Australia politics live: independent MP says Labor’s nature laws have ‘gigantic loopholes you could drive a heavy hauler through’

12.44am GMT Coalition senator Sarah Henderson says evidence at Optus hearing ‘shocking’ The Coalition says it’s walked out of the Optus triple zero hearing with “more questions than answers”. Sarah Henderson, a former shadow communications minister, said the evidence heard in the hearing was “shocking”. There were ten different points of failure. There were five calls to the overseas call centre which were never escalated, the CEO sat on his hands and for many hours didn’t inform Acma, the regulator, and the minister’s office, about the true scale of the catastrophe, with three people confirmed dead as a result of what happened on that terrible and fateful day. Henderson says the regulator and minister have also “drastically failed”, and urged communications minister Anika Wells to front the inquiry. Liberal senator Dean Smith also said the prime minister’s office has questions to answer about what it knew and when it sought information from Optus. Updated at 12.48am GMT 12.38am GMT Penny Wong says Australia is ‘horrified’ by reports of atrocities in El Fasher, Sudan Foreign minister Penny Wong says Australia is “horrified” by the reports of “mass killings, sexual violence and deliberate attacks on civilians” in El Fasher, Sudan. The reports of atrocities have emerged from El Fasher since it fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces last weekend. Related: Sudan’s brutal civil war – what has happened in El Fasher? In a statement, Wong said: We condemn the atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces and call for an immediate end to the violence and unhindered humanitarian access. All parties must uphold their obligations to protect civilians and respect international law. Updated at 12.48am GMT 12.30am GMT Ley says Nationals ‘entitled’ to own position on net zero target Sussan Ley says the Nationals are “entitled” to make their own position on net zero, and says she and the Liberals will join their partner in developing a joint position on energy. The opposition leader gave a quick comment on her way out of a charity event for the Kmart Wishing Tree. She said the Liberals are still working on their energy and climate policy, and would have a position of their own. Ley said a joint Liberal-National working group is still working on a joint policy. She said she and David Littleproud had a “convivial” conversation after the Nationals dumped net zero yesterday, and that she looked forward to the two parties getting together to find a way forward. As some in the Liberal party muse over whether the Coalition can continue, and there is some anger at the Nationals for coming out so strongly, Ley indicated her intent was still to find a joint Coalition position to work for both parties. Updated at 12.35am GMT 12.06am GMT Independent criticises ‘gigantic loopholes’ in Labor’s proposed nature laws Independent MPs are pushing for changes to Labor’s proposed new nature laws, with one claiming the bill contains “gigantic loopholes that you could drive a heavy hauler through”. The laws to overhaul the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act are scheduled for debate on Tuesday, with the government planning to rush them through the lower house this week. The independent MP for Curtin, Kate Chaney, is drafting amendments to address two loopholes that she fears could undermine the entire bill. The first is the proposed “restoration fund”, which developers would have the choice of contributing to as one option to offset damage from their projects. Chaney said: That means projects can actually just pay to destroy, they can choose to just put money into a fund, and we may end up with a lot of money but no projects that actually offset the damage that’s being done. And that would not be a good outcome for nature. The independent MP also wants changes to a contentious new exemption that would allow the environment minister to approve projects in breach of nature laws if it was deemed in the “national interest”. The former treasury secretary Ken Henry, the Labor MP Ed Husic and Labor’s grassroots environment action group have all called for guardrails to limit how the power could be wielded. Fellow independent MP Sophie Scamps said she couldn’t support the laws in their current form, criticising the new loopholes and plans to devolve more decision-powers to the states. I cannot support the EPBC Act … in their current form, because there are the most ginormous, gigantic loopholes that you could drive a heavy hauler through, which means there is no guarantee that our environment will be better protected. Labor wants the EPBC reforms to pass the Senate this year but that hinges on a deal with either the Greens or the Coalition, neither of whom support the bill as it stands. Updated at 12.12am GMT 11.54pm GMT Canavan comments on pregnancy terminations ‘beyond disappointing’ says Labor senator The government, with some of the crossbench and Greens, has voted to debate Baby Priya’s bill, and vote on it by 1pm today. The opposition says it supports the bill but did not support the guillotine motion to put a time limit on debate. Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah, who is a medical doctor, disputes the claims from some including Canavan around late-term pregnancy terminations. It has been beyond disappointing to see the arguments peddled in this chamber … [These are] not trivial matters, they are not done on the whim of a mother or father, they are a medical decision made by doctors and a wider medical team, usually in a special hospital for women. Ananda-Rajah also brings up the reports of women who are having homebirths and freebirths, and urges families to listen to medical professionals. As Melissa Davey brought you a bit earlier, the Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (Ranzcog) and the Australian College of Midwives (ACM) have called for legislative changes to restrict labour and birth management to registered practitioners such as obstetricians, gynaecologists, GP obstetricians or midwives. Ananda-Rajah says: There are disturbing reports in the media of women who are not listening to their trained midwives or doctors but instead choosing to be influenced by doulas or social media influencers around having homebirths or freebirths. This has led to numerous deaths, both of babies as well as women in Australia … I would urge women of Australia to seek your advice from trained professionals, either midwives or obstetricians. Updated at 11.58pm GMT 11.39pm GMT Net zero debate continues in parliament Another Liberal is calling for the opposition to junk its commitment to net zero, with Western Australian MP Rick Wilson up in the House of Representatives now, speaking in support of Barnaby Joyce’s bill to scrap the climate commitment. He claims his electorate of O’Connor, a vast area in the south-east of WA, is “ground zero for net zero”, and raises criticisms of renewables projects, including solar and windfarms. Wilson is unhappy about agricultural land being concerted into renewable projects, and voices concerns about “visual and noise pollution, and potential adverse health effects” of renewables. Wilson draws a line between the closure of mining and renewables projects, claiming higher emissions reduction targets and energy prices will see such facilities shut down. Joyce, who remains sitting as a National but still isn’t participating in their party-room meetings, is sitting behind Wilson as he speaks. Labor MP Dan Repacholi, representing the working-class electorate of Hunter, speaks next and says he “feels like a kindergarten teacher” when he speaks about net zero with Coalition MPs. He rejects claims that net zero would see the closure of coalmines, calling that allegation “rubbish”, and says net zero is good for the Hunter. Net zero isn’t about shutting up shop. It’s about running mines, keeping people in work and reaching net zero through offsets and better technology. Updated at 11.42pm GMT 11.29pm GMT Liberal frontbencher says net zero target must be retained ‘in some form’ The senior Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg says net zero must be retained “in some form” and is confident the Coalition will agree on such a position – despite the Nationals’ decision to abandon its commitment to the climate target. The Liberals are under fresh pressure to settle their position on net zero after the Nationals unanimously decided to walk away from the goal at a special party-room meeting on Sunday. If the two Coalition partners cannot agree to a compromise, some Liberals believe the party should be prepared to break up the Coalition. A leading moderate and net zero supporter, Bragg says net zero must be retained “in some form”. He told reporters in Parliament House: You have to have net zero in some form. I mean there’s no doubt that Australia has very serious treaty obligations. So my point is we’re a serious country, we’re a trade exposed nation. We’re not going to walk away from international agreements. Never. But I would say that the domestic rules have made life harder for Australians and so Labor’s net zero has been a complete disaster. Asked if he would need to reconsider his position on the frontbench if net zero was dumped entirely, Bragg was confident it would not come to that. I’m confident we will maintain fidelity for our international agreements. How we implement those domestically is a matter we need to work through, but I think