Iran’s ambassador makes first public comments since expulsion — as it happened

Labor MP Jerome Laxale says Bob Katter will have to address “pretty quickly” his threats to a journalist earlier today.

Katter threatened to punch a journalist in the mouth and shook his fist in the reporter’s face, after being asked a question about his migrant heritage.

Laxale says it was an extreme response from Katter.

“That’s overstepped the mark and I think Bob will need to address that very soon,” Laxale says.

Liberal MP Aaron Violi says all parliamentarians should be proud of their migrant history, and says Katter’s response was not appropriate.

“We all get questions we might not like, but to threaten violence is completely inappropriate and something that will no doubt be talked about next week as well,” Violi says.

“He is idiosyncratic and sometimes we laugh at his questions and the way he goes about it, but there is a line and to be clear, that line was crossed, that is clearly inappropriate.”

Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne says there are 87,000 people on a waitlist for elderly home care packages, which is why an inquiry into the issue is needed.

Allman-Payne says the Greens have heard from providers and advocates that people are waiting up to 12 months to receive care packages, which is adding to burden in hospitals and leading to more people entering residential aged care sooner.

“The providers were actually ready to go in terms of home care packages so we do not understand why the government delayed that part of the rollout,” she tells ABC Afternoon Briefing.

Meanwhile, in the Senate chamber, Liberal Senator Jonno Duniam has accused Labor and the Greens of striking a “dodgy deal” to remove a dedicated hearing day on Indigenous Matters and the Murray-Darling Basin Plan at October’s estimates hearings.

Senate estimates is a series of days of dry, crunchy questioning of government departments and ministers — and one of the few opportunities for politicians to deeply scrutinise the work of government.

It was largely interrupted by the federal election being called, but the government added a week to the sitting calendar to bring them back on.

However, that did not include a standalone day on “cross-portfolio” matters, where there is often a focus on regional and Indigenous issues, which the Liberals say is the first time in 17 years the matters won’t be held as their own day.

Duniam’s attempt to have the day reintroduced was voted down in the Senate.

“It is astounding that a Labor government that holds itself up as the champion of Indigenous Australians, in partnership with the Greens who claim the same thing, would go and scrap a full day of hearings in the Senate estimates process,” he said in the chamber.

“It is not good for democracy, it is not good for accountability and it’s certainly not good for Indigenous Australians.”

The ABC understands those hearings will be incorporated in other parts of the estimates schedule.

Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor says the Coalition needs to be able to take a position on the government’s 2035 emissions target when it is released next month.

There was some tussling inside the Coalition earlier this week, after a number of MPs suggested Opposition Leader Sussan Ley should make a call now on the party’s net zero position, or speed up a review being led by Dan Tehan.

Taylor has joined a number of his colleagues in publicly calling for the Opposition to have a position on the government’s 2035 target, before Tehan’s longer-term review is finished.

“We have to take a position on it. That is an important policy issue. I think the government is at risk of putting a serious impost on our economy, our farmers, our industry, on consumers, and I am deeply concerned that that will have a big negative impact on our economy,” he tells ABC Afternoon Briefing.

That is a debate that the government is going to trigger and we have to come to a position on.”

Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor has repeated his questioning of the meeting between Defence Minister Richard Marles and his US counterpart, rejecting that a statement confirming a planned meeting settles the matter.

“It keeps changing and probably will change again,” he tells ABC Afternoon Briefing.

“We want to see progress on [AUKUS] and that is why we are asking the questions and questions need to be continued to be asked of the defence minister and of the prime minister.”

Taylor challenged the government after earlier statements from the US suggested there was only a “happenstance” encounter between Marles and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

He plays down suggestions that he is taking a different tack to some others within the Coalition, saying there is no one in the Coalition who is not concerned about global security challenges.

Assistant Foreign Minister Matt Thistlethwaite says he has no concerns about an earlier statement from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that described a meeting with Defence Minister Richard Marles as a “happenstance” encounter.

It caused confusion and suggestions that Australia was again being snubbed, with the prime minister yet to secure a face-to-face meeting with President Donald Trump.

