ABC reiterates call for One Nation to remove Bluey cartoon
Amanda Meade
The ABC has doubled down on its call in Senate estimates for depictions of Bluey to be removed from a One Nation cartoon in which the beloved character repeatedly runs over politicians with an SUV.
The broadcaster’s managing director, Hugh Marks, said on Tuesday that he became aware of One Nation’s potential breach of intellectual property rights last week and sought legal advice.
An ABC spokesperson said on Wednesday.
double quotation markAs the managing director stated during Senate estimates, the ABC does not own the intellectual property for Bluey.
The ABC is considering available options.
In the meantime, the ABC considers the relevant cartoons should be immediately removed from One Nation’s platforms and no further use should occur.
Bluey’s international distributor, BBC Studios, and the Brisbane-based creators Ludo have been in discussions with the ABC about the issue.
Earlier today, the communications minister, Anika Wells, said the ABC is “well within its rights to be concerned” about One Nation’s use of Bluey, “one of Australia’s biggest, most loved, most well-known exports”.
Updated at 22.49 EDT
Key events
As expected, the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has kicked things off with a question on the latest inflation numbers.
He asks:
double quotation markLast year, your treasurer boasted …Will the prime minister acknowledge reality, accept his treasurer was wrong, and admit labour’s out of control spending, is forcing families and small businesses to pay more for everything?
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says economies around the world are facing challenges:
double quotation markEvery day, [Australians are] experiencing the impact of the cost of living, we certainly understand that that puts people under pressure.
And just like in countries right around the world, the challenges that we face in our economy are serious. The reality is they’re not going to be solved overnight.
ShareQuestion time begins
Freshly dropped and hotter-than-expected, inflation figures are set to fuel the furore in QT today.
Let’s get into it.
Updated at 23.06 EDT
‘Profit ahead of compliance’: casino company handed giant fine
Australia’s biggest listed casino company has been hit with a $260m fine, four years after financial intelligence agency Austrac launched legal action against the company.
The Star Entertainment Group was penalised in the federal court on Wednesday.
Austrac previously argued a $400m penalty was necessary to punish what it said were “manifest failures” at Star.
But the stock market-listed company, which has a market value of $763m, argued any penalty over $100m would send it into liquidation.
Justice Cameron Moore determined a $260m penalty was appropriate for the significant harm Star’s conduct has caused.
double quotation markIn effect, Star put profit ahead of compliance and did so on a large scale.
– Australian Associated Press
The Star casino in Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPShare
Updated at 23.05 EDT
Watchdog ‘spent millions’ as billionaire Clive Palmer fined $10,000
A marathon legal battle sparked after Clive Palmer’s dinosaur-inspired takeover of a championship golf course and resort has ended with a $10,000 fine.
The Queensland district court convicted Palmer Leisure Coolum and fined it $10,000 for breaching takeover laws during an acquisition of a Sunshine Coast resort.
The mining magnate bought the five-star 324-room Hyatt Regency Coolum, on 150 hectares and with a 2km beachfront, for a reported $80m in July 2011.
The resort lost its hosting of the Australian PGA Golf Championship but Palmer would bring in more than 160 lifesize dinosaurs and an exotic car museum.
In 2012, Palmer’s company committed offences while proposing to buy out a group of timeshare investors in the resort called The President’s Club.
The resort pleaded guilty in June 2026.
– Australian Associated Press
Clive Palmer in Brisbane, February 2024. Photograph: Darren England/AAPShare
Updated at 22.57 EDT
Labor is Greens’ main target, not One Nation, Shoebridge says
Sarah Basford Canales
The Greens leader, David Shoebridge, says Labor is its main target as it looks to double its vote between now and the next federal election to “replace” the governing party.
Following his speech at the National Press Club, Shoebridge was asked what he’s going to do differently given the party’s vote hasn’t risen much further since the last federal election.
The NSW senator said:
double quotation markThey [Labor] have sold their conscience, and we need to be loud and proud that our job in politics is to do what we said today: to replace the Labor party.
Yes, we want to fight One Nation, and we want to fight the racism, and division. But they rose on Labor’s watch, and our way to defeat that hate and division is through the Labor party.
David Shoebridge at the National Press Club. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 23.01 EDT
Man charged after allegedly threatening politician on social media
A man has been charged after allegedly using social media to threaten a federal parliamentarian.
