| In the first sitting week back from the post-budget national tour, there wasn’t a single breath of clean air for the government to promote their big-spending budget policies, with the Immigration Minister and PM embroiled in yet another – even more damaging – immigration disaster. Throw in a blow-up over the government’s planned religious discrimination legislation and the worsening domestic political fallout of the government’s position on the Israel-Hamas conflict and it wasn’t quite the start to the sitting period Albanese and his ministers would have liked. One political commentator remarked earlier in the week that this government seems to be merely ‘enduring’ sitting weeks, rather than maximising them to their political advantage. With some significant policy announcements to promote this week, like acting on online safety, the government simply failed to make an impact given the political storm its currently weathering. Catch up on the week’s major stories below. Immigration minister survives week in Parliament As the ongoing saga that is the immigration detention debacle rolls on, with new revelations in Senate Estimates this week about how many of the released criminals are not being monitored in the community, a fresh scandal has engulfed Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, and it led headlines all week out of Parliament. Here’s a quick summary of how the Albanese Government’s latest immigration disaster unfolded: Just weeks after his election win in May 2022, the PM hosted then-New Zealand Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern in Sydney for the annual Australia-NZ leaders’ meeting. They discussed Ardern’s longstanding concerns about Australia’s deportation of New Zealand-born criminals with few ties to the country, with the NZ PM saying Albanese’s language was a ‘significant shift’ from previous leaders. Following that meeting, work began on a ministerial direction which would affect the implementation of section 501 of the Migration Act, which allows Australia to deport dangerous criminals who are non-citizens. In January 2023, Minister Giles issued ‘Direction 99’, which gave greater weight to consideration of a non-citizen’s ties to Australia when their visa cancellation appeal was being heard by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). As revealed by The Australian in reporting this week, the AAT’s interpretation of Direction 99 has led to at least 30 successful appeals by convicted criminals – some having committed the most heinous crimes imaginable – and their return to the Australian community. The issue came to light after Sudan-born Emmanuel Saki was charged with the murder of a 22-year-old just weeks after the AAT, citing Direction 99, reinstated his visa after the Department recommended it be cancelled. The issue has blown up in Parliament this week, with the Coalition questioning the Immigration Minister and PM about countless cases, and proposing the policy failure was a direct result of the PM’s promise to NZ PM Jacinda Ardern to review Australia’s Migration Act. In Question Time on Wednesday, Albanese announced the minister would re-issue the direction to clarify the government’s intentions that community safety be prioritised over other factors, and as recently as this morning has said Minister Giles will keep his job. A ministerial reshuffle is widely expected soon, and there are few Canberra commentators who believe Giles will remain in the portfolio after such public failures, especially ones which fall right into the Coalition’s playbook. Online safety front and centre Online safety is gearing up to be a key focus of the federal election. There is no doubt the community is engaged on this important topic and parents are looking to the government to help protect their children online. This is what we describe in politics as a ‘kitchen table’ issue. It is something that families, particularly parents of pre-teens and teens, are discussing around the kitchen table (or in our family, the kitchen bench). With the rise of AI, increased scrutiny of social media platforms and general concerns around children being safe online, the parliament is increasing their focus on this issue. There are a variety of parliamentary inquiries, taskforces and pilot programs underway, all designed to improve Australia’s online safety capability and regulations. Over the past few weeks, the government has made several announcements in this space, and earlier this week the Minister for Communications took additional steps to increase online safety. The latest announcement puts the onus back on service providers to protect users. Minister Rowland announced amendments to the Basic Online Safety Expectations (BOSE) Determination which sets out how online service providers are expected to protect Australian users. This determination is all about ensuring that platforms are taking proactive steps to keep users safe. The amendments include putting the best interests of the child as the consideration for platforms, as well as empowering the eSafety Commissioner to request information from service providers about what they are doing to promote safety measures. As a mother of a pre-teen, I am delighted to see this important issue getting the attention it deserves. However, as someone who has been around politics for a long time, I’m concerned the issue might be used for purely political purposes, rather than genuine policy reform, in the lead up to the federal election. I really hope my concerns prove unfounded. Greens try to wedge Labor with Palestine motion During a parliamentary sitting week any member of parliament can move a motion on any topic that is important to them. This week, Greens leader Adam Bandt moved a motion that the “House recognise the State of Palestine”. This is a very controversial motion given the current conflict in Gaza. Recognising the State of Palestine was an election commitment