“We are not concerned by it, no. The important thing is that their meetings took place and they discussed important issues,” Thistlethwaite tells ABC Afternoon Briefing.

He says Marles’s meetings with Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance are good indicators the relationship with the US is strong.

The federal government has stated its disapproval of anti-immigration rallies planned this weekend that have been linked to white nationalist movements.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly have said in a joint statement that the government stands against the events, and all Australians have the right to feel safe and welcome.

“There is no place in our country for people who seek to divide and undermine our social cohesion,” Burke says.

“We stand with all Australians, no matter where they were born, against those who seek to divide us and who seek to intimidate migrant communities. We will not be intimidated,” Aly says.

“This brand of far-right activism grounded in racism and ethnocentrism has no place in modern Australia.”

The ABC has dug into the the links between the marches and far right groups, which you can read more on here:

Iran’s ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi has made his first public comments since being ordered out of Australia by the government.

ASIO has concluded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was behind two antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

The findings caused the government to expel Sadghi and three other Iranian diplomats from Australia and declare the IRGC a terrorist group.

“I love Australian people,” Sadghi declared speaking outside his Canberra residence earlier.

Asked whether he believed the prime minister has gotten in wrong, Sadeghi said: “No comment”.

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The prime minister has wrapped up question time a little earlier than we expected for today.

Sussan Ley and the Coalition went after the government on its listing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation, the relationship with the US and SA’s algal bloom.

Stay with us because Afternoon Briefing is just around the corner now!

Independent Andrew Gee says community heroes who responded to the 2022 Central West NSW floods showed extraordinary acts of courage — but unlike respondents to other disasters, they are not eligible for National Emergency Medals.

He asks when they will get recognition.

The prime minister says that at the worst of times, we see the best of the Australian character, and that was seen at those floods as well. He says it is important to be able to thank emergency services workers and others who respond.

The prime minister then promises to take the issue on notice and undertakes to address it within the next week.

Shadow Environment Minister Angie Bell has asked why the government can find money for inner-city cycleways, but not so much money for communities affected by SA’s toxic algal bloom.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he met with mayors of affected communities this morning who thanked him for the government’s support.

The PM says the algal bloom is a result, in part, of climate change. He says the Commonwealth has provided funding requested by the SA government.

Albanese has used the opportunity to attack the Coalition for its stance on net zero.

Manager of opposition business Alex Hawke has stepped up on a point of order, but Speaker Milton Dick has asked him to sit down.

And the PM has continued his attack.

“This issue is directly related to climate change. People that we met this morning, this morning, understand that it is directly related to climate change,” the PM says.

“But it is extraordinary that they are actually becoming more right-wing on climate then Scott Morrison was,” the PM says.

Nationals deputy Kevin Hogan has asked, given “challenging” security arrangements at home and abroad, what steps are being taken to repair Australia’s “deteriorating” relationship with Israel.

Anthony Albanese responds that he finds it “extraordinary” that Hogan would raise deteriorating relationships when it was playing politics on Australian foreign relations.

“We had a question to the Deputy Prime Minister alleging somehow, like the fake moon landing or something, that meetings held by the Deputy Prime Minister with the Vice-President of the United States [didn’t happen],” he says.

The PM is interrupted as Manager of Opposition Business Alex Hawke attempts to redirect him to the question, saying, “it’s not lecture time”.

He then repeats that assertion and accuses the Coalition of attempting to “undermine” Australia’s relationship with the US.

The next question is from Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor, who has asked about the confusion about that meeting between Richard Marles and Pete Hegseth.

“Was this a meeting with the secretary or just a photo opportunity and was there an outcome beyond the photo?” Taylor asks.

Defence Minister Richard Marles says the question is an example of how “completely broken” the Liberal Party is.

He says the Pentagon has made it clear that he and Hegseth held a meeting that was coordinated in advance.

“Those opposite are a joke,” Marles says.

Taylor is up on his feet again on a point of order, where he’s asked what the outcome of the meeting was beyond the photos.

But Speaker Milton Dick has ruled that Taylor doesn’t have a point of order.

