Australia news LIVE: Crossbench rages as electoral reforms pass; Dutton calls for debate on powers to revoke citizenship

Australian universities should adopt a definition of antisemitism that aligns with a contested international version, a Labor-led parliamentary committee has found after it heard testimony about “brazen” incidents on campuses.

The committee’s report into antisemitism on campuses said the government should also consider changing workplace laws to make it easier for universities to fire or discipline academics or research grant recipients who are found to engage in racial vilification.

Committee chair Josh Burns handed down the report this morning. It claims some university administrators failed to punish misconduct that allowed antisemitism to spread on campuses.

Burns said there was bipartisan support for the changes.

“Regardless of whoever wins the election, every single student that attends university should be safe.”

“This is not the end of the matter, we are watching universities. It is up to them to act and take this matter seriously.”

Opposition home affairs spokesperson James Paterson was asked about report on Sky News this morning. He said the behaviour that was tolerated on campus over the last 16 months has been an “abomination”.

“This has been a shocking failure for leadership by our vice-chancellors, but a shocking failure of leadership by our government to not make clear to our publicly funded universities that it’s not okay to have an encampment on campus for weeks on end that threatens the safety of students.”

Read more about the contested definition debate here.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has given an address to mark the 17th anniversary of the national apology to the stolen generations, reminding Australia that many, including former prime minister John Howard, argued the move would be divisive.

On February 13, 2008, the then-prime minister Kevin Rudd stood up in Federal Parliament to apologise for the past mistreatment of Indigenous Australians, particularly the stolen generation taken from their families. Opposition leader Peter Dutton boycotted the apology, a decision he now says he regrets.

Albanese reflected on the day in his address:

It was a day to tell the survivors: We hear you. And it was a day of catharsis that held the promise of a fresh beginning.

The Apology could not have happened without your courage. Nor would we have had the annual report card that is Closing the Gap.

Yet like the Freedom Ride, it was the target of controversy and hostile opposition. The power of hindsight only serves to render that opposition even more baffling.

Those, like John Howard, who argued it would divide were wrong. Australians were united in a moment of fundamental decency.

When the Apology was formally offered here – in this very institution that had so often let you down – only one question remained: Why didn’t this happen sooner?”

Teals and Greens are expressing their dismay at the government’s electoral reforms becoming law after a controversial move to block debate in the House of Representatives.

After passing the Senate last night, the bill returned to the House today to receive the rubber stamp, where further debate is allowed.

The government moved to expedite the vote on the bill, stopping any further commentary from the crossbench. When Greens leader Adam Bandt stood up to call the move a “stitch-up” on what could be the last day of parliament before the election, he was shut down by speaker Milton Dick.

The government’s bid to end the debate succeeded and the House voted to make the bill law.

Teal MP Kate Chaney, who led negotiations on behalf of much of the crossbench, took to X to call it a “sad day for Australian democracy”.

“Both [major] parties [are] terrified of any scrutiny,” Chaney wrote.

Bandt was similarly incensed, accusing Labor and the Liberals of gagging debate and silencing the crossbench.

“The Liberals and Labor have done a dodgy deal to rig the system to try to lock the Greens, independents and new voices from our Parliament. Instead of just improving their policies, Albanese and Dutton teamed up to shut out their competition,” Bandt wrote in an X thread.

“It speaks volumes that the two major parties have worked together in secret on this,” he continued.

“This election could be the most important in a generation to stop Labor and the Liberals from locking in power forever.”

The Reserve Bank board meets next week with financial markets putting the chance of an interest rate cut at better than 90 per cent.

But some economists have noted the bank may hold rate movements given signs of a lift in household spending late last year.

CBA senior economist Belinda Allen said spending by people with a mortgage had climbed by 3 per cent, stronger than those who owned their home outright (2.8 per cent) and renters (up 2 per cent).

She said the RBA was likely to cut rates next Tuesday.

“We expect the RBA to lower interest rates at their first meeting of the year next week which will help provide a boost to consumer spending over the coming months,” she said.

“We anticipate a total of 100 basis points of monetary policy easing throughout 2025 to drive an improvement in the consumer spending pulse.”

At Sydney’s Martin Place members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association are holding a “solidarity action” following the release of footage of two nurses from Bankstown Hospital saying they would not treat, or would kill, Israeli patients under their care.

The rally was originally planned as an own-time pay dispute picket line outside of NSW Parliament, however, organisers pivoted “in a show of unity and to promote cultural harmony”.

Alison Brannelly, a nurse at Concord Hospital and a member of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, came to the rally after watching part of the video last night.

“I’ve watched a bit of it. I didn’t want to watch all of it. I don’t want to give air time in my brain for opinions like that … [nurses and midwives] don’t give those people any credence.”

As Jewish community members shared their fears over seeking medical care, Brannelly said it was important to send a message of solidarity for all the people we care for in NSW Health.

“Every patient that comes in the door gets cared for whatever their race, whatever their religion. Nurses will look after them. Everyone in NSW Health will look after them.”

Read more about the video and the ensuing investigation here.

As we flagged earlier, a heated confrontation in the corridors of Parliament House has ramped up the dispute between the Albanese government and the teal independents over donation reform, with independent MP Zali Steggall squaring up with Special Minister of State Don Farrell.

Read our full account of the tense interaction here, and watch the video below.

Households held back their spending at the start of the year after taking advantage of big sales to finish off 2024.

The Commonwealth Bank’s measure of household spending, based on de-identified data from about 7 million of the bank’s customers, showed spending was flat in January after a 0.9 per cent increase through December.

CBA senior economist Belinda Allen said that six of the 12 spending categories tracked by the bank lifted in January, while the other half fell.

Spending on cars rose by 1.5 per cent while insurance increased by 1 per cent.

But there was a 1.8 per cent drop in education spending, a 1 per cent fall in hospitality and a 0.9 per cent slip in household goods expenditure.

“The flat January result was somewhat expected following the spike in spending we saw in the last three months of 2024 off the back of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day sales,” she said.

“Essentials made up the three highest spending categories in the month as consumers pulled back on discretionary spending.”

A public debate should consider the “inadequacies of the migration system” that allowed for a nurse who “hates our country” to be granted citizenship, says Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Footage emerged on Wednesday of two NSW nurses appearing to vow not to treat, and even kill, Israeli patients. One of the nurses in the video, Rashad Nadir, fled from Afghanistan with his family as a child and recently became an Australian citizen.

Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham this morning, Dutton said it should be of a “deep concern” that someone like Nadir could “get through the net” and become an Australian citizen.

“To take citizenship or strip citizenship from somebody, there are constitutional constraints, and at some stage, our country has to have a discussion, I think, about the way in which the whole migration system works,” Dutton said.

The opposition leader said the Migration Act allows for the revocation of citizenship in the instance of a false declaration, usually around people who have committed acts of terrorism, but added: “Even that is limited”.

Dutton then referred to a 2023 high court decision that allowed a terror cell leader to stay in the country, overturning a decision he made as home affairs minister to revoke his citizenship.

“I think it’s a conversation for our country at some point, maybe sooner than later, about how we can say to these people, if you don’t share our values, if you’re here and you’re enjoying the welfare system and you’re enjoying free health and free education, then at the same time you hate our country? Well, I don’t think you’ve got a place here.”

Read more about the investigation into the nurses’ video here.