Bowen: Sussan Ley’s outburst against Wong was ‘pretty disgusting’
Chris Bowen was asked on ABC RN about Sussan Ley’s quite vocal attack on the government yesterday, particularly the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, whom the federal opposition leader claimed “had not shed a single tear” for the victims of the Bondi massacre.
You can catch up on that here:
Bowen responded:
I thought that said more about Sussan Ley than it does about Penny Wong. I thought that was a disgusting element of an increasingly partisan pile-on in the wake of a national crisis. Australia has in the past come together at moments like this, whether it be the Lindt cafe or Port Arthur, and oppositions have chosen not to make political points. This opposition is trying a different path.
Sussan Ley is not the arbiter of grief or mourning, and she does not get to decide how people express that mourning and that grief. And I thought, as I said, it said more about Sussan Ley than it does about Penny Wong …
Sussan Ley, I think, needs to reflect on her behaviour yesterday. It was pretty disgusting. And I think as it shows, that she is choosing to make political points out of an issue and a personal attack on someone like Penny Wong, I think, will jar pretty badly with Australians.
Key events
Bondi businesses are pleading for public support after the terror attack tore a rift through the local community.
Waverley Council Mayor Will Nemesh said it was understandable people had stayed away from the famous beach since the attack, but now was the time to return and support local traders.
Nemesh said many operators have seen a sharp decline in trade and revenue in the week since the shooting:
I have heard so many stories over the past week of businesses that swung into action amid the chaos on that night, sheltering patrons and helping those fleeing the shooting.
Those selfless acts of kindness should be celebrated and there is no better way to show your appreciation than with a bit of spending.
Bondi and Districts Chamber of Commerce president Emmanuel Constantinou said. in a statement this morning that other operators had started trading early on the Monday following the shooting to continue servicing the community and to provide supportive spaces for locals to gather:
From dawn, we had florists giving away flowers, bakeries offering free pastries to police and emergency services, and cafes serving up complimentary coffees.
That dedication continued throughout the week, from chemists offering extended trading hours to hospitality venues serving as informal community support spaces. Our beautiful local businesses were there for Bondi – now it’s time for Sydney to back them.
‘You don’t solve antisemitism by oppressing another portion of the community’
Timothy Roberts goes into the right to political protest and why it’s important for democracy:
Protest is about assembly and political speech and communication. We have a right, as a community, to step outside on the street, look each other in the eye, and say what we stand for or don’t stand for.
We saw that with the March for Humanity over the Harbour Bridge. The political class was telling us a particular perspective, yet hundreds of people marched over the bridge, and very quickly the tune was changed.
Unfortunately, the premier is connecting the march and other protests with the attack that we saw in Bondi. Those sort of links are inappropriate. Peaceful protest is an important way for us as democracy to know each other, to know what we’re thinking and where we stand.
Roberts notes that the Minns government is proposing to introduce a “really subjective” notion of what is or isn’t hate speech into criminal law, with his plans to ban the Palestinian resistance phrase “globalise the intifada”.
Quite frankly, the premier has a very poor track record with democratic rights. I don’t think the premier can be trusted alone to make that call. But at the very least, more time, community consultation, about what solutions are needed to a very difficult problem. You don’t solve antisemitism by oppressing another portion of the community. I’m concerned that that sort of response only heightens divisions …
Because very quickly, we get to a point where we’re silencing voices that have a legitimate place in our democracy for people to express themselves.
Civil liberties council says protest laws ‘incredibly poor government and political leadership’
Timothy Roberts, president of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, says the approach being taken by the NSW state and federal governments in pushing through new laws very quickly is “incredibly poor government and political leadership”.
Roberts, speaking to ABC TV, said the Council for Civil Liberties would be supporting the constitutional challenge to the anti-protest proposals.
Roberts said:
I think there’s a broad coalition of civil society that’s very concerned about these proposals and the civil liberties council is definitely about supporting that. We’re very concerned about the police commissioner being given far too broad powers to determine when we, as a community, should assemble or communicate with each other. That’s not up to the police commissioner – that’s us. We’ve been investigating the constitutionality of what’s been proposed, and we believe that it’s wanting …
Unlike Minns, we’re going to take some time to consider these laws and their constitutionality and the problems with them. We’ve got a government that’s passing things at an alarming rate. It’s a shame that it’s up to civil society to then pick up the slack of this government and measure these against the constitution and whether or not it’s appropriate …
It’s just incredibly poor government and political leadership at both levels, frankly. Sure, things like gun reform, there’s relatively broad support for. But even that is divisive. And to pursue such important legislation – legislation that cuts across our democratic rights – without consulting with community, without consulting with the rest of civil society, is an incredibly dangerous thing to do.
