Marles will ‘make right decision in Australia’s interest’ over deploying navy vessels to Red Sea, Farrell says – as it happened

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Up to 49 tonnes of illicit drugs prevented from reaching Australia

Australian federal police and international law enforcement partners have prevented up to 49 tonnes of illicit drugs from reaching Australia throughout the past financial year.

The AFP cannot overstate the amount of harm that 29 tonnes of methamphetamine could have caused to the community if it had not been intercepted by law enforcement.

On average, close to 12,000 Australians are hospitalised from methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin use every 12 months.

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Labor accused of being more concerned with NDIS costs than people with disabilities

Former ACT minister Emma Davidson voices unease after states and territories given just one month to review landmark report into scheme

A former ACT disability minister has accused the federal government of being more concerned with costs than people with disabilities after giving states and territories just one month to review a landmark report into the NDIS.

The ACT Greens MLA Emma Davidson, who was the territory’s disability minister until a cabinet reshuffle on Monday, said she agreed with decisions made by national cabinet this month but said they weren’t for the “right reasons” in a lengthy letter published on Friday.

Leaders met for a national cabinet meeting in early December where the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, agreed to extend the GST “no worse off” guarantee for a further three years, estimated to cost $10.5bn, in exchange for a joint funding agreement for additional disability services to complement the NDIS.

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Steven Miles confirms run for Queensland Labor leader – as it happened

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Palaszczuk reveals she changed her mind in recent weeks

It was only a couple of months ago that Annastacia Palaszczuk insisted she would lead the Labor party to next year’s state election.

I feel refreshed, I feel energised and I’m absolutely determined to lead the party and this government to the next election. I just want to make that very clear to everybody.

In 2015 Annastacia promised good, decent government for the people of Queensland. That’s exactly what she’s delivered for the last nine years. Congratulations on your premiership. You are one of the true Qld Labor greats

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Bill Shorten says it would have ‘helped’ if high court released reasons for indefinite detention ruling earlier

High court demolished indefinite detention system and ‘within one month the Albanese government’s resolved it’, Labor minister says

Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten said it would have been “helpful” if the high court had given its reasons for ruling indefinite detention was unconstitutional at the same time it handed down its decision.

The Albanese government has spent the last month weathering criticism it was too slow to react to the high court’s decision, which overturned a 20-year precedent allowing the government to indefinitely detain refugees and migrants it could not deport.

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Australia news live: Daniel Andrews fires up over ‘Dictator Dan’ moniker; festival-goers warned about heatwave conditions

Former Victorian premier gives first interview after resignation, saying ‘the haters hate and the rest vote Labor’. Follow the day’s news live

James Ashby to stand for One Nation in Queensland seat

James Ashby, the chief of staff to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, will stand for the party in the seat of Keppel at next year’s Queensland state election, AAP reports.

The Nationals are dead in Queensland’s parliament while the Liberals are lurching further left in their attempts to secure inner-Brisbane seats.

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NDIS funding showdown looms as Shorten seeks new deal with states

Bill Shorten is due to release a review of the NDIS but says things won’t ‘change overnight’ amid resistance against moving some disability support services responsibilities to states

Bill Shorten is seeking to defuse a growing row with state and territory governments over funding for the NDIS, insisting the federal government does not want to “change things overnight”.

But with a showdown looming at national cabinet this week, disability advocates have urged leaders not to treat the community as “political footballs”.

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Centrelink to get 3,000 new staff in bid to deal with helpline and payment delays

Funding boost of $228m aims to return workers to frontline roles after millions of calls went unanswered

Centrelink call centres will get an additional 3,000 staff as part of an immediate $228m funding boost to speed up claim payments after complaints of blown-out call wait times.

More than 800 workers have already been recruited, with the remaining 2,200 to be employed in centres across capital cities and regional New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, the government services minister, Bill Shorten, announced on Sunday night.

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Scott Morrison a ‘bottomless well of self-pity’ with no ‘mercy’ for robodebt’s real victims, Bill Shorten says

Minister for government services says ‘real victims are all those Australians who lost trust in government’ due to scheme

Bill Shorten has accused Scott Morrison of being “a bottomless well of self-pity” with “not a drop of mercy for all of the real victims of robodebt”.

That outburst in question time followed the former prime minister’s defence of his involvement of the scheme in parliament on Monday, claiming Labor was pursuing a campaign of “political lynching” against him.

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Robodebt royal commission report handed down – as it happened

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Bill Shorten: robodebt commission report will be a ‘vindication’ for victims and their families

The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, says today “is a vindication” for victims of the robodebt scandal with the royal commission report being handed down. He told ABC’s RN this morning:

The heart of this story today is the fact that real people unlawfully had debt notices … raised against them by the most powerful institution in Australia, the commonwealth government.

Two of these people, after receiving robodebt notices, subsequently took their own lives that I’m aware of.

Today is not the day [their mothers] want. What they really want is their sons to be alive.

