Nearly half of voters who switched to an independent candidate at 2022 election did so because of climate fears, researchers say
Concern about the climate crisis was the No 1 issue that prompted Australians to switch their vote to an independent candidate at this year’s federal election, according to in-depth social research.
It was the No 2 issue that led to people to swing to Labor, behind concern about the cost of living – including affordable housing.
Continue reading...Party also argues Victorian campaign finance reforms favoured Andrews government as Anthony Albanese calls out media ‘scare campaign’
The Coalition must improve its offering to female voters and oppose electoral laws that entrench incumbent Labor governments, federal Liberals have suggested following their disappointing Victorian election defeat.
But Anthony Albanese argued on Sunday the election also has lessons for the media, citing adverse commentary about Victorian premier Daniel Andrews as part of a “scare campaign” that had fallen flat.
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Continue reading...The Liberal leader needs to pick up 18 seats to form government outright in the Vic state election. Who is winning? Follow all the latest news, results, analysis and reaction tonight
Matthew Guy says he would redivert $2bn allocated to the Suburban Rail Loop
Returning to Victoria again, opposition leader Matthew Guy has appeared on Weekend Sunrise to say he hopes he’s convinced voters of his “positive and focused” plan.
Everywhere I have been on pre-polling booths ... this week, people are pretty clear they want the fresh start.
We want a reboot in this state, we want to come out of Covid-19 and put aside all the dark memories of the past, like the government that put us there.
Continue reading...Police threaten to arrest protesters unless they leave store. Follow all the day’s news
Niki Savva also reports in her book that the shadow cabinet (of which Ley is the deputy leader) decided to downplay the issue.
ABC asks Ley if that was a mistake:
That’s not a description I would agree with. And I don’t comment of course on what happens in shadow cabinet.
Also revealed is that Josh Frydenberg put to Scott Morrison, you wouldn’t do it again, if you had you time over and Scott Morrison reportedly replied, ‘Yes, I would.’
Are you alarmed by that?
That’s a report of one person saying something to another. And you’re asking a third party who wasn’t privy to either.
Was this extreme overreach?
Well, I’m not a public commentator, I’m deputy leader of the opposition and both the former prime minister and the former treasurer are friends of mine and I actually note that they’re friends with each other, as Josh says in that report, so I’m not going to get into who said what and when.
But the question was, is it extreme overreach?
Well I’m just not a public commentator, I’m not going to engage.
With respect you’re the deputy leader of the Liberal party, you either think it’s extreme overreach, or you don’t.
I think the most important thing is what Peter Dutton and I said at the time – we will support any action or steps required to close the loophole that facilitated this and that includes legislative change, by the way.
So descriptions of what went on in the past, people can make those those comments, and they will and they have, but what I think people in the public need to hear is what we will do going forward and we have made that very clear.
Continue reading...Three guest panellists give their verdict on how the parties performed in the final week of the campaign
We are down to the wire. The polls are different enough to cause anxiety all round, but they agree on the trends: an increased vote for the Greens, independents and minor parties, and a turn away from Labor – though not enough to mean defeat.
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese says his government will accept all recommendations of Bell report on former PM’s secret ministries
Scott Morrison’s secret appointment to additional ministries was “apt to undermine public confidence in government” and was “corrosive of trust in government”, Virginia Bell has found.
In a report, released on Friday, the former high court justice said Morrison’s appointments to the health and finance ministries were “unnecessary” while three other appointments “had little if any connection to the pandemic”.
Continue reading...Canadian internet celebrity speaks to packed room of rightwing politicians including Pauline Hanson and Matt Canavan at Parliament House
As the prime minister and opposition leader attended a Parliament House barbecue for prostate cancer awareness, a red meat advocate of a different kind was addressing a packed room of conservative MPs just metres away.
The Canadian psychologist and internet personality Jordan Peterson, fresh off being unbanned from Twitter, drew a lunchtime crowd of Liberal, National and One Nation politicians for an hour-long lecture touching on energy, climate and opportunities for the political centre-right.
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How can strengthening federal laws stop the destruction of sacred heritage sites?
