Category Archives: Australian politics

Labor accuses Coalition of playing politics over changes to secretive intelligence committee

Posted on by

Opposition says plan to include crossbenchers in committee is ‘part of a grubby back room political deal’

The Albanese government has accused the Coalition of playing politics with national security, amid a political brawl over changes that could see crossbenchers join the secretive bipartisan intelligence committee.

There is speculation that the independent MP Andrew Wilkie could be in contention to be appointed to the committee – which only has major party members – but the government has not confirmed any potential choices.

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

Continue reading...

Deeming vows to stay in Liberal party – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Chalmers grilled about potential rent freeze

Chalmers is asked three times whether he has any views about a potential rent freeze. He says he has been focused on cost-of-living measures at the federal level.

My thoughts are we’re better off trying to encourage supply. While doing that we’re trying to take some of the edges off the pressure people are funding, that’s why I funded the biggest increase in rental assistance.

What we’ve been able to do, and I acknowledge the work of Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese working with the states and territories to do this, is to try and moderate the costs. It’s still a demand-driven program. It still will be growing very quick, the quickest growing in the budget but we need to moderate some of these costs.

In the near term that’s about cracking down on fraud and money going where it’s not supposed to be going. We also need to be making sure that we are moderating costs in – growth in costs in services and equipment, for example.

We don’t have enough homes and so whether it’s the build to rent tax breaks, the housing Australia future fund or the housing accord or some of these other measures, it recognises if we need - if we’re going to make housing more affordable, we need more supply.

But Anthony Albanese, to his credit, has shown leadership at the national cabinet level to see how we can work with the states and territories on issues like renters’ rights and that’s really important. When it comes to the agreement with the states and territories, we will do what we can.

It wouldn’t be the best negotiating tactic, David, to nominate a number today but we have said we’re prepared to extend it.

Continue reading...

Labor leaves door open for jobseeker recipients to work more hours before losing payments

Posted on by

Treasurer says government won’t rule out adopting Peter Dutton’s proposal for social security recipients to be able to earn more before being penalised

The Albanese government has kept open the option of taking up the opposition’s proposal to increase the hours jobseekers can work before losing their payments.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, declined to rule out adopting the idea, saying the government was “always looking for ways to make it easier for people to participate in work”.

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

Continue reading...

Jacqui Lambie joins thousands of Tasmanians at rally against $715m AFL stadium

Posted on by

The senator told the premier Tasmanians have had a ‘bloody gutful’ over the stadium and ‘you can stick it up your bum’

Thousands of Tasmanians have voiced their opposition to a $715m stadium critical to the state’s entry to the AFL, a day after the project brought the Rockliff government to its knees.

Australia’s only state Liberal government was thrust into minority status on Friday after two MPs quit, citing concerns over state debt and government transparency around the planned build on the edge of the Hobart CBD.

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

Continue reading...

Don Farrell invites Chinese commerce minister to visit SA family vineyard after Beijing meeting

Posted on by

The pair agreed to ‘step up’ dialogue to resolve outstanding trade issues and confirmed the review of China’s tariffs on Australian barley was ‘on track’

The Australian trade minister, Don Farrell, has invited the Chinese commerce minister to visit his family’s vineyard in South Australia after the pair met in Beijing on Friday night.

Speaking after the talks with Wang Wentao in Beijing, Farrell said he was “very pleased to confirm that we agreed to step up dialogue under our free trade agreement and other platforms to resolve our outstanding issues”.

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

Continue reading...

Peter Dutton cranks up pressure on Labor to further restrict gambling ads

Posted on by

Opposition leader joins crossbench in calling for more regulation of betting content during sports programs

Pressure is building on the Albanese government to further restrict gambling advertisements as opposition leader Peter Dutton joins calls from the parliamentary crossbench to regulate betting content.

But Dutton’s call to ban wagering ads during sporting broadcasts was slammed by the peak body for commercial TV, saying the sector was already taking action.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: John Pesutto praises Liberals’ ‘reform journey’ after Moira Deeming party room expulsion

Posted on by

Controversial MP Moira Deeming expelled from Victorian Liberal party room; ally Renee Heath sanctioned. Follow live

Medicare benefits increase will help all patients, Butler says

The surprise centrepiece of the budget was $5.7bn increased funding for Medicare, including incentives to improve bulk billing for children and concession cardholders.

Rebates aren’t frozen, every rebate on the MBS [Medicare Benefits Schedule] in going to increase next year – the biggest Medicare increase across the board – every single service, for every single Australian.

