Category Archives: Australian politics

Australia news live: more rain across flooded Queensland region brings ‘extended peak’

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Major flood warning issued in north-west Queensland after Burketown residents evacuated overnight. Follow the day’s news live

Control of submarines will remain with Australia: Courtney

Courtney appears confident that control of the submarines will remain with Australia, saying “no one wants to be in a situation where there is any conflict of who is in charge or who is giving orders or who is taking orders”.

We understand that that is precious for every nation, to be able to control and make their own decisions.

We have such a carve-out for Canada today. Again, the defence sectors are much more free-flowing and seamless because of the fact that we made that adjustment, and that is going to be a focus.

No one will be foisting off clunkers on good friends and allies.

We need to train up the Australian sailors and officers in terms of nuclear propulsion which is all we’re talking about here, not nuclear weapons. And when the time comes for the deeds, the title to be handed to the government of Australia of a vessel, that again is going to be totally with the full understanding that it is going to be under Australian control.

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Coalition demands government release Indigenous voice legal advice

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Julian Leeser says Australians deserve to know what the solicitor general said about the power of the voice to advise executive government

Julian Leeser has demanded the release of legal advice about the Indigenous voice’s power to advise the executive government, claiming Australians have a right to know if its top lawyer has “concerns”.

The shadow attorney general wrote to his counterpart, Mark Dreyfus, on Friday. And he reiterated his demand for any advice by the solicitor general to be released in an interview on Sunday. The referendum working group has not yet made its final recommendation.

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Attacks on Hindu temples have ‘no place in Australia’, PM says; Sydney trains hit by delays – as it happened

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Burketown flood at ‘record levels’ with helicopter evacuations to continue throughout the day. This blog is now closed

Pandemic marriage laws protected LGBTQI people, advocate says

Marriage laws intended to give couples more flexibility through the Covid-19 pandemic offer LGBTQI people critical protection from discrimination and persecution, an advocate says.

This move to enable a celebrant to witness remotely the signing of a notice of intended marriage needs to be made permanent.

It’s not just for the convenience of anyone. There’s still a lot of queer people in Australia who are not out.

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Hillsong under investigation by charities regulator over explosive allegations aired in parliament

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Documents tabled by MP Andrew Wilkie claim to show church used jobkeeper funds to help purchase Melbourne’s Festival Hall

The federal charities regulator is investigating Hillsong over explosive allegations aired under parliamentary privilege that it engaged in money laundering and tax evasion, with claims the mega-church earned $80m more than it publicly declared.

Financial documents tabled in parliament by the independent MP Andrew Wilkie, obtained from a whistleblower, claim to show Hillsong used funds from the jobkeeper wage subsidy program to help fund the purchase of Melbourne’s Festival Hall, and that its founder, Brian Houston, used tithes from parishioners to pay for upgraded hotel quarantine accommodation when returning from overseas at the height of the Covid pandemic.

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Queensland mother whose son took his life calls for change at robodebt royal commission – As it happened

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Inquiry into the unlawful scheme, which ran from 2015 to 2019, is ongoing. This blog is now closed

Final robodebt hearing shines light on people affected

A Centrelink employee and a customer impacted by the illegal robodebt scheme will be the final two witnesses appearing at the royal commission’s public hearings, AAP reports.

The international standard now in the OECD area is beyond 52 weeks. It’s great we’re moving to 26 but we are not going fast enough, doing what other countries are doing. We have slipped down the international rankings on paid parental leave.

It’s very important that we give the support to parents when a new baby arrives so they can share the leave, they can begin life with a new child, give that child the best shot and alongside that, of course, we need quality, early childhood education and care which we in the Greens think should be free, just like primary school.

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Australia politics live: NAB passes on full rate hike; pre-departure Covid testing to end for China, Hong Kong, Macau travellers

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Covid measures had been in place since 5 January, after China halted a lot of its own protocols. Follow the day’s news live

Gallagher aware of funding issue on national partnership agreements

A lot of funding in Australia is tied up in national partnership agreements. They are usually for short periods – the commonwealth works with the states to come to an agreement on funding, but it often means that agreements almost come to an end (or indeed, do end) and need emergency funding to continue while the next national partnership is worked out.

That agreement, which this money flows through is part of the national housing and homelessness agreement. And we are in active negotiations with the states. I’m aware of the funding issue. This is, you know, to give appropriate remuneration funding for or funding for payment for staff and Julie Collins is working hard on it. I can’t give you an answer today because it is right literally on our table.

