Fiery stoush in Senate estimates over reports of Dutton’s 2009 shareholdings
Josh Butler
A fiery stoush has erupted in Senate estimates over reports about Peter Dutton’s shareholdings from 2009, with the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, challenged by Liberal counterparts Jane Hume and James McGrath to repeat her claims outside the protection of parliamentary privilege.
This goes to a story, first broken by news.com.au, about Dutton’s stock interests in 2009, including a disclosure on his parliamentary register of interests of buying shares in big banks – which he disclosed the day before the then-Labor government announced a package to assist banks during the global financial crisis. Labor said Dutton has “questions to answer” about the timing.
We’ve just gotten a new statement from Dutton’s office on this, with a spokesperson saying “Mr Dutton had no access to any sensitive information on these matters, nor was he privy to government briefing on the GFC.” Dutton’s statement went on to criticise Labor’s “dirt unit” of “obsessing about Peter Dutton”, adding “all updates to Mr Dutton’s register of interests were made at the appropriate time.”
In estimates just now, Gallagher was at the table with officials from the Australian Public Service Commission, as Labor senator Jana Stewart asked questions about how APS workers had to deal with sensitive information.
Gallagher said:
So for example, if a public servant was to know, hypothetically, that the banks were to be bailed out during the GFC, and sought to buy up shares in all those major banks on the eve of that announcement, I imagine there would be serious consequences.
Hume:
Want to say that outside of parliamentary privilege, minister?
McGrath added “please, please”, as Gallagher claimed Dutton had “genuine questions to answer.” McGrath added “all you’ve got is mud.” The three senators spoke over each other, as the committee chair tried to restore order.
McGrath:
Go on Sky News, go on the ABC even, say it there … you’re throwing mud at Peter Dutton, that’s all you’ve got.
Gallagher:
It was just a coincidence, was it? That there was a lot of shares purchased the day before a bank bailout?
Hume continually called out “grubby”, as McGrath claimed Gallagher’s comments “defame the leader of the opposition”. The hearing was briefly suspended to restore order, before it resumed again shortly afterward.
Key events
Caitlin Cassidy
Mostyn defends appointment as governor general and says you need ‘diversity’ in career to understand role
Continuing from our last post: Sam Mostyn said she knows why people criticise her appointment but you “need diversity” in your career to understand the role, particularly one that has been defined by modernity.
When the term is governor general, and the word general is there, and it’s constitutional, and the history of this role is people who have often been generals … and done magnificent jobs …
There’s nothing here that says you have to be someone that has a military background or been a general elsewhere … but someone who in a modern sense has enough general skills and understanding to bring together the things this job uniquely gets to see, and reflect that back to those that need to hear it.
Caitlin Cassidy
Governor-general says young people losing faith in democracy
The governor-general, Sam Mostyn AC, says young people are losing their faith in democracy and feel politicians have “lost the capacity” to talk with and listen to the community.
Appearing at a higher education summit headed by Universities Australia in Canberra alongside UA’s chair, professor David Lloyd, Mostyn said she couldn’t have predicted Australia would be heading to a world where the words “care and kindness” were seen as “soft or irrelevant” when she was offered the role.
When we talk about social cohesion or the breakdown of social fabric … we’re not arguing well anymore. We’re allowing ourselves to get to anger, fury … and we lose the opportunity to debate.
She said young people “deeply care about the future” but have a lack of trust over democracy, exacerbated by a declining understanding in civics education.
They don’t trust the figures [in] or the way we construct our democracy … I think that’s because many in those trusted positions have lost the capacity to talk with and listen to communities … rather than using language that’s either distant or not consistent with what communities see.
Emily Wind
Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, Catie McLeod will be here to take you through the rest of today’s news. Take care.
Kelly Burke
Asia Pacific Awards finalists speak out about Creative Australia decision
Continuing from our last post:
A number of the finalists in the Asia Pacific Awards have been vocal on social media and through open letters and petitions decrying the Creative Australia decision, and calling for the reinstatement of Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino.
Finalist Blacktown Arts posted on Instagram last week that it was disappointed in the Creative Australia decision, and endorsed a message by the Western Sydney Arts Alliance alleging political interference in the decision and calling for a transparent inquiry into the controversy.