Continue reading...

Central Australian schools get record federal funding, as Labor aims to halt public education flight

Posted on by

Albanese government will spend $28bn on schools in 2023-24, but unions demand more to improve retention rates

Public schools in Central Australia will meet the minimum education funding benchmark for the first time in about a decade under the new federal budget, but the Greens say more needs to be done to close the gap between public and private education.

The Albanese government will spend a record high of $28bn on schools in 2023-24, Tuesday’s budget confirmed, rising to $31.4bn in 2026-27.

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

Continue reading...

Opposition will ‘use every tactic’ to block bill – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Treasurer pushes ‘middle Australia’ benefits in budget

Jim Chalmers says the big program changes – cheaper medicines, tripling the Medicare bulk billing incentive and childcare subsidy changes (which come in July after forming part of the last budget) will help middle Australia.

And kids under 16 … there are kids right throughout middle Australia and they will benefit substantially, but also we’re making medicines cheaper.

Also … we’ve put these caps on gas and coal and that’s the big reason for the moderation in the … electricity price increases, the household energy upgrades funds, the home guarantee scheme, the Tafe and training places, the fact that we’ve got wages moving after a decade of deliberate wage suppression and stagnation.

I think the divisive commentary is coming from the opposition. I mean … Peter Dutton is a divisive figure, but he’s not a credible figure.

He takes his cues from Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison. The rest of Australia has moved on from Abbott and Morrison but he hasn’t. And we’ll see that tonight in his budget reply. He is trying to divide people against each other in this budget.

Continue reading...

Labor’s $15bn NDIS savings push sparks concerns of service cuts

Posted on by

Bill Shorten says savings possible through tackling rorts, spiralling costs and rip-offs, but disability advocates remain sceptical

Ambitious plans to claw back $15bn from national disability insurance scheme (NDIS) spending, without changing eligibility criteria, has disability advocates worried that services will be cut in other ways.

The government says it can reduce costs from $17.2bn to $1.9bn over four years – that’s enough to pay for the government’s budget centrepiece, the $14.6bn cost-of-living package.

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

Continue reading...

Almost half of tobacco lobbyists in Australia have held positions in government, study finds

Posted on by

Research investigates the ‘revolving door’ between the tobacco industry and politics and how it influences policy

Understanding the links between tobacco companies, their lobbyists and Australian politics “was like doing a complex, 5,000-piece jigsaw with many missing or blank pieces”, Cancer Council NSW researcher Melissa Jones says.

In research that took several months, Jones and her colleagues found almost half (48%) of internal tobacco company lobbyists held positions in state, territory or federal government before or after working in the tobacco industry.

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

Continue reading...

Australia’s first national space mission up in the air after federal budget cuts

Posted on by

Industry says the Albanese government is ‘defunding space programs without explanation’

Australia’s first national space mission – building satellites to detect and respond to bushfires and floods, and to undertake maritime surveillance – is up in the air.

The former Coalition government announced $1.2bn for a National Space Mission for Earth Observation (NSMEO), designing, building and operating four new satellites, in March last year.

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

Continue reading...

Budget 2023 live updates: government ‘got the balance right’, PM says when pushed on inflation and $40 jobseeker rise – latest news

Posted on by

Treasurer to resume spruiking his budget today at the press club in Canberra. Follow the day’s news and budget analysis, live

What about the jobseeker rate?

Anthony Albanese:

Reform is never done.

What we do as a Labor government is focus on what we can do for people, but we focus as well on doing it in a really practical way. I think one of the things that we need to examine, for example, with people who are on jobseeker, is how we improve employment services to get those long-term unemployed into work quite clearly. When you have an unemployment rate of 3.5% but you have a whole lot of people who are just stuck in, in unemployment, then what you need to do is to focus on how is it that the system can be reformed so that we provide those people with employment opportunities, because that’s the key.

You can’t do everything in every budget. And if I did that, you would be asking me questions about inflation. You’d be asking me questions about whether the deficit was too large. As it is what we’ve done is produce a projected surplus. We’ve got the balance, right, providing support, doing, I think, very significant changes.

Continue reading...

Labor senator accuses PwC of ‘deception and betrayal’ in misuse of Treasury information

Posted on by

Deborah O’Neill has also raised concerns that other consultancy firms may have engaged in similar practices without being detected

An Australian senator has delivered a scathing rebuke of the consultancy firm PwC, arguing its misuse of Treasury information was a betrayal of professional ethics and standards while suggesting more resignations may be necessary.