of the Labor party, however after two years in government they are yet to action it. Given the current situation in Gaza and the ongoing conflict, the delay is completely understandable. In fact, such recognition right now would be very unhelpful for the government, as has been pointed out by various Ministers. It is widely believed the pro-Palestine Greens moved to the motion in a bid to wedge Labor. However, their attempts failed as the motion was defeated 80 votes to five. The Greens motion occurred on the same day Sky News aired the documentary Never Again: The Fight Against Antisemitism. Former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg examines the recent rise in hostility towards Jewish people and speaks to several former leaders, including John Howard, Julia Gillard and Peter Cosgrove. This is an outstanding documentary and I encourage everyone to take the time to watch it. It is all of our responsibility to stamp out antisemitism and make sure the horrific events of the Holocaust never happen again. People have the right to express different views and that is what is great about living in a democracy. However, when the views become hate-speech, society must rise up and call out the unacceptable behaviour. History shows us that staying silent rarely serves us well. Future of religious discrimination bill in doubt Speaking of free speech, the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and the Shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash were reported to have a fiery meeting this week over the government’s proposed religious discrimination bill. The bill is believed to cover speech that incites hatred in relation to sex, sexuality, gender, race, and religion. They were discussing whether the opposition would support the bill as Albanese has made it clear the government will not proceed without bipartisan support. Changes to the bill have been debated previously by both parties and it hasn’t ended well for either of them. In this instance, the opposition has made it clear they will not give a definitive position on the policy until they see the final bill and can understand how it will work in operation. Back to the meeting itself, some media outlets reported that the Cash stormed out of the meeting in the AGs office after Dreyfus told her to “take a breath” in a loud tone while leaning across the desk. This account has been contradicted by others in the room. As such, it is very much a “he-said-she-said” situation and only those in the room really know what happened. However, as someone who has worked for Cash, I assure you that whatever happened in the room, Cash would have handled herself with grace and dignity. She’s a passionate, strong and articulate Senator. Queensland 50c transport pitch to voters Over the weekend, Premier Steven Miles made a big play for votes at the upcoming state election, announcing the state government would trial a new transport plan, slashing all public transport fares to just 50 cents. It will form part of the government’s cost of living pitch to voters in next month’s state budget, saving some Queenslanders in South East Queensland nearly $100 a week in public transport fares. The measure will cost the budget around $150m for the six-month trial, with Premier Miles saying it would be evaluated in early 2025 if Labor is returned to office. The opposition said it was a desperate cash-splash from a government trying to cling to power – Deputy leader Jarrod Bleijie confirmed the LNP did support the trial but questioned the timing of it, which would end just after the October poll. Queenslanders urged to speak up for stadium Brisbane 2032 CEO Cindy Hook spoke at QUT’s Business Leaders’ Forum on Wednesday, releasing a new promotional video for the 2032 Games and speaking about her ambition to makes the Brisbane Games one of the most sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games ever held. But it was her comments about the Games’ infrastructure legacy which drew the most attention, after she suggested Queenslanders should speak up if they believed a new stadium should be built for the event. Premier Steven Miles has ruled out a new stadium, rejecting a recommendation by an independent review chaired by former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk that a new stadium be built at Victoria Park. He responded to Ms Hook’s comments on Thursday, saying he already knew that Queenslanders don’t want a new stadium. Brisbane 2032 organising committee president Andrew Liveris said it was up to the three levels of government to make decisions on infrastructure, not the committee. Outside the bubble Trump Trump made history again this week after a Manhattan jury found him guilty on all 34 felony counts. He is the first former or current president to become a convicted felon and can now be described by the media and his opponents as a felon. The charges relate to paying hush money to a former adult film star to influence the 2016 presidential election. While the offences are considered low-grade and there is no mandatory imprisonment sentence, the judge has the discretion to sentence him to between one-and-one-third to four years in prison. Outside the court, Trump slammed the verdict as “rigged and disgraceful”. Conflict in Gaza and social media Social media coverage of the conflict in Gaza has intensified over the last few weeks, with many high-profile influencers suddenly engaging on the issue. Some might question the genuineness of the engagement given there was a public campaign to cancel influencers who didn’t post pro-Palestine material. In fact, a list was shared on various social media platforms calling out influencers who had been silent and calling on people to unfollow them. Cancel culture is dangerous and coercing influencers into sharing information about a specific topic should not be tolerated.  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