Tanya Plibersek:
I think I think it’s really worth having a look at the two inquiries that the the parliament undertook into the Juukan Gorge destruction because it describes not just the failure of laws, but the failure of process and the failure of people to listen and that happened at the commonwealth level and it also happened at the West Australian state government level.
The other thing that it describes is a company that paid lip service to consultation and really, you know, really didn’t do what it should have done when Aboriginal people said you can’t blow up caves that are 46,000 years old, that have examples of continuous use and habitation that you know, the site of finds like a 4,000-year-old hair belt, and tools that are tens of thousands of years old.
There’s absolutely a sense of urgency to ensure that this sort of cultural heritage destruction doesn’t happen again.
I completely agree with that, but a very strong message from the the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance is also that they genuinely want to sit at the table to work through these issues in partnership and cooperation.
Yeah, I’m not going to put I’m not going to put a timeline on it yet. I think that’s something that we determined as we work through the complexity of these issues, and there are a lot of complexities involved.
Continue reading...Peter Dutton says Coalition is still in discussions but sources say free vote is likely, in defiance of John Howard’s advice
The Liberal party is expected to allow members the freedom to campaign however they wish on the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, defying advice from former prime minister John Howard.
There is a broad range of views in the opposition on Labor’s plan for constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, but even Liberal supporters say the government must give more information about the voice and conduct a parliamentary inquiry before they could pledge their support.
Continue reading...Liberal MP Karen Andrews addressed the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in parliament. Follow all the day’s news
Independents to launch report on whistleblower protections
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has been arguing for more protections for whistleblowers for years. The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has proposed new laws to boost whistleblower protections, but there are still calls the law needs to go further.
Protecting Australia’s Whistleblowers: The Federal Roadmap draws on landmark research and synthesises three decades of reviews to outline a comprehensive, 12-step roadmap for better protecting and empowering whistleblowers.
Establishment of a whistleblower protection authority to oversee and enforce Australia’s whistleblower protections;
Upgraded whistleblower protections for Australian public servants in line with domestic and international best practice, including a positive duty to protect whistleblowers and steps to make it easier for whistleblowers to enforce their rights;
Consolidation and harmonisation of whistleblowing laws across the private sector in one new single law covering all non-public sector whistleblowers; and
Stronger, simpler protections for whistleblowers who make disclosures to the media and members of parliament.
The mortality ratios from Covid in Australia are quite similar to those estimated in other advanced nations. As a share of the population, fewer people died from Covid in Australia than in most other affluent nations. Yet among those who died, the same health inequalities can be seen in Australia as in other advanced countries.
What might have driven the socioeconomic disparities in Covid mortality? And why might many of those disparities have been largest in the Delta wave? As I have noted, disadvantaged people may be less able to work remotely, more reliant on public transport, and more likely to live in crowded households. Uptake of vaccination and antiviral treatments have varied across society as vaccines and treatment became increasingly available. Another factor is that successive Covid waves have had varying degrees of severity. A final factor is that in the years since Covid began, population immunity has steadily risen.”
Across all waves of the pandemic, deaths from Covid were highest among those aged 80‑89 years. The median age of those who died from Covid was 87.4 years for females and 83.6 years for males. Males had a higher number of registered Covid deaths than females. For every 100 female Covid deaths, there were 126 male Covid deaths. Around 3-quarters of all Covid deaths occurred in Victoria and New South Wales.
Continue reading...Independent MP proposes to make voting mandatory for young people aged 16 and 17, but with no fines
Independent MP Monique Ryan and the Greens will both renew a push to lower the voting age in Australia in the new year.
Ryan has said she will introduce a private member’s bill, to require 16 and 17-year-olds to vote but without the threat of fines, or work with the Greens, which have a bill in the Senate to extend the franchise with voluntary voting.
Continue reading...Albanese government backs away from controversial change as part of once-in-a-decade review of disability pension eligibility criteria
The Albanese government has backed down from a controversial proposal that would have made it harder for people with drug and alcohol-related conditions to get access to the disability support pension.
But it is still facing calls to do more to address longstanding problems with the design of the disability pension, amid record levels of people on jobseeker living with a disability.
