Pauline Hanson calls on Coalition to back urgency motion on net zero
Senator Hanson, a long-time climate change denier, will introduce the motion on Monday following Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce's private members bill calling for the same thing.
Aware of the divide in the Coalition, Senator Hanson said her motion would out opposition 'cowards'.
'They're gutless, you know, they're cowards,' she told Sky News when asked about the prospect of Coalition senators not backing her motion.
'Because a lot of these people on the floor of parliament have no understanding, cannot debate you about climate change.
'They don't even know anything about it.
'They're making decisions and voting on it.'
'Scam'
She went on to say Australians have 'been hoodwinked'.
'It's a scam going on and if we head down this path, what will happen to Australians?' Senator Hanson said.
'You will be restricted where you travel, where you go, what you eat, and it will be based on your carbon emissions.'
Australia's renewables targets do not impose restrictions on freedom of movement or diets.
Earlier, Mr Joyce asked Australia's big-city residents if they are 'prepared to hurt the poor' by pursuing a carbon neutral future.
Mr Joyce, who was banished to the backbench after the Coalition's brief post-election break-up, kicked off the second sitting week of the new parliament by introducing his Repeal Net Zero Bill.
Unless Sussan Ley drastically changes course in rebuilding the Coalition as a moderate opposition, the private member's bill will not get far.
But as a former Nationals leader, Mr Joyce holds clout within the party and his split from more green-minded Liberal Party colleagues has grown into somewhat of a backbench rebellion.
Mr Joyce said on Monday there needed to be more give and take between city-living Australians and their rural and regional counterparts, saying there 'are certain things' the regions could do but do not 'because we're trying to be reasonable'.
'There's absolutely no reason that Mascot Airport can't work 24/7,' he told reporters, flanked by fellow Coalition rebels and disgruntled community members.
'But we understand that people don't want planes flying over themselves in the middle of the night … but we don't want transmission lines over our head either.
'We don't want wind towers either, so there's got to be a form of good pro quo.'
Mr Joyce said the question 'affluent suburbs' needed to be asked was: 'Are you prepared to hurt the poor?'
'Are you prepared to hurt them and I don't think if you really explain the issue that people do want to hurt them,' he said.
'You don't feel virtuous if you're hurting people.'
Mr Joyce's Bill proposes to abandon Australia's carbon-neutral target by 2050.
The target is in line with goals set by other developed economies, but the task has been complicated by rapid energy demands from emerging economies and global disruptions driven by increased conflicts, such as Russia's war in Ukraine.
Among Mr Joyce's supporters gathered outside Parliament House was fellow former Nationals leader Michael McCormack, another hefty voice in the party.
Liberal MP Garth Hamilton also joined him, making him the only member of the senior Coalition partner to do so.
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ABC News
7 minutes ago
- ABC News
Jihadist preacher Wisam Haddad's organisation stripped of charity status after Four Corners investigation
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Video of the Dawah Van's activities showed Mr Haddad working to convert teenagers in Sydney's CBD with a violent convicted criminal, Wassim Fayad, who was previously identified in court as an IS recruiter. ACNC commissioner Sue Woodward declined an interview but in a written statement said: "Revocation of charity registration is the most serious action the ACNC can take." "Once a charity loses registration, it is no longer eligible for Commonwealth tax concessions and other benefits that charities are entitled to receive," she said. The Dawah Van has also raised funds for causes overseas. It can continue to operate but will no longer receive GST and income tax exemptions. Mr Haddad's lawyer, Elias Tabchouri, told the ABC the Dawah Van was "working through this issue with the relevant authorities". He said Mr Haddad vehemently denied allegations that he or the organisation were recruiting people into terrorism, or that he was a leader of a pro-IS network. The decision is another blow for Mr Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, who was recently found by the Federal Court to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act in a series of antisemitic lectures. Mr Haddad has long been a controversial media figure, publicly celebrating IS attacks in the West and beheadings in Syria by slain Australian fighters Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar. He became notorious more than a decade ago for running the now-defunct Al-Risalah Islamic Centre, which was publicly identified by courts and media as a hub for terrorism recruiters. University of Queensland charity law expert Kim Weinert said the Dawah Van case exposed serious regulatory flaws, questioning why the organisation was ever granted charity status. "The case raises a number of concerns," Dr Weinert said. "The first is how easy it is for organisations that are actively carrying out questionable activities that can so easily claim charitable status with the ACNC." Dr Weinert accused the "under-resourced" and "tiny" regulator of an inconsistent approach to registering charities, with some rubber-stamped and others rejected almost solely based on paperwork. "It does raise eyebrows and concerns as to what entities are receiving charitable status," she