we can do it better than Labor. Updated at 11.51pm GMT 11.22pm GMT Labor tries to bring forward Senate debate on paid parental leave after stillbirth Over in the Senate, the government is trying to bring forward debate and a vote on Baby Priya’s bill today, which would force employers to give parents who have experienced a stillbirth their paid parental leave entitlements. Several conservatives, including Barnaby Joyce and Andrew Hastie, have been accused of playing politics by using the debate to argue that the leave should not be given to parents who have a late-term abortion. Medical experts have said the argument shows a lack of understanding about stillbirths and labelled the comments as “terrible, cynical, awful”. Senator Matt Canavan, who didn’t speak in the federation chamber, has been making the same claims as his colleagues Joyce and Hastie this morning, and says the government has “blindsided” the Senate by trying to move up the vote to 1pm. Finance minister and minister for women, Katy Gallagher, doesn’t address Canavan’s claims, but says three hours of debate is enough and defends the bill. It recognises that the loss of a baby is devastating for parents and if there is a way to respond … to seek legislative reform that would allow a mother in the exact same experience as what baby Priya’s mother endured to grieve and have an entitlement to grieve through that period of what would have been her parental leave, that’s what this bill is about. Updated at 11.52pm GMT 11.20pm GMT Independent Kate Chaney to introduce bill on voter data mining Independent MP Kate Chaney is introducing a bill this morning to stop political parties mining voter data through postal ballot applications. What’s the problem? It’s one the Australian Electoral Commission is also not pleased about – where the major parties send unsolicited postal vote application forms to voters, they’re filled out and sent back to the major parties – who are accused of harvesting that data – before they send it on to the AEC. It’s not a new problem, the AEC warned the major parties about the issue during the 2022 election, and the Liberals were accused of doing it ahead of the voice referendum campaign. To parliament, Chaney says: This loophole is particularly bad, because political parties, their contractors and volunteers are exempt from the Privacy Act … not only can [major parties] store and use this data for micro-targeting, profiling or future campaigning without consent, but they can also sell this personal data to third-party data brokers or analytics firms. We have no idea if they currently do this because there’s no oversight. It’s a private member’s bill, and unlikely to get picked up by the government. Updated at 11.23pm GMT 11.08pm GMT Call for legislation to prohibit unregulated practitioners managing labour and birth In the wake of several recent tragedies linked to freebirth, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (Ranzcog) and the Australian College of Midwives (ACM) have called for legislative changes they say are necessary to prevent harm and loss of life.Ranzcog and the ACM want consistent legislation across jurisdictions to restrict labour and birth management to registered practitioners such as obstetricians, gynaecologists, GP obstetricians or midwives.Freebirth is the intentional practice of giving birth without a registered healthcare professional, such as a midwife or doctor, present. It is different from a homebirth, which is a planned birth at home with a registered healthcare provider.The colleges want unlicensed or unregulated people to be prohibited by law from undertaking the management of labour and birth. Regulatory frameworks need to be made consistent across all states and territories to ensure women receive the same protections regardless of where they give birth in Australia, the colleges have said in a statement.Ranzcog president Dr Nisha Khot said: While choice and model of care are important, such choice must operate within frameworks that ensure safety, quality and accountability. This proposed legislation would affirm that principle. Updated at 11.12pm GMT 11.01pm GMT Optus company chair says there were ‘10 failures’ in triple zero outage Optus chairman John Arthur was asked about the failures behind the triple zero outage. He said CEO Stephen Rue was brought on to make sure episodes like the outage never happen, and that he expected Rue to finish the job he was brought onboard to complete. Arthur told senators: There were I think 10 failures here, 10 failures. And if you’re asking me whether I am alarmed at that, I can assure you I am. However, this man was brought into this company to make sure we became a company that didn’t have 10 failures like that. Now that’s his job, and I’m expecting him to