Labor criticised for apparent ‘backtrack’ on stronger LGBTQ+ legal protections

Draft changes to party’s platform replace commitment to strengthen laws with ‘almost meaningless’ clause to ‘develop policy’, advocates say

Labor has been criticised for proposing to ditch a commitment to strengthening legal protections for the LGBTQ+ community, with queer advocates saying the party appeared to have “backtracked”.

A consultation draft of changes to Labor’s national platform, released this week, proposes to remove a commitment from the 2021 platform to “strengthen laws and expand initiatives against discrimination, vilification and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or sex characteristics”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia politics live: ‘absolutely shocking’ for education department to give PwC contracts after tax leak scandal, Faruqi says; Ben Roberts-Smith verdict due today

Department taken to task for its nine contracts with PwC, two of which were entered into in the past two months. Follow latest updates

Sally McManus responds to RBA governor’s commentary on housing market

Sally McManus spoke to ABC News Breakfast this morning and gave her thoughts on some of RBA governor Phil Lowe’s commentary around the housing market and what he thinks needs to happen.

I think we’re living in two worlds. We’ve got people living in very big houses that have multiple dwellings and they’re landlords. And what they’re doing is when the Reserve Bank governor puts up interest rates, they’re passing on that cost to renters and that’s part of the reason why we’re seeing rents increase.

And I think that that is just basically saying to everyone, look, ordinary people, move in with your parents and grandparents whilst we’re going to say nothing about those CEOs I talked about at companies that actually are the ones that could ease cost of living tomorrow on people but they’re choosing not to because in the end they want to see their bonuses.

Continue reading...

Australian government loses bid to cancel lease for new Russian embassy site

Canberra’s National Capital Authority terminated lease on block of land in Yarralumla but federal court rules the move was ‘invalid and of no effect’

The Australian government has made an embarrassing backdown in its attempts to turf the Russian government off the site of its new embassy in Canberra.

The National Capital Authority (NCA) last year announced a decision to terminate the Russian government’s lease on a block of land in the wealthy suburb of Yarralumla, where it was building its new embassy.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto served with fresh defamation threat by ousted MP Moira Deeming

Sixteen-page notice contains list of claims against Liberal leader as he faces another by-election after the resignation of veteran Ryan Smith

Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto has been served with a fresh defamation threat by ousted MP Moira Deeming, as the party faces a by-election headache.

Lawyers for Deeming, who was expelled from the parliamentary Liberal party this month for allegedly bringing discredit on the party, has issued a second defamation concerns notice to Pesutto.

Continue reading...

Victorian Liberals gear up for byelection following the resignation of Warrandyte MP Ryan Smith

Potential candidates include opposition party’s federal vice-president and upper house MP Matt Bach as Labor considers whether to contest electorate

The Victorian opposition will face voters for the first time since John Pesutto took on the leadership, with a byelection to be held following the resignation of the long-serving Liberal MP Ryan Smith.

Several potential candidates have been floated since Smith announced on Wednesday he would step down from parliament on 7 July, triggering the byelection in his electorate of Warrandyte in Melbourne’s north-east.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Queensland LNP criticised for ‘failure of leadership’ on voice – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

Why didn’t the Coalition government know about these issues?

Shouldn’t it have?

And that’s exactly I would imagine the issues that will be fleshed out by this inquiry it, because this has been a loophole if you like, but that said privacy provisions, particularly when you’re dealing with government agencies, are really important to engender trust.

Now, as I said, there are a number of processes under way. We’ve seen what happens in recent times, when there is ongoing media commentary or into matters that relate to criminal proceedings. So we should be very careful about being part of that commentary that might impact other proper processes.

Secrecy provisions are there and privacy provisions are there for very good reasons. Now, whether those privacy provisions manifested in the best outcome here is for others to say, but I don’t think we should throw the baby out of the bathwater. We want to make sure that people have trust in the ATO trust when they give information to agencies that it will be kept private.

But look, this will all be flushed out it will all be flushed out in two inquiries. One by the AFP – there’s been a reference made to them already. And the other by a Senate references inquiry and I don’t want to pre-empt exactly what that particular that references inquiry will find. My colleagues right across the chamber will be investigating this issue, I would imagine, very thoroughly along with others to do with the PwC scandal.

