Liberal senator denies making ‘dog noise’ at Lambie after culture review handed down – as it happened

That’s where we’re going to wrap things up today. Thanks for sticking with us. Here’s a recap of the day’s big stories:

• A long-awaited review of parliamentary workplace culture has recommended better leadership, a crackdown on boozing, a better gender balance, and codes of conduct. The Jenkins review found more than half the people working in commonwealth parliamentary workplaces have experienced at least one incident of bullying, sexual harassment or actual or attempted sexual assault.
• The review was sparked by the alleged rape of the former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, who responded to the review today, saying: “I want to thank the many brave people who shared their stories which contributed to this review. I hope all sides of politics not only commit to but implement these recommendations in full”.
• Members of federal parliament didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory this afternoon, though, with “dog noises” and “growling” heard in the Senate and opposition leader Anthony Albanese telling Peter Dutton to “sit down, boofhead” in the House of Representatives. Speaker Andrew Wallace warned the parliament “the Australian public does not want to see this place descend into a political coliseum” and cited the Jenkins report’s focus on respect. The senator accused of barking, David Van, later offered an apology for his interjection, but he said he hadn’t been making an animal noise.
• National cabinet met this afternoon to discuss the response to the Omicron variant. NSW and Victoria announced 14-day quarantine requirements for arrivals from selected African countries and NSW increased fines for noncompliance, just hours after Scott Morrison urged premiers to “not get spooked” by the new variant.
• We still don’t know about the level of vaccine effectiveness with regards to Omicron. All six people who have been confirmed so far to have the variant in Australia are fully vaccinated returned travellers.
• Victoria’s controversial pandemic laws are set to pass parliament after the crossbench MP Rod Barton agreed to support the legislation, securing amendments to give parliament power to disallow pandemic orders. Debate was scheduled to begin at 3pm this afternoon and expected to run late into the night.
• Westpac has admitted it broke the law and agreed to pay penalties totalling $113m after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission hit the bank with six lawsuits over shoddy treatment of customers that included charging dead people fees and lambasted the bank for a “poor compliance culture” that needs urgent improvement.
• Human remains have been found in the search for missing Victorian campers Carol Clay and Russell Hill. The remains have not been formally identified yet but they were found in the bushland near Dargo that’s been the subject of an intensive search over the last few days.

Amy Remeikis will be back with you tomorrow morning. Enjoy your Tuesday night!

• This post was amended on 1 December 2021 to correct a reference to the NSW and Victorian 14-day quarantine requirements, which apply only to certain African countries, not all international arrivals.

The royal commission into defence and veteran suicide has been running again today, and heard that young defence force recruits trained to become fearless warriors are sometimes left tortured by the experience. AAP again:

Psychiatrist and PTSD specialist Andrew Khoo on Tuesday told the commission that military training aimed to make people “totally emotionally disconnected” so they could survive combat.

“But having done that, they were absolutely terrible at taking that warrior ... and making them a human again,” Khoo said.

Under questioning from counsel assisting the commission, Kevin Connor SC, Khoo said the “breaking down process” was a critical part of the training for young recruits who were routinely deprived of sleep and water, overexercised and demoralised.

The psychiatrist said at least one in four veterans would later suffer PTSD, and every one of the 2,000 veterans he had treated suffered from anxiety, the legacy of having shut down their emotions to survive.

“There is a culture in the military that you can’t show weakness ... you can’t talk about the terrible anxiety ... What they do is shut it all down,” Khoo said.

Mental health treatment for veterans, especially those with PTSD, remained patchy and inconsistent, due to a lack of specialist training among GPs, psychologists and psychiatrists, the commission was told.

The Liberal senator who was accused of making animal noises during question time, David Van, has apologised for his interjection but says he wasn’t growling or making dog noises. From AAP:

Labor senator Penny Wong sought to have the remarks withdrawn at the time but no senator claimed responsibility for the noise.

Van later came back to the chamber and owned up but rejected the characterisation of his interjection, inferring he did not make any growling or dog noises.

“I reflected on my behaviour in question time and I acknowledge that interjections are always disorderly,” he said. “I also acknowledge I was making interjections when senator Lambie was asking a question during question time. I commit to holding myself to the highest standards in the future.”

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said it was not appropriate for the noises to be made while a female member was on her feet, especially on the same day a damning review into the culture at Parliament House was released.

“If we are going to change culture from the top, that means all of us,” Hanson-Young told the Senate.

The question on everyone’s lips for the last 24 hours – or at least everyone with an eye on social media politics – answered by the excellent Matilda Boseley.

30 Nov 202102.21 EST

Michael McGowan

A former Australian human rights commissioner has called for a widespread audit of the use of automated software in debt collection after a scathing report found the New South Wales government had for years unlawfully taken money from financially vulnerable people.

Labelled “Robodebt 2.0” by the state opposition, the NSW Ombudsman report revealed the state’s debt recovery agency unlawfully used automated technology to issue garnishee orders over the accounts of thousands of people during a three-year period from 2016.

The report, tabled in the NSW parliament, found some vulnerable people’s bank accounts had been “emptied” by the scheme, which used automated technology to issue the orders to recoup unpaid fines.

