As it happened: Greens to back safeguard mechanism bill; Ukraine wants UN meeting over Putin’s nuclear plan

It’s good news this afternoon for some of our best-loved cultural institutions, including the National Gallery of Australia and the National Library. They are poised to receive a funding lifeline in the May budget after the federal government signalled it would not let them run out of money.

Services including the popular Trove online portal to more than 6 billion digital items, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Maritime Museum, which all faced an end to key funding sources on June 30, are also expected to have their financial futures assured.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher today revealed the government would have to find billions of dollars to cover a series of “fiscal cliffs” caused by so-called “zombie” programs expected to continue but without their funding baked into the budget forward estimates. The government found $4.1 billion worth of zombie programs in the October budget.

Key collecting institutions, many of which suffered funding cuts under the previous government’s mandated public sector efficiency dividends, have been warning of their plight for months.

The National Gallery revealed earlier this month that 12 per cent of its staff are being paid by philanthropists because growing costs and budget cuts left the institution unable to afford their salaries.

It needs $265 million over the next 10 years to waterproof and remediate its 40-year-old building as lifts and escalators, electric wiring, and air conditioners come to the extreme end of their working life.

The National Library signalled without additional and secure funding, the Trove portal would have to cease operation from July 1. It attracts more than 22 million visits a year and is one of the most popular Australian government websites in the world.

Read the full story here. You can explore our Save Our NGA series exploring the plight of the institution here.

Federal MP Russell Broadbent has chalked up the Victorian Liberal leader’s backflip on a move to expel controversial state MP Moira Deeming earlier today as a “big win” for the party.

Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto had pushed for Deeming to be removed for “organising, promoting and attending” the Let Women Speak protest on the steps of state parliament just over a week ago.

The anti-transgender rights rally was gatecrashed by far-right extremists who performed the Nazi salute.

Deeming this morning survived a bid to expel her from the party room after striking a compromise deal. She will be suspended for nine months.

Broadbent, who represents the Victorian seat of Monash, has told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing it was the right call.

“From my point of view the Liberal Party had a big win in this because whatever position each one took after the event that weekend, they happen able to come to a place where after a couple of hours of solid discussion with one another, they came to a place that is acceptable to everybody,” Broadbent said.

“I’m not saying which way I would have gone in any given instance, I’m a great supporter of women’s rights and women’s issues and women who want to stay at home and look after the children – we don’t give that enough emphasising.”

But federal Labor MP Kate Thwaites, who represents the Victorian seat of Jagajaga, said the outcome was a missed opportunity.

“John tried to take a stand and show that the Victorian Liberals don’t stand for hate, and they don’t stand for division. And his party room has rolled him and I think that is really unfortunate message,” she said.

“I know for me today I had parents in my electorate who have transgender children who contacted me and said those children have found the past weeks very difficult.”

Pesutto, who previously ruled out making any compromises, faces the prospect of welcoming back Deeming – an MP he claimed had close associations with people known to be associated with “far-right wing extremists, including neo-Nazi activists”.

Australia’s biggest bank and telecommunications company have joined forces to create a scam detection and prevention tool they say could reduce how much customers lose by up to $20 million a year.

The “Scam Indicator”, which will be piloted over the next few months, is aimed at protecting Commonwealth Bank and Telstra customers from phone scams where criminals try to trick people into transferring them large amounts of money.

CBA boss Matt Comyn said while he was unable to reveal too many details about the program because that could aid the scammers, the initiative was designed to improve early detection and prevention of scams.

“We have been working with Telstra to produce a machine-learning scams detection model, the first in a number of exciting initiatives from this partnership,” he said.

“We acknowledge that there is more to do given the rising volume and fast changing nature of scams.”

Read the full story here.

The husband of a Victorian patient who never regained consciousness after neurosurgeon Charlie Teo operated on her in 2019 complained that “we paid $35,000 for my wife to die”, a disciplinary hearing has been told.

Resuming after a month’s break, the Health Care Complaints Commission’s professional standards committee is examining a number of complaints relating to two patients who had catastrophic outcomes after Teo’s surgeries.

The committee heard that a previously missing MRI scan, taken after a disastrous operation on a woman from Perth, has been found. It shows Teo had crossed onto the other side of his patient’s brain during the operation in October 2018.

When Teo appeared before the disciplinary hearing in February, the committee asked to see the post-operative MRI, but the four-person committee was informed the scan was missing.

Teo’s barrister, Matthew Hutchings, told the committee they had looked but could not find it. The scan has since been found after the HCCC issued a subpoena for it from Prince of Wales Hospital.

The committee heard today that Teo had repeatedly asserted at an earlier hearing and in his witness statement that his surgery had not crossed the midline of the brain.

Read the full story here.

Returning to NSW, and a Labor government will be officially formed tomorrow as a handful of senior members of incoming premier Chris Minns’ leadership team are sworn in to major portfolios.

Treasurer designate Daniel Mookhey confirmed today the small group would be sworn in within 24 hours, giving Labor MPs access to the public service for briefings.