Continue reading...

Rental units only $39 cheaper than houses per week as demand soars for affordable options

CoreLogic says units are now the only option for many tenants but supply is limited, forcing up rents

Renting a house in Australia costs just $39 more a week than renting a unit, compared to a difference of $64 a year ago, new research shows.

Kaytlin Ezzy, an economist at property data firm CoreLogic, said Australians have been increasingly turning to units amid sky-rocketing rents. This has caused the rental price gap between houses and units to shrink as demand for units outstrips supply.

Continue reading...

Australia politics live: Lambie threatens to disrupt Senate over Afghanistan medals; question time under way

Follow the latest news

Adam Bandt rails against Woodside’s exclusion from petroleum resource rent tax

Greens leader Adam Bandt is speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast about the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) changes and in particular the fact that Woodside’s Western Australian North-West Shelf project isn’t included in it.

The tax is still broken, and they’re meant to be subjected to it. They should pay their fair share of tax. As I say, even after these changes, Australia only brings in a few $100 million extra from these big gas corporations that are making billions of dollars of profits. It’s about a 10th of what comparable countries bring in. If we made these guess corporations pay their fair share of tax. They’d be an extra $94 billion over the decade to go to things like delivering cost-of-living relief, funding a rent freeze, getting dental into Medicare.

Continue reading...

Mehreen Faruqi reveals she has ‘experienced racism in the Greens’

Senator’s comments come as leader Adam Bandt says the party is yet to see the complaint of racism foreshadowed by Lidia Thorpe

Senator Mehreen Faruqi has revealed she has “experienced racism in the Greens” as leader Adam Bandt declined to rule out that the party had received complaints about alleged racism beyond one expected from Lidia Thorpe.

Faruqi, the Greens’ anti-racism spokesperson, made the comments at a press conference on Tuesday at which Bandt confirmed the party is yet to see the complaint of racism foreshadowed by senator Thorpe on the ABC on Sunday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Bruce Lehrmann drops defamation case and settles with News Corp over Brittany Higgins reports

The two parties reportedly settled with News Corp saying it had not paid any damages and the articles in dispute would remain online

Bruce Lehrmann has discontinued defamation proceedings against News Corp over its initial reporting of Brittany Higgins’ allegations after he settled with the media company.

News.com.au said in a statement that the settlement involved the payment of a portion of Lehrmann’s legal costs only.

Continue reading...

Guardian Essential poll: majority of Australians support rent freezes, migration cap amid housing crisis

Poll finds respondents support policies of the Greens and Coalition, posing a potential risk to the Albanese government

A majority of voters support severe measures to tackle the housing crisis including freezing rents, capping migration and using superannuation for housing, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.

The poll of 1,138 people, released on Tuesday, finds support for a range of signature policies of the Greens and Coalition, demonstrating the risk posed to the Albanese government if it is not seen to be doing enough to fight rising rents and property prices.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

57% supporting preventing wealthy families using family trusts to minimise tax, and just 15% opposed

49% supporting only allowing negative gearing on one investment property, and just 17% opposed

47% wanting to tax deceased estates worth more than $5m to fund affordable rentals, and 23% opposed; and

36% supporting removing all negative gearing tax concessions on investment properties and 25% opposed.

Continue reading...

Mark McGowan: why the only way was down for Western Australia’s political rock star

After being lauded for his tough Covid response and winning the most one-sided election in Australian history, Labor premier goes out at the top


It is telling that, at the age of 55, Western Australia’s premier, Mark McGowan, cited exhaustion, rather than the fulfilment of political ambition, as the main reason for his sudden resignation.

McGowan strode into the state’s highest office in 2017, but it was his Covid response that propelled him into unprecedented power in 2021, with his party wining the most one-sided election result in Australia’s history – taking 53 of 59 seats in the lower house.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: 3.8 magnitude earthquake largest to hit Melbourne in over a century

Thousands of people contacted Geoscience Australia to report they felt shaking, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage. Follow the latest updates

Paterson says the Indigenous voice to parliament’s differentiation on the basis of characteristics people have no control over is “offensive to liberal principles.”

