Politics live: Fugitive developer Jean Nassif tells Icac ‘I’m going to speak my heart’; Sussan Ley appointed to Snowy Hydro board

Top spy warns Australia’s old tech vulnerable to AI hacking One of Australia’s top intelligence agencies has warned Australian business and government’s old technology is leaving them vulnerable to AI attacks. Abigail Bradshaw, Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate, has told the Sydney Dialogue to take note of Anthropic’s recent warning of AI agents and hacking risks. She said ASD did not know how many agents were on the internet: I think that prospect of getting some sort of definition or calculation of how these agents are out there is really remote, and I would just say a lot. She said Australian systems faced “enormous” hidden costs of maintaining outdated technology but said they needed to be addressed. She said: If we don’t move fast enough, almost certainly it would be legacy technology which is first compromised in a major AI-enabled attack. Government and businesses had the same issue and neither had the funding to replace all of its old systems, she said. But she said partial replacement had to start immediately and that would mean taking down systems that Australians expect to be available all the time. What AI calls for, because of the ease and speed in which vulnerabilities are detected, and the need now to patch not every Tuesday, not every two weeks, but potentially within 48 hours, means that we are asking people to make a different decision. We are asking private owners of infrastructure to actually optimise security over system availability. And that means we’re all going to have to be a little bit patient and do it. The Albanese government has named the former Liberal leader Sussan Ley to the board of Snowy Hydro Limited. Ley, who quit politics after being rolled as opposition leader by Angus Taylor in February, was appointed by the energy minister, Chris Bowen, and the finance minister, Katy Gallagher. Snowy Hydro, the massive hydroelectricity project in regional New South Wales, is a government owned corporation. The government also appointed Merryn York, the former chief executive of Queensland’s Powerlink and a former executive with the Australian Energy Market Operator. After a final dixer to Chris Bowen on cheaper home batteries, the PM calls time on QT. People are choosing between ‘filling the tank and filling the fridge’, independent says as she urges fuel excise cut The independent MP Dai Le asks the prime minister if the government will halve the fuel excise again to relief cost of living pressure. She says that while door knocking in Liverpool in Sydney’s south-west, people are telling her that they’re having to choose between “filling the tank and filling the fridge.” Anthony Albanese doesn’t say the word “excise” once in his answer and just avoids the question entirely. He says that people in Le’s electorate are benefiting from policies like tax cuts and urgent care clinics. 1,483 people have been helped to buy their first home with the 5% deposit scheme in Fowler alone, and Red Assistance has been given to 18,330 people. Cheaper home batteries has been delivered to more than 3,000 households in Fowler, 5,600 families have benefitted from cheaper childcare, and 24,000 students benefitted from to cut to student debt. Le stands up to point Albanese back into the direction of her question, but he sits down and indicates that he’s finished his answer. Wallace brings 10,000 signatures urging reversal of health insurance changes for over 65s The Liberal MP Andrew Wallace changes tack now, and asks the government if it will reverse a decision to reduce private health rebates for over 65s. Wallace is holding a huge stack of papers, that he reveals has more than 10,000 signatures from Australians opposed to the rebate changes. The health minister, Mark Butler, basically says the government is holding firm despite the backlash, because the $3bn in savings will help fund aged care services. The government has argued its unfair for an individual under 65 paying more for the same private health insurance compared to someone over 65. He says hard decisions have to be made: I don’t pretend this is an easy decision. It’s not one we have taken lightly. We’ve looked at the modelling very carefully. We’re convinced it will have a very marginal impact on private health insurance membership, which continues to climb … these are one of the hard decisions we have to make, if we’re going to deliver older Australians, the dignity and care that they deserve. Wallace tries to table the petition but he’s shut down. Tony Burke says it should be presented to the petitions committee instead. Did the prime minister recuse himself from a decision to hand a golf club in his electorate a $6m grant under an “invite-only” scheme that favoured Labor seats, asks Nationals MP Alison Penfold. Anthony Albanese’s leaving minutes on the clock with these short responses (MPs get three minutes to answer during QT). He says: The question goes to Cabinet processes. The decision–maker is the minister for infrastructure. I’m not even the decision–maker. That’s the whole answer. As he says it, infrastructure minister Catherine King points to herself and says “that’s me”. Albanese pressed on golf club grant The opposition is continuing its line of attack on the $6m grant to a golf club, in the prime minister’s electorate, that Anthony Albanese is an honorary member of. Liberal frontbencher Tony Pasin asks why the PM failed to declare the membership. The PM says that he didn’t know until last week that he had the membership, and says that a two-year social membership of the club is $5. I make no apologies for the fact that I stand up for every organisation in my electorate. That’s what good local members do. Albanese does not mention that a full membership of the club is $1,100 a year. Last week during QT the opposition brought their own receipts, including a Daily Telegraph article from 2019 that reported that Albanese was an honorary member. Tim Wilson booted from the chamber As Labor MP Alicia Payne stands up to ask the next dixer, Milton Dick kicks out shadow treasurer Tim Wilson from the frontbench for interjecting too much. The Coalition is sniffing around and trying to find something that stinks. The Liberal frontbencher Angie Bell asks if a decision to give the Marrickville golf club in the prime minister’s