Federal politics live: Super backflip a ‘victory for Australians’, Coalition says

Communications Minister Anika Wells, who is also the sports minister, has been asked whether she thinks it’s OK for the gambling lobby to sponsor the parliamentary sports club.

Independent senator David Pocock was kicked out of the group after he raised concerns about the gambling lobby’s links with the parliamentary sports club.

Wells says the gambling lobby must be open, accountable and transparent when interacting with parliamentarians.

“I think that with all ways Responsible Wagering Australia interacts with parliamentarians and particular structures within parliament they need to be open, accountable, transparent, they need to disclose that and I’m told that they have done that with the usual methods,” Wells says.

The communications minister has been asked why her department didn’t set up email forwarding when they changed their triple-0 outage notification email address.

Anika Wells says the communications department advised the telecommunications companies of the change of email address.

“I think it’s a reasonable expectation for Australian taxpayers to have that if the federal department of communications advises you to use a particular email address for alerts that you do so,” Wells says.

Anika Wells says she met with representatives from Snapchat yesterday.

Asked what the representatives raised with the minister and e-Safety commissioner, Wells says the companies had individual questions for the commissioner.

“The e-Safety commissioner and I got together and offered ourselves in the one meeting so that the platforms can see we are in lockstep about this policy,” Wells says.

Wells asked the representatives what tools they’d be using to ensure compliance, and assured communication channels were open.

She says she is confident the social media companies understand their obligations under Australian law, as fines of up to $49.5 million could be issued for systemic breaches of the law.

The communications minister says once the social media ban for under-16s comes into force on December 10, the government will shift its digital duty of care.

Anika Wells says digital duty of care will look at what obligations platforms, which have customers in Australia, have to their customers.

She says consultation on that will start soon.

“The next phase we’re moving into this digital duty of care, which looks at what obligations platforms, who have customers in Australia who seek to transact business, make commercial revenue in Australia, what obligations they have to their customers,” Well says.

Communications Minister Anika Wells has stepped up in Melbourne to announce a national advertising campaign for the government’s social media ban for teens.

The social media ban will come into force on December 10 on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X and Youtube, however there are still questions about how it will be enforced.

The advertising campaign, called ‘For the good of’, will roll out this Sunday on billboards and social media.

“They’ll see it on TV, they’ll see it online, they’ll see it ironically on social media, because until the 10th of December, it is legal for kids to be on social media,” Wells says.

“And if that’s where they are, that’s where we need to talk to them about what this means and why we’re doing it,” she says.

A Labor plan to raise the tax on multi-million-dollar super funds, which had been around for more than two years and was taken to the last election, has now been changed.

Every prominent criticism of the tax has been addressed, with the result that it will apply to fewer people and raise less money.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who had staunchly defended the original version of the tax, said on Monday the revised version was “another way to deliver on the same objectives” but was “fairer”. Here’s what is changing.

Friend of the blog Tom Crowley walks us through how the new policy would work.

Australia should “seriously consider” and be open to the idea of deploying peacekeepers to Gaza, Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam says.

The newly minted spokesperson argued if Australia was willing to support Palestinian statehood, then it should be prepared to offer peacekeepers.

“In terms of our support, I think we need to be ready to support efforts of Western allies like the US to ensure that this peace lasts, that the next steps can be achieved,” he told Sky News.

“I think we do need to seriously consider any request that is made. But I would hope, as willing as we were to stand up in the UN General Assembly and, of course, say that we would support Palestinian statehood, we would also put our hand up and say we’ll support the peace efforts underway now.

“This is an important line in the sand moment for our world. We must be open to that.”

Newly appointed Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam says he’ll be taking the guidance of his predecessor Andrew Hastie in his new gig.

Hastie quit the frontbench this month, citing a disagreement with leader Sussan Ley over migration policy. 

“Andrew and I share a lot in the way of views, of course. I think that he’s someone who I respect and have a lot to do with and take a lot of guidance from, of course, along with a number of colleagues,” he told Sky News.

Duniam said the pair had “a couple of conversations yesterday” and that he also spoke with James Paterson, who had been acting in the role. 

“It’s amazing when you take on a new gig the number of phone calls you get with advice.

“But look, Andrew is someone who knows a thing or two about this, and I’m definitely going to be taking his counsel, as I said, with a number of others, about what we can do here as an opposition.”

Ted O’Brien, with his deputy Liberal leader hat on, was also asked about yesterday’s Coalition reshuffle.

The opposition has shuffled the deck following the resignation of Andrew Hastie, with Jonno Duniam given the nod to take over home affairs, while Julian Leeser was moved to education. Andrew Wallace replaced Leeser as shadow attorney-general.