Read the full story here:

The former prime minister Tony Abbott is heading on another trade trip to India, to “advance the significant Australia-India economic and trade relationship under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”, according to a press release from the office of the trade minister, Dan Tehan:

Mr Abbott will travel to India to meet valued stakeholders across business and government, further strengthening Australia’s trade and investment relationship with India.

The Australian government has supported Mr Abbott’s travel to India. Mr Abbott will not be remunerated for his work.

Here’s some background from Daniel Hurst on Abbott’s previous trip, for which the former Liberal leader signed a conflict of interest declaration, due to his role as a trade adviser to the British government:

Further to the case of the worker that was hit by a car today at a Victorian Covid-19 testing clinic:

These basically mirror the requirements for international arrivals just announced in NSW, minus the bit about massive increases to fines.

Basically, everyone who arrives in NSW who has been in South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini and Malawi during the 14-day period before their arrival must enter hotel quarantine for 14 days, irrespective of their vaccination status.

Everyone else coming from overseas must complete a PCR test and isolate for 72 hours. They can only leave isolation after 72 hours if they have received a negative test result, and then they must complete an additional PCR test on day six.

NSW has also increased penalties for non-compliance with the isolation, testing and quarantine requirements to $5,000 for individuals (up from $1,000) and $10,000 for corporations (up from $5,000). This will take effect tomorrow.

The government says the first step will be consultation with the opposition, minor parties and independents, followed by provision of “every necessary resource and support required by the multiparty approach”.

The “existing supports” within parliament will continue: this includes the dedicated support unit, the independent complaints mechanism, the 24-hour support line and workplace safety training.

We’ve heard a bit from Scott Morrison this afternoon already on the Jenkins report, but the PMO has just released an official statement about it:

The Government welcomes the Independent Review into Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces, and thanks Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins for her leadership of this important review.

We thank the over 1,750 individuals and organisations who contributed to the Jenkins Review. These experiences, observations and insights will be crucial to driving the positive change that is required.

It is an important review with a series of findings and recommendations that the Government, Opposition, minor parties and crossbench must all carefully consider and respond to. These are problems we all own. And we all have a responsibility to fix this.

The Review was established with cross-party support because everyone believes the Parliament of Australia should set the standard for the nation and reflect best practice in the prevention of and response to any instances of bullying, sexual harassment or sexual assault.

Every single Australian has a right to feel and to be safe at work. However, the report highlights that people, particularly women, in Parliamentary workplaces have experienced bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault.

It is clear that practical and cultural changes are necessary to make our Parliamentary workplaces safer.

Good evening. Thank you as always to the excellent Amy Remeikis. I’m Stephanie Convery and I’ll be with you for the next couple of hours as we await the outcome of this afternoon’s national cabinet.

It’s been another rough day in the parliament, where it hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory. There are two days to go.

The lovely Stephanie Convery will take you through the evening, like the absolute trooper she is, while I once again go question my life choices.

Let’s hope tomorrow is better. Given the history – doubtful.

The House has yet to get to voter ID, so if they don’t get there tonight, that will be one for tomorrow – the government wants it passed before the sitting rises.

There is also the national cabinet meeting which Steph and the Canberra team will take you through – Scott Morrison is determined that the domestic borders stay open. Tasmania has already announced it is closing its border to returned travellers (outside of the NZ south island) so there are some little moves afoot, but let’s hope there are no major changes coming our way.

A very big thank you to Mike Bowers and Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst for all the work they do, as well as everyone in the Guardian team who keep everything ticking over.

And a very big thank you to everyone who followed along with us today – and all days – you do, I can not stress this enough, make it all worth it. There have been some meaty issues covered off today – I hope you are all taking some space for yourselves. It can be very rough, and it is OK to take a break, or not look. This is real life, not a game, and we all have to watch out for each other.

I’ll see you again tomorrow for the second last day. In the meantime – take care of you.

NSW Health has just issued this statement:

NSW Health can officially confirm the traveller who recently arrived in NSW and is isolating at home on the Central Coast has been infected with the Omicron COVID-19 variant of concern.

The number of people with the Omicron COVID-19 variant of concern is now five.

The person, who is fully vaccinated, arrived in Sydney on flight QR908 from Doha to Sydney on 25 November and travelled by private car to the Central Coast. They had been in southern Africa.

NSW Health reiterates that everyone on the flight is considered a close contact and will need to get tested immediately for COVID-19 and isolate for 14 days, regardless of their vaccination status.

NSW Health is contacting all passengers and flight crew to advise them of their isolation requirements. They can also call NSW Health on 1800 943 553 for further advice.

Two more people who had been on the same flight, QR908, have now been confirmed as COVID-19 cases. Urgent genomic testing is underway for these travellers to determine if they have also been infected by the Omicron COVID-19 variant of concern. Neither of these two travellers had spent time in southern Africa.

NSW Health is awaiting the final results of genomic testing on a case now residing in Broken Hill, who also arrived on the same flight QR908. However, initial results indicate this person is unlikely to have been infected with the Omicron variant. This person is fully vaccinated and isolating at home. The results are expected tomorrow.