electorate $6m to fix a sewage problem as part of an “invite-only” grants program has helped to “increase the value of his investment property down the road?” Anthony Albanese holds an honorary membership at the club which he says he didn’t know about. The leader of the House, Tony Burke, is up from his seat at lightning speed and then there’s a bunch of back and forth over whether the question is in line with parliamentary standards. It takes more than five minutes of argy bargy before the PM answers, and criticises the question himself. That wasn’t so much a question as a smear, and its imputations are completely false. And the opposition, of course, made election commitments worth $1.6bn – over 1,000 of them. We’re happy to go through them. He’s about to say that none of those commitments were for Sydney’s inner west, but as Bell gets up to protest the line of attack, Albanese sits down and indicates he’s finished his answer. Labor ‘failing at aged care’, says independent Rebekha Sharkie Why won’t the government concede that they’re “failing at aged care”, asks independent MP Rebekha Sharkie. She says in her state of SA, in October 2022 state hospitals reported 60 older patients waiting for residential aged care – a figure that has now ballooned to 487. Sharkie also says 5,000 people have died waiting for support at home packages. The aged care minister, Sam Rae, says things are improving, and more money has been provided to states for hospitals and to increase the number of aged care beds. We’ve got 830,000 Australians receiving care under the commonwealth home support program and roughly 400,000 Australians receiving care under support at home. That support at home system has nearly tripled since 2020 under our government, and the investments that we’ve made. Wait times are coming down under support at home. Leaving question time for a moment, and the propery developer Jean Nassif is now appearing on screen at the NSW Icac, wearing a white, open-collared shirt. Although the video connection with Nassif, who has said he is appearing from his bedroom in Beirut, has occasionally been interrupted, presiding commissioner Fabian Gleeson SC has been able to explain to Nassif that he has not been compelled to give evidence, and has the right to silence. Gleeson: “And as I understand it, you have nevertheless indicated that you would like to give evidence before the commission. Is that correct? Is that correct, Mr Nassif?” Nassif: “Yes, your honour.” Gleeson asks Nassif, who does not have legal representation, if he would like to take legal advice. Nassif says: I don’t wish to have legal advice. I’m going to speak my heart, and I’m going to say exactly what happened with me in my whole entire career for 25 years in Australia. I’m willing to answer any question … I have no issues. ‘I know what he thinks of you’, Coalition challenges Albanese on criticism from Labor luminary There’s nothing worse than being criticised by your own, which is why the shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, has now pounced on comments from former union leader and Labor luminary Bill Kelty that Labor is presiding over falling housing affordability and a drop in real wages. Anthony Albanese tries to brush off the burn, and says to the opposition: We all know Bill Kelty. I’ll make that point. I know Bill Kelty. And I know what he thinks of you. Maybe he would have a quote for you, but it would be unprintable. We know that Australians are under cost–of–living pressure. We know that. He then takes a more personal shot at Wilson’s book (“not a book I have read, I must say. But I’ve heard enough quotes from it,” he says) that said capital gains tax discounts were making the system unfair. It’s question time! Angus Taylor begins and says that new modelling from Aussie Home Loans shows 20% of Australians who have purchased a home in the past three years are “now trapped in mortgage prison” and asks the prime minister to admit that it was Labor’s plan to smash the housing market. Anthony Albanese brings some receipts, and says according to the latest Reserve Bank data, less than 1% of all mortgage holders are in negative equity (meaning they owe more than what their home is currently worth). He suggests that the housing market is still moving, and people are still buying up properties. ABS data shows an unprecedented 8,468 investors signed up to build a new home in the June quarter. This was 454 more than the previous record set in the previous three months … More than 660,000 new homes were built under this Labor government, and a further 244,000 are now under construction. It’s a slow start to QT. The property developer Jean Nassif has begun his appearance at the NSW Icac this afternoon, via video link from Lebanon. Before the commission wrapped for lunch, this morning’s witness, Strathfield councillor Matthew Blackmore was asked to wait until 2.15pm, with presiding commissioner Fabian Gleeson SC saying he was not sure if an overseas telecommunications link with Nassif would be established this afternoon or not. Blackmore is expected to continue giving evidence tomorrow morning. Nassif, who withdrew from a scheduled appearance on 4 September after providing a medical certificate, left Australia for Lebanon in 2022 after an investigation found dozens of defects in three separate residential developments constructed by his company Toplace. As part of its investigation into allegations against people associated with the NSW Liberals, Icac is examining the allegation that Liberal figures anticipated receiving $2m in prohibited donations from Nassif in exchange for political outcomes, including damage to the career of NSW Liberal minister David Elliott and the removal of the building commissioner David Chandler. He has previously denied any wrongdoing. The House pays tribute to Mary Gaudron Before we get into question time, Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor pay tribute to Mary Gaurdron, the first female justice of the Australian high court who passed away aged 83. They describe her incredible journey from growing up in a working class family in Moree in regional NSW to one of the most senior public and legal figures in the country. Albanese says: Even if you were to just add up a list of firsts to which her name is attached, it’s like looking at the peaks of a mountain range. She was the first woman to be appointed Queen’s Counsel in