Category Archives: Australian politics

Atagi’s strict Covid restrictions preventing ‘desperate’ parents from vaccinating their children, expert says

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Exclusive: Vaccine recommendations should also consider effects of long Covid on the health system and workforce, Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah says

Labor MP and infectious disease specialist Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah has criticised Australia’s immunisation experts for keeping “overly restrictive” rules on access to coronavirus vaccines, urging the government to expand eligibility for children and young people in a bid to address long Covid.

The Melbourne doctor called on the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) to provide more transparency on its decision to not recommend fourth shots for people under 30 and to not allow under-fives to receive Covid vaccines. She said many parents were “desperate” to have their children vaccinated.

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$1.5bn energy price relief package for Australians including caps on coal and gas

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Treasury advised the PM and premiers not to deliver the rebates as cash handouts due to risk of fuelling inflationary pressure

Canberra and the states have agreed to cap coal and gas prices, and provide additional rebates for Australians on low and middle incomes, as part of a $1.5bn intervention that will shave hundreds of dollars off power bills.

After a national cabinet meeting on Friday, governments have agreed to cap gas prices temporarily at $12 per gigajoule and cap coal prices at $125 per tonne. Parliament will be recalled next week to implement the change.

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Australia news live: national cabinet to discuss energy fix; Victorian Labor poised to surpass 2018 ‘Danslide’

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Reducing bills will be main focus of virtual gathering of the prime minister, premiers and chief ministers. Follow all the day’s news

Ears to the ground as national cabinet meeting approaches

The rumour mill is running hot ahead of national cabinet. Here’s some of what people have been saying.

During an interview with Patricia Karvelas this morning, the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, said:

Well, I’ve confirmed that certainly people will see a reduction in their bills … The reduction will happen not in a handout, but when they get their bill. It’ll be baked into the bill.

The NSW government is leading the push for a rebate, which is believed to have in-principle backing of the Albanese government. The rebate in NSW could be worth as much as $280 for households.

The temporary rebate would be in addition to existing energy rebates already offered in NSW and Queensland for low-income households and are designed to cover the six to 12-month gap until price rises are projected to flatten under coal and gas price caps.

The future is renewable. Let’s be very blunt. Coal-fired power stations are going to close. That’s a statement of fact. We need to replace them. The transition to renewables has been too slow, and too disorderly.

The task here is to ensure that new energy comes on not after coal-fired power leaves, because that’s too late, but before.

What this is, is the safety net under this transition to ensure we have reliable energy.

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Barnaby Joyce says future Taiwan visits should include officials or even ministers

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Former deputy prime minister thinks it ‘could be smart’ for future delegations to be widened, despite risk of angering China

Future Australian parliamentary visits to Taiwan should include government officials or even ministers, Barnaby Joyce has said after meeting with Taiwan’s president.

Joyce, the former deputy prime minister and former deputy chair of the national security committee, is among a cross-party group of federal politicians visiting Taiwan this week.

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Big energy users not holding their breath on national cabinet help amid ‘outrageous’ prices

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Companies hoping, but not expecting, Albanese government can implement price caps on gas and coal

Australia’s big energy users aren’t confident national cabinet can pull a rabbit out of its hat when it meets on Friday to discuss a crucial deal to reduce gas and electricity prices.

They’ve been disappointed before – for about a decade, some say.

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Senior public servant under scrutiny at robodebt inquiry appointed head of Aukus project office

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Former head of Department of Human Services Kathryn Campbell has come under extensive questioning at the royal commission into robodebt

Kathryn Campbell, one of the senior public servants being questioned at the robodebt royal commission, has been appointed head of the Aukus joint project office at the Department of Defence.

Labor put its stamp on the public service when it won the election, moving Campbell out of the role of head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

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Andrews government on track to surpass ‘Danslide’ – as it happened

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Government yet to cap wholesale coal price, but still aiming to land ‘before Christmas’, treasurer says

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is speaking to ABC Radio. RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas asks him:

Has the government resolved to cap the wholesale coal price at $125 a tonne and the gas price at $13 a gigajoule?

There hasn’t been a concluded view reached yet, and that’s because this is a challenge of such complexity and such consequence for industry and for Australians around the country, that it needs to be a genuine partnership between governments and that requires all sides to come to the table in a reasonable and a constructive way, which recognises that one level of government can’t fix this all on its own.