Asked about whether he agrees with his leader Peter Dutton, when he talks about the voice re-racialising Australia, Patterson says:

What proponents of the yes campaign are trying to do is to treat Australians differently. …what we are doing is putting into our constitutional something which treats people differently because of a characteristic over which they have control. And I think that is offensive to liberal principles. And we are all human beings and we’re all Australian, and we should be all treated equally before the law before the Constitution as well.

It is in Australia’s national interest that Ukraine prevail. We have to do everything in our power to ensure they do.

Continue reading...

Albanese urges all citizens to discuss Indigenous voice to ensure successful referendum

Success ‘will depend on millions of conversations between Australians of all backgrounds and faiths and beliefs’, PM says in speech

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has urged citizens to discuss the Indigenous voice to parliament with friends and family to ensure the referendum’s success. He also claims the no campaign has radically underestimated Australians, who would not succumb to fear campaigns about the constitutional change.

Albanese will use a major speech in Adelaide on Monday to counter claims the government has rushed into the referendum, saying the voice and calls for Indigenous constitutional recognition have developed over decades.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Lidia Thorpe to lodge racism claim against Greens party with Human Rights Commission

Independent senator also foreshadowed abstaining from Senate vote on Indigenous voice referendum in interview with ABC

Senator Lidia Thorpe says she will lodge a complaint to the Human Rights Commission against her former party, the Australian Greens, claiming she experienced racism during her time in the organisation.

But the party said it is not aware of the complaint and is committed to stamping out racism at work and in parliament.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Lidia Thorpe to lodge human rights complaint alleging racist treatment from the Greens

Follow all the day’s news

Sydney man arrested for alleged major heroin smuggling operation after deportation

A Sydney man has been charged for allegedly orchestrating one of the biggest heroin imports in recent history after being deported from Türkiye, the Australian Federal Police has said.

Police will allege the man has been based in a number of countries since March 2020 and is responsible for organising the importation of 347.9kg of heroin into Sydney in December 2020, while he was based in Thailand. It will also be alleged this man has extensive links to transnational organised crime groups, which helped facilitate this importation.

Continue reading...

Only 12 of 35 dementia units promised by 2023 Australia-wide are operational, health department says

Exclusive: spokesperson says six units more will open by the end of 2024 but declines questions about cause of delay

Just 12 of a promised 35 specialist dementia units the government committed to have running by 2023 are operational, a health department spokesman has said.

To respond to a growing number of people with dementia and suffering from severe behavioural and psychological symptoms, the federal government in 2016 announced the Specialist Dementia Care Program [SDCP].

Continue reading...

Bridget McKenzie praises Victorian Nationals’ vote against Indigenous voice; third teenager comes forward over Surry Hills fire – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, is speaking from the Northern Territory on the Indigenous voice to parliament as today marks 56 years since the 1967 referendum.

Today marks 56 years since the 1967 referendum. One of the most successful federal referendums in Australia’s history. A day when Australians came together to vote to change the constitution so Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would be counted as part of the population.

As a nation, we look back at the 1967 referendum, at Charlie Perkins and his freedom rights, at more than a 90% vote “yes” which was done with great pride.

Continue reading...

Maria Kovacic: former NSW Liberal president will replace Jim Molan in Senate as Andrew Constance’s bid fails

Kovacic ran for the lower house seat of Parramatta in the last federal election but was defeated by Labor’s Andrew Charlton

A former president of the New South Wales Liberal party will fill the Senate vacancy left by Jim Molan, who died of prostate cancer in January.

Maria Kovacic, who resigned from her official party position to run for the NSW Senate seat, defeated her closest challenger, Andrew Constance, a former NSW cabinet minister.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Linda Burney hits back at Dutton’s claim Labor risking reconciliation with Indigenous voice referendum

Minister for Indigenous Australians says referendum ‘will be determined by the Australian people, not politicians’

The minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, has hit back at comments from Peter Dutton and accused the opposition leader of “playing politics” with the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum and dividing Australians.

Dutton said on Saturday the cause of reconciliation could be set back if the referendum on an Indigenous voice failed but accused the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, of starving Australians of detail.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...