O’Brien was asked why Jane Hume, who was demoted from the shadow ministry post-election, wasn’t given the call-up.

“For what we lack in numbers as a Coalition in the Australian parliament, we more than make up for when it comes to depth of talent,” he told ABC Radio National Breakfast. 

“We have that talent both on the frontbench … and the backbench, and Jane is absolutely one of them.”

Asked again if she deserved to be promoted, O’Brien said, “our entire team, backbench and frontbench, deserve a spot”.

Ted O’Brien is a bit more chipper than his counterpart this morning as he labelled the government’s superannuation U-turn a “victory for everyday Australians”.

The shadow treasurer was critical of Labor’s original policy, which would have doubled the tax for balances over $3 million, its treatment of unrealised gains, and the fact it wasn’t indexed.

Under the changes, the government will now have two thresholds ($3m and $10m), they will be indexed, and only realised gains will be taxed.

O’Brien said the previous policy would have been a “massive breach” of tax law.

“They were going to have to pay tax on theoretical profits, profits that didn’t exist, no money in the bank account as a result of any increase in valuation, Jim Chalmers and the government were going to tax them,” O’Brien said.

“That was going to be a massive breach of the tax law in Australia and leave Australians poorer and weaker simply to feed the spending spree on the part of the government.

“I think this is a victory for those everyday Australians, those everyday Australians who are otherwise going to be taxed unfairly by the government. It is first and foremost a victory for them.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has argued the government remains “plenty ambitious” despite having to rework its contentious superannuation policy.

“I’m not focused on the political commentary. I’m focused on the outcome,” he told ABC Radio National Breakfast. 

“I’ll leave the political analysis and the political commentary to others. I’m focused on the outcomes.

“As a Labor treasurer, I take my responsibilities as custodian of the superannuation system that Labor created seriously.

“My focus is on the outcome, [a] fairer super system from top to bottom.”

He says the government has “a heap of policy reform ambition” and pointing to its action on “cleaner and cheaper energy” and lifting productivity.

“This is a government which is plenty ambitious,” Chalmers says.

Reworking the super tax policy will leave the government with a hole in the budget over the forward estimates.

Speaking with ABC Radio National Breakfast, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it was “not the only action we’re taking in the budget”.

“You’ve got to look right across the budget … we’ve already found $100 billion in savings. We’ve delivered two surpluses,” he says.

“Even in the most recent financial year, $14.5 billion worth of savings. The budget is in much better nick than what we inherited because of the effort that we’ve put into it.”

Switching gears for a moment because Treasurer Jim Chalmers is answering questions about Labor’s backflip on its superannuation reforms.

To catch you up to speed quickly, Chalmers yesterday confirmed the government had reworked its contentious policy to double the tax on earnings on super balances above $3m.

But under changes announced yesterday, a new 40 per cent rate for people with balances above $10m will also be rolled out. The thresholds will be indexed and only apply to realised capital gains.

Speaking with ABC Radio National Breakfast, Chalmers argued the policy was still significant as he bristled at the suggestion the government couldn’t achieve tricky tax reform.

“This is a very significant tax reform. It’s a very meaningful change and meaningful change doesn’t come easy, as we’ve seen, not just in this area but in recent decades as well,” he said.

“So I wouldn’t accept the characterisation that this is anything other than substantial or anything other than meaningful.

“We have found another way to deliver those objectives. We have listened. We have worked through the issues over a period of time in our usual considered and methodical way.”

Richard Marles says it was “impossible” not to get emotional seeing the images of the Israeli hostages being returned to their loved ones after two years.

“One can only imagine the sense of loss and fear that would have accompanied having a relative, a loved one, a child, a partner, as a hostage for more than two years,” he told ABC News Breakfast. 

“It’s genuinely unimaginable what that experience would be like.”

The acting PM says he hopes the “peace holds and that all the points in President Trump’s plan be adhered to”.

“There has to be in this moment resolve to never see this again. And that can only occur if … a pathway is walked to an enduring peace and it has to involve a two-state solution,” he said.

Asked what role Australia could play in that process, Marles says there has been no specific request made to Australia “right now”.

“But, you know, we want to be a constructive member of the international community in terms of how this moves forward,” he said, adding he didn’t want to speculate on it further.

Richard Marles has described the peace deal between Israel and Hamas as an “incredible achievement on the part of President [Donald] Trump and his administration”.

“This really must be the moment that this region moves forward … President Trump and his administration deserve an enormous amount of credit. This will be remembered by history,” the acting PM told Seven.

It comes as Israel’s military says the bodies of four dead hostages were being handed over by Hamas and follows the return of 20 surviving hostages overnight.

About 2,000 Palestinians held by Israel have also been released.