finish it. Arthur assured senators that there would be fallout from the investigations into the outage “when we have all the facts” and the “dust settles”. I never in my life want to be in the position I’m in today where I have to answer these sorts of questions about a company I’m associated with. When the dust settles … when we have all of the facts … the board will, as is its duty, deal with accountabilities. Updated at 11.21pm GMT 11.00pm GMT The bells are ringing in Parliament House First up in the House this morning is debate on private members’ bills – that means we’ll see a bill from Kate Chaney on postal ballot data harvesting (more on this shortly), one from independent Andrew Gee on stopping windfarms in state forests and, of course, more debate on Barnaby Joyce’s repeal net zero bill. I’ve said this before, but the government is milking Joyce’s bill for all its worth – it’s a political play that wedges the Coalition, and Labor has so many backbenchers it can just keep putting them up to debate the bill – even if Joyce runs out of supporters to spruik his bill. We’ll see who stands up on it today. Updated at 11.02pm GMT 10.39pm GMT What is underpinning the Nationals’ net zero decision? The Nationals have promised to scrap net zero by 2050 targets and scrap the Climate Change Act under their policy – so where has this come from? Yesterday’s announcement followed a process led by senators Matt Canavan and Ross Cadell with modelling by the Page Research Centre. The Page report says power prices have gone up almost 40% since net zero was legislated, and recommends prioritising reducing power bills, tying Australia’s emissions reduction to the OECD average, lifting the moratorium on nuclear energy, and reinstating the Abbott-era emissions reduction fund. Littleproud has said the Nationals’ position is in line with the work of Page, but hasn’t said exactly which recommendations will be undertaken. And what is Page? Page is a think tank that says it works “closely with the Nationals”. It’s led by Gerard Holland, who wrote the report and is a former electoral officer to former deputy Nationals leader Fiona Nash. The chair of Page is former Nationals leader and former deputy prime minister John Anderson. Updated at 10.47pm GMT 9.56pm GMT Hanson-Young asks when Optus knew of deaths related to outage and when government was informed Staying on the inquiry, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young asked a series of questions nailing down the timeline during the outage, asking when Optus knew people had died and when executives, and the government, were informed. Stephen Rue said Optus was first advised of a fatality around 8.43pm on 18 September, but senior management was not informed until after midnight on the 19th. Rue himself was told around 8am on the morning of the 19th. Hanson-Young noted that Rue called the Optus board and the CEO of SingTel, Optus’s parent company, less than an hour later. But the government regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma), and the government minister were not told until around 2pm on the 19th. Hanson-Young said: What on earth were you doing between 8am in the morning and 2pm? Rue said Optus was completing welfare checks and gathering information, but the senator was not satisfied with that answer. She said: You weren’t doing that, you had people doing that. What were you doing? … You made sure the board knew, but you didn’t call the minister or the regulator. You were too busy putting your ducks in order, telling your board what was going on, contacting your executives, making sure that your your company’s ducks were in order. Meanwhile, the federal government, the regulator and the minister were left in the dark. Updated at 10.09pm GMT 9.55pm GMT Optus executives answer questions about triple zero outage as CEO defends his job Optus CEO Stephen Rue is being questioned over the telecommunications company’s triple zero outage, which left multiple people dead after they could not reach emergency services. Rue, sitting alongside other Optus executives, said the call failures on 18 September during an upgrade were “unacceptable”, saying as CEO he was “accountable for Optus’s failing and I’m deeply sorry”. Rue said: The tragic deaths of people during this outage stay with us as individuals and as a company as we investigate the incident. I fully accept there are aspects to the way events unfolded and how they were communicated over September 18 and 19 that we should have handled better. Rue defended his position as CEO, saying that while there were understandable questions about his position, he believes any change in leadership “could actually set back the transformation under way” at the company. I firmly believe that another change of leader at this time