Australia news LIVE: John Barilaro gives evidence to NSW parliamentary inquiry; Senate climate bill negotiations heat up

Thanks for joining us for our live coverage today. In case you missed them, here are the top headlines from this afternoon and evening:

• There were 20,189 new COVID-19 cases and at least 14 deaths (a figure that does not include WA’s numbers) recorded nationally in the latest reporting period. There are about 4,150 people being treated for the virus in hospital and 140 people in intensive care (excluding WA figures).
• Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe has responded to the controversy surrounding her swearing in, at which she referred to the Queen as a coloniser. Thorpe said it was embarrassing for Australia to be the only country without a treaty with its First Nations people and said it was time for the nation to “face up to” its history.
• In NSW, Transport Minister David Elliott withdrew from the race for the Liberals’ deputy leadership after Stuart Ayres resigned from the role over the John Barilaro trade job controversy. Treasurer Matt Kean said he would put his hand up for the role.

We’ll be back tomorrow with more.

There have been 20,189 new COVID-19 cases and at least 14 deaths recorded in the latest reporting period.

The latest death and hospitalisation figures do not include numbers from WA, where the health department is working to resolve a data issue.

There are currently at least 4,142 people being treated for the virus in hospital and 140 people in intensive care.

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe has responded to the controversy around her swearing in, when she referred to the Queen as “the colonising her majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second”, saying that Australia needs to face its history and establish a treaty with First Nations people “to genuinely mature as a nation”.

“[The Queen’s] whole wealth has been responsible for killings around the world of First Nations people. And that was through the Commonwealth and the colonising regime, violent regime that they inflicted on many sovereign nations around the world,” Thorpe told ABC Radio Melbourne today.

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe has responded to the controversy around her swearing in.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“The world is talking about this country, it’s embarrassing that we do not have a treaty. We’re the only Commonwealth country in the world that does not have a treaty with its first people.

“We need to get up with the times. I’m not going into parliament and being like everybody else and taking years and years and years to get action. I’m going to speak truth and yes, truth hurts. And I’m sorry that people are hurting. But it is truth and we have to face up to it to genuinely mature as a nation.

“Everything that you see deaths in custody, incarceration, suicide, removal of children, homelessness, drunkenness, all that you see, for First Nations people in this country the oldest continuing living culture in the world, they are the symptoms of colonisation, they are symptoms of genocide.

“That’s what we are still facing in our own country today. And we need to come to terms with that. We need more truth telling, and we need a treaty.”

She also outlined other things she is seeking to achieve or has already achieved in parliament, including ensuring “no public money is going to any fossil fuel companies” and establishing an inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and children.

NSW Transport Minister David Elliott has withdrawn from the race for the Liberals’ deputy leadership.

“I’ve just been in touch with the premier [Dominic Perrottet] today and in accordance with his wishes I don’t think I’ll be putting my name forward,” he told radio station 2GB.

“He certainly didn’t tell me to withdraw but he certainly said that he didn’t want to have a ballot and I respect that,” he said. “At the end of the day he is my boss.”

Earlier on Monday Treasurer Matt Kean confirmed he would seek the deputy leadership.

“I’ll be sticking my hand up and it’s up to colleagues to determine whether or not they think I’ve got the credentials to support our leader and support our party at this time,” he said.

Stuart Ayres resigned from cabinet and as deputy Liberal leader last week over the appointment of John Barilaro to a New York trade job.

AAP

China’s military announced fresh military drills on Monday in the seas and airspace around Taiwan - a day after the scheduled end of its largest ever exercises to protest against last week’s visit to Taipei by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

China’s Eastern Theatre Command said it would conduct joint drills focusing on anti-submarine and sea assault operations - confirming the fears of some security analysts and diplomats that Beijing would continue to maintain pressure on Taiwan’s defences.

Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last week infuriated China, which regards the self-ruled island as its own and responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over Taipei for the first time, as well as ditching some lines of dialogue with Washington.

The duration and precise location of the latest drills is not yet known, but Taiwan has already eased flight restrictions near the six earlier Chinese exercise areas surrounding the island.

Reuters

The boss of Australian operations at eBay, David Ramadge, has a unique view into the spending habits and interests of consumers across the country. And while Australians are being showered with messages about tough economic times, he says some product categories are showing “pockets of resilience” - like second-hand designer goods.

“Luxury handbags you would possibly think would be hit by a tough economic environment, but we’re seeing very strong growth in people wanting that little piece of luxury. A Chanel bag kind of makes them feel good,” he says.

Data from the online retail marketplace, which has 11 million unique visitors every month, also reveals strong demand for several other categories. Consumers are still chasing car parts online, while trading cards and designer sneakers are having a resurgence.

Around the time lettuce hit $6 a head as food inflation started to bite, sales of lettuce seeds on the platform were up by 200 per cent.

Read the full story here.

By the time it reaches your bowl, your Quaker Oats may have completed an international round-trip. The grain might be grown in Australia, but much of it is processed in the US before we import it back as the final product.

