Butler says health rebate bill will return to Senate after Greens and Coalition block

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Australian and world news this Thursday, October 15. Here’s what you need to know today.

A cargo ship sank after striking a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps navy said.

It’s the first time Iran has reported a ship sinking after hitting a mine during the war.

Shipping officials, meanwhile, said two Singapore-registered cargo vessels had been hit by “unknown projectiles” as they went through the strait on Tuesday and Wednesday.

One sank, while the other reached safety. All crew members were evacuated from the first ship, and no injuries were reported in either incident, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said.

“Such attacks are unprovoked, unjustifiable, and a breach of international law,” the authority said.

Leader of the Greens David Shoebridge has slammed Health Minister Mark Butler’s plan to bring the same bill blocked by his party and the Coalition back to parliament today.

“I mean, I don’t know what Senate he’s looking at. It’s the same Senate as there was yesterday,” Shoebridge told News24 earlier this morning.

“We’ve made it clear what our position is … We’re not going to let them punch down on pensioners.”

Health Minister Mark Butler vowed he would bring an identical bill back to parliament despite not committing to make any changes to the legislation.

Labor’s digital duty of care will take 12 months to come into effect, Communications Minister Anika Wells has said, as she unveiled a “transitional period” should the legislation pass parliament.

“This transitional period will provide time for the making of any necessary rules and regulatory guidance material to ensure industry is able to put in place measures to meet the new compliance requirements in time for the digital duty of care to come into effect,” Wells told the House of Representatives.

“Online services that are currently complying with the basic online safety expectations and the relevant codes and standards will be well placed to comply with their digital duty of care obligations.”

Wells had earlier announced that online service providers will need to conduct annual risk assessments of the harms their services may cause Australians, saying: “Features like algorithmic recommender systems, the ability to live stream incognito from your glasses, or the ability to artificially generate text and pictures, then they will need to put systems in place to prevent those risky features from causing harm to Australians, because the architecture matters, the business model matters, the incentives matter”.

Wells said “low-risk” services would be able to conduct a self-assessment of their risk to ensure they do not “facilitate any user-to-user interaction, private messaging, or otherwise facilitated connection between strangers; allow users of the website to upload, stream, or generate content for other users; provide harmful or classified materials such as pornography or high-impact violence; or include design features associated with negative behavioral impacts, such as recommender systems or feedback features”.

Communications Minister Anika Wells has laid out the four key principles of Labor’s digital duty of care, including opting in and out of algorithms on social media, as she introduces the legislation to parliament.

“Today, the Albanese government has released the proposed rules for user empowerment tools. They contain four principles that address some of the malicious compliance that we have seen in other jurisdictions,” Wells said.

“First, we must be able to opt in to the algorithm, with social media platforms required to send users a proactive notification about this choice. Second, the tools must be accessible; they must be easy to use, prominently available, functional, clear, and in simple language,” she said.

“Third, the choice must stick. Platforms cannot revert back to their default every time you open the app. And fourth, choosing to opt out of the algorithm must not make your feed harder to navigate. The experience must be similar to those who have chosen to opt in.”

The legislation is set to face a Senate inquiry but may still pass before the end of the year. It will then face a 12-month transitional period before it comes into effect as soon as the end of 2027.

Communications Minister Anika Wells has pushed back against criticism the government’s digital duty of care legislation amounts to censorship, saying the bill is designed to keep Australians safe.

“Australia’s digital duty of care will set basic safety standards for the online services we use every day, just like we have in every other industry,” Wells said as she introduced the bill in the House of Representatives.

“The core of the digital duty of care is to provide a safe online environment where all Australians are protected from seriously harmful and illegal content. It moves the safety net upstream to the people who design the product to stop the harm before it ever reaches an Australian user,” she said.

“It is not about controlling adults online; it is about getting illegal and seriously harmful material offline, and giving adults choice. Like when you buy a new appliance, the government sets minimum safety standards, but ultimately, what you choose to buy is up to you, as long as it’s legal and safe.”

The bill is set to face a Senate inquiry, reporting back before the end of the year, after both the Coalition and the Greens shared their desire to further scrutinise the proposal.

The Coalition has no plans to move on its opposition to Labor’s private health insurance rebate bill, Liberal senator James Paterson said this morning, as Health Minister Mark Butler prepares to bring the legislation back to parliament today.

Asked on News24 this morning whether the Coalition would support the bill if Butler proposed changes, Paterson said: “Good luck with that, Mark ... My view is that this bill is unsalvageable and it should be abandoned.”

He said the cuts were “cruel” to older Australians, and would disproportionately target pensioners.

“These are people who don’t have a lot of spare cash, but value their health and have decided to take out private health insurance. And Mark Butler effectively wants to kick them off the private health insurance system by taking away up to $800 a year per person, or $1600 a year per company, and many just can’t afford that.

“We’ll continue to fight [these changes] because we think they’re wrong in principle, and they’ll lead to unintended consequences of harming our public health system.”

Staying with Lambie’s ABC TV appearance, the Tasmanian senator said Health Minister Mark Butler was “carrying on like a two-year-old” by planning to bring the same health rebate bill back to parliament today that was blocked by the Coalition and the Greens yesterday.

“If you think that you’re going to bring the same bill up here and you haven’t changed it, mate, then it’s probably you’re going to get another slap around the face today. How about you be smart? … Go away, we’ve got another two weeks of sittings, and come up with another plan of attack,” she told ABC’s News Breakfast.

“Don’t bring that bill back up here today because that makes you look like a two-year-old who’s having a little dummy spit. Have a deep breath, go away and think about it.”

Butler has vowed to bring an identical bill to parliament today.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie says the discovery of a recording device in the cabin of a navy ship demonstrates the need for an independent body to respond to sexual assault and abuse within the military.

Defence said in a statement it was “aware that a video recording device had been located in the cabin of Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Leeuwin” while the ship was docked alongside Cairns in Queensland.

“This is a culture that, unfortunately, defence has not been able to clean up, and it hasn’t even come close,” Lambie told ABC’s News Breakfast this morning.

“They’ve had enough time to make change and reform, and they have failed. The only other way, the only way to fix this problem is to take the legal system outside of defence’s hands.”

She introduced the bill to establish an independent statutory body for abuse claims last year.

Resources Minister Madeleine King accused senators who voted against Labor’s private health insurance rebate bill of being “destructive of budget savings” after the Coalition and Greens teamed up to block the legislation yesterday.

“[This bill] is an important part of our budgeting process, as well as making sure that every dollar saved will be reinvested to deliver more aged care beds, and that’s really important for ageing Australians right around the country,” King told ABC Radio National this morning.

“The dollars that will be saved from this are reinvested into more packages and better care for older Australians, and that’s a priority of our government.”

Health Minister Mark Butler vowed to reintroduce identical legislation to parliament today.

Communications Minister Anika Wells is certain Labor’s private health insurance rebate bill will return to parliament today, but would not say whether the government would concede to changes, after the Coalition and the Greens joined to block the legislation in the Senate yesterday.

She said Health Minister Mark Butler and Minister for Aged Care Sam Rae would reintroduce the bill, but would not say whether they planned to make changes to the legislation to ensure it does not get blocked again.

“That I will leave to the health minister and the aged care minister … to negotiate in good faith with our senators,” Wells told the Today show.

“Speaking as the former aged care minister, I cannot tell you how important it is that we better resource aged care and that we do it quickly.”