is not what Optus needs, or what our customers need. Updated at 10.35pm GMT 9.54pm GMT PM questioned on universal childcare promise The PM gives us a forward sizzle on his promise to deliver universal childcare – saying we’ll be hearing more about it from early next year. But he’s reluctant to provide any details as to what that will look like. Reporter Katina Curtis asks whether universal childcare will be in place by the next election (which is about two and a half years away). Albanese: Well, you’ve got three years to continue to ask and follow up, Katina. Curtis: Do you believe that for-profit childcare still has a place? Albanese: You’ve got three years to follow that up. Well, you get the same answer. What we’re doing in child care, we’ve made a significant difference. Updated at 9.58pm GMT 9.35pm GMT Power prices driven partly by ‘dysfunction’ of former Coalition government, PM says Anthony Albanese acknowledges power prices and the cost of living are still having an impact on households, but pins some of the blame on the former government. Speaking to reporters in Canberra this morning, the PM says his government has capped coal and gas prices and put in energy bill rebates (which are due to finish at the end of this year). What has occurred on power prices is a product in part of the dysfunction and chaos that’s been there of the Coalition – 24 out of 28 coal fired power stations announced their closure. They [the Coalition] had no plan to do anything other than fight each other, and that’s continuing today. Updated at 9.38pm GMT 9.29pm GMT ‘The Coalition as we knew it is dead,’ Simon Holmes à Court says after net zero decision The National party’s decision to scrap its net zero by 2050 commitments is prompting a lot of reaction from within and without federal parliament this morning. Climate 200 founder and co-convenor Simon Holmes à Court has lashed the minor party over the decision, settled in a party room meeting on Monday. It puts extra pressure on the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, as she struggles to hold the Coalition together. “In the last decade the Nationals have evicted the Liberals from The Lodge, the city electorates, and now the national conversation,” Holmes à Court said. The fault lines that have been papered over for years are now a chasm that cannot be breached. He links the decision to previous policy moves by former leaders Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton, both of whom lost to Labor and Anthony Albanese. Morrison and Dutton abandoned the centre, leaving space for independents to properly represent middle Australia, and now the Nats have taken the whole team out of contention. The old broad church has been burnt to a cinder – the Coalition as we knew it is dead. Updated at 9.35pm GMT 9.19pm GMT Littleproud says net zero decision ‘not about politics but good policy’ Nationals leader David Littleproud is continuing his media round this morning, defending his decision to scrap net zero by 2050 commitments, and do it before the Liberal party has reached its own position on energy. On ABC News Breakfast, Littleproud says the decision to announce the policy yesterday is “not about politics”. Littleproud says he won’t be pressuring the Liberal party to drop its commitment to net zero, and that it’s all about “respect” in the Coalition. This is not about politics but good policy. We’re calm and methodical about this and we’ll work with our Coalition partners when they get to their position. But we made it clear, as did the Liberal party after the election, that we had processes – individual processes – that our party would run through. We got to ours on the weekend, the end of ours. And we’ll respect and wait for the Liberal party, and do that in a respectful way. (Commentators would probably argue that there are wide-ranging political implications though.) Updated at 9.25pm GMT 9.07pm GMT Mortgage arrears fall at Westpac after rate cuts Mortgage holders are enjoying a reprieve from relentless cost of living pressures, as the number of home owners falling behind on their repayments falls. Westpac’s full year results, released this morning, show that its delinquency rate for loans that are more than 90 days behind has dropped to 0.73%, from 1.12% a year ago. On Monday, the bank reported a 2% slide in annual profit to $6.9bn for the year ended 30 September, down from $7.1bn a year ago. It will pay a full year dividend of $1.53 per share. The Reserve Bank’s official cash rate, which informs mortgage rates, has been cut three times this year to 3.6%. Westpac said most of its customers had welcomed the interest rate relief, while broader cost of living pressures had also eased. Westpac’s chief executive, Anthony Miller, said: Notwithstanding the relief from