One of the challenges we’re seeing across the country is great teacher shortages … COVID brought that timetable forward.

Classrooms are more complex, there is a great diversity of needs across the classroom, and as society changes a lot of teachers and education ministers are testifying about the impact of technology in classrooms.

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Bill Shorten has ‘no problem’ with public servants displaying support for Indigenous voice at work

Comments come after poster on voice was removed from an NDIS commission office over concerns it compromised impartiality

The federal minister for government services, Bill Shorten, has backed public servants displaying their support for the Indigenous voice referendum at work, after a stoush between unions and the NDIS commission over an information flier posted in an office.

Guardian Australia understands a Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) poster featuring referendum information, bearing a “unions for yes” emblem, was removed from a Melbourne NDIS commission office last week, upsetting the union.

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Bill Shorten says public servants adversely named in robodebt inquiry could face disciplinary action

Government services minister will await findings of commissioner Catherine Holmes before considering ‘what to do with those people’

The government services minister, Bill Shorten, has warned that public servants adversely named by the robodebt royal commission could face disciplinary action.

Shorten said he will await the findings of commissioner Catherine Holmes AC SC before making any moves, but that unfavourable findings will be enough for action.

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Australia news live: Labor will not lift jobseeker despite recommendation for ‘substantial increase’ to base rate

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Joyce describes Indigenous voice as ‘a consultative power by selected group’

Joyce says the voice will affect all Australians, not just Indigenous Australians, because a selected rather than elected body will move away from the democratic process.

It is a massive change to how democracy works because we’re now dealing with a consultative power by selected group, not an elected group … and that move away from the democratic process.

What I’m asking you is that you say on one hand that there’s no legislation … But you also make a claim about a model which doesn’t exist, you can’t have it both ways.

In all the narrative from Mr Pearson, to his Ms Langton, to the Calma Langton report, they talk about selection, not election.

So then you do think you’ve got a model?

Then let us see the legislation.

I just don’t believe that we should be inserting a racial clause into our constitution in 2023.

Tick the box that you believe in racial differentiation. You’ve just ticked the box that you believe in racial differentiation.

It’s the form that it comes in. I’ve got no problems with the statement of fact that Indigenous Australians were the first people in Australia.

I’ve got no problems with the constitutional recognition referendum on the premise that we see the details first … I’m talking to about a more proper and pertinent alternative approach, which means that we get all the details not some of the details, we see the legislation before we vote, we don’t get a blank check. And we also make sure that we see the proper legal opinion before we vote not someone’s opinion of the opinion, which is what Mr Albanese is going to give us.

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Government to target ‘criminal syndicates’ and ‘shoddy therapies’ in NDIS fraud crackdown

Bill Shorten wants to stop practices that treat people like ‘cash cows’ as he reveals taskforce had 1,700 tipoffs in a month

The Albanese government will target “unethical practices” and “shoddy therapies” as it broadens its crackdown on fraud against the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Bill Shorten has revealed.

The government services and NDIS minister will on Tuesday call for an end to practices that treat disabled participants like “cash cows”, such as pressuring them to pay for services they don’t need or that are not in their plan.

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Stuart Robert told lobbyist not to donate to Angus Taylor fundraising group as ‘it will be declared and it will hurt you’

Exclusive: Private emails from 2018 show Robert advised Synergy 360 boss not to join supporter network for Liberal colleague

The federal Liberal MP Stuart Robert told a lobbyist and potential donor not to donate to colleague Angus Taylor’s fundraising group as it would need to be declared and “it will hurt you”, emails obtained by Guardian Australia reveal.

Robert was sent an email from his friend David Milo, the chief executive of lobby group Synergy 360, inquiring about an invitation he had received to join the Hume Forum, “the official supporters’ network of federal minister and member for Hume, Angus Taylor”.

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2 October 2018: the ECE tender opened – three companies including Infosys were shortlisted.

29 May 2019: the member for Fadden was appointed minister for human services and the NDIS.

26 June 2019: leaked emails reveal the minister met Infosys and his good friend Milo, a paid consultant to Infosys, in Sydney.

2 July 2019: final valuation was submitted – negotiations on value and period of contract continued for another four months.

8 November 2019: Infosys was awarded the first of four contracts valued at $18m.

19 November 2019: the minister met Infosys.

30 December 2019: the minister met his friend Milo on the Gold Coast, which triggered an email from Milo saying “minister gave insights on progress of Infosys and future opportunities”.

1 February 2020: the minister was guest speaker at an Infosys conference at Melbourne Park on the afternoon of the Australian Open tennis finals.

1 July 2020: Infosys was awarded a further $142m contract.

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Bill Shorten reveals review into Stuart Robert ‘lobbying scandal’ claims

The former Coalition minister denies he influenced government contracts, declaring in parliament he had ‘zero involvement’

Revelations that Stuart Robert met consultants who facilitated access for a company bidding for lucrative contracts in his portfolio of government services are “concerning”, Bill Shorten has told federal parliament.