If you’re interested in reading more the ABC has a dedicated live blog running here:

Independent MP Monique Ryan has backed in the government’s reworking of its proposed changes to how superannuation is taxed but hopes to see broader reforms in the future.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced the changes yesterday, bowing to pressure on two of the most controversial elements of the government’s previous proposal by indexing earnings thresholds and dumping plans to tax unrealised gains.

Ryan said the government’s change of heart was a win for women and young people in particular.

“But I think we also need to acknowledge that we do need tax reform in this country,” she told Nine.

“We need tax reform that will make housing more affordable for young people and so I’m glad that the government made this change yesterday.

“They responded to the evidence and I hope that they will continue to respond to the evidence in the tax reform that this country needs.”

Artificial intelligence is amplifying the cyber threat landscape, enabling attackers to operate faster and at greater scale, according to Australia’s federal cyber agency.

“The prevalence of artificial intelligence almost certainly enable[s] malicious cyber actors, cybercriminals and hacktivists to execute attacks on a larger scale and at a faster rate,” the ASD’s Annual Cyber Threat Report says.

“The potential opportunities open to malicious cyber actors continue to grow in line with Australia’s increasing uptake of and reliance on internet-connected technology.”

ASD recorded more than 1,700 notifications of potential malicious cyber activity last year — an 83 per cent increase from the previous period — with critical infrastructure again a major target.

ASD director-general Abigail Bradshaw said the financial toll of cybercrime continued to climb.

“The average self-reported cost of a cybercrime showed a significant increase for medium and large business of $97,200 (up 55 per cent) and $202,700 (up 219 per cent),” she said.

The ASD warns that as organisations integrate AI systems, they must do so with security in mind.

“Businesses must ensure that in order to harness the full benefits and productivity associated with AI, a safe and secure approach is taken to the integration of AI technologies,” the report says.

The Australian Signals Directorate says quantum computers could be able to break the encryption methods that secure passwords and anything else kept under digital lock and key within the next five years, as it calls on businesses to bolster their defences.

The agency’s annual cyber threat report warns quantum technology could arrive as soon as the 2030s, with the “years ahead [bringing] challenges for organisations in emerging technology, such as post-quantum cryptography”.

“Effective transition plans will be critical to operating in 2030 and beyond — a post-quantum computing world — and this planning must start now,” the report says.

To prepare, ASD recommends businesses focus on four “big moves”: implement best-practice logging, replace legacy IT, effectively manage third-party risk, and prepare for post-quantum cryptography.

ASD director-general Abigail Bradshaw said the rapid technological advancement and the shift in threat capability was being mirrored by a change in criminal behaviour.

“Over the last year ASD has observed networks are increasingly not being hacked, but are being breached through compromised or stolen credentials to gain unauthorised access,” she said.

“Australia is increasingly targeted by cybercriminals looking to steal credentials. Once access is gained they mimic legitimate user behaviour to steal sensitive personal or corporate information, install ransomware or malware, and take over accounts.”

The warning came as the personal details of 5 million Qantas customers was dumped on the dark web over the weekend, sparking concerns about how businesses were protecting user data.

Australia’s cyber intelligence agency has warned state-sponsored cyber groups are increasingly targeting the nation’s most vital systems amid a 111 per cent spike in malicious activity on critical infrastructure over the past year.

The Australian Signals Directorate’s annual cyber threat report shows the body notified operators of critical services — things like energy, food, water, transport, communications, health and banking — of cyber interference more than 190 times over the past financial year, up from 90 the year before.

“Critical infrastructure is, and will continue to be, an attractive target for state sponsored actors, cyber criminals, and hacktivists, largely due to large sensitive data holdings and the critical services that support Australia’s economy,” the report says.

Two federal government agencies also met the threshold of being “extensively compromised” during this time period.

“State-sponsored cyber actors pose a serious and growing threat,” the report warns, noting they “may seek to degrade and disrupt Australia’s critical services and undermine our ability to communicate at a time of strategic advantage”.

ASD director-general Abigail Bradshaw said the agency was now receiving one report of a cyber attack every six minutes.

“Cybercriminals are leveraging new and emerging technology to increase the speed and scale of their attacks, and continue to target Australians,” she said.

Welcome to our federal politics live blog! I’m Courtney Gould and I’ll be guiding you through the morning.

After much speculation the government bowed to pressure yesterday on its superannuation tax policy, confirming it would overhaul its contentious plan.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his Coalition counterpart Ted O’Brien will join ABC’s Radio National Breakfast within the next hour to discuss the changes.

Elsewhere, a new report looking at cyber threats to Australia has been released. More on that shortly from friend of the blog Olivia Caisley. 

The sun is up and so am I, so let’s get blogggginnnnnnggggg!

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