A host of business bigwigs and officials will gather tonight and tomorrow in the national capital for the Australia China Business Council’s annual Canberra Networking Day.

There’s plenty to discuss.

We might never get back to the heady days of the 2010s, but the recent thaw in Australia-China ties and Beijing’s decision to strip away (almost) all the trade barriers it erected when the Coalition was in power has given a new burst of enthusiasm to companies which do business with China.

There are opportunities aplenty.

The federal government may be increasingly pessimistic about China’s political trajectory, but it remains the world’s key economic engine and by far our biggest export market. Australian businesses see huge opportunities across a host of industries, including in clean energy and within the massive net zero transition which Beijing is engineering at home.

ACBC Chair David Olsson will strike a fairly optimistic tone at a major dinner tonight, declaring that there are “many global challenges that can only be addressed if nations work together, if they collaborate.”

“In areas such a climate change, health and food security, Australia and China are almost uniquely compatible. We have a track record as trading partners; we can now become partners in solving common problems,” he’s expected to say.

And while the event is trying to stay sharply focussed on the future, not the past, there will still be at least one pointed reference to a lingering hangover from the era of mutual recrimination and economic coercion.

The dinner menu will not just include Australian wine (which is now flowing back into China) but also Australian rock lobsters, which remain off limits – at least for now.

I just wanted to quickly circle back to question time, where Anthony Albanese gave his strongest defence yet of the government’s approach to gambling advertising.

He pushed back at the calls for more regualation by anti-gambling advocates.

“The truth of their position, and that is a legitimate position for them to take, but it is not one that I have in terms of stopping all racing for example, stopping all gambling right across the board,” Albanese said.

“I think that would have an impact and an intrusion into people’s personal liberties which is not appropriate in my view.

“I do not believe the state has an absolute right to determine the behaviour of individuals across the board.”

He argued he wanted to restrict the damage harmful advertising can have.

“I think we need to make sure that adults can be adults but children can be children,” Albanese said.

“And the connection as well between sport and gambling needs to be broken because sport should be enjoyed for what it is – sport.

“That is an important focus of why we are undertaking these reforms.”

  We couldn’t just let the MPs have all the fun could we?

Some of us at the ABC took one for the team – it’s such a struggle – to go cuddle some cute endangered critters.

Families of veterans have gathered on the lawns of Parliament House to call for urgent improvements to the way serving and ex-serving personnel are supported, after the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide recommended sweeping change.

Julie-Ann Finney, whose son David Finney died by suicide in 2019 after serving in the Navy, urged people to not enlist in the Defence Force until it’s “fixed.”

The 122 recommendations from the three-year Royal Commission were made public on Monday.

In it, the commissioners called for an inquiry into the prevalence of sexual violence in the ADF and setting-up a suicide database of serving and ex-serving ADF members.

Ms Finney today warned families would continue to hold the government and its departments to account as they assessed the recommendations.

“If you have served or you serve, you deserve wellbeing going forward, you do not deserve to die like our loved ones did,”  Finney said.

Minister for Early Childhood Education Anne Aly has been asked by Independent member Helen Haines, if she will stand by as childcare services in her electorate face imminent closure, due to a lack of government funding.

Anne Aly begins by talking about the Community Child Care Fund (CCCF) is a competitive grant that is run by the department and decisions are made at “arms length” from the minister.

“It is important that these competitive grants are run in a way, in which selection is based on merit,” Aly says.

Aly then goes on to say the guidelines of the grant were published on Grant Connect.

“I can appreciate that it can be difficult for services when they are not successful in competitive grants.”

But as friend of the blog Monte Bovill always says, you don’t have to wait too long for another.

For a third day in a row, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has felt the brunt of the Coalition’s questioning.

The opposition has zeroed in on the comment he made last week, drumming up the rhetoric that he’s fighting with the Reserve Bank.

All up so far, eight of the Coalition’s questions have included the question: “Why is the Albanese Labor government fighting the reserve bank while Australian families are going backwards?”

Chalmers says he knows Aussies are doing it tough, insisting the only fighting he’s doing is fighting for cost of living support.

“Any decent local member worth their
salt understands that people are under pressure right now, and that’s why we’re doing what we can to help people,” he says.

Independent MP Zali Stegall has asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, if he is ignoring the call to ban gambling advertisements in Australia.

Albanese answers with a simple: “no we are not.”

He then goes onto say his government has done more to act against harmful gambling than any government in Australian history.

“We know when we look at  where the harmful gambling comes from, almost 70 per cent of that harmful gambling is actually poker machines, around 15 per cent comes from lotteries and those tickets as well,” Albanese says.

“I am yet to see anyone stand up in this place and advocate banning completely advertising lottery and lotto tickets.”

Albanese adds that gambling advertisements during sports matches is “too prevalent” and that the government wants to take an approach that is “responsible and makes a difference as well”.

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley asks Treasurer Jim Chalmers about comments included in friend of the blog Jacob Greber’s analysis. 

In it, he reported one senior Labor figure described the Reserve Bank to the ABC on Friday as “barbarians” and “weirdos” in the thrall of a “bizarre group-think”.