On Monday night, the chief executive of PwC Australia, Tom Seymour, resigned after sustained criticism of the firm allegedly profiting from sharing confidential government tax policy with colleagues.

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

Continue reading...

Budget allocates millions to support Indigenous mental health through voice campaign

Posted on by

Treasurer also finds $492m for Closing The Gap plan and $250m for programs to tackle antisocial behaviour in Alice Springs

The government will devote $492m to the Indigenous Closing The Gap plan and $250m for a new strategy for central Australia and Alice Springs, but nearly $95m of that remains in a contingency fund pending further co-design processes with local communities.

The federal budget also allocates $336m to the Australian electoral commission to manage the referendum on the Indigenous voice to parliament, including $10m to print and deliver the official yes and no pamphlet to every household, plus millions to support mental health for Aboriginal people throughout the campaign. The government will also press on with developing regional voice groups before the national voice referendum is held.

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

Continue reading...

Australia’s post-pandemic surge in net overseas migration temporary, federal budget predicts

Posted on by

Most of the increase is attributed to the return of overseas students, skilled temporary visa holders and working holidaymakers

Australia’s surge in net overseas migration, forecast to be 400,000 in 2022–23, is a catchup from the pandemic and is expected to be temporary, the budget papers reveal.

The forecast for 2024–25 is 260,000, broadly in line with the long-term historical average of 235,000.

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

Continue reading...

ADF to expand Pacific links in $1.9bn budget package to boost Australia’s influence

Posted on by

After big-spending Aukus and defence announcements, Labor switches focus to diplomacy

The military and police will expand links with Pacific Island countries as part of a nearly $2bn budget package aimed at boosting Australia’s influence across the region.

After two months of rolling out big-spending defence announcements – including the Aukus nuclear-powered submarines – the Albanese government used Tuesday night’s budget to signal renewed interest in diplomacy and regional engagement.

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

Continue reading...

Treasurer delivers budget speech – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed. Follow the budget reaction blog here

Greens accuse Labor of designing budget surplus ‘for political reasons’

Greens treasury spokesperson Nick McKim is next on ABC radio RN Breakfast and he is still not happy with the changes to the petroleum resource rent tax.

This surplus has been designed for political reasons, by Jim Chalmers. And again, what we are seeing in this budget is an acknowledgment rhetorically that the government needs to do more to help people who are doing it really tough, but they are not taking the action they need to actually deliver help at the extent that it is desperately needed.

Continue reading...

NRL joins growing number of sporting codes backing Indigenous voice to parliament

Posted on by

Major Australian sporting organisations expected to play a significant role in the yes campaign, with AFL and Cricket Australia yet to announce a stance

The National Rugby League is the latest major sporting code to back the Indigenous voice to parliament, joining a growing list of elite athletic organisations campaigning for a yes vote in this year’s referendum.

As the major football codes hold their Indigenous rounds in coming weeks, a long-mooted campaign of support from sporting groups is expected to intensify toward a referendum likely to be held in October – shortly after the AFL and NRL grand finals.

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

Continue reading...

Australia politics live: Pocock says gas tax hike just ‘tinkering around the edges’; Lambie to headline Hobart anti-stadium rally

Posted on by

Labor will cap deductions to collect $2.4bn more in petroleum resource rent tax over four years. Follow the day’s news live

Jane Hume: Coalition government would offer ‘real savings’ and not ‘offsets’ in budget

The Liberal senator and shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, is now speaking to Patricia Karvelas on ABC RN Breakfast, rebutting everything Jim Chalmers just said.

The most important thing we would do is rein in expenditure … And I’m not saying that we would make cuts. I think that that is far too simplistic a term. But when something gets tight, for instance, we probably wouldn’t put on an additional 8,000 public servants which is what we’ve seen from this government just in the last 12 months …

We would make sure that the guardrails were on the budget so that we had a tax to GDP ratio, so that not only do we have offsets for your expenditure – which is of course, what this government is talking about when it says savings – we would have genuine savings and bank those savings to make sure that you don’t just deliver a surplus in one year, but you deliver it sustainably in future years.

The previous Coalition government spent $20.8bn outsourcing more than a third of public service operations, an audit has found.

The federal government released the findings of the Australian public service audit of employment on Saturday, which examined the hiring practices and associated costs of 112 public service agencies, excluding the CSIRO, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and parliamentary departments.

It’s nonsense to say that consultants aren’t needed to assist with public service responsibilities. All governments need external expert support and advice and often it’s a more efficient means of having access to that expertise.

Continue reading...