New South Wales, the first woman to serve as a state Solicitor–General for any state. Our youngest federal judge ever. And the first woman appointed to the High Court of Australia. Mary was also foundation chair of the New South Wales Legal Services Commission. She successfully argued the Whitlam government’s equal pay case. Taylor says: Quick–witted, sharp, analytical, audacious – it was no wonder that, at age 44, she was appointed to the High Court. Throughout her career and in her judgements, she was driven by a deep sense of social justice and a desire to right the wrongs of the past. She was one of seven judges who heard the landmark Mabo case recognising the existence of native title in Australian law. The shadow industry minister, Andrew Hastie, says the expected closure of a blast furnace at the Whyalla steelworks is a brutal blow for hundreds of workers and the country. The shutdown, which will soon be announced, may see as many as 500 Australian workers lose their jobs, as well as 100 contractors working at the site. Hastie is doing a doorstop ahead of question time and blamed the government’s energy transition: This is a brutal blow for 500 Aussie workers, a brutal blow for the town of Whyalla and a brutal blow for Australia as much sovereign capability. What we have seen now as the closure of 75% of Australia’s capacity of structural steel making. It is a future made overseas, not a Future Made in Australia, and this is all caused by Labor and its relentless ideological pursuit of a net zero climate targets. Pauline Hanson has spent her entire career pedalling racism, says Malarndirri McCarthy, in response to resurfaced comments from the One Nation leader calling First Nations Australians “primitive”. The minister for Indigenous Australians took to social media to disparage the remarks, and said someone trying to incite hatred isn’t fit to be a leader. McCarthy is a Yanyuwa and Garrwa woman and represents the Northern Territory in the Senate. She writes: Senator Hanson has peddled racism and division her entire career. Anyone seeking to be prime minister should not divide Australians and incite hatred … I am proud to represent First Nations people who come from the oldest continuous culture on the planet. We must reject senator Hanson’s toxic agenda now and all the way to the next election. Labor is still yet to win over the Coalition to support its digital duty of care bill despite Anika Wells yesterday saying that she was prepared to water down some of the ministerial powers in the bill. Angus Taylor at his press conference earlier today said it still read like a “big brother” bill. The legislation would put the onus on tech platforms to remove harmful content for adults and children or face fines of tens of millions of dollars. Taylor said: This is the big brother bill, frankly ... they should put forward an alternative. But right now, that’s what we’re seeing, and we can’t support that. ‘There’s no group in society that Pauline Hanson isn’t prepared to kick down’, Plibersek says The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, has defended Anthony Albanese against Pauline Hanson’s comments about his upbringing and his mother, and said the criticisms show the One Nation leader knows nothing about public housing. Plibersek tells News24 that Albanese is a “big boy” and copping criticism for things he does is fair game, but attacking his family is not. She says she personally knew Albanese’s mother before she became an MP. Come on, like, I’m all for free speech, but attacking someone’s dead mum, is that really what we’ve come to when it comes to free speech in this country? Anthony was her carer from a very young age. He was cooking the meals, he was cleaning the house. He was helping her do up her buttons, he was her carer, and to pretend for a second that she could have gone out and found private rental, and that she was clogging up public housing, I think that says a lot more about Pauline Hanson and what she thinks of people who live in public housing today than it says about Maryanne Albanese. Hanson is also under fire for more resurfaced comments where she called First Nations Australians the “most primitive race on earth”. Plibersek says: I think this proves that there’s no group in society that Pauline Hanson isn’t prepared to kick down on ... We’re really lucky in this country, to have 65,000 years of history and culture to learn from. ‘Wall of Tears’ exhibition outside Parliament House mourns children killed in Gaza An exhibition out on the front lawns of Parliament House today has named the 18,457 children that were killed in Gaza between the 7 October 2023 attack and July 2025. The Wall of Tears installation by artist Phil Buehler also includes the photographs and stories of some of the children. Greens deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, spoke at the exhibition this morning. It is inconceivable that anyone can see this loss of innocent life and not feel their heart break. With every child killed, our hearts break a little bit more. Our government calls Israel a friend and continues to sell weapons parts that are used to murder children. This exhibition being brought to Canberra is a necessary reminder of our leaders’ complicity in these crimes. I hope that all Labor MPs will take the time to view the exhibit and reflect. Unicef estimates more than 64,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza since October 2023. Ukraine and Venezuela among countries barred from coming to Australia under One Nation plan Migration from 26 countries on the government’s do not travel list will be banned by One Nation under their plan, which will include countries such as … Ukraine and Venezuela. Most nations on the list are in the African continent and the Middle East, due to on-the-ground conflict. Other nations include Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Chad, South Sudan, Russia and Belarus. This might be sounding somewhat familiar to you, and that’s because One Nation had announced this a little earlier this year, and will go some way to reduce some of the temporary visas they’ve promised. Labor’s Yiwarr McGrath wins NT seat of Mulka Labor has won the seat of Mulka in the Northern Territory’s north-east Arnhem Land in a byelection over the weekend, after 35-year-old Yolngu man Yiwarr McGrath secured the victory. McGrath, a registered nurse and 2021 NT Young Australian of