The need for Aukus is even clearer today. More than ever, our three countries share of similar outlook on the key challenges and opportunities confronting our world. Aukus will enhance our shared ability to sustain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, and since creating this trilateral security partnership our defense forces, industries, and scientific communities have been hard at work. Over the past 15 months we’ve made great progress toward identifying a pathway for Australia to acquire conventionally armed and nuclear-powered submarines. Today on behalf of President Biden, I want to reaffirm the US commitment to ensuring that Australia acquires this capability at the earliest possible date, and in adherence with the highest nonproliferation standards.

And central to that is Australia being able to acquire a nuclear-powered, highly capable submarine and we are deeply grateful for the work that we’ve been able to do with both the UK and the US to enable Australia to acquire that capability. And it’s not lost on us the significance of the US and the UK, working together and transferring this technology to Australia. And there has been an enormous amount of work being done by our officials to bring this about, and obviously to bring today about. I think as we talk today, we’re all going to speak to the fact that we’re on track to be able to make this announcement in respect of what will be the optimal pathway for Australia to take in the first part of next year, which is what we have always intended to do.

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David Pocock and the Greens welcome Labor’s environmental reforms but push for more urgent action

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Crossbench says government’s response ‘moving in the right direction’ but lacks aspects such as a climate trigger and a pause on logging

The Greens and independent senator David Pocock have signalled they will expect the Albanese government to move more urgently to improve environmental protection if it is to win their support for conservation law changes next year.

On Thursday, the government released its response to the 2020 review of national environmental laws by the former competition watchdog Graeme Samuel. The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, announced a suite of proposed reforms, including a new environment protection authority and national environmental standards.

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NSW ‘almost ready to sign up’ to coal price cap to provide energy price relief

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State’s energy minister, Matt Kean, says ‘It’s not about royalties, it’s all about consumers’, putting pressure on Queensland counterpart

New South Wales is prepared to agree to a price cap on coal without compensation to provide energy price relief to consumers and business, adding pressure on Queensland to follow suit.

Meanwhile, a meeting of energy ministers in Brisbane on Thursday has agreed, as expected, to move ahead with a so-called capacity investment scheme to help accelerate the take up of new storage in the electricity grid.

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Chinese ambassador hails ‘very successful’ meeting – as it happened

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The US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, is up next.

Austin says there will be an increase rotational presence of US navy and army troops in Australia. It will see more US air, land and sea forces in Australia.

Our mateship will stand as a bedrock of future peace and security.

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Australian government overturns decision to cancel citizenship of man on death row in Iraq

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Home affairs tells Ahmad Merhi’s lawyer the law used to strip him of Australian citizenship was invalid with almost 20 other cancellations also voided

The Department of Home Affairs has overturned a decision to cancel the citizenship of a former Sydney man on death row in Iraq after it ruled the law used to strip him of his Australian citizenship was invalid.

The department has now revealed that 18 other Australians had their citizenship illegally revoked.

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Australia news live: treasurer says full impact of interest rate rises still to come as RBA flags further hikes

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The central bank has raised the cash rate by 25 basis points to a decade high of 3.1%. Follow the day’s news

Shorten confident solution will be found ‘well before Christmas’

The national cabinet meeting was supposed to see the federal government negotiate with the states on an acceptable intervention on soaring energy prices.

It will be delayed just a few days. The fact of the matter is all options are on the table.

It’s no secret with the premiers, the challenge is Putin’s war in Ukraine has flowed through to coal and gas prices all around the world and it’s affecting Australian families.

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Stuart Robert told lobbyist not to donate to Angus Taylor fundraising group as ‘it will be declared and it will hurt you’

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Exclusive: Private emails from 2018 show Robert advised Synergy 360 boss not to join supporter network for Liberal colleague

The federal Liberal MP Stuart Robert told a lobbyist and potential donor not to donate to colleague Angus Taylor’s fundraising group as it would need to be declared and “it will hurt you”, emails obtained by Guardian Australia reveal.

Robert was sent an email from his friend David Milo, the chief executive of lobby group Synergy 360, inquiring about an invitation he had received to join the Hume Forum, “the official supporters’ network of federal minister and member for Hume, Angus Taylor”.

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2 October 2018: the ECE tender opened – three companies including Infosys were shortlisted.

29 May 2019: the member for Fadden was appointed minister for human services and the NDIS.

26 June 2019: leaked emails reveal the minister met Infosys and his good friend Milo, a paid consultant to Infosys, in Sydney.

2 July 2019: final valuation was submitted – negotiations on value and period of contract continued for another four months.

8 November 2019: Infosys was awarded the first of four contracts valued at $18m.

19 November 2019: the minister met Infosys.

30 December 2019: the minister met his friend Milo on the Gold Coast, which triggered an email from Milo saying “minister gave insights on progress of Infosys and future opportunities”.