The process leans on global supply chains that have recently been pushed to the brink by climate-fuelled weather disasters, COVID-19, and Russia’s war on Ukraine. However, local experts are now warning the domestic food manufacturing and processing industry must be urgently developed to ensure Australians have access to a steady supply of food, or risk shortages and more frequent price rises.

Bare supermarket shelves will become a more common sight if governments don’t act to prevent food insecurity caused by climate change and supply chain problems, a recent report found.Credit: James Brickwood

“If there’s instability like there is now where supply chains are impacted, we then can’t bring in the food. Or if we do bring it in, it’s at a price that the consumer can’t afford,” La Trobe Institute for Agriculture and Food director Antony Bacic said.

“We can’t always rely on importing products and these supply chains have shown that we do need to have capacity ourselves to have a degree of independence.”

With 70 per cent of agriculture shipped abroad, Australia has substantial credentials as an exporter of food – but predominantly in its rawest form, as primary products such as wheat or meat. By contrast, our food manufacturing and processing sector – which makes what’s called “value-added” food – has remained underdeveloped.

Read the full story here.

Good afternoon and thanks for reading our live coverage.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know:

• Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro says the trade saga he’s become embroiled in can be described as weeks of “personal hell”. The Perrottet government has come under fire in recent weeks after Barilaro was appointed to a $500,000-a-year US trade position. Yesterday, this masthead revealed that NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet offered to create a parliamentary trade role for Transport Minister David Elliott as a sweetener for dumping him from cabinet. This morning, Perrottet described the allegations as “completely false and offensive” but said he did discuss “a number of roles” with Elliott.
• In Victoria, Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has named childhood friend Nick McGowan as his new chief of staff. It comes after this masthead revealed Guy’s former chief of staff asked a billionaire donor to pay more than $100,000 to his private marketing business. McGowan was best man at Guy’s wedding.
• Defence Minister Richard Marles says he is open to overseas-built submarines while the country waits for a new fleet to be made in Australia given the current “capability gap” and the situation in Taiwan. Labor has traditionally called for major projects, such as the building of submarines, to occur onshore. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he supports the move.
• And David Crowe reports that a new clash is looming in the Senate over carbon emissions. Crossbench senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie are attempting to strike down rules that offer financial rewards to schemes that claim to help the environment by planting trees. The Albanese government needs the support of one of the senators to pass its signature climate change bill because the Coalition, One Nation and United Australia Party are opposed to Labor’s legislated emission reduction targets.

I’m signing off the blog now. Pallavi Singhal will be with you for the rest of the day.

I’ll be back bright and early tomorrow morning. Until then, have a lovely afternoon.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy will hire his childhood friend Nick McGowan to replace Mitch Catlin as his chief of staff.

The appointment comes a week after The Age revealed Catlin asked billionaire Liberal donor Jonathan Munz to pay more than $100,000 to his private marketing business, triggering Catlin’s resignation.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has hired Nick McGowan, who was best man at Guy’s wedding, as his new chief of staff.Credit: Scott McNaughton

The contract, which was never executed, would have required the donor to pay $8333 a month to Catlin’s private marketing company, Catchy Media Marketing and Management, for services as a contractor described as “supporting business interests”.

McGowan, who was best man at Guy’s wedding, has twice attempted to be elected to parliament and was recently preselected to stand for the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region in Victoria’s upper house, beating former federal MP Gladys Liu for the winnable second spot.

In a statement, Guy said his new chief of staff had more than three decades of political experience.

“Upon commencing in this position, Nick’s first task will be to develop a code of conduct for opposition staff in Victoria,” he said.

The opposition leader added that McGowan won’t campaign for his personal election during his ordinary hours of work. In addition, the new chief of staff will take leave when he lodges his nomination with the Victorian Electoral Commission.

State political candidates must lodge their forms with the VEC by early November.

Details of Labor’s submission to the Fair Work Commission are set to be revealed today.

The commission is considering whether to lift the pay rates for residential and home care workers following the findings of the royal commission into aged care.

Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Earlier today, Labor minister Tanya Plibersek said her government would find the extra money needed to pay for a wage increase.

“You’ve got to think about what aged care workers are earning at the moment,” she told Channel Seven.

“They’re earning as little as $22 an hour. So you can literally earn more stacking shelves at a supermarket than caring for some of our most vulnerable Australians.

“We can’t find enough staff to work in aged care. One of the reasons is that ... they can’t afford to keep working in aged care because can’t pay the bills on 22 bucks an hour.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said he supported a lift in wages for those working in aged care.

“The government promised at the last election that they would fix the situation in aged care, and we want to make sure that they’re not making a bad situation worse,” he told reporters in Brisbane.

“But we certainly support an increase in the pay for aged care workers.”

Asked what the new level of pay should be, he said: “That’s an issue for the Fair Work Commission.”

Labor said it supported lifting aged care workers’ wages during the recent federal election campaign. But, at the time, the party wouldn’t cite a specific figure.

AAP