Australian news and politics live updates: Anti-Semitism crisis top of list as Parliament returns

This concludes our live news and politics coverage for the day.

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It’s been a wild couple of weeks when it comes to the Albanese Government’s contentious Nature Positive laws.

It emerged in the week before Parliament returned that the controversial laws were back on the Senate agenda for this week.

But after a fresh furore erupted - led by WA Premier Roger Cook - the Albanese Government conceded that they weren’t meant to be on the agenda.

Tomrrow, that becomes official.

Read Katina Curtis’ preview piece here.

It’s been a heated day in Parliament, as The Nightly’s Nicola Smith reports:

Calls for unity in Parliament to wipe out the scourge of anti-Semitism were railroaded by emotionally charged rhetoric as the House and Senate’s opening sessions were dominated by heated debate over how to handle a crisis the security services believe has not yet plateaued.

Mr Albanese opened proceedings by denouncing anti-Semitism as having “no place in our nation”, pledging the Government would “combat it with the full force of our laws” and would not tolerate “cowards and criminals engaged in these low acts of hatred.”

In a direct message to Jewish Australians, he said: “We know that anti-Semitism has given dark shadows across generations. I say to Jewish Australians, they proudly stand tall. You belong here, and Australia stands with you.”

But a fired-up Mr Dutton hit back that Australia has never seen the level of “hatred and racism” it was experiencing now, and that the crisis should have been snuffed out sooner.

Holocaust survivors and their descendants “for the first time since 1945 say that they feel unsafe in this country,” he said.

“There are people otherwise, within the Jewish community that I’ve spoken to, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, now across the rest of the country, who are talking about leaving our country.

“People who were born here, who know little of Israel and little of that life, they’re talking about leaving our country and going to Israel because they feel safer in a country that’s under nuclear threat from Iran.”

Read Nicola’s full wrap ​here​.

In an exclusive report, Latika M Bourke writes that Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshynchenko has asked to meet the NSW Government’s Arts Minister over the planned screening of a Russian war film at a state backed film festival — but he has been subbed.

The Antenna Documentary Film Festival is refusing the Ukrainian community’s plea to remove from this week’s festival agenda documentary, titled Russians at War, which they say is propaganda that humanises Russian military forces who are committing war crimes.

The documentary was filmed by Anastasia Trofimova, who worked for six years until 2020 for an arm of the Russian state media television channel Russia Today. She is under investigation by Ukraine for allegedly illegally entering the country to spread propaganda.

Her documentary’s screening has been cancelled by film festival organisers in Greece and Zurich, Switzerland but played in Venice and other cities.

Mr Myroshynchencko has written to NSW Arts Minister John Graham requesting a meeting to express his “strong concern” about the film’s scheduled screening in Sydney this week.

The NSW Government and Screen NSW are official partners of the Antenna Documentary Film Festival.

“While I understand that the Festival’s organisers have committed to somehow contextualising the film, its showing is inconsistent with both their own professed solidarity with the Ukrainian people and with the NSW Government’s ongoing, steadfast and public support of Ukraine’s fight for democracy (for which I am very grateful),” Mr Myroshynchenko wrote in his letter obtained exclusively by The Nightly.

“Perhaps, you would consider a public statement distancing the NSW Government from the showing of the film, if it were to proceed.”

But a spokesman said it was not a matter for the NSW Government.

“The NSW Government supports a diverse range of film festivals and events across the state but is not involved in programming decisions of independent organisations,” they said.

Read the full exclusive report here.

David Pocock is critical of the government for not acting on a landmark report recommending banning gambling ads, linking it to industry lobbying efforts, reports Dominic Giannini from AAP.

The influence of the gambling industry over government policy should go under the microscope, Independent Senator Pocock says, as Labor faces pressure to ban betting ads.

Mr Pocock will push to refer “the extent and the appropriateness of industry influence over government decision-making as it relates to online gambling reform”.

It would also look at influence over the government’s response to a landmark gambling harm inquiry chaired by late-Labor MP Peta Murphy that recommended an advertising phase out.

Senator Pocock will make the referral to a Senate committee on Wednesday and have it report back by February 25.

It was “pretty astonishing” no action had been taken after the Murphy review was unanimously backed across parliament with no dissenting remarks, he told ABC radio on Tuesday.

“This is a public health issue, we need to deal with it as such and we’ve seen the prime minister listen to (NRL head) Peter V’Landys rather than Peta Murphy,” he said.

Read the full story from AAP here.

The boss of Carlton and United Breweries has revealed he plans to step down in June, just a week after an ill-judged ad campaign for Great Northern beer got pulled following a huge backlash.

Danny Celoni, who has led the business division since 2022, will leave in June, it was announced on Wednesday.

A spokesman has denied Mr Celoni’s departure is linked to the controversy, saying he decided on the move late last year.

But even with this information, surely the company could have held off making the announcement for a month or so?

Full story here.

Samoa’s top health official has denounced as “a complete lie” remarks that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made during his bid to become US health secretary, rejecting his claim that some who died in the Pacific nation’s 2019 measles epidemic didn’t have the disease.

“We don’t know what was killing them,” Kennedy said during tense US Senate hearings on January 29, suggesting that the cause of the 83 deaths was unclear.

“It’s a total fabrication,” Samoa Director-General of Health Dr Alec Ekeroma told The Associated Press of Kennedy’s comments.

US senators grilled Kennedy last week over his 2019 Samoa trip, accusing him of downplaying his role in the epidemic.

The outbreak devastated the Pacific island nation in 2019, killing 83 people in a population of 200,000.

​Read the full story here.​

Meanwhile, back in Canberra, The Nightly’s Nicola Smith has an exclusive report that the Coalition is keen to get a private member’s Bill rolling to introduce mandatory sentencing:

The Coalition is considering plans to introduce a private members Bill to call for mandatory sentencing for terrorism to boost the fight against anti-Semitism.

The Nightly understands talks are underway among Opposition MPs to table a bill in the Senate demanding the strengthening of the sentencing regime for terrorism with a mandatory minimum term of 6 years imprisonment for all acts of terrorism under Commonwealth law.

It is expected to also include calls for the introduction of mandatory minimum sentences of 12 months imprisonment for the display of prohibited anti-Semitic and terrorist organisation symbols and related behaviour in public, and to increase the maximum penalty to five years prison.

The move, planned for what is likely to be the last parliamentary sitting before the Federal election, is one of a raft of attempts by MPs to curb a sharp rise in anti-Semitic attacks that have left the Jewish Community living in fear.

It comes as the Coalition has stepped up its criticism of the Albanese Government’s response to the national crisis that has seen the firebombings of synagogues and a childcare centre, multiple incidents of offensive graffiti and an attack on the former Sydney home of a Jewish community leader.

The former transport minister left abruptly at the end of her statement.

A reporter in the room asked “Why did you lie to the Premier?”

That question went unanswered.

Ms Haylen said she was disappointed she wouldn’t get to “finish the job” with the Transport ministry.

“Government is a collective effort and our agenda is more important than one person,” she said.

“When we came to government we inherited a public transport system that was down on its knees. I’m incredibly proud of the job we’ve done.

“It’s been a great honour. I want to thank the Premier for his trust in me and for his friendship.

“I want to thank my husband and my kids, they’re going to see a lot more of me soon.”