NSW Health just provided an update on the condition of patients in Sydney hospitals who were injured in the Bondi terror attack.
There is no change from last night’s update. Eight patients remain in a stable condition across five hospitals, and four in a critical but stable condition.
NSW Health gives latest update on injured Bondi shooting victims
As of last night, there were 12 patients receiving care in Sydney hospitals for injuries sustained in the Bondi shooting.
As of 7.30pm, Monday 22 December:
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One patient is in a stable condition at Prince of Wales hospital.
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One patient is in a critical but stable condition and one patient is in a stable condition at St George hospital.
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Three patients are in a critical but stable condition and one patient is stable at St Vincent’s hospital.
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Four patients are stable at Royal Prince Alfred hospital.
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One patient is in a stable condition at Royal North Shore hospital.
Minns criticises ‘intifada’ chant at rally against anti-protest laws
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has criticised protesters who chanted “globalise the intifada” in opposition to his proposal to ban the phrase.
About 300 people gathered at the protest outside the town hall in Sydney last night, beginning with a minute’s silence to remember the 15 people killed in the Bondi terror attack. Rally organiser Adam Adelour told the crowd that “intifada” was an Arabic word meaning uprising, revolution, or shaking off.
“If there is more intifada against genocide, there will be less genocide,” he said.
A spokesperson for Minns told the Australian on Monday:
We were repeatedly told that tonight’s gathering would be a vigil for the death of innocent Jewish Australians and yet it has resulted in a violent chant being spread on the streets of Sydney.
This proves the need for further laws that the government will be introducing to ban this hate speech and calm a combustible situation in our city.
Since the terror attack last Sunday, things have changed and we have to change too.
Bowen: Sussan Ley’s outburst against Wong was ‘pretty disgusting’
Chris Bowen was asked on ABC RN about Sussan Ley’s quite vocal attack on the government yesterday, particularly the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, whom the federal opposition leader claimed “had not shed a single tear” for the victims of the Bondi massacre.
You can catch up on that here:
Bowen responded:
I thought that said more about Sussan Ley than it does about Penny Wong. I thought that was a disgusting element of an increasingly partisan pile-on in the wake of a national crisis. Australia has in the past come together at moments like this, whether it be the Lindt cafe or Port Arthur, and oppositions have chosen not to make political points. This opposition is trying a different path.
Sussan Ley is not the arbiter of grief or mourning, and she does not get to decide how people express that mourning and that grief. And I thought, as I said, it said more about Sussan Ley than it does about Penny Wong …
Sussan Ley, I think, needs to reflect on her behaviour yesterday. It was pretty disgusting. And I think as it shows, that she is choosing to make political points out of an issue and a personal attack on someone like Penny Wong, I think, will jar pretty badly with Australians.
Bowen ‘guarantees’ gas reservation policy will lower prices
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, has said he can “guarantee” the “historic” gas policy changes yesterday – that will require the country’s three major LNG companies to set aside as much as a quarter of their gas for domestic use – will reduce prices.
Speaking the ABC RN this morning, Bowen said:
Australia is one of the world’s largest gas producers and exporters, as you indicated. And yet, we have forecast shortages and have had for 20 years forecast shortages, and it doesn’t make any sense. Now, the policy that we announced yesterday, our preferred model, slightly oversupplies the Australian market, which is our best way of putting downward pressure on prices.
Now, gas prices will be always determined by a range of fundamental factors: the cost of extraction, the gas in the Bass Strait, which is very cheap, gas, is running out. There’s only 12% of it left. We’ve been exploiting that since the 1960s, and there’s only 12% left to exploit in Queensland. In Northern Territory, it is much more expensive to get out of the ground and to move around the country. These are fundamental factors, but nevertheless, the levers the federal government has are designed to put downward pressure on prices, and we pulled that lever yesterday …
I can guarantee it will address shortages, and I can guarantee it’s the best way we have of putting downward pressure on prices as much as possible. Obviously, prices are an element of supply and demand. If you increase supply domestically, you’re putting downward pressure on prices.
You can read more on the gas reservation policy here:
ABC defends Tingle and Ferguson over Bondi attack coverage
The ABC’s managing director, Hugh Marks, has defended two of the network’s best-known journalists, Laura Tingle and Sarah Ferguson, following criticism of their coverage of the Bondi terror attacks.
In a statement released on Monday night, Marks said the terror attack was “a shocking and traumatic event for Australia and especially for the Jewish community” and extended to the Jewish community “our deepest sympathy”.