Continue reading...Crossbench senator David Pocock says the two extra sitting days approved by the Senate to pass legislation is ‘a start’ but more time is needed
The Albanese government has fast-tracked a final vote on the territory rights bill in a bid to shore up its chances of passing industrial relations law changes this year.
The Senate has approved a plan for two extra sitting days this Friday and next and a final conscience vote on the bill to restore territories’ ability to legalise voluntary assisted dying on Thursday 1 December – a key demand of crossbench senator David Pocock.
Continue reading...David Pocock was asked how he would vote on the IR bill, if he was made to vote for it today while on ABC radio RN.
He said he couldn’t “in good conscience” vote for the bill, if it came to the crunch today (which it won’t, it was a hypothetical).
Continue reading...Briefing note reveals surveillance among ‘key initiatives being further explored’ by home affairs department
Electronic monitoring is being considered to help clear the “intractable” caseload of people in immigration detention, according to a document released under freedom of information.
According to an August briefing note, surveillance is among alternatives to immigration detention under consideration by the home affairs department. These also include better risk assessment, an independent panel to advise on the release of people in detention and a “step-down” model into community detention.
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Buy now, pay later review has been coming for a while
The last time the issue was examined, under the previous government, it was decided the industry could regulate itself.
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Birmingham against a windfall tax for oil and gas companies
Birmingham says he is opposed to a windfall tax for oil and gas companies to help assist with rising energy prices.
We don’t think that simply slugging a tax in relation to companies is going to do anything for the energy prices of Australians. You’ve got to fix supply in the gas market to provide for genuine outcomes there, and those types of taxes will actually only hurt you in the longer term because they will act as an investment disincentive and you have less supply for the future.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has previously said limiting global heating to 1.5C as set out in the Paris agreement meant there can be no new oil, gas or coal investment beyond 2021.
A windfall tax is not about shoring up gas supplies, but generating revenue which can re-invested in new renewable energy projects and other decarbonisation projects.
I strongly support recognition and have done for many years and, of course, the debate around the voice has come along subsequent to early efforts to try to achieve Indigenous recognition. When it comes to the model for the Voice, I do think Australians deserve to see more detail and have more answers about how it will work, how it will be constituted and how it will make a difference. I understand the very passionate views by those who argue for the voice and I don’t wish to see them disrespected in any way, but I also acknowledge that there are strong Indigenous views of doubt and question about whether the voice will be actually effective in achieving any substantial change on the ground in relation to Indigenous disadvantage.
We are going to be asked to support a constitutional change for a model that is as undefined by the government in relation to that model. It is not unreasonable to want to see the detail of the model.
An economy growing as strongly as possible, keeping unemployment as low as possible – those are the things that our government managed to achieve, with strong economic growth in our last year in office, with unemployment down to 50-year lows, creating the conditions for economic growth to help to drive productive wages growth.
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese open to extending the sitting calendar to debate bills on industrial relations and an anti-corruption commission
Federal parliament’s sitting calendar may be extended beyond its scheduled Christmas break next week, as the government hopes to pass a raft of complex legislation and fulfil election promises before the end of the year.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has conceded the Senate may need “extra time” to consider his contentious industrial relations bill, with the government still needing to woo crossbench senators to pass the workplace legislation.
Continue reading...Lachlan River is at major flood level and SES predicts a record peak of 7.8 metres on Monday. This blog is now closed
Poppy seed tea warning
Australians are being warned not to drink poppy seed tea, promoted on popular social media platforms, after a spate of poisoning cases across Australia linked to the home-brewed sedative.
Continue reading...Australian PM says he used meetings on sidelines of summits this week to talk about commercial openings in green energy
Anthony Albanese has revealed he discussed opportunities for Australia to commercialise new clean technology with the US during conversations with Joe Biden on the sidelines of international summits over the past week.
Winding up his nine-day travel program on Saturday in Bangkok – and as the Cop27 in Egypt moved into end game – Australia’s prime minister told journalists he spoke to Biden “about how Australia can benefit from his groundbreaking Inflation Reduction Act” passed in the US earlier this year.
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