We certainly were aware of the inflation problem in October. So you saw that we were we had upside, revenue coming in to the budget that we banked that – I think it was 99% in the first two years and 94% of the upside revenue over the forward estimates.

Now that was an important message, not just from the fact that we’re going to be fiscally responsible, but that where we can, you know, show restraint in spending.

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Labor meets Greens demand for ban on reconstruction fund investment in coal, gas and native logging

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Deal secures passage of NRF bill through lower house and provides likely pathway to pass it in Senate

The Albanese government has agreed to the Greens’ demands to ban the national reconstruction fund from direct investment in coal, gas and native logging projects.

The deal secured the passage of the NRF bill through the lower house on Thursday and gives Labor a likely pathway to pass it in the Senate with the support of the Greens and crossbench in late March.

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Sydney trains delayed due to ‘communication issue’ – as it happened

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Facing up to financial distress

It is not just academic though – there have been increased reports of people feeling distressed because of financial pressures.

When people are under extreme financial pressure, that has implications for their wellbeing more broadly. I mean, I think that is understood. And I’m sure that the governor in accepting that meeting understands that.

What we want to do as government is make life a little bit easier for people where we can, whether it’s with energy bills, whether it’s with cheaper early childhood education, cheaper medicines, trying to get wages moving again, financial security is a big part of what we’re focused on, particularly when these cost-of-living pressures are so acute.

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Lidia Thorpe denies dating former bikie boss and is cleared of wrong doing by senators

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Exclusive: Former Greens senator denies relationship with Dean Martin and says she was told by her then party’s lawyers to say she dated him

Senator Lidia Thorpe has denied she ever dated former Rebels bikie boss Dean Martin and instead alleged she was told by lawyers for the Greens to claim the pair had a relationship.

A Senate privileges committee report into “possible obstruction” of the law enforcement committee – of which Thorpe was once a member – has found she should have declared her links to Dean Martin. However, it found that the former Greens senator did not disclose any of the committee’s sensitive activities and that she should not be found in contempt.

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Women earn $1m less than men over lifetime and retire with $136,000 less super, study finds

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Research adds to growing calls to pay more parental leave and for superannuation on paid parental leave

Women in Australia earn $1m less on average over their lifetimes than men and retire with $136,000 less in superannuation, according to research released on International Women’s Day.

The research by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, released on Wednesday, suggests that the biggest driver of the gap in retirement savings is still the gender pay gap.

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Paul Keating blasts Age and SMH for ‘provocative’ China war story

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Former Australian PM criticises ‘extent of the bias’ in newspapers’ front-page report warning of armed conflict in Indo-Pacific

The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has accused two of the country’s biggest newspapers of “the most egregious and provocative news presentation” in five decades, after they published front-page stories warning the country faced war with China within three years.

The former Labor leader, who has long argued Australia should not be drawn into a war over the status of democratically governed Taiwan, took aim at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age on Tuesday.

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Australia politics live: RBA interest rates decision due today; Atlassian cuts 500 jobs in latest tech layoffs

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Australian software company to cut about 500 jobs, representing 5% of its workforce. Follow the day’s news

Climate change minister: many industries cannot comply with emissions reduction without offsets

What about what David Pocock wants – limits on the number of carbon credits big polluters can use? Chris Bowen says:

My position publicly is the same as it is privately – that if you put hard caps on carbon credits when you’re requiring 4.9% emissions reduction each and every year, then that is a problem, because you’ve got industries which won’t be able to comply with that without without accessing [credits].

Now, people say you can’t offset your way to net zero and you can’t offset your way to the 1.5 degrees. And I agree with that.

Mr Bandt with respect says ‘well, there’s this pipeline of projects and Labor wants to approve them’, now that is not the case.

What there is, is a register of projects which companies have … filled in and said one day we might want to develop this or we’re interested in developing this … many of them are yet to get environmental approvals, finished final investment, decisions for board approval, insurance, finance, etc.

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Voice referendum no campaign’s lack of tax-deductible status ‘discriminatory’, Warren Mundine says

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Exclusive: Leading no campaigner has called on government to quickly approve status but his organisation is yet to formally apply

The no campaign in the voice referendum has asked the government to quickly approve its bid to receive tax-deductible donations for its campaigning, applying for the status five months after it was granted to the yes side.

Leading no campaigner Warren Mundine has told the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, it would be “discriminatory” to not give the same tax concessions to both sides. But despite complaints from voice critics that the government had extended deductible gift recipient (DGR) status to the yes side, federal agencies said this week they had not yet received any application from the no side.