interest rates, challenges remain, with inflation and unemployment increasing in recent months. Globally, uncertainty remains but this is an opportunity for Australia and we are in a good position to work through any impacts from events such as the ongoing geopolitical and trade tensions. While many forecasters had been expecting further interest rate relief this year, the odds of imminent cuts have collapsed due to increasing inflation. The RBA will hand down its next interest rate decision tomorrow. Updated at 9.11pm GMT 9.02pm GMT Tehan ‘very confident’ he can reach position with Nationals on energy The question every Coalition member is facing this morning is whether the Nationals’ decision to scrap net zero will allow the two parties to stay together. Tehan – who has both staunch net zero backers and critics in his own party – says he’s “very confident” he can reach a position with the Nationals on energy policy. I never started this process seeking to fail. I want to succeed, and that means we’ve all got to work together. And the way we have been constructively working together – obviously, there’s some noise here and noise there – but the way we have been working constructively together, I’m very confident that we’ll be able to reach a position which means we can all continue to work together in the best interests of the nation. Updated at 9.08pm GMT 8.56pm GMT ‘We want to get it right,’ says Tehan on Liberal energy policy Shadow energy minister Dan Tehan, who’s leading the Liberal party’s energy policy review, is facing more pressure now that the Nats have come out of the gate and staked their position by abandoning net zero. Tehan, following Littleproud on RN Breakfast, says everything is AOK with the Nats and that he’ll take his time to “get it right” on energy policy. We’ve got to get it right in understanding: OK, what is it that we need to do to make affordable energy our number one priority, but at the same time be doing our bit when it comes to reducing emissions? And we’re working through that methodically. We’ve been doing it not only as a Liberal party but also jointly with the National party – very constructively, I might add – and we’ll continue to do that. So when will the Liberals announce their policy? Tehan says: “in a perfect world, it would be great to have it done by Christmas”. Including this week, there are just two joint sitting weeks left this year, so time is certainly ticking. Updated at 9.10pm GMT 8.50pm GMT David Littleproud says Australia shouldn’t be ‘streaking ahead’ on emissions reduction Nationals leader David Littleproud says Australia shouldn’t be a “laggard” on emissions reduction, but we also shouldn’t be “streaking ahead”. Talking to ABC RN Breakfast this morning after making the announcement yesterday, Littleproud says Australia should be doing its “fair share”. But what’s a fair share, asks host Sally Sara, when Australia’s per capita emissions are three times the global average? Littleproud says: I think this is where the reality of getting to this per capita is a puerile argument. The reality is each country has a responsibility, and this is where they get into things like Scope 3 [emissions], saying Australia should have to pay for that because we actually export a lot of resources overseas that are then burned … It shouldn’t be just about what we actually are emitting, it’s what we can mitigate. He points to Australia accounting for 1% of global emissions, and says it’s a “small amount of the total emissions globally”. Updated at 8.55pm GMT 8.44pm GMT ‘Australians aren’t happy with us’, says Coalition frontbencher Facing Nationals flying ahead of the Liberals on energy and a brutal Newspoll result this morning, Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh is asked on Sky News how worried she is about the declining public support. “I don’t want to spin it,” she says, but digs in on net zero, saying many in her community don’t want it. Australians aren’t happy with us. We lost an election, and we were annihilated at the election. We need to get our act together. We need to focus on being a strong opposition. On whether Sussan Ley can and should stay on as leader, she says: Sussan still has my confidence, and she should be able to stay on as leader. As I said, we’re down in the dumps. It’s not just about the leadership, it’s the whole Coalition and the people that are left – my colleagues, they’re wonderful, talented people, and we should be giving Sussan a chance. Updated at 8.46pm GMT 8.32pm GMT Hanson-Young says Coalition ‘just not serious about government’ Staying on Sarah Hanson-Young on ABC News Breakfast, the Greens senator did not hold back in slamming the Nationals over their decision to scrap support for net zero, accusing the Coalition of having “delusional