said. Mr Haddad has never been charged with a terrorism-related offence, despite ties to a web of convicted terrorists in Australia and overseas. In recent years, he has worked with terrorist leaders to re-energise the pro-IS network, while a new generation of his teenage followers have been charged with serious terrorism offences and brutal hate crimes in Sydney. Mr Haddad used his new name, William Haddad, when he registered the Dawah Van as a charity in 2022. The charity's vision was to "reach out to the community in order to educating [sic] them about the greatness of God and comprehend purpose of life", according to its constitution. But the Dawah Van was a revival of a Sydney street-preaching group, Street Dawah, which was identified by multiple courts to have recruited young Australians into terrorism more than a decade ago. Similar Street Dawah groups have long been accused by authorities in the UK and Europe of being recruitment arms for terrorist groups. The roving street-preaching teams were pioneered by the international terrorist group al-Muhajiroun, whose leader, Anjem Choudary, was jailed for life in the UK last year. In the Four Corners program, former ASIO spy Marcus revealed Choudary had closely mentored Mr Haddad before his arrest. Marcus also exposed the inner workings of Mr Haddad's Bankstown prayer centre, Al Madina Dawah Centre, and covert groups of IS terrorists in his network. Marcus is now hiding in an undisclosed overseas location, protecting himself from threats published by extremists online. The ABC asked the ACNC why it deregistered the Dawah Van and whether its initial decision to grant charity status was a failure of governance and oversight. But the ACNC said it was precluded from disclosing information about specific charities and investigations, under strict secrecy provisions. The last federal parliament considered legislation to ease the secrecy provisions, allowing the commissioner to release information in limited cases, but the bill lapsed. "Any investigation we undertake must be thorough, independent, comprehensive, proportionate and consistent with our approach to all investigations," Commissioner Sue Woodward said in a statement. "They can be complex and take time to complete. "The ACNC will act firmly where vulnerable people or significant charity assets are at risk, where there is evidence of serious mismanagement or misappropriation, or if there is a serious or deliberate breach of the ACNC Act or ACNC Regulations." The ACNC said it prioritises compliance action against conduct that harms children and vulnerable adults, as well as misuse of a charity for terrorism or extremism, and financial mismanagement. Public records on Dawah Van, which have since been removed from the ACNC's website, showed it failed to submit financial reports to the regulator for two years — a breach that leads to revocation under the commission's policy. Australian authorities have long been wary of the risk of charities supporting terrorism. In 2017, the ACNC and financial crimes agency AUSTRAC assessed the risk of terrorism financing in Australia's not-for-profit sector as medium. In delivering that warning, they cited the number of non-profit organisations that were identified by counterterrorism investigations as linked to known extremists. In one such case, a Sydney charity in Mr Haddad's network, Dar al Quran Wa Sunnah, was accused by Lebanese and Australian authorities of funnelling funds and fighters to IS in Syria. The ACNC revoked Dar al Quran Wa Sunnah's charity status in 2019, four years after the allegations were first aired publicly.
ABC News
7 minutes ago
- ABC News
Sussan Ley's authority tested as Liberals stamp their feet
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He's taking a practice run in Perth for what he intends to do in Canberra, sometime in the next 12 months, as we all know. He loves undermining leaders of the opposition." Peter Dutton was a disaster for the Liberals, as the election drubbing showed. But he was (mostly) able to impose substantial unity on the parliamentary party. That was seen as a big achievement. But it had two downsides. At the time, it stifled what might have been useful internal debate, or warnings, that could have helped the opposition. And now it has left some Liberals who felt they held their tongues last time determined not to do so again. Even those not aggrieved for specific reasons are likely to be more inclined to be outspoken this term. Ley will not be able to impose the degree of discipline that Dutton did. Meanwhile, as the aggrieved Liberals were stamping their feet, their colleague James Paterson, new to his post of finance spokesman, was seeking to repair some of the political damage the opposition had done by its attacks on the public service. The hostility to the public service goes back a long way — some might argue it's ingrained in the Liberals' DNA. It was strong during Scott Morrison's prime ministership. Dutton promised massive cuts to the Canberra-based public service, which even the Liberals admit would have been unattainable. Hume's plan to force public servants back into the office five days a week, a policy the opposition had to drop midway through the election campaign, has also left deep suspicion. For the Liberals, attacking the public service has always appeared a ready road to savings. But the political dangers are obvious. It is not the seats directly affected — the ACT always votes Labor. 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On the basis of history, the public servants will remain suspicious of the Liberals; Paterson's aim will be to mitigate that as much as possible. In a twist on the working-from-home debate, the secretary of the health department, Blair Comley, this week expressed some concern about the implications of the trend. "I don't think anyone is suggesting we go back to a rigid five days a week and no flexibility," Comley told the AFR summit. But he was worried about what was happening to "learning, development, mentoring, and what's happening to the social capital". Knowing the sensitivities of the issue, Comley was extremely careful with his words. Hume, having been burned once, was not putting her hand into this particular fire again. "That is not a policy that the Coalition has now, not a policy that we took to the election", she said. There is a limit to being liberated. 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The Australian