the Year, won 77.5% of the vote on Saturday amid a low voter turnout. Labor’s victory comes after the resignation of long-time Independent Yiŋiya Guyula from the seat of Mulka, previously known as Nhulunbuy last month, in protest of the Country Liberal party’s policies, calling them “dehumanising, oppressing and destroying our communities and our people”. In Nhulunbuy after his win, McGrath told the ABC that he was inspired by his upbringing to make a difference for his people. So, I’m going to come here to the parliament with real-life experiences and influence policy for my people and everyone else in this region. NT Labor leader, Selena Uibo, congratulated McGrath: As a Yolŋu man and registered nurse, Yiwarr has seen first-hand the impact of overcrowded houses on families. He will fight for more housing, reliable local health services, better roads and economic opportunities for people across the electorate. Sign up to get our brand new politics newsletter Politics, really is a daily newsletter from Guardian Australia’s team in Parliament House, focusing on one key topic a day to be unpicked, explained and put into context. Sign up at theguardian.com/politicsreally to receive it in your inbox every weekday at 5pm. I’m biased of course – but it’s pretty damn good! Oil prices are rising today after the widening Middle East conflict sparked new supply fears, driving Brent crude up more than 3% to US$108 a barrel this morning. The price rally follows fresh Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia, which have led to the temporary closure of a vital oil pipeline. Most shipping in the crucial Strait of Hormuz has also stopped amid renewed tension between Iran and the US after failed peace talks. The crude disruptions are driving up prices across refined derivatives like petrol, ending a period of market calm during which traders had expected normal supplies to resume. AMP’s chief economist, Shane Oliver, says petrol prices are “likely heading even higher with rising global oil prices”. Australian fuel prices could climb a further 20-30 cents a litre in the coming weeks, testing the high levels reached in the weeks immediately after the initial US-Israeli strikes on Iran. The national average retail petrol price rose by 5.6c a litre last week to $2.11, according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum. OpenAI has said it wants to train its models in Australia and is negotiating with the Albanese government over copyright rules. Ann O’Leary, OpenAI’s vice president for global policy, told the Sydney Dialogue the prime minister’s speech vowing to protect artists from “theft” had “caught our attention”. She said OpenAI was “very eager to have a bigger and broader relationship” with Australia. She said: I don’t have to tell any of you how important Australia is from a geopolitical standpoint … We very much recognise that having a diversification of where we train is going to be important as you move forward. She said the OpenAI wanted to ensure creators could keep creating and was in “regular” and “deep” conversation with the government about the copyright rules, which would impact its access to Australian-made content. O’Leary said OpenAI agreed with Australia’s principles for building datacentres but the AI industry had been surprised by the upset from the projects. I think many of us have been surprised at the turn of how much upset there has been over datacentres … People feel like, ‘OK, we have this datacentre in our back yard that may be noisy and may be something I don’t want to look at. In addition to that I don’t really know what it’s doing that benefits me.’ So until we can do a better job having people live it and feel it and benefit from it, it’s going to continue to be hard. She urged Australia to advocate for strong AI governance and its own access. Australia also has to be attracting us, companies like ours, to come to Australia but not just for the purposes of working on energy and datacentres but also to come and recognise the value of Australia. ‘Lazy policy’: crossbenchers and Liberals unite against private health rebate changes for over 65s Independents Monique Ryan and Jacqui Lambie and shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, have railed against the government’s plan to reduce private health insurance rebates for over 65s. This morning, the group released data from the parliamentary budget office that said half of the $3bn in savings would come from the pockets of pensioners. At a press conference a little earlier, Ruston said it was “lazy” policy. You are being a lazy minister, this is lazy policy, this is a lazy bill and it’s lazy tax growth. And 1.2 million pensioners who can least afford a $1.5bn additional cost on their everyday lives. What is frontier AI? A great question, and something which I have learned myself about 30 seconds ago. Frontier AI systems are basically the most advanced, recent and capable models available. It’s like you would say the frontier of knowledge is the farthest, most advanced point of human understanding. The Australian national cyber-security centre says a new class of frontier AI called agentic AI tools can even “plan, make decisions and take actions on your behalf”. The Greens earlier this morning tried to push the government to urgently debate and legislate mandatory safety testing and transparency obligations for frontier AI systems – but that bid failed in the Senate. One Nation plans to get visa numbers down ‘primarily by not issuing new’ ones, Barnaby Joyce says Barnaby Joyce says One Nation will cut 750,000 temporary visas primarily by not issuing new ones, rather than kicking people already in the country out. He tells News24 by not allowing the family of temporary skilled workers to apply to join their partners or parents in Australia, that’ll cut the number down by more than 100,000. Joyce has his glasses on and has brought some papers with him to try and explain all the figures on air. Asked how this will affect critical shortages like in health and aged care, Joyce claims there already aren’t that many nurses coming into Australia. We bring up … nurses thinking ‘Oh well, that’s 50%, or 30% [of skilled migrants]’. No, it’s 1% or less, the nurses, and less than 1% is aged care workers. We’re getting numbers down primarily by not issuing new visas. Asked whether nurses and construction workers should be incentivised to come to Australia