1 February 2020: the minister was guest speaker at an Infosys conference at Melbourne Park on the afternoon of the Australian Open tennis finals.

1 July 2020: Infosys was awarded a further $142m contract.

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Australia’s first nuclear submarines should be built in the US, Andrew Hastie says

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‘There’s too much risk in doing it on our own’, says shadow defence minister citing an immediate need for ‘hard power’

Australia should strike a deal with the US to have the first of its nuclear-powered submarines built in Connecticut as “there’s too much risk in doing it on our own”, the shadow defence minister, Andrew Hastie, has declared.

Speaking before senior Australian ministers meet their counterparts in the US this week, Hastie said Australia should seek one or two Virginia-class submarines off the US production line by the end of 2030.

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Labor review says Scott Morrison’s unpopularity ‘single most significant factor’ behind election win

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Election campaign review also warns party risks losing outer suburban seats in Melbourne to independents unless lessons learned

Labor’s election campaign review has concluded Scott Morrison’s unpopularity was the “single most significant factor” behind Anthony Albanese’s victory in May while identifying weaknesses that need to be addressed by 2025.

The review – undertaken by former cabinet minister Greg Combet and strategist Lenda Oshalem – praises the fundamentals of the campaign that delivered Labor majority government for the first time since 2007 but states the ALP could not be complacent.

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Bid to make key robodebt documents public blocked – as it happened

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Fans frustrated at last-minute World Cup arrangements

As fans and supporters made their way out of the Darling Harbour viewing site for the Socceroos’ round of 16 loss to Argentina, many expressed their frustration at the hastily organised event.

Lots of us got locked outside. It would have been good if they let some more people in. There were so many up there on stairs, it could’ve been more dangerous if they jumped around too much.

Six thousand people for a major sporting event is just not good enough. It looks like triple that number have turned up. It feels like they underestimated the number of people who would turn up today.

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Coalition MP’s ‘grassroots’ nuclear power survey linked to consulting firm

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Exclusive: Ted O’Brien’s Time to Talk Nuclear website was registered by business that helps US reactor company

A Coalition frontbencher conducting a “grassroots” survey about nuclear power is using a website registered by a business that helps an American small modular reactor company, records reveal.

Ted O’Brien, the shadow minister for climate change and energy, issued a statement on Friday saying he was “launching a grassroots community engagement program” under the banner “Time to Talk Nuclear”.

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Indigenous voice opponents say Labor is being ‘disingenuous’ on funding for campaigns

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Warren Mundine criticises government for giving tax-free status to yes vehicle but not an equivalent no group

Opponents of the voice to parliament claim the federal government is being “disingenuous” by declining to provide public funding to the respective sides of the debate, but say the growing no campaign will reach out to corporate Australia for funding.

The main campaign vehicle in favour of Indigenous constitutional recognition has backed the proposed amendments to laws governing referendums, as well as promising a major escalation in their campaigning early in 2023.

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PM urges climate ‘wake up’ amid floods; man mauled to death by dogs – as it happened

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fights extradition from Britain to US, where he is wanted on criminal charges. This blog is now closed

We now have more details from NSW authorities about the four-vehicle crash on Sydney’s Anzac Bridge shortly before midnight last night, which killed two people.

NSW police have named the two victims as a 25-year-old female from the local area and a 38-year-old man from Sydney’s south-west. A police representative has been speaking to reporters:

At about 11:45 last night, there was a minor collision on the Anzac Bridge involving two vehicles. A 25-year-old female and a 38-year-old male were exchanging details or doing what you need to do after you’ve had a minor collision.

At that point, there’s been another two vehicles that have become involved in that stationary collision. One was a taxi and the second was a Commodore. Tragically, the way those vehicles have collided into the stationary cars has impacted with the two pedestrians who were out on the road exchanging details and unfortunately those two people have been killed.

The last 12 hours have seen an absolute tragic number of road trauma incidents in NSW. Six people have lost their lives. Six families are grieving the loss of family members.

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Victoria’s election result dispelled the myth of Daniel Andrews’ supposed unpopularity

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Media and the Liberal party were enthralled by the ‘toxic Dan’ narrative in the face of evidence to the contrary

There is a bias all journalists share. It is baked into the profession, inseparable from craft skills, such as news sense. It is not ideological or party political. Rather, it skews the judgment towards whatever interpretation of the evidence makes for the best, most exciting story.

This, surely, is one of the reasons that so much of the media reporting of the Victorian election campaign was off the mark – particularly in the last week, when multiple outlets were predicting a late swing to the Coalition and against Labor.

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