As it happened: Labor push ahead with NACC legislation despite whistleblower concerns; Senior Coalition MP gave secret advice to lobbyists

Thanks for joining me for today’s live blog coverage, that’s it from us for the day.

Here’s a rundown of today’s news in case you missed it:

• The bill to establish the National Anti-Corruption Commission has cleared its first hurdle, passing the House of Representatives on the voices, paving the way for it to clear the Senate next week.
• Coalition MP Stuart Robert has been secretly providing advice to a Canberra lobbying and consulting firm that helps large companies win lucrative government contracts and obtain access to senior Coalition politicians, including Peter Dutton.
• In response, Government Services Minister Bill Shorten has asked the heads of Services Australia and the National Disability Insurance Agency to “immediately and thoroughly” investigate contracts awarded to companies named in this masthead’s report on secret advice provided by the Liberal MP to a lobbyist.
• Two sets of recommendations to overhaul the Reserve Bank may be handed to the federal government by the panel overseeing its first independent review in 40 years, although a “high bar” will probably have to be met for the changes to go through.
• Qantas domestic flight staff voted overnight to take protected industrial action as a result of expired employment agreements and the burden of the COVID-19. Labor senator Tony Sheldon said price gouging of airline ticket prices by companies like Qantas is “absolutely shocking”.
• Northern Territory Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy says the government is “very determined” for the industrial relations bill to be passed in parliament over coming weeks, while Nationals leader David Littleproud delivered a rural spin on the Coalition’s criticisms of the IR bill.

I hope you have a lovely evening, we’ll see you tomorrow!

The Australian sharemarket closed up this afternoon, after setting a new 100-day high following a strong session on Wall Street overnight.

Gold miners were the standout on the index, with Evolution Mining up 6.6 per cent and Northern Star Resources ahead 2.6 per cent after a rise in gold futures overnight.

Coal miners were among the best performers yesterday, but took a hit during today’s trading, as the energy sector as a whole spent the day in the red. New Hope was down 8.8 per cent, Whitehaven Coal dropped 6.7 per cent and Yancoal slid 4 per cent at close of trade.

Qantas shares continued to rise during early trading today after the airline lifted its profit forecasts yesterday, but dropped off in line with the overall index during the afternoon. The airline closed up 0.2 per cent by the end of the day.

Read more in today’s wrap with Billie Eder here.

Returning to industrial relations, and Nationals leader David Littleproud has delivered a rural spin on the Coalition’s attacks over the governments IR bill.

Littleproud asked that, if a representative for cattle ringers and station-hands on a property applies to the Fair Work Commission for a “single interest” agreement, whether all cattle properties in northern Australia could be roped into multi-employer bargaining.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke replied: “Are these rules meant to be able to reach agriculture? Yeah, absolutely.”

Burke said some of the worst examples of wage theft had come from that sector.

“Not because of the farmers themselves but because of the labour hire firms, rorting the systems, where the farmers thought they were paying decent wages, they were being charged for them, but there was a rort happening that was never meeting the worker,” he said.

“I met with workers, I remember meeting Kate on a visa here from Taiwan, fishing out of the bins beside the supermarket to get food, and she had a full-time job.”

Question time is currently under way in the House of Representatives.

Watch live below.

Heading back to federal parliament, and the bill to establish the National Anti-Corruption Commission has cleared its first hurdle, passing the House of Representatives on the voices, paving the way for it to clear the Senate next week.

Its passage was preceded by a lengthy debate over amendments.

Only the amendments moved by the government were successful, while those moved by the opposition and by crossbench members were defeated.

As regular readers of this blog will know, a key sticking point during the debate was the requirement for the corruption watchdog to hold hearings in private unless there are “exceptional circumstances” and it is in the public interest to hold public hearings.

This means that the bid by independent MP Helen Haines’ bid to scrap the exceptional circumstances test was defeated, as was the Coalition’s attempt to strengthen safeguards for private hearings.

A second related bill that complements the NACC legislation is expected to pass House this afternoon.