But he said criticism of those reporters was “unfounded”.
Last Tuesday the ABC’s Politics Now podcast, hosted by Patricia Karvelas alongside Global Affairs Editor Laura Tingle, sought to tackle some of the issues that had emerged in the national conversation in the wake of the Bondi attack. Journalist Laura Tingle has since been criticised for one comment made in the podcast that was about separating religion from radicalisation. Her analysis and the program in no way sought to minimise the terrorist nature of these horrific events, or the needs for Australia to combat antisemitism, or the rights of Jewish people to feel safe.
Sarah Ferguson was criticised for an interview she conducted with Josh Frydenberg on 7.30 on Wednesday 17 December. Mr Frydenberg had previously made comments which sought to lay blame for the horrific attacks directly on the Prime Minister. Sarah’s interview included a question on his potential return to politics which was a legitimate question for a journalist to put to him.
The ABC has reviewed both comments and the programs in question and believes that the criticisms made are unfounded.
Seven shareholders approve Southern Cross merger
Shareholders have overwhelmingly thrown their support behind a deal to create an Australian media giant spanning television, radio, print and digital, Australian Associated Press reports.
Shareholders in the company that owns Seven Network and the West Australian yesterday approved its merger with the group that owns Triple M and the Hit Network radio stations.
More than 99% of all votes cast by shareholders were in favour of the scheme, and 88.3% of shareholders voted for it.
The transaction combining Seven West Media and Southern Cross Media Group is expected to complete on 7 January.
The Seven West chair, Kerry Stokes, said:
The combination of these two great companies will bring together the best content creators in the country and deliver significant financial and strategic benefits.
This is an opportunity to create a national, diversified media organisation with extensive scale and reach across free-to-air television, streaming, audio and digital publishing assets.
Stokes said he would hold on to the role of chair of the combined group until stepping down from the board at the end of February.
Seven West shareholders will receive 0.1552 Southern Cross shares for every Seven share that they own under the merger and will own 49.9% of the combined group, with Southern Cross shareholders owning the remaining 50.1%.
In addition to the Seven Network and the West Australian, Seven West owns the Sunday Times, PerthNow, national news website The Nightly and Streamer, a community sports streaming platform.
Southern Cross Austereo owns 104 radio stations across Australia and operates the LiSTNR digital audio app.
Richardson security review expected within ‘matter of months’, Marles says
Richard Marles says Dennis Richardson’s review into law enforcement and intelligence processes leading up to the Bondi attack will involve a certain amount of reporting to the public, but there would be elements that would remain classified – so we won’t get to know everything Richardson finds out.
Marles says:
There will be a public version of the report. I mean, there will be elements of it which necessarily deal with classified information and it’s, by definition, important that remains classified. But we’ve made clear there’ll be transparency in respect of this.
Dennis Richardson is a person with enormous experience, first-hand experience, in terms of being secretaries of departments, but also these intelligence agencies.
He will do this independently. He’s not of the agencies or the department now, so he is able to go into this in an independent way. But we need to get to these answers quickly, and we cannot be waiting around for years, which is what a royal commission would take.
He won’t be specific on the timeframe, but Marles says Richardson is expected to complete the review “within a matter of months”.
Marles says Labor’s resistance to Bondi royal commission about reforms in ‘coming weeks, not in the coming years’
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, has been speaking to ABC TV just now, and the first question he’s been asked is about the calls for a federal royal commission into the Bondi attacks.
He repeats the argument that we’ve heard a few times from the federal government over the last couple of days, which is about how slow royal commissions tend to be.
Marles says:
Royal commissions take years, and we need to be acting within weeks. It’s really as simple as that. We’ve had Jillian Segal do her report as our special envoy into combating antisemitism. We understand that antisemitism is at the highest point that I’ve seen in my lifetime. She has given us a program of action. We have now endorsed that in full. And we are working on those actions. And we want to do that right now …
We need to be going after hate preachers, and that’s why we’ve announced that we will pursue law reform in that regard. And we want to do that in the coming weeks, not in the coming years. We need to be looking at the opportunities that those who seek to do this damage have in terms of access to guns, and there is further gun reform that can be done. And we need to be doing that right now. And there is a task in understanding what’s happened here in terms of intelligence, in terms of policing and the like.
He mentions the review into intelligence and law enforcement processes in the lead-up to the Bondi beach attack, to be led by former Asio boss Dennis Richardson. You can read more about that announcement here:
Good morning
Stephanie Convery
Good morning folks, I’m Stephanie Convery and I’ll be taking you through today’s live news for the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon.