They also described governor Michele Bullock as a “nutter”.

It came after former treasurer Wayne Swan also put the bank on blast.

Chalmers says he hasn’t spoken to the former treasurer for “more than a couple of weeks” and there is no coordination in their comments.

He added he “completely and utterly disagreed” with the comments included in Jacob’s yarn.

“I have a respectful working relationship with governor Bullock and with her colleagues,” Chalmers says.

“As governor Bullock has made it clear on a number of occasions, we work well together, we have the same objective, different responsibilities.”

If you’re interested, you can read Jacob’s full analysis below!

Angus Taylor is back again asking Treasurer Jim Chalmers why the government is fighting with the RBA while Australian families are going backwards.

Earlier Chalmers mentioned that the government turned two huge deficits from the Liberal Party into two surpluses.

“Because of our efforts we are saving tens of billions of dollars in interest repayments,” Chalmers says.

He then goes on to discuss government spending.

“If those opposite think there is 350 billion dollars too much spending in the budget, then it is incumbent on them to come clean on their cuts and to tell us where those cuts will come from.”

Angus Taylor is back with a vengeance. If you were with us yesterday, you’ll remember the beef between him and Treasurer Jim Chalmers hit a new high after he slammed the door shut on the government’s Reserve Bank reforms.

It’s much of a repeat of the same question they’ve been asking Chalmers and the PM all week: why are you fighting with the RBA?

The Coalition is arguing a quote the treasurer gave last week (that interest rates were “smashing the economy”) is proof of it.

Chalmers is like, “C’mon, I’ve been making this point for some time” (paragraphing).

He continues:

“Any objective observer of the economy understands the combination of global economic uncertainty, persistent inflation and high interest rates are slowing the economy, and in our case, quite considerably, a point I have been making since at least June of this year,” he says.

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor accused the government of fighting with the RBA while Australian families were going backwards.

Before getting into answering the question, Treasurer Jim Chalmers takes a dig at Taylor.

“If the shadow treasure doesn’t think that the combination of global economic uncertainty, persistent inflation and higher interest rates are slowing the economy, it’s no wonder that nobody takes him seriously,” Chalmers says.

He then goes to say that he does take part in the fight against inflation.

“I do take responsibility for the fact that we have turned two Liberal deficits into two big Labor surpluses.”

A treat for us all this Wednesday, Bob Katter! He has the today’s crossbench question. It is addressed to the minister for mines, and is about Australia’s 2050 emissions target.

He says solar and wind are as likely as a progress association (I’m not sure which one sorry, but I think there was a mention of India in there) achieving a moon landing, before going into something about guns crossing borders and people living without electricity.

Madeleine King, the resources minister, thanks him for his question, and assures him the coal industry “will not be abolished”.

Peter Dutton has the first question. He asks the PM why the government is “fighting” the Reserve Bank while core inflation remains high compared to New Zealand, Japan, US and the UK.

Anthony Albanese launches into a defence of how Australia has handled sticky inflation. He says Australia’s interest rates didn’t go as high as others overseas.

It causes laughs from the opposition. The PM says the real “joke” was that inflation was double what it is now when Labor came to government.

The PM welcomed the athletes home in Sydney this morning.

“They had some special carry on baggage with them,” he says.

Australia won 18 gold medals, 17 silver and 28 bronze at the Games.

“The next generation of Paralympians have been given a great new sense of what they can achieve. A new goal to strive for. A new hero to follow,” Albanese adds.

“To
every member of the Australian team, I simply say you’ve done yourself proud. You’ve done your families proud. But you’ve done our nation proud as well. Australia is so proud of you.”

Peter Dutton says Australia should be proud of our Paralympians.

“I was incredibly proud, as I know every Australian was, to see the Paralympians performing on screen,” he says.

Age-specific videos and fact sheets to educate young people on how to recognise and combat coercive control will be released by the federal government today.

Coercive control is a pattern of physical and non-physical abuse designed to create power and dominance over another person to create fear and take away the person’s freedom.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the materials are directed at young people as well as parents and carers.

“We think it is important that children and adults be aware of what coercive control is,” he said.

“If you recognise it, it’s more likely you’re going to be able to do something about it.

“If you can recognise coercive control, it’s more likely you’ll be able to seek help.” 

A bit of news coming out of the National Anti-Corruption Commission this Wednesday, with news six politicians are in its sights.

The NACC says of 26 current corruption investigations, six concern current or former parliamentarians.

Another three are focused on current or former parliamentary staff.

The agency has not named any of the individuals, or given any other information about who those individuals may be – meaning they could be federal, state or territory parliamentarians and staff.

“In considering them, it is important to remember that most corruption investigations do not ultimately result in a finding of corrupt conduct,” the NACC said in a statement on its website.

The watchdog also revealed seven investigations are focused on the conduct or current or former senior executives in the public service, and eight involve law enforcement officials.

There are still 494 matters which have been referred to the NACC since it was established on July 1 last year, which are still waiting for assessment.

Since July 1 this year, 459 referrals to the NACC have been made – with 364 knocked out because they didn’t meet the threshold for further consideration.