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Pocock calls for ‘transparency and accountability’ ahead of lobbying inquiry

Senator David Pocock has also been leading calls for lobbying reform. In a statement, he said there is a “legitimate role” for lobbying but it is important to have “appropriate guardrails” in place to ensure the “health of our democracy”.

During today’s public hearing, senators will hear evidence from 14 witnesses and organisations including leading public law expert Prof Anne Twomey, plus officials from the department of parliamentary services and the attorney general’s department.

Pocock said:

There’s currently a real lack of both transparency and accountability around the lobbying activities that take place in Parliament House that must be addressed. I’m hoping this inquiry shines a light on that and comes up with a set of robust recommendations for reform.

Pocock said strong evidence was being presented to the inquiry about “the need to ensure there is a public register of the lobbyists who have passes and who also who gave them that access”:

Politicians have given more than 2,144 people unfettered all-hours, all-areas access to Parliament House, but we don’t know who those people are.

I believe if you’re not willing to own up publicly to either having a sponsored pass or giving someone one, then maybe you shouldn’t have one.

The committee is due to report on 30 April this year.

Senate inquiry into lobbying to hold public hearings today

A Senate inquiry into lobbying is holding its public hearings today.

The teal MP and independent member for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, introduced a private member’s bill in November to enforce stronger rules and more transparency around lobbying.

She said there had been “overwhelming” support for the proposed measures, with more than 100 submissions made to the inquiry. In a statement, Ryan said:

Lobbyists [who] represent everything from big coal to the big banks are undermining the government’s efforts to take real climate action, manage the cost-of-living crisis and regulate gambling and tobacco compliance …

Lobbyists outnumber politicians 15 to one in federal parliament. On any one day, hundreds of them roam the halls in Canberra, secretly meeting with ministers to influence government policies so they favour vested interests, not the public interest.

Regional Victorian ambulance mechanics go on ‘historic’ strike

More than 700 regional Victorian ambulances will be without maintenance workers as they take “unprecedented” strike action after a breakdown in contract negotiations, AAP reports.

About 23 fleet maintenance officers, responsible for servicing ambulances across regional Victoria, will walk off the job for 24 hours today after long-running pay negotiations stalled.

Workers who had been bargaining for 14 months accused Ambulance Victoria of failing to recognise their crucial role in keeping the emergency vehicles on the road and refusing reasonable pay increases amid cost-of-living pressures.

They said a workload which involves being on call at all hours was unsustainable.

The United Workers Union says the pay of ambulance mechanics lags their counterparts in other emergency services. Ambulance stations in Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Hamilton, Horsham, Morwell, Shepparton and Wangaratta will be affected by the strike.

The union’s national ambulance coordinator Fiona Scalon said this action was a “historic first”, with “no record of fleet officers being pushed to take this kind of action previously”.

Two men arrested after woman’s body found near Ballarat

Pat Conroy to visit US for defence talks

The defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, will travel to the United States this week to meet with key officials and defence industry leaders, “building on the significant momentum of the Aukus partnership over the past year”.

In a statement, Conroy said he would visit the HII shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia, and attend the Sea-Air-Space Exposition – “a crucial meeting point for leaders within the US defence industrial base, private-sector, and key US military decision-makers”.

While at the expo, I will participate in an Australian industry roundtable focused on doing business in the US, and a panel discussion that will provide an update on Aukus.

Conroy said he would also meet key counterparts in the Biden administration, Congress and the World Bank to “further progress our cooperation on international development, particularly in the Pacific”.

‘We want proper answers’ over strike that killed aid workers, PM says

Q: Will the special adviser be actively investigating anything, or acting more as a liaison?

Anthony Albanese:

He will have certainly the confidence of the Australian government to engage and we expect full cooperation of the Israeli government with this investigation.

Obviously it is a difficult circumstance given the conflict that is ongoing in Gaza. But we want him to have full access and we expect that from the Israeli government and Israel Defense Force.

Prime minister responds to special adviser appointment to examine Israel’s response to killing of aid workers

The prime minister was also asked about the appointment of former ADF chief Mark Binskin to advise the government on Israel’s response to its strikes that killed Australian Zomi Frankcom and six of her World Central Kitchen colleagues.

You can read more on this earlier in the blog here.

Anthony Albanese told ABC News Radio:

We have made it very clear that these deaths are utterly inexcusable and that action is needed to ensure that such a tragedy is never repeated. And we also want full accountability for these deaths.

Now, the information Israel has provided so far on the investigation hasn’t yet satisfied our expectations. So we would expect that Mr Binskin will be able to work in a way that provides greater information to Australia.

Albanese reiterates Emerson’s ‘populist’ criticism of divestiture idea

Anthony Albanese said there would be submissions in response to the interim supermarket report, which will go to the final recommendations to be concluded “in the next couple of months”.

He reiterated a point Emerson made earlier when asked about the potential for divestiture, which the report did not recommend.