“Labor will form an interim ministry that will consist of the senior leadership team that will allow us to take the next step forward in the transition of government,” he said.

“As a result, tomorrow there will be a Labor government formed in NSW constitutionally.”

A wider ministry will be sworn in over the coming weeks as the full results of Saturday’s election become known.

Mookhey said the interim ministry would be seeking immediate briefings over the northern NSW flood recovery, the mass fish death in Menindee and the state of Sydney’s rail system.

Mookhey thanked outgoing premier Dominic Perrottet for lending a hand to the Labor transition team, and said he had shown “tremendous grace” during the handover.

Meanwhile, the Coalition is still searching for a new leader to replace Perrottet after Saturday’s election drubbing.

Former treasurer Matt Kean and former environment minister James Griffin have ruled themselves out of the race. The contenders are Anthony Roberts, Alister Henskens and Mark Speakman.

Speakman has just released a statement saying he “will have more to say shortly” on his leadership intentions.

“I’m looking forward to discussions with my colleagues to ensure that we have a strong, refreshed and energised team ready to hold the Government accountable in the interests of the people of NSW.”

The MP for one of the richest electorates in the country will bring together some of the best tax minds in the country for her own summit this week.

Sydney-based teal independent Allegra Spender, who represents Wentworth in the eastern suburbs, will have some of the most prominent names in tax at her summit later this week. She plans for it to be the starting point for a tax green paper and a community-wide discussion including businesses and unions.

Among those attending the summit will be former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, former Grattan Institute executive director John Daley, the ANU’s Tax and Transfer Policy Institute director Bob Breunig, Corporate Tax Association head Michelle de Niese, Centre for Independent Studies senior fellow Robert Carling and current Grattan chief executive Danielle Wood.

Spender said it was clear the ability of the parliament to debate the nation’s tax and spending needs had been “wedged” by political fighting between the major parties for more than a decade.

She told this masthead that rather than a piecemeal approach to tax, the parliament needed to look at how the entire tax system worked, how it supported government spending and whether it was holding back innovation and economic growth.

Read the full story here.

Back to question time, where Liberal MP and shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser has asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese why Labor hasn’t released the solicitor-general’s legal advice about the wording in the constitution that would establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

The solicitor-general’s advice has become a sticking point for the Coalition, which has called on the government to make it public.

Leeser said that Labor governments had “routinely released solicitor-general advice when convenient to do so on at least three occasions”. He asked why the government would not release that advice as it related to the Voice to Parliament.

Albanese accused Leeser of being disingenuous with his questioning. “He [Leeser] helped to write some of the words that are now going to be put before the Australian people when he was a part of a process more than a decade ago,” he said.

“The shadow attorney-general has been involved in a deeper way in this process for longer than I have been. That is why he knows full well, he knows full well, that some of the campaign that has attempted to draw questions where they simply are not there [is] disingenuous.

“The government does not release cabinet papers, nor did the Government that he sat in [for] nine years release cabinet documents, not once.”

Leeser also asked Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney whether the Reserve Bank would have to consult the Voice about interest rates, under the Voice’s power to make representations to the executive government on matters about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This has also been an issue for the Coalition, which has raised concerns that the inclusion of “executive government” would pave the way for High Court challenges.

Burney answered very simply before sitting down: “The last time I looked, the Reserve Bank of Australia is independent.”

The Reserve Bank, as an independent statutory authority, is not considered part of the executive government and is therefore clearly out of scope of the proposed constitutional amendment.

The government has received its first question time question about the AUKUS submarine agreement since it was announced almost two weeks ago.

The question from independent MP for Fowler, Dai Le, reflects concerns in parts of the community:

“The government committed to spending $368 billion on acquiring nuclear-powered submarines when people are struggling to pay the grocery bills. We still don’t know the full cost to taxpayers and where and how the nuclear waste will be stored. What will it cost our taxpayers to manage this nuclear waste and will Australia be accepting any nuclear waste from other AUKUS under the agreement?”

This is how Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded, with edits for clarity:

“This is a very significant announcement ... Over a period of decades [the cost] would be between $268 billion and $368 billion.

“When the nuclear fuel cell is completed, we [Australia] will be responsible for the storage of that, and we have said it will be on Defence land. I can confirm that there is no responsibility to store anyone else’s waste.

“It’s a responsibility to store what effectively will be our own [waste] because what the plan is here, is for us to build these submarines in Adelaide. For once, the Australian flag is on a submarine ... It is our responsibility and we are in control. That is a part of our national sovereignty.

“But the issue on the economy is also important. Unless our national security is looked after, then the impact on our economy, on our society, on everything else, falls away, and that is why expenditure and investment in our national sovereignty is so important, is so absolutely vital. I don’t apologise for making a commitment that will see our defence expenditure rise over future years.

“The truth is, we live in an era of strategic competition in our region. The truth is, we live in very uncertain times, and it is important that we invest in our capability. It’s also important that we invest in our relationships, and my government is doing both.”