Shorten, the government services minister, revealed after question time on Thursday that Services Australia and the National Disability Insurance Agency had agreed to establish a “joint review” into the “Synergy 360 lobbying scandal”.

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2 October 2018: the ECE tender opened – three companies including Infosys were shortlisted.

29 May 2019: the member for Fadden was appointed minister for human services and the NDIS.

26 June 2019: leaked emails reveal the minister met Infosys and his good friend Milo, a paid consultant to Infosys, in Sydney.

2 July 2019: final valuation was submitted – negotiations on value and period of contract continued for another four months.

8 November 2019: Infosys was awarded the first of four contracts valued at $18m.

19 November 2019: the minister met Infosys.

30 December 2019: the minister met his friend Milo on the Gold Coast, which triggered an email from Milo saying “minister gave insights on progress of Infosys and future opportunities”.

1 February 2020: the minister was guest speaker at an Infosys conference at Melbourne Park on the afternoon of the Australian Open tennis finals.

1 July 2020: Infosys was awarded a further $142m contract.

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Australia news live: Medibank hacker demands ‘US$1 per customer’ ransom; ‘rotten egg gas’ problem in navy patrol boats

Defence officials say there is an issue with hydrogen sulphide in the vessels’ waste systems. Follow the day’s news live

Coalition’s staff cap has fuelled lack of payment integrity, Shorten says

Bill Shorten goes on to criticise the NDIS staff cap implemented by the Coalition government:

When there were 180,000 participants in the scheme, the staff numbers were around 3,500 to 4,000. And the government of the day said, ‘OK, no more staff.’

Now the scheme has half a million people-plus, and what’s happened is that we’ve brought in contractors or labour hire or partners in the community and the scheme hasn’t been well, in my opinion, supervised and well loved.

I don’t blame someone for seeking to get support for the child. What does make me wonder is the state school systems providing the support for kids with developmental and learning delays? Are they doing enough or not? How can you force their hand to do it so that these people aren’t going on the NDIS?

Originally, when the NDIS was created, it was to be a 50/50 split, at the moment the federal government is paying 64% to 66% of the scheme and states are paying in the mid 30s.

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Government to crack down on NDIS provider fraud amid warning scheme will soon cost $50bn annually

Bill Shorten says $126m earmarked in Labor’s October budget will help protect national disability insurance scheme ‘from crooks’

The federal government is creating a “fraud fusion taskforce” to try to claw back nearly $300m from national disability insurance scheme providers, amid warnings the NDIS could cost more than $50bn annually within four years.

The new body, which will replace the existing NDIS fraud taskforce, will target “fraud and serious non-compliance” with the help of law enforcement, regulatory and intelligence agencies.

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Thousands of outstanding NDIS legal appeals to be reviewed by new taskforce, Bill Shorten says

Former disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes will lead independent body aimed at blitzing massive backlog of cases

A new independent body will review thousands of outstanding national disability insurance scheme legal appeals in an attempt to “cut the bullshit” for participants and applicants, the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, has said.

Speaking to a disability advocacy group seminar on Tuesday, Shorten said the situation was “repellent and repugnant” for people with disability, who had been forced into an “opaque” appeals process.

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Dutton says he was not aware of Morrison’s secret ministries – as it happened

Ed Husic pushes for ‘brain regain’

Industry minister Ed Husic will this week host a series of five roundtable meetings with science and technology leaders in the lead-up to the federal government’s jobs summit, in a bid to kickstart what he called “brain regain” – attracting Australia’s bright minds working overseas to return home, to combat the so-called “brain drain”.

These discussions will also include ways to increase the representation of women and people of diverse backgrounds in skilled occupations. One of my priorities is on “brain regain” – encouraging Australian researchers and innovators to return home. I am interested to hear ideas on how this can be best achieved.

I can’t emphasise strongly enough that this is the start of engagement with these industry sectors. After the jobs and skills summit I will continue the work with industry leaders to ensure we apply practical solutions to accelerate Australia’s pathway to high-skilled, high-value economy.

He’s applied for a job and that’s coming with a significant degree of scrutiny, as it should do. That’s part of the territory if you’re going to put yourself forward for those roles.

If he felt the need to protect the environment from offshore drilling for gas off Sydney’s northern beaches and he felt he needed to swear himself in as minister, that’s something I support.

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Anthony Albanese seeks legal advice over reports Scott Morrison secretly swore himself into ministry roles

Reports claim former prime minister’s senior cabinet colleagues were unaware he allegedly swore himself into three ministry positions

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is seeking legal advice over reports his predecessor Scott Morrison secretly swore himself into three ministry positions while in government, a fact that was allegedly concealed even from senior cabinet colleagues.

Morrison’s deputy PM Barnaby Joyce described the reportedly secretive arrangements, allegedly made without the input of the governor general, as “very bad practice”, while Labor minister Bill Shorten questioned whether the former leader had a “messianic complex”.

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