by bringing their family with them – unlike other temporary skilled workers under the One Nation proposal – Joyce says no. This isn’t an exact apples-for-apples comparison, but the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation estimates that internationally qualified nurses (IQNs) make up approximately 20% of the total nursing workforce, and 35% in aged care. Andrew Hastie has claimed Australia will become a “supplicant state” if it doesn’t make a deal with the US to get its frontier AI, suggesting the Aukus military agreement could be a suitable path. The shadow industry minister told the Sydney Dialogue the US government’s shutdown of access to Claude Mythos in June showed Australia could be held hostage if it didn’t get local AI capacity. He said: Without a sovereign AI frontier model here in Australia, we are going to be a supplicant state, not a sovereign state … People think it’s making memes on ChatGPT. We’re talking about the global order being changed and Australia falling behind. Hastie said Australia was far behind in the race for development so should look to make a deal with the US as it makes its AI “arms race” against China. We need to work on a way to get a hyperscaler down under, or multiple hyperscalers to invest in sovereign capability, the same way Ford and General Motors did 100 years ago … I think working with the United States, through Aukus if we want to use that frame, is the pathway. He said such an outcome would be a “balancing act” as Australia would not have “complete control” but said the country could bring its policy settings to bear on the businesses that agreed to set up here. He cited a former Labor prime minister’s argument. I think Dr Kevin Rudd was exactly right last week when he said … industry policy is now the norm not the exception … Ditch the orthodoxies of the last 40 years and wake up to the reality that is now shaping our world. Greens call for debate on frontier AI models that ‘may make us extinct’ The Greens have gone from zero to a hundred in the Senate this morning, immediately moving to suspend standing orders to push the government to debate and legislate safety testing and transparency on frontier AI systems that could make us go extinct. Senator David Shoebridge is moving the motion which also calls for the government to push for a global treaty on AI regulation with middle powers, including Canada, Singapore and France. He tells the Senate the government could legislate an “ethical AI industry” that constrains the frontier model. This morning Sam Altman and Elon Musk called for the sector to pump the breaks on “reckless” AI development Shoebridge says: I’ll tell you what the Greens think we should be talking about, not the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill, but the fact that major players from the AI industry across the world are saying we need to slow down development of frontier models because it may make us extinct … I can’t believe anyone would vote against this motion, and I can’t believe Labor would say ‘no we don’t want to deal with an extinction risk’. Mary Gaudron, Australia’s first female justice of the high court of Australia, has been remembered as a woman who broke down barriers for women across Australia, for her intellect and courage. In a social media post, the governor general, Sam Mostyn, wrote Gaudron’s distinguished career “transformed Australia’s legal landscape”. From her upbringing in Moree NSW to her advocacy for equal pay and her distinguished service on the nation’s highest court, Justice Gaudron brought her fierce intellect, integrity, compassion and a deep commitment to justice to every role she held. The social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, also paid tribute to Gaudron on social media this morning: Mary Gaudron changed Australia’s legal landscape. She fought for equal pay, broke down barriers for women in law and public service, and went on to become the first woman appointed to the High Court of Australia. Her intellect, integrity and courage made our country fairer and opened doors for generations of women who followed. Victorians right to question road maintenance: Carroll Following from our last post … In the 50km zone around where the motorcyclist’s crash occurred, the road condition deteriorated from 1% poor or very poor in 2022 to 44% in poor or very poor condition in 2024. Ben Carroll was pressed on how the Victorian government had let this occur. He said: We have had a range of climatic events. We have bigger, heavier trucks travelling on our road network more than ever before. Having said that, business as usual on our roads and road resurfacing has not worked … That is why you look at the example in Western Australia, they brought road maintenance back inside of government after it was outsourced, and that has seen a vastly bigger improvement … Carroll said the state government had invested $1bn into road maintenance and road resurfacing every year and that Victorians were right to question whether they were getting the “best bang for our buck”. Read more: The Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, was on ABC Radio Melbourne, following the death of a motorcyclist after hitting a pothole. The 71-year-old Ballarat man was killed after striking the pothole and losing control of his bike on the Western Highway at Trawalla, near Ballarat, on Sunday. Potholes had already emerged as a key political issue ahead of the November election, but this death has only heaped further pressure on Carroll. He told host Mary Gearin the death was a “tragedy”. The buck does stop with us. I’ve made it very clear there cannot be any more buck passing on road maintenance. That’s why I have said, under my government, it was outsourced in the mid-1990s, I’m going to bring road maintenance back inside of government. Property developer Jean Nassif to appear before NSW Icac Property developer Jean Nassif is expected to appear before the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) via video link from Lebanon this afternoon. Nassif, who withdrew from a scheduled appearance on 4 September after providing a medical certificate, left Australia for Lebanon in 2022 after an investigation found dozens of defects in three separate residential developments constructed by his company Toplace. As part of its investigation into allegations against people associated with the NSW Liberals, Icac is examining