Key events
Adeshola Ore
Vaginal ring to be listed on PBS
A contraceptive vaginal ring will be listed on Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for the first time this Saturday.
The Albanese government announced the new listing on Sunday night. It will come into effect on 1 November, alongside cheaper long-active contraceptives like IUDs and birth control implants.
NuvaRing, which is used on a monthly cycle, is an alternative to daily oral contraceptives.
Before the listing women could pay more than $270 a year for the ring which would be reduced to $31.60 per script (for three months of contraception) under the PBS, the government said. Concession card holders would pay $7.70 per script. From 1 January the maximum women will pay per script is $25.
Daile Kelleher, chief executive of Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia, said contraception was “essential healthcare, not a luxury item”:
Everyone deserves the right to access affordable contraceptive options and to choose the method that best fits their life, without barriers such as cost.
The women’s minister, Katy Gallagher, said the changes would give women “genuine choice” for their reproductive health and ensure their decisions were not limited by cost.
Joyce won’t attend Nationals party room meetings this week
Josh Butler
Barnaby Joyce says he will sit with the Nationals in the parliament this week but won’t attend party room meetings, and didn’t shut down the idea that he could stay with his party if they dumped their net zero target.
Joyce’s latest headlines, the prospect that he would join One Nation, haven’t come to fruition yet, he says – he told us in a Parliament House doorstop just now that he hasn’t joined another political party yet, and says he’ll sit with the Nats in question time today. Joyce ruled out sitting as an independent, and says “I’m still in the National party”, and noting voters had voted him in as a National, so he’d sit as a National for the time being.
But it’s not plain sailing and happy families. Joyce repeated his previous statements that “there’s been a breakdown in the relationship, it was quite evident to all of you during the [election] campaign”.
Asked whether leader David Littleproud was trying to keep him in the team, Joyce said he’d spoken to Littleproud in a “brief and very courteous conversation that went for about three minutes”.
Joyce confirmed again that he’d quit as MP for New England at the next election, but when we asked if he’d continue his political career after that (perhaps in a different chamber of parliament, or for a different party), he said “I’ll make my mind up”.
Asked if the Nationals scrapping net zero could be enough to keep him in the tent, Joyce responded: “I’ll see what they come up with.”
Pressed further, Joyce said they were “hypotheticals” about what could happen in future.
Rowland: no text and data mining exemption
There’s a few big issues kicking around this morning, and one is the confirmation from the government that tech giants will not get a text and data mining exemption to train their AI models.
Artists and creatives – and media organisations – have been hounding the government for some security around their works, to ensure they’re not scraped for free by generative AI.
There was particularly anxiety around a recommendation by the productivity commission that tech giants get free access to creative works.
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, says the government has been “clear” that there would be no watering down of the Copyright Act.
There is a body of work to do around what the copyright environment looks like in the AI world, but we are making it very clear that we will not be entertaining a text and data mining exception.
ABC host Sabra Lane asks Rowland how authors who don’t want their books taken “full stop” can stop tech companies from using their creative works. Rowland says there’s some uncertainty around whether the current laws fully address that.
Currently, under the Copyright Act, there are avenues to be able to do that, but there is a lot of conjecture around whether or not the law is clear enough on that front … We will go forward as a government with an ambitious set of reforms, again, with the outcome of making sure that our copyright laws are fit for not only the digital environment as they have been to date, but also in the world of AI.
Murray Watt rejects call to split environmental bill
As my colleague Dan Jervis-Bardy has brought us this morning, the Coalition is calling on the government to split the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – to approvals on one side and protections on the other.
The laws are expected to be introduced to parliament this week.
But Murray Watt has vehemently rejected the proposition, saying it would weaken protections and remove certainty for industry.
We won’t be splitting the bill. The review by Graeme Samuel into these 90s-era laws made clear you cannot have faster approvals without stronger environmental standards …
It would mean more habitat destruction, more species threatened, no independent regulator and slower approval times.
It’s the maddest idea we’ve seen in the five years of these environmental reforms and we won’t be following it.
Albanese and Trump touch down for Asean
The prime minister will be absent this week as arrives in Malaysia for the Asean summit, before flying to South Korea for Apec where Donald Trump and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will meet.
The two leaders will likely discuss the US president’s trade war. They might also talk about security issues such as Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.
“One in four Australian jobs rely on trade and we will be focused on continuing to grow our key economic and trade relationships during Asean and Apec,” Albanese said on Sunday.
Good morning
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you for what will be another action-packed sitting fortnight.
There will be plenty of parliamentary drama this week as the government faces a showdown with the Greens and Coalition on its environmental protection bill – the EPBC Act.
The Coalition is calling for it to be split and says it’s anti-business, while the Greens say the opposite. Murray Watt called the suggestion of a split the “maddest idea” he’s seen in the five years since the reforms to the act were first recommended.
Meanwhile, the government will also reject a proposal to allow copyright exemptions for AI models. And the prime minister is overseas this week in Malaysia and South Korea for the Asean and Apec summits.
I’ve got myself a coffee, I hope you’ve got some caffeine too – stay with us!