and dangerous” climate policy. She calls on Labor to “rule out” working with the Coalition on any environment or climate policy (ie the government should negotiate with the Greens on the EPBC bill). The Coalition have proved themselves to be a party that’s just not serious about government. You can’t pretend in Australia that you care about the future of our country, the safety and security of Australia. You can’t even pretend that you care about the bush and the regions if you don’t have a credible policy on climate change. The climate crisis is already here. Reminds me of Logan Roy telling his children in Succession – “you are not serious people”. Updated at 8.37pm GMT 8.24pm GMT SingTel should appear before Optus inquiry, Greens and Coalition say The Greens and the Coalition will grill Optus over its outage earlier this year during a parliamentary hearing. Shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, told ABC News Breakfast a bit earlier that the inquiry would “get to the bottom” of what happened. When I met with the CEO of Optus he said it was human error and I asked ‘How can human error result in the outage where lives were lost?’ That is not good enough. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who’s also been heavily critical of Optus, also told News Breakfast the inquiry will be looking to call in the CEO and board members of SingTel to face questions. I’ve been worried for far too long that Optus is much more worried about its profits than it is people’s safety. And now we have a situation where people have died because Optus put profits ahead of safety, and SingTel needs to take responsibility for that. Updated at 8.27pm GMT 8.14pm GMT ‘I have a lot more to ask,’ Barnaby Joyce says on Nationals’ energy policy Barnaby Joyce isn’t completely sold on the Nationals’ energy policy despite being one of the most vocal advocates to scrap net zero (and still has a bill in the House to do that). On Sunrise this morning, Joyce says he still has concerns over the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) which underwrites renewable projects. The Nats have decided that they’ll keep the scheme but will expand it to also underwrite fossil fuel projects. Joyce says he will go through the fine print with senator Matt Canavan, who led the Nationals review with Ross Cadell. I have a lot more to ask and I will do my job and ask. Few in the Liberal party, who have been staunch net zero supporters, are concerned this could be the end for the Coalition. Asked whether the Coalition is “over”, Joyce says: I don’t know, that is above my pay grade. In the past, I’ve argued against splitting the Coalition. Updated at 8.50pm GMT 8.11pm GMT A third of metropolitan and regional GPs to be fully bulk-billing Just one third of all metropolitan GP practices will be fully bulk-billed under the government’s increased bulk-billing incentive, which came into effect on 1 November, as the government has promised that there will be no out-of-pocket payment for 90% of all GP visits by 2030. Labor has released new data overnight showing how many clinics have indicated they will now fully bulk-bill. In metro areas, of 4,720 practices, 1,557 will be fully bulk-billing (33%) - an increase of 622 clinics that say they will now bulk-bill due to the incentive. In regional centres, of 620 practices, 209 will be fully bulk-billing (33%) - an increase of 108 clinics. But in remote communities, almost half of all practices will now be fully bulk-billed - with 51 out of 110 practices indicating they won’t charge out-of-pocket costs for patients. The top ten electorates that will see the most number of mixed billing practices become fully bulk-billed include: Labor-held Ballarat in regional Victoria; Labor-held Rankin in outer suburban Brisbane; LNP-held Hinkler and Flynn in regional QLD; Labor-held Hawke outside Melbourne; Labor-held Calwell and Hotham in metropolitan Melbourne; LNP-held Spence in South Australia, LNP-held Parkes in regional NSW, and LNP-held Cowper in regional Victoria. Updated at 8.31pm GMT 8.10pm GMT Welcome Good morning, Krishani Dhanji with you here for another busy sitting week (and the second last joint sitting week for the year). The Liberals are facing some pressure after the Nationals came out and scrapped their commitment to net zero. The Liberals are still considering their position on the policy. The government is keeping somewhat of a lower profile early this week; they’re still spruiking their pre-election promise to increase bulk-billing incentives which came into force over the weekend. And the Optus boss will face a parliamentary hearing today into the September outage. The Greens and Coalition have been pushing for a full inquiry into the incident. It’s going to be another busy week, stay with us!