Parramatta-based artist initiative Pari, a co-finalist with artistic partner Arab Theatre Studio, has called for Creative Australia to issue a public apology to Sabsabi, Dagostino, “and the entire arts sector”.
Another finalist, Campbelltown Arts Centre, was run for more than a decade by Dagostino before he relocated to the University of Sydney’s Chau Chak Museum 18 months ago.
Three individual artists who are finalists in the awards – Latai Taumoepeau, Abdul Abdullah and Angela Tiatia – are signatories to the Memo petition condemning Creative Australia’s decision as “a concerning precedent for artistic freedom and sectoral independence”.
Kelly Burke
Creative Australia postpones annual award ceremony amid Venice Biennale controversy
Creative Australia has postponed its annual awards recognising artist and arts organisations’ contribution to the Asia Pacific region, just six days before the awards ceremony was due to take place.
The organisation has given no reason why it has suddenly postponed the Asia Pacific Arts Awards, which were scheduled to go ahead next Monday at Arts Centre Melbourne.
A Creative Australia statement posted on its website only said the organisation remained “committed to recognising and celebrating the achievements of the Asia Pacific arts community” and that “the incredible work of the shortlisted nominees will be acknowledged at a later date”.
Creative Australia staff nationwide were informed of the decision this morning.
The beleaguered government cultural funding body is scheduled to appear at tonight’s senate estimates hearing where its chief executive, Adrian Collette, is expected to be grilled over the Venice Biennale controversy, which saw Lebanese-born Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino withdrawn as Australia’s representatives at the 2026 Venice Biennale, just six days after being announced as the successful candidates.
Acoss says Coalition’s intention to cut public sector jobs to fund Medicare is ‘grave cause for concern’
The Australian Council of Social Services says it strongly opposes the Coalition’s intention to cut public sector jobs to fund Medicare.
In a statement, the Acoss CEO, Dr Cassandra Goldie, said it welcomed Labor’s $8.5bn pledge to increase GP bulk billing access, and the Coalition’s commitment to match this. But she said the Coalition’s intention to cut 36,000 jobs to do so is “grave cause for concern”:
The public service delivers a range of essential supports for people on low incomes in need including delivering income support, the NDIS, aged care and other essential services.
The addition of 3,000 permanent staff in Services Australia in 2023 was most welcome because it reduced the unacceptable call wait times and backlog of payment claims.
We must not return to a state where it takes months to get essential income support payments or people spend hours on the phone trying to speak to someone about their payment.
Goldie said Centrelink and other essential services are “human services and need humans on staff to deliver them”. She is calling on the Coalition not to cut public service staff from essential services, and for permanent staff to not be replaced by contracted staff.
Watch: Reynolds asks Gallagher to apologise for ‘all the damage’ done during Lehrmann saga
Here is a video of the interaction between Linda Reynolds and Katy Gallagher in Senate estimates, which we brought you just earlier:
Fiery stoush in Senate estimates over reports of Dutton’s 2009 shareholdings
Josh Butler
A fiery stoush has erupted in Senate estimates over reports about Peter Dutton’s shareholdings from 2009, with the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, challenged by Liberal counterparts Jane Hume and James McGrath to repeat her claims outside the protection of parliamentary privilege.
This goes to a story, first broken by news.com.au, about Dutton’s stock interests in 2009, including a disclosure on his parliamentary register of interests of buying shares in big banks – which he disclosed the day before the then-Labor government announced a package to assist banks during the global financial crisis. Labor said Dutton has “questions to answer” about the timing.
We’ve just gotten a new statement from Dutton’s office on this, with a spokesperson saying “Mr Dutton had no access to any sensitive information on these matters, nor was he privy to government briefing on the GFC.” Dutton’s statement went on to criticise Labor’s “dirt unit” of “obsessing about Peter Dutton”, adding “all updates to Mr Dutton’s register of interests were made at the appropriate time.”
In estimates just now, Gallagher was at the table with officials from the Australian Public Service Commission, as Labor senator Jana Stewart asked questions about how APS workers had to deal with sensitive information.
Gallagher said:
So for example, if a public servant was to know, hypothetically, that the banks were to be bailed out during the GFC, and sought to buy up shares in all those major banks on the eve of that announcement, I imagine there would be serious consequences.