Woman to face court after allegedly yelling antisemitic comments at university group in October
A woman will face court following an investigation into alleged intimidation at a university in Sydney’s inner west, New South Wales police say.
Police said the woman allegedly yelled antisemitic comments at a group of students and other members of the Jewish community who were celebrating the Jewish holiday Sukkoth within the grounds of the university at Darlington campus on 9 October.
The matter was reported to police officers at the time, prompting an investigation which led to a 53-year-old woman’s arrest at Parramatta police station earlier today.
Police said she was charged with three offences – two counts of stalking or intimidating intending to cause fear or physical harm, and one count of offensive conduct.
The woman was granted conditional bail to appear at Newtown local court on 3 February, police said.
Chants of ‘globalise the intifada’, the phrase Minns wants to ban, at Sydney rally against proposed protest law changes
Hundreds of people rallied in Sydney last night in support of Palestine and chanted a phrase the premier has sought to ban on the eve of a new legislation preventing protests.
Chants of “globalise the intifada” followed an address by Sara Saleh, a human rights lawyer with Palestinian heritage, who condemned the Bondi terror attack but also condemned the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of Israel’s military.
“That is precisely why I intend to keep saying, ‘Globalise the intifada, free Palestine,’” Saleh said.
Our reporter Luca Ittimani was there and has sent this report:
Greens lead constitutional challenge to anti-protest laws
The NSW Greens justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, will join pro-Palestine and other activist groups to launch a constitutional challenge against the Minns government’s latest anti-protest laws this morning.
After the omnibus terrorism and other legislation amendment bill was passed by the lower house with Liberal support last night, Higginson will hold a press conference at 9.15am this morning to announce the challenge.
She claims the new laws “impermissibly burden the constitutional freedom of political communication”.
She will be joined by other campaigners and activists opposing the laws including: Michelle Berkon of Jews Against the Occupation; Elizabeth Jarrett of Blak Caucus; Nick Hanna of Hanna Legal; Nasser Mashni, president of Australia Palestine Advocacy Network; Josh Lees of Palestine Action Group Sydney; NSW Timothy Roberts of the Council for Civil Liberties; Sheikh Wesam Charkawi; Shovan Bhattarai of Students for Palestine; Pete Moss of Labor Friends of Palestine; Zack Schofield of Rising Tide; April Holcombe of Community Action for Rainbow Rights; NSW Socialists; and the Coalition of Women for Justice and Peace.
Anne Davies has also filed this analysis of the legal changes being planned for NSW.
She writes that while a tragedy like Bondi demands action, “the unpredictable political wave of public feeling after a disaster can either wipe you out or see you riding high”.
Drafting laws that significantly curtail rights – such as the right to express your view on political matters by peaceful protest, or even as some would have it, the ‘right’ to own guns – need to be approached with careful and forensic clarity.
NSW lower house passes gun reform and anti-protest bill
Anne Davies
NSW parliament’s emergency sitting of parliament in the wake of the Bondi shootings will continue today with the omnibus bill to change gun laws and to restrict protests expected to move to the upper house.
The lower house passed the bill last night after nearly 10 hours of debate. The Liberals voted with Labor, while the Nationals opposed the bill.
Labor does not have the numbers to pass legislation in the upper house but will again be counting on the Liberals to support the bill.
The crossbench, the Nationals and the Greens are expected to move hundreds of amendments and could use debate on changes to force a marathon session on Tuesday night.
The usual rule to prevent the parliament sitting for very long hours will be lifted.
The Nationals, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party and other independents are vehemently opposed to Labor plans to restrict the number of guns that individuals can own to 4 while farmers and professional shooters will be restricted to 10.
The Shooters plan to move about 120 amendments to this and other aspects of the proposed gun laws.
The Greens are planning numerous amendments to the bans on protests, which they argue are unconstitutional and undemocratic.
Government sources said the government was prepared to have the parliament sit on Christmas Day if it proved necessary, but added they were hopeful the bill would pass on Tuesday night.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the day’s breaking stories and then Stephanie Convery will take the reins.
NSW parliament’s emergency sitting of parliament in the wake of the Bondi massacre will continue today with the omnibus bill to change gun laws and to restrict protests expected to move to the upper house. More details coming up.
The NSW Greens, pro-Palestine and civil liberties groups will launch a constitutional challenge against the anti-protest laws this morning at 9.15. We’ll have more on this shortly.
Shareholders in Seven West Media have overwhelmingly thrown their support behind a deal to create an Australian media giant spanning television, radio, print and digital by merging with Triple M owner Southern Cross Austereo. We’ll have more very soon.