There’s two supermarkets in a particular town or regional or community and one of them is Woolworths, and one of them is Coles. What do you do? Tell Coles to sell to Woolworths – that would lead to an increased concentration of market power as well. Or do you somehow get a foreign company to come in and have presence in a regional town?

It is a reflection of the need to have serious responses to what is a serious problem rather than a populist response.

PM ‘absolutely’ confident supermarket review will reduce prices for consumers

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to ABC News Radio, also weighing in on Craig Emerson’s supermarket review.

Albanese has said transparency is needed because there is a gap where “prices have fallen for farmers [but in some instances] prices continue to increase for consumers at the checkout”.

The PM said he was “absolutely” confident the review would reduce prices for consumers:

Including the Senate review … we’ve already announced our funding of Choice, the consumer organisation, to do quarterly price monitoring, ensuring that consumers know where the best deal is available and using that use of information to drive that competition through the system.

Minns backs heavy fines for supermarkets

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has been making the rounds on breakfast television, and discussed Craig Emerson’s review into supermarkets while on the Today show a bit earlier.

Asked about the recommendation that supermarket giants be hit with heavy fines rather than be split up, Minns said it “can’t hurt”.

We’ve only got a few supermarkets in Australia and it does concentrate a lot of market power in the hands of the retailers, [so] heavy fines might be the way to go. I certainly wouldn’t stand in the way of that.

And I know many people, particularly in one of the richest cities in the world in Sydney, are doing it incredibly tough when you’ve got the dual hits of both interest rate rises and high inflation.

Why has Craig Emerson not recommended laws around supermarket divestiture?

He told ABC RN that supermarket divestiture was a “populist idea” and questioned who the stores could be sold to:

Let’s say it’s Coles who gets hit by a forced divestiture. Are they going to sell to Woolworths? What does that do for market concentration?

And if they say ‘well, no, you can’t sell to Woolworths because that will increase market concentration’, who do they sell to? Oh, well maybe a foreign multinational, but they don’t want to come here. And so the only options then left [are to start] closing stores, which would terrify their workers [and close local stores for customers], so I just can’t see the sense of it at all.

Systematised supermarket misconduct could attract penalties of 10% of annual turnover: Emerson

ABC RN host Sally Sara: What kind of penalties or fines would be in place if the big supermarkets are not toeing the line?

Craig Emerson:

If they do it in a very egregious, systemic way? That could be massive, like $10m, or even 10% of the annual turnover of a supermarket in the preceding court months – now that runs into the billions …

Emerson defined this conduct as supermarkets telling their buyers to “screw” suppliers, break contracts with them, de-list them and “brutalise them in order for [the supermarket] to maximise [its] profit”.

Now, you would hope and expect that sort of behaviour won’t happen, but just having the watchdog … on the front porch and off the leash … is designed to focus the attention of the supermarket management so that they know exactly what their buyers are doing and don’t condone it and don’t try to incentivise it.

Emerson outlines interim report on supermarkets

The former Labor trade minister Craig Emerson was on ABC RN earlier this morning to discuss his interim report on the supermarket giants, which has recommended a mandatory code of conduct.

Daniel Hurst has all the details on this below:

Emerson said his inquiry has been examining the relationship between supermarkets and their suppliers, and he’s found that if suppliers get a better deal, this does not necessarily mean prices will go up:

Because if the suppliers are really, you know, operating on survival mode, they’re not going to have the money to invest to upgrade their facilities, provide [better] products at a lower price. So this actually fits into the cost-of-living issue quite well, and what I’m trying to do here is have the best of both worlds.

And by that I mean yes, have ACCC watchdog enforcement through a mandatory code, but also keep some of the provisions of the existing voluntary code where people are encouraged to sort things out amicably through mediation, but ultimately, if necessary, through arbitration.

I’m asking the supermarkets to accept arbitration and the outcome of arbitration – interestingly, under the constitution, that can’t be required by a government or the ACCC – so I’m asking them to sign up to that.

NSW premier discusses flood situation, recovery and preparedness

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, said 30 homes had been inundated during the floods in Sydney and surrounds.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, he said about 800 people had been evacuated from their homes, or were under an evacuation order – from 300 homes.

Obviously that’s devastating for those families [who have been inundated]. But it could’ve been a lot worse. We’re very grateful for the SES and emergency services across the state who kept us safe during a difficult period.

Minns said the state government would “come down hard on” any insurance companies found to be “dragging their feet”.

There’s no easy answers. We have committed $200m for evacuation routes and local levies. That’s part of a half-a-billion package we want to spend in the next 10 years. We’ve taken a decision to not allow homes to be built in flood-prone land in Sydney’s west. It was a controversial decision, but it’s about managing a difficult situation. We need to be there for families who have been in those towns for decades.

Major transport impacts amid flood clean up

Aukus countries consider expanding pact

Daniel Hurst

Former ADF chief to advise government on response to Gaza aid worker deaths

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