Hume:
Want to say that outside of parliamentary privilege, minister?
McGrath added “please, please”, as Gallagher claimed Dutton had “genuine questions to answer.” McGrath added “all you’ve got is mud.” The three senators spoke over each other, as the committee chair tried to restore order.
McGrath:
Go on Sky News, go on the ABC even, say it there … you’re throwing mud at Peter Dutton, that’s all you’ve got.
Gallagher:
It was just a coincidence, was it? That there was a lot of shares purchased the day before a bank bailout?
Hume continually called out “grubby”, as McGrath claimed Gallagher’s comments “defame the leader of the opposition”. The hearing was briefly suspended to restore order, before it resumed again shortly afterward.
Reynolds uses final Senate estimates appearance to seek apology from Gallagher
The former defence minister Linda Reynolds has used her final Senate estimates appearance to request an apology from finance minister Katy Gallagher.
She requested an apology to herself, her staff and family “for all of the damage that has been wrought on them by you and by others in the Labor Party”. Gallagher said she had already spoken to this in the chamber, facing two weeks of questions from the opposition on this, but offered:
I am sorry that you have been hurt by all of this. But I – and I’ve gone back and had a look at the questions I’ve asked – I believe the questions I ask, in my role, when you’re a minister and you’re accountable for what happened in your office, were reasonable.
Reynolds interjected, saying “so that’s a no” on whether Gallagher would apologise. Gallagher went on:
No, that is not a no … You were a minister, you were accountable for what happened in your office, and we asked questions about an alleged sexual assault in this building. And I would believe that other senators in a similar circumstance would ask exactly the same questions.
But did I seek to cause harm to you or anyone else? No. I asked questions that I think most people would expect would have been asked with such serious allegations about what has happened in this building and the changes that we have put in place since to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again.
Reynolds stood up and left, again stating “so that’s a no”. Gallagher said that was her “editorialising”. LNP senator James McGrath interjected and the exchange became heated. Gallagher told him:
My conscience is clear … An alleged rape had happened in this building …
Winter crops drop after record season
The Australian Bureau of Statistics says there was a 27% drop in winter broadacre crop production sold in 2023-24, with 50m tonnes of production sold.
Rob Walter, ABS head of agriculture statistics, said the drop in production sold drove a 29% drop in value to $18.7bn:
After having one of the best seasons on record in 2022-23, the drier conditions across large parts of Australia lead to 27% less winter broadacre crop production being sold nationally and generally lower yields.
Wheat, barley and canola made up 93% of total winter crop production sold and was valued at $16.5bn. There were 28m tonnes of wheat sold in 2023-24, a 32% fall from 2022-23. The local value of wheat fell 35% in 2023-24 to $8.8bn.
Australian winter broadacre crops covered an area of 20.5m hectares in 2023-24, 3m hectares less than the previous season, the ABS said.
Australia also produced 29.9m tonnes of sugarcane in 2023-24, 2.7m tonnes less that in 2022-23. Despite this, local value rose by $692m to $2.2bn off the back of strong sugar prices, the ABS said.
Pacific worker labour scheme wage boost changes delayed
Pacific island workers in Australia under a working visa scheme will have to wait nine months longer for changes that would boost their wages, AAP reports.
Workers from 10 countries can come to Australia and be employed across a range of sectors including agriculture and meat processing to fill labour gaps under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (Palm) scheme.
They have to be paid for at least 120 hours a month, but this was set to change to at least 30 hours a week from 1 July. Hours would be averaged over the course of a month, meaning that in some weeks, workers could do 20 hours and more than 40 in other weeks.
By ensuring people need to be paid for 30 hours a week, this could increase wage payments as businesses would need to account for extra hours in slower weeks, and then still pay overtime in busier weeks.
This change has been pushed back until 31 March 2026 as the federal government reviews the terms following consultations. The employment minister, Murray Watt, said it was “best to leave the Palm settings as they are for the moment while we better understand the impact of the changes that we’ve made”.
His department has been reviewing the scheme’s minimum hours requirement to ensure Pacific workers are adequately paid and not suffering from any unreasonable cost deductions during their time in Australia.
There were around 27,000 participants in the scheme working across almost 500 businesses in December.