3 hours ago
- The Australian
ASIO chief exposes shocking cost of foreign spying on Australia
Foreign espionage is costing the Australian economy at least $12.5bn a year, with the ASIO boss warning against complacency against the 'real, present and costly danger'. The director-general of security Mike Burgess has for the first time publicly put a dollar figure on what foreign spies are costing Australia and espionage remains one of the country's principal security concerns. 'This is critical because I believe that we need to wake up to the cost of espionage – which is more than just financial,' he said in the annual Hawke Lecture at the University of Adelaide on Thursday night. 'We need to understand espionage is not some quaint, romantic fiction; it's a real, present and costly danger.' ASIO director-general Mike Burgess issued his warning delivering the annual Hawke Lecture at Adelaide University. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman Mr Burgess released a new report that ASIO developed with the Australian Institute of Criminology, to try to count the cost of espionage. The report found espionage cost the Australian economy at least $12.5bn in the 2023-2024 financial year, an estimate Mr Burgess called 'conservative'. 'This includes the direct costs of known espionage incidents, such as the state-sponsored theft of intellectual property, as well as the indirect costs of countering and responding,' he said. 'As just one example, the Institute estimates foreign cyber spies stole nearly $2bn of trade secrets and intellectual property from Australian companies and businesses in 2023-24. 'The report includes a case study where spies hacked into the computer network of a major Australian exporter, making off with commercially sensitive information. 'The theft gave the foreign country a significant advantage in subsequent contract negotiations, costing Australia hundreds of millions of dollars.' Mr Burgess said too many were complacent about the cost of espionage and urged 'all parts of our system – public and private, federal, state and local – to recognise the threat'. 'I've lost count of the number of times senior officials and executives have privately downplayed the impacts of espionage,' he said. 'I've watched corporate leaders literally shrug their shoulders when told their networks are compromised. 'I've heard sensible security measures such as taking burner phones to high-risk countries described as unreasonable inconveniences. 'Most recently, a trade official told ASIO there's no way the Chinese intelligence services would have any interest in his organisation's people and premises in China.' Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin, was singled out by ASIO boss Mike Burgess. Picture: NewsWire / POOL / AFP / Mikhail Metzel He again listed China, Russia and Iran as three of the main nations behind espionage in Australia and said Russia remained 'a persistent and aggressive espionage threat'. 'Last year, two Russian-born Australian citizens were arrested and charged with an espionage-related offence,' Mr Burgess said. 'Separately, I can confirm in 2022 a number of undeclared Russian intelligence officers were removed from this country. 'But Russia is by no means the only country we have to deal with. 'You would be genuinely shocked by the number and names of countries trying to steal our secrets. 'The obvious candidates are very active … but many other countries are also targeting anyone and anything that could give them a strategic or tactical advantage, including sensitive but unclassified information.' Mr Burgess revealed ASIO had disrupted 24 'major espionage and foreign interference' operations in the past three years alone. 'Nation states are spying at unprecedented levels, with unprecedented sophistication,' he said. 'ASIO is seeing more Australians targeted – more aggressively – than ever before.' While AUKUS and military technology secrets were targets, Australia's intellectual property and cutting edge research was also in the sights of foreign agents. ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said spies were targeting Australia's cutting edge research and technology as well as defence secrets. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman He said an overseas delegation visiting a 'sensitive Australian horticultural facility' snapped branches off a 'rare and valuable variety of fruit tree' in order to steal them. 'Almost certainly, the stolen plant material allowed scientists in the other country to reverse engineer and replicate two decades of Australian research and development,' he said. He said foreign intelligence services are 'proactive, creative and opportunistic' in their targets. 'In recent years, for example, defence employees travelling overseas have been subjected to covert room searches, been approached at conferences by spies in disguise and given gifts containing surveillance devices. 'Defence is alert to these threats and works closely with ASIO to counter them.'