the allegation that Liberal figures anticipated receiving $2m in prohibited donations from Nassif in exchange for political outcomes, including damage to the career of NSW Liberal minister, David Elliott, and the removal of the building commissioner, David Chandler. In June 2023, NSW police issued an arrest warrant for Nassif in relation to allegations of financial wrongdoing and “large-scale fraud” at Toplace, but he has never been charged. Earlier this month, his daughter, Ashlyn Nassif, avoided jail time after pleading guilty in June to providing false or misleading information, the court heard she was under pressure from her father, to obtain a $150m construction loan. He has previously denied any wrongdoing. Angus Taylor says Pauline Hanson should apologise to Anthony Albanese over her comments criticising his mother for living in public housing for several decades. The comments were from a podcast episode that aired in February. Taylor tells reporters that the comments were “completely inappropriate”: Taylor: Oh, they were inappropriate. Family should be off limits when it comes to politics. Reporter: Should she apologise? Taylor: It’s very simple and she should. She should, absolutely. I mean, family should be off limits. And they were completely inappropriate comments. Taylor asks for a please-explain on One Nation’s migration policy Angus Taylor says Pauline Hanson, Barnaby Joyce and David Farley need to explain their own migration policy, because he, for one, doesn’t understand it. But he seems to want to avoid criticising it as hard as some of his colleagues. At a press conference just outside Canberra, Taylor is asked multiple times what he thinks about the policy and says there are plenty of questions that remain unanswered. But his deputy, Jane Hume, who’s standing next to him, this morning said that the policy would sent the country into recession. Taylor says: Well, I don’t know what the need of overseas migration numbers are [that] they proposing. Well, they’re not, the numbers are not there year by year. What is it going to do to the overseas migration? And what does that mean for a publican in Tamworth, a farmer in Narrandera or Griffith? And what does that mean for a builder in Ipswich? One Nation says its policy will lead to “net-negative” overseas migration for the first three years, after which the Nom will stay at 130,000. The headline is that there will be net-negative migration for three years, with 750,000 temporary visas cut – primarily international students and the families of skilled visa holders. Pauline Hanson says universities will get a share of up to 100,000 international students each year, while graduate visas, which allow international students to temporarily remain and work in Australia will be cut down to 20,000 and be valid for only 18 months. To provide a little context, more than 370,000 international student visas were issued by the government in the financial year 2024-25. Hanson is also proposing a new “high-value” study visa for PhD and select postgrad research students, which would allow them to bring dependents or family. For temporary skilled workers, family members will now be banned from getting visas with a skilled worker, while existing family members will be allowed to remain until their visa expires, which won’t be renewed. The party says this will drop the number of temporary skilled visas – including their family members – from more than 260,000 to 160,000 over three years. Hanson says the regions won’t be affected because existing backpacker and Palm scheme visas won’t change. Labor MP says Anthropic and OpenAI calls should be met with scepticism Australia’s assistant technology minister has urged scepticism of AI companies’ calls for a pause on development. Anthropic’s chief has warned AI bots could swarm the internet within a year and his calls to “slow the pace” of AI development gained support from the head of OpenAI and Elon Musk, in a rare show of unity. Andrew Charlton, assistant technology minister, has told the Sydney Dialogue summit not to focus on companies’ public commentary given their “extremely strong financial incentives” to maintain the trajectory of development. He said: I am not in favour of leaving it to the companies and I’m not in favour of leaving it to the superpowers … I take that at face value but I don’t think we should care very much about what individual chief executives say or what individual executives claim they want to happen. I think we should care about what is actually happening. Charlton recently went to a G20 meeting on AI and said safety and responsible use was a “big topic of conversation” among Australia’s economic partners. He said Australia was not setting AI safety measures in response to one forecast of AI ability but to address a range of possible outcomes, including some “extremely dangerous” scenarios. Read more about Anthropic’s calls here: Modelling by the parliamentary budget office shows half the expected $3bn in savings to reduce the private health insurance rebate to over 65s will be paid for by pensioners. The figures, commissioned by independent MP and doctor Monique Ryan, found that $1.6bn of the total budget savings would be met by the nearly 1.5 million age pensioners who hold private health insurance. Private Healthcare Australia some retirees will face health insurance cost increases of more than $1,600 per year, but Labor says it only expects private health insurance for over 65s to increase by up to $250 a year and see 44,000 abandon their cover. Ryan says: The PBO has confirmed what older Australians and the private health sector have feared: these cuts will disproportionately affect those least able to afford them. After paying taxes throughout their working lives and maintaining private health insurance to meet their health needs as they age, age pension recipients will bear the brunt of the government’s changes. One Nation migration policy’s ‘terrible impact’ on farmers One Nation’s migration plan could drive up food costs and stop farmers from planting crops, or leave some unharvested, warns the National Farmers Federation. Its president, Hamish McIntyre told the Today show that one in seven farm workers is a working holiday maker – mostly backpackers. It’s a terrible impact [on] us … It’s going to prohibit us from planting some of these crops. We rely on these people. We won’t be able to take the risks to spend