had held talks with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde about the issues facing the Northern Hemisphere banking system, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed retail sales grew by just 0.2 per cent through February.

Retail sales are flatlining in response to high inflation and increasing interest rates.Natalie Boog

After inflation and population growth are considered, the figures indicate a further drop in the total number of goods being bought by households and that consumers are feeling the weight of the RBA’s tightening of monetary policy. The bank has said it will take into consideration retail sales and monthly inflation data, due on Wednesday, when it considers interest rates at its April 4 meeting.

Retail sales peaked in November when shoppers took advantage of that month’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts. Since then, total retail turnover has fallen by more than $700 million or 2 per cent.

Read the full story here.

Coalition condemns ‘disturbing pattern of behaviour’ towards female MPs

By Matthew Knott

The Coalition has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to lift standards in Parliament House, accusing Labor MPs of displaying a “disturbing pattern of behaviour” by insulting opposition female MPs.

Victorian Labor MP Sam Rae has denied yelling “at least I have my own children” at Liberal opponent Angie Bell, who is gay, during her speech about childcare in parliament on Monday.

Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley approached the government backbench to speak to Labor MP Sam Rae (wearing blue tie) at the end of question time.Alex Ellinghausen

The exchange came just days after Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson broke down in tears over comments Labor senator Murray Watt made during a debate about Nazi symbols.

The accusation, which Henderson has declined to detail, related to text messages Henderson allegedly sent to Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto not to expel controversial MP Moira Deeming from the party room.

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Labor’s $15 billion reconstruction fund gets crossbench support

By David Crowe

Federal Labor has gained the final jigsaw pieces in its bid to set up a $15 billion fund to invest in manufacturing and industry projects as it promised at the last election, with crossbench senators giving the policy their approval in a meeting this afternoon.

This clears the way for the National Reconstruction Fund, one of the biggest industry policies in recent memory, to pass the Senate later on Tuesday night.

Industry Minister Ed Husic gained support from crossbenchers today. Alex Ellinghausen

The outcome adds the NRF to the Safeguard Mechanism as key Labor policies that have gained support from the Greens this week after weeks of negotiation over amendments to the industry policy and the climate change scheme to cut carbon emissions.

The final stage came shortly before 5pm today when Industry Minister Ed Husic gained support from crossbenchers David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie, Tammy Tyrrell and Lidia Thorpe. This adds to support from the Greens.

Mental health help unaffordable, hard to access as rising costs bite

By Natassia Chrysanthos

Mental health support is not affordable or accessible at a time when Australians’ mental wellbeing is deteriorating under the weight of rising rents, increased mortgage repayments and income pressures, leading experts to warn the federal government must act in the next budget to save lives.

Beyond Blue chief executive Georgie Harman said 37 per cent of people her organisation surveyed reported cost of living pressures had negatively impacted their mental health either “quite a bit” or “an extreme amount” in the past year.

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“What that says, is the task that governments know needs to happen is only more urgent. At a time this is really biting for people, mental health support isn’t affordable, available or easy to find,” she said.

“How that plays out for people is they feel great shame about not being able to pay bills, quite often hide stuff from family, bunker down and internalise the worry.

Russia fires supersonic anti-ship missile in Sea of Japan

By

Returning to international news, and the Russian navy has fired supersonic anti-ship missiles at a mock target in the Sea of Japan, the country’s Defence Ministry said.

“In the waters of the Sea of Japan, missile ships of the Pacific Fleet fired Moskit cruise missiles at a mock enemy sea target,” it said in a statement on its Telegram account on Tuesday.

The P-270 Moskit is a medium-range supersonic cruise missile capable of destroying a ship within a range of up to 120km.Commons

“The target, located at a distance of about 100 kilometres, was successfully hit by a direct hit from two Moskit cruise missiles.”

The P-270 Moskit missile, which has the NATO reporting name of SS-N-22 Sunburn, is a medium-range supersonic cruise missile of Soviet origin, capable of destroying a ship within a range of up to 120km. Russia fired the missiles in the same area during tactical exercises in 2019.

Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tokyo would stay vigilant against Moscow’s military operations, while adding that no damage had been reported after the missile launches.

Reuters

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Union boss says wages must increase now to aid struggling workers

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The head of Australia’s peak union body says essential workers’ wages should be pushed up immediately amid soaring inflation and rising living costs.

ACTU president Michele O’Neil told the National Press Club in Canberra that Labor’s victory in the NSW election at the weekend showed governments were increasingly aware of workers’ concerns.

ACTU President Michele O’Neil says workers shouldn’t be blamed for soaring inflation. Alex Ellinghausen

“Real wages have gone backwards by the greatest ever amount, 4.5 per cent in the last 12 months, we’ve never seen such a decline in workers wages in our country,” O’Neil said on Tuesday.

“The idea that somehow we should step back from workers seeing their wage increases … the opposite is needed. People are struggling, there is a cost of living crisis, people need to see their wages increase, and they need them now, and we know every economist, everyone agrees that is no wage price spiral happening here.

NSW health minister backs Medicare, aged care reform

By Angus Thomson

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park, who was sworn in this morning, says he will work with federal ministers to ensure there are not people sitting in public hospital beds who could be in aged care.

Speaking at Liverpool Hospital alongside Premier Chris Minns this afternoon, Park said he had already reached out to his federal counterpart Mark Butler, and would speak to Federal Aged Care Minister Anika Wells about problems affecting the state’s health system.

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“I know in my own hospital down in Wollongong at the moment, there’s about 130 people sitting in acute beds that really should be in aged care,” he said.

“What I’ve got to do is passionately defend the people of NSW and make sure we get the best value … health care that we can.”

WA revives spirit of COVID border in bid to stop drug trafficking

By Hamish Hastie

The WA government will lower the threshold of suspicion for police to search people and vehicles for illegal drugs at 22 border locations across the state.

The locations include all the state’s road and rail border crossings, major ports and airports, despite many of these locations already having Australian Border Force and federal police presence.

Perth Airport is one of the locations falling under this new law.Getty Images

The government will introduce amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act to parliament later this week, creating specified areas around these border locations where police will be able to easily search vehicles and people using electronic wands and drug detection dogs.

WA Premier Mark McGowan said the laws would replicate the best parts of the COVID-19 border rules that had a marked impact on the importation of drugs into the state during the pandemic.

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Scotland’s new party leader is pro-independence and Muslim

By William Booth

In overseas news, Humza Yousaf, the grandson of a Pakistani immigrant who arrived barely speaking English to work in a sewing machine factory in Glasgow, has been named as the new leader of the Scottish National Party.

Because of his party’s majority, Yousaf will almost certainly be chosen as first minister – the leader of Scotland – by the parliament on Tuesday.

Humza Yousaf, speaks to the media after being announced as the new leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) at Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh, UK, on Monday.Bloomberg

At age 37, Yousaf will be the youngest first minister of Scotland and the first Muslim to run the nation. His mother, wearing a headscarf, dabbed a tear as he spoke after the vote results were announced.

His ascension as Scottish leader comes alongside the prime ministership of Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, whose parents are also South Asian. London’s mayor is Sadiq Khan, a Muslim and son of Pakistani immigrants. Today, Sunak, Khan and Yousaf are three of the most prominent – and powerful – leaders in Britain.

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