Health News at Your Fingertips

Good morning from Treasury estimates.

The Australia Taxation Office is in the chair. Labor senator Jenny McAllister has opened with a series of questions about what the ATO did to prevent instances of financial abuse when people were given early access to their superannuation as part of the government’s economic support measures during the pandemic.

McAllister is clearly displeased with a lack of specific action about financial abuse as opposed to other types of fraud. In fact she is deeply irritated.

The tax commissioner, Chris Jordan, looks a bit dumbfounded. He’s not sure what he could or should have done differently.

“We will certainly revert back and see what we can do now to find any examples and rectify that,” Jordan says.

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, says McAllister “can try on the confected outrage”.

The Labor senator corrects him: “I am genuinely outraged.”

Cormann notes the financial recovery is benefiting women more than men: “Women across Australia understand what our government is doing.”

Cormann says the government had to move fast pushing out economic support in the opening months of the pandemic. “I don’t think trying to run this sort of assertive attack is going to help anyone in terms of better outcomes,” he says.

McAllister asks Cormann is he satisfied with the absence of specific protections for victims of domestic violence in the early access to super scheme?

Cormann says agencies are “doing the best they can to enforce the law of the land”.

He says the government will “continue to review” this situation. Again he advises McAllister to be less combative.

He says common sense says governments accept some trade-offs when there’s “a need for speed”.

“Well, that’s some trade-off, minister,” McAllister says.

Cafes and restaurants in Melbourne were given just over a day to shake themselves out of their takeaway-only rut and get businesses dine-in ready again. While almost everyone is excited, getting suppliers back after months of lockdown is no easy feat.

“I’m really really happy but it is a bit difficult to organise in a day and a half,” said Michael Favaloro, from the Amici Cafe on Chapel St.

“It’s been a bit of a scramble to get suppliers. By yesterday afternoon they were sold out of food because they haven’t been carrying a lot of stuff either … We will just have to get to Costco and find a way.”

Favaloro has spent the morning lugging outdoor dining furniture on to the path outside the cafe, using a tape measure to make sure the seats are 1.5 metres apart.

“It’s hard with density, but we can make it work,” he said. “The council have let us extend the dining area further down the path.”

A large chunk of the Amici staff were students and young people who have moved on to other jobs or moved home during the pandemic.

“I’ve been having to call up old staff members who have since moved on to other industries and stuff and begging them to come in and do a few shifts,” Favaloro laughed.

“But we will be alright.”

The registered organisations commissioner, Mark Bielecki, has revealed that the cost of court matters relating to the police raid on the Australian Workers’ Union is $1,336,000.

The AFP raided the AWU headquarters in October 2017, investigating whether political donations were authorised under the union’s rules. The union challenged the legality of the raids and the federal court agreed there was no “reasonable grounds” for them.

The original AWU challenge cost $992,000 and the ROC has appealed to the full federal court, costing a further $344,000.

Bielecki will not rule out appealing to the high court if it loses the cases.

He denied taxpayers’ money has been wasted, saying:

We can’t let allegations be made against us that we think are wrong and then do nothing about them … It’s not in our interest to allow an incorrect interpretation of the law to curtail enforcement we might conduct in future.

The ROC had to get permission for legal fees from the attorney general’s department because it exceeded the preferred rate for counsel.

But both ROC and the department secretary, Chris Moraitis, said this did not amount to briefing Christian Porter about the merits of the case.