all the money, farmers, we spend up front to produce these crops, so we’re not going to take a risk if we can’t harvest them. Pauline Hanson has claimed backpackers and the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility (PALM) scheme won’t be impacted by the net-negative migration numbers. Hanson running out of groups of pick on, says Murray Watt Murray Watt says Pauline Hanson’s comments to a podcast criticising Anthony Albanese’s mother for staying in social housing over several decades are “despicable” and she should apologise. Joining ABC RN Breakfast, the environment minister says Hanson is punching down on people who deserve support, also pointing to her attacks on Andrew Hastie. Watt says Hanson is starting to “quickly run out of groups in the community that she doesn’t pick on”: I think an apology is absolutely needed from Pauline Hanson for yet another remark that she makes, punching down on people in our community who deserve our support … the idea that you would pick on someone’s late mother who died more than 20 years ago is cruel and despicable. I mean, I’m starting to lose count of the number of groups within our community who Pauline Hanson is picking on. She thinks workers are lazy, she doesn’t like migrants. She says parents who use childcare aren’t doing the right thing. Women experiencing domestic violence, she says that’s a two-way street. Barnaby Joyce has defended Pauline Hanson’s comments that a person shouldn’t be allowed to live in public housing for multiple decades because there isn’t enough housing. Hanson, in a podcast in February, criticised the length of time Anthony Albanese’s mother had lived in housing commission, and then said it was “pathetic” that the PM kept bringing up the story. Joyce told Sunrise this morning that Albanese’s log cabin story doesn’t wash any more: [Hanson] didn’t say that she [Albanese’s mother] was a bad woman, or that she had done some form of theft or anything like that. The question was put to her about public housing, and I stand by what she said … The premise of that question was, should people live in public housing for ever? Which the answer is no, because we just don’t have enough … I don’t know the prime minister’s mother. I’m sure she’s a very, very good woman … But the whole, you know, log cabin story of living in a housing commission home that the prime minister rolls out over and over again for a person who owns multiple houses – and good luck to him, and God bless him, and he’s about to go live in a $4.5m house on the Central Coast – it just doesn’t wash. Hanson’s ‘nasty, grubby’ politics shows she’s not fit to lead, says Hastie Andrew Hastie says attacks against him have been really hard on him personally, and says he’s standing up against the “nasty, grubby politics” that Pauline Hanson represents. Hanson has refused to apologise for a One Nation video that labels Hastie a “traitor” after he gave evidence against Ben Roberts-Smith in his failed defamation trial. Hanson has denied calling Hastie a traitor. Hastie told the Today show the whole saga shows Hanson is not fit to be a leader: I’ve experienced this for five or six months now. It’s been really hard. It’s been hard on me personally. It’s been hard on my staff, but it’s been really hard on my wife as well, who I left behind to go overseas knowing I might not return. So yeah, it is a slur. That’s why I’ve defended myself. But I’m also standing up for other veterans because it’s not just about me. And I think this sort of nasty, grubby politics underscores Pauline Hanson’s true character. And with Australia facing a once in a generation cost of living crisis, with artificial intelligence coming at us very hard and fast, I think she’s revealed that she doesn’t have what it takes to be prime minister of this country. Hanson’s comments on Albanese’s mother ‘gratuitous and unnecessary’: Hume Jane Hume has joined the pile on, blasting Pauline Hanson for her comments about Anthony Albanese’s mother. Hanson had criticised her for living in public housing over several decades in a podcast released in February, which Albanese yesterday called nastiness and spitefulness. Hume says the comments were distasteful, and also pointed to the ongoing fight between Hanson and Andrew Hastie, after a One Nation cartoon called the former SAS captain a “traitor”. Hanson has denied calling Hastie a traitor – the animated video remains pinned to her X account. I think that these comments were gratuitous and unnecessary. And the idea that you would disparage people that have grown up in social housing, I think, is a little distasteful. I mean, it doubles down on the fact that Senator Hanson has also disrespected our veteran community with her atrocious comments about Andrew Hastie in that cartoon. Calling a veteran a traitor, I think, is possibly the worst thing you can do. But this does seem to be a common theme in One Nation now, that sort of unnecessarily provocative rhetoric. Labor has ‘refused to adopt’ Coalition migration asks, Hume says Perhaps one reason for Labor’s delay in making its migration announcement has been because it wants to see if it can get the Coalition somewhat on board. Last week the prime minister and opposition leader met – while Angus Taylor sent a letter with several demands. The deputy Liberal leader, Jane Hume, is asked on RN Breakfast this morning if its fair to say the talks have been “productive” as health minister Mark Butler has this morning suggested. She says: Well, it seemed that there were a number of things that we had proposed to the government that they simply have refused to adopt. We’ve been pretty clear. We want to make sure that we link our migration numbers to the number of houses that are built, that the housing minister should come to parliament each year and announce the number of new houses that have been built, and that will then put a cap on the number of people that can come to the country. But the mix of your migration policy is just as important, and getting that right to make sure that you don’t push the country into recession is really important. Asked then what the Coalition’s migration policy is, she says she won’t “pre-empt” any announcements. One Nation visa numbers will send Australia into recession, says Hume While they might not agree on exactly what migration policy Australia should have, the government and opposition are on a brief unity ticket this morning