The Australian federal police arrested the 39-year-old in Lithgow on Tuesday and charged him with using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.
Officers executed a search warrant and allegedly discovered 1 gram of a white crystalline substance and drug paraphernalia, and seized a mobile phone.
The man was charged with one count of drug possession and another count of possession of equipment for administration of a prohibited drug.
Updated at 22.49 EDT
Melissa Davey
Opposition questions government on aged care tool consultation process
The shadow aged care minister, Anne Ruston, is asking department officials about there were any meaningful public consultations about the government’s new “escalation pathway” for the aged care assessment tool.
After it was revealed that aged care assessors said the algorithm-driven tool was underquoting on needs of older Australians and assessors had no power to override wrong decisions, the government added a new review pathway.
It means decisions can be escalated to a delegate for review. Aged care assessors have told Guardian Australia this creates more administrative load – they want the ability to override wrong decisions themselves.
Recommendation 4 of the commonwealth ombudsman’s report into the failures of the assessment tool says any changes to aged care legislation should be preceded by open, public consultation.
Ruston asks whether a series of closed-door, targeted workshops met that standard – department officials say consultation was folded into workshops alongside a rapid review with aged care advocacy groups, geriatricians and assessment groups.
Departmental officials say that no draft rules for the pathway were provided to those stakeholders, and no public consultation was conducted. Draft versions of the rules were shared with stakeholders through the minister’s office.
Updated at 22.34 EDT
Cait Kelly
Advocates accuse government of ‘cherrypicking’ welfare compensation recipients
Welfare advocates have accused the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) of “cherrypicking” who might get compensation for having their payment unlawfully cancelled, after it was revealed the department had invited 50,652 to apply, when an estimated 310,000 people were impacted.
The Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and member of the DEWR Targeted Compliance Stakeholder Reference Group Kristin O’Connell said:
double quotation markAll members of the reference group have repeatedly raised our concerns about this process with DEWR and urged them to ensure everyone subjected to these unlawful decisions receives compensation. It is not up to the department to decide whether or not these 300,000 people were harmed – if they made an unlawful decision, they should repay people as an act of good faith.
If people have not been approached but believe they were impacted, they can still apply, with more details here.
Updated at 22.40 EDT
ABC reiterates call for One Nation to remove Bluey cartoonAmanda Meade
The ABC has doubled down on its call in Senate estimates for depictions of Bluey to be removed from a One Nation cartoon in which the beloved character repeatedly runs over politicians with an SUV.
The broadcaster’s managing director, Hugh Marks, said on Tuesday that he became aware of One Nation’s potential breach of intellectual property rights last week and sought legal advice.
An ABC spokesperson said on Wednesday.
double quotation markAs the managing director stated during Senate estimates, the ABC does not own the intellectual property for Bluey.
The ABC is considering available options.
In the meantime, the ABC considers the relevant cartoons should be immediately removed from One Nation’s platforms and no further use should occur.
Bluey’s international distributor, BBC Studios, and the Brisbane-based creators Ludo have been in discussions with the ABC about the issue.
Earlier today, the communications minister, Anika Wells, said the ABC is “well within its rights to be concerned” about One Nation’s use of Bluey, “one of Australia’s biggest, most loved, most well-known exports”.
Updated at 22.49 EDT
Patrick Commins
Jim Chalmers blames Middle East conflict for high inflation
Jim Chalmers has blamed higher global oil prices for intensifying cost of living pressures at home, after inflation jumped to 4.3% in the year to September.
The treasurer in a statement said inflation was “too high”, but that prices were rising faster across a range of countries, not just here.
Fuel prices were up more than 9% last month, and were 24% higher than a year earlier, he said.
double quotation markWe’ve seen higher oil prices driving higher inflation around the world and today’s figures confirm we are not immune from that. From an economic point of view, the [Middle East] conflict can’t end soon enough.
We know this doesn’t make it any easier for families who are under pressure.
The treasurer’s comments come after a sometimes heated debate earlier in the day between the Treasury secretary, Jenny Wilkinson, and Liberal senator Jane Hume around the extent to which government spending was to blame for high inflation.
Jim Chalmers speaking during question time on Monday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 21.46 EDT