Marles is back and he’s accused the Coalition of “desperately hoping” the nation fails in its relationship with the United States.

“The fact of the matter are, those opposite should grow up and return to the place which has been occupied by the Liberal Party in the past and to support the alliance of the United States and do so in a bipartisan way,” Marles says.

And on that note, Dick has ejected Liberal MP Rick Wilson from the chamber under section 94a. That means he’ll spend three hours locked out of the chamber.

Independent MP Kate Chaney has asked whether delays to gambling reforms are due to lobbying by “powerful interests”, and asks what the prime minister has to say to people still being “bombarded” by gambling content.

The federal government has not formally responded to unanimous calls to ban gambling advertising from a 2022 Senate review into the issue led by late MP Peta Murphy.

The government drafted a partial ad ban last term but it was never introduced to parliament, after it was met with some resistance within the party for being too light.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it is not correct to say the government hasn’t responded, listing its self-exclusion program, bans on credit cards for online gambling, and strengthening classifications of video games that include gambling content.

“We’ll continue to work on these areas,” he says.

Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan has the next question, and he’s asked how a 39 per cent increase in energy bills can result in a $275 reduction in power bills.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the inflation figures released yesterday show the increase can be attributed to the end of energy bill rebates.

Bowen says the opposition hasn’t chosen to mention the Australian Energy Regulator (AER)’s state of the energy market report, which says coal-fired power stations are older and more costly to run.

“These are the sorts of issues the government and the energy grid is dealing with, when they’re dealing with the fact under those opposite, four gigawatts of dispatchable power left the grid and only one came on,” Bowen says.

Tehan interrupts on a point of order, asking the minister to answer the question as to why power bills haven’t fallen by $275.

But Bowen has referred back to that AER report, saying the government is trying to put downward pressure on the energy grid, and is committed to doing that with renewable energy.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is up first with a question.

She says the Home Affairs Department was advised to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror group two years ago — a decision made this week after revelations Iran directed at least two antisemitic attacks in Australia.

She asks when that advice was received and “on what basis did the government reject it”.

The prime minister hits back that there were calls to list the IRGC as far back as when he chaired the intelligence committee in 2017.

Anthony Albanese notes comments from Shadow Home Affairs Minister Andrew Hastie this morning that the Opposition had been briefed, and that he and the Opposition “stand with” the government.

“That’s what he said … because he understands intelligence,” Albanese retorts.

He lists several other Coalition MPs who were quoted in support of the government’s actions.

Helen Haines, who is the local MP for area covering Porepunkah, has stepped up to pay tribute to the officers.

Haines says the pair were respected officers who had friends and family and interests and passions beyond the uniform.

“Our thoughts are with both their families, with their friends, with the wider police community. We know that your hearts are broken and we know that this is felt right across the nation,” Haines says.

She has acknowledged the people of Porepunkah who are still under lockdown.

Question time has officially started and it has begun with a tribute to the Victorian police officers Vadim De Waart and Neal Thompson, who were killed on Tuesday.

The pair were killed in the town of Porepunkah, triggering the now three-day search for a gunman who is described as a sovereign citizen.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Commonwealth stands ready to provide any support to Victoria.

He’s described the officers as “heroes”.

“I understand in these raw early days, the close-knit community of Porepunkah is grappling with the sense of horror and also disbelief,” Albanese says.

“But right now, the most important thing for everyone in the area to do is to listen to the police, follow official advice, and keep yourselves safe,” he says.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley thanks the officers for their services and says their deaths have touched all Australians.

“These men stood up, these men put on the uniform, these men, like all our police, protected our community, our police run towards danger, they confront the violent, they protect children, they keep us safe,” Ley says.

“We will honour those who have fallen and never take for granted the courage and service that keeps our communities safe,” she says.

It’s nearly here! The last question time of this week is about to begin in the House of Representatives.

Make sure you tune in over the next hour or so to see what’s debated.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has met with a delegation of South Australian mayors about the state’s algal bloom.

They represent coastal communities devastated by the toxic event which is killing sea life.

(ABC News: Callum Flinn)(ABC News: Callum Flinn)