in arguing that One Nation’s temporary visa plan would destroy the economy. Deputy Liberal leader, Jane Hume (while still taking the opportunity to have a go at Labor) says Pauline Hanson has plucked the number out of nowhere and has no modelling to back it up. She tells News24: Simply saying we’re going to have negative migration for a number of years, negative nom, well, that would be a real shock to the economy, and it would make all Australians poorer. My concern here is that these numbers have simply been plucked out of thin air that there isn’t any modelling behind them. Hume is asked why One Nation is driving the agenda again instead of the Coalition, but she says she disagrees: We’ve been talking about migration, from the moment that Angus Taylor became the leader … Work has been going on to the background, but it’s so important to get this right, because sending the country into recession means that all Australians pay the price. It simply can’t be a slogan, you have to do the work behind it. Health minister says One Nation plan would devastate critical industries The health minister, Mark Butler, says Pauline Hanson’s plan to cut temporary visas by 750,000 over three years would kill critical industries. Speaking to reporters in the press gallery corridor this morning, Butler says it would cause serious economic damage – particularly to construction and aged care sectors. Pauline Hanson said a few weeks ago, she didn’t care what the impact of her migration policy would be on business, but this is just another level entirely. This is going to smash industries like construction. It would devastate the health sector and aged care and disability. The government has stalled on its own migration plan that was initially supposed to be announced by home affairs minister, Tony Burke more than a month ago. Butler remains tight lipped over when Burke will make the announcement. One Nation is targeting international students and the families of skilled migrants in its proposal to cut 750,000 temporary visa holders in Australia over three years. The move would return temporary visa numbers back to 2017 levels. Hanson says net migration under the plan would be “net-negative” for the first three years, and then sit at 130,000 – however who knows what that actually means because when One Nation recently announced this, none of its MPs seemed to be able to define what net migration was. For those playing at home, net migration measures people coming into or leaving the country for a period of at least 12 months over 16 months and thus excludes tourists. Much of the confusion was around whether backpackers and people on the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme would count under the Nom. About 10% of the temporary visas to be cut would include people living in Australia who don’t have a visa and have exhausted all options to stay. Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you for another busy sitting week. There’s a few moving parts in Parliament this week – One Nation has this morning announced a migration plan that will drastically cut temporary visas, and lead to more headache for the Coalition who are asked why Pauline Hanson is driving the agenda and not them. Speaking of Hanson, her fight with Andrew Hastie shows no sign of ending – we’ll likely hear more back and forth from the pair today. And, the government could look to water down its digital duty of care laws after hints from the communications minister Anika Wells yesterday that she was willing to negotiate on the ministerial powers in the bill. Let’s get stuck in! Australian households could save $5,000 a year by electrifying their homes and cars, AAP reports, and more than 30 organisations will call for incentives and stronger policies in Canberra as part of a national campaign. The campaign is linked to the international Electrify Now campaign, and follows a COP31 push to raise the global electrification rate from about 20% to 35% by 2035. Groups including Energy Consumers Australia, the Electric Vehicle Council, Farmers for Climate Action, and Rewiring Australia will launch the campaign at Parliament House, calling for changes to help more Australians replace equipment powered by gas, petrol or diesel. Energy Efficiency Council policy head, Jeremy Sung, said: There’s a role for the Australian government to send a clear signal that electrification is happening and that it’s what the future of our energy system will depend on. At the moment, federal policy is sending mixed messages. The government is giving $300m in grants to build crisis and transitional accomodation, that will deliver 500 new homes and support around 19,000 vulnerable Australians. The housing minister, Clare O’Neil and social services minister, Tanya Plibersek, say the total crisis housing package will support more than 50,000 women and children escaping family violence, and help young people at risk of or already experiencing homelessness. But the money itself isn’t new: it was previously announced as concessional loans for the sector to help build the accommodation, and will now instead provide direct grants following consultations. The grants will go to providers including state governments, community housing providers and First Nations organisations. Plibersek said in a statement: Too often we ask, “why didn’t she leave?,” when we should have asked, where would she go? We know that safe housing is absolutely critical to help women and children leave violence. That’s why we are building more than ever before. Data from Cotality has shown auction rates were up over the weekend, with almost 60% of homes selling – the highest peak in 19 weeks. The national preliminary clearance rate hit 58.5%, a small jump from the 52.7% recorded last week. Experts have warned that Australia’s penchant for auctions – we are among the few countries that regularly use them – has helped push prices up. While the weekend rate was up, there is still an overall decline in the number of houses being sold through auctions. Speaking to the Australian Financial Review on Sunday, Cotality’s Tim Lawless said the rise in clearance rates should be viewed against a longer-term plunge in volumes. The number of auctions held was up 11.4% on a week ago – but held more than 30 per cent lower than a year ago. Welcome to Guardian Australia’s live coverage for Monday. Krishani Dhanji will be joining us shortly. Let’s begin.