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Opposition demand funding for yes and no campaigns – as it happened

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The RBA board will meet tomorrow to make its decision about raising interest rates (which, if it does so, will be the 10th increase in a row). The board has said it won’t hesitate to raise interest rates again and again to get inflation down to its target band (between 2 and 3%), but the data shows whatever savings buffer some people had after the pandemic is diminishing.

David Pocock told ABC Breakfast TV it might be time to look at how we deal with inflation:

I mean, this is a big question. There’s so many Australians doing it tough. My understanding is that they are simply implementing the rules. I’d like to maybe see some discussion about the rules.

If – you know, to reduce inflation, is the best way just to give money to the banks? You know, there’s surely a better way of locking up some of the cash in the economy, whether it’s putting it into super, raising the GST, I don’t know – but to have politicians criticise what seems to be just the process that has been set up by politicians is one thing.

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Labor approves $9.5m for ‘facts of the voice’ but says it is not funding de-facto yes campaign

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Coalition ‘concerned government is putting fingers on the scales’ and independent David Pocock says information should be fact-checked

The Albanese government has authorised $9.5m of spending for a voice civics and awareness campaign to include the “facts of the voice” but insists it is not funding a de facto yes campaign.

The new $9.5m was contained in the “decisions taken but not announced” section of October’s budget, revealed in a legislative instrument made by the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, on Thursday.

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PM says Labor has ‘balance right’ on super tax concessions – as it happened

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Adam Bandt says Greens could support key Labor climate policy if fossil fuels developments paused

The Greens say they could support the Albanese government’s changes to the safeguard mechanism – a key climate policy – if it agreed to pause new fossil fuel developments until the parliament has dealt with planned changes to national environment laws.

Under Labor - no more privatisation. We’ll build the tunnel but we won’t sell it.

Any revenue from tolls goes straight back into public hands to build for the future.

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Tanya Plibersek urges assault survivors to reach out for help after her daughter reveals own story

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In an extract of a new book, Plibersek says her daughter’s experience was part of the reason she didn’t seek the Labor leadership in 2019

Tanya Plibersek has urged survivors of assault to reach out for help after her daughter revealed her own story of sexual and domestic violence.

In an extract from Margaret Simons’ book Tanya Plibersek: On Her Own Terms, published in the Good Weekend magazine on Saturday, the former Labor deputy leader revealed part of the reason she did not run for leader of the party in 2019 was because her daughter was involved in legal action related to the abuse at the time, and would be appearing as a witness in court.

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Australia joins Quad countries to launch new counter-terror talks – as it happened

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Australia, the US, India and Japan join to ‘counter new and emerging forms of terrorism, radicalisation to violence and violent extremism’. This blog is now closed

‘A broken promise writ large’

Opposition leader Peter Dutton was also on the Today show (which has clearly been busy this morning).

They want to tax you on the profit before you actually sell the shares, which is unbelievable. And I think it continues to go from disaster to disaster for the government.

You can’t as a prime minister look people in the eye and tell them one thing and do the complete opposite, a broken promise writ large.

It is a modest change ... It only affects people if you have $3m in your superannuation fund. That’s about 0.5% of superannuants.

We inherited a budget from Peter [Dutton] and his crew which was a trillion dollars in debt. There’s nothing to show for it. We need to be responsible. That’s what we’re trying to do.

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David Pocock wants urgent action on carbon credit system ahead of vote on key climate policy

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Crossbench senator’s support is crucial if government is to introduce planned revamp of safeguard mechanism

Independent senator David Pocock has urged the Albanese government to quickly implement all recommendations from a review of Australia’s carbon credit system, given it wants to introduce a climate policy that relies heavily on offsets.

Pocock’s is a key vote if the government is to introduce a planned revamp of the safeguard mechanism, a scheme that is meant to reduce carbon pollution from 215 big polluting industrial and resources sites.

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Scott Morrison’s secret ministries used as grounds for Afghan man’s cancelled visa case

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In court challenge, man argues decision by ex-home affairs minister Karen Andrews was not valid as Morrison had displaced her

An Afghan man has challenged Karen Andrews’s decision to cancel his visa in 2021, arguing that Scott Morrison’s multiple ministerial appointments displaced her as home affairs minister and rendered the decision void.

The federal court case, brought by a former employee of the US embassy in Afghanistan who is known as CEU22, indirectly challenges the validity of all visa cancellation decisions made personally by the minister from the date of Morrison’s appointment on 6 May 2021 to the Coalition’s election loss in May 2022.

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