Hearing that house prices are going down but looking around and seeing they are still astronomical?
Grogs explains why – yup, house prices are falling, but they are coming from eye-watering heights.
Continue reading...Wealthy high-polluting countries to face growing calls from poorer nations to help cover cost of extreme weather and sea level rises
Australia is being urged to increase its investment in climate action, with a new report estimating the country is funding just one-tenth of its fair share globally.
The study being released by Oxfam and ActionAid Australia on Thursday calls on Australia to immediately increase its climate finance commitments to $3bn ahead of the UN climate meeting Cop27 to be held in Egypt in November.
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Continue reading...New Covid variant is probably inevitable in northern winter, says Monique Ryan
The independent MP for Kooyong, Dr Monique Ryan, says we need to “rejig” how we are dealing with Covid.
I think we need greater transparency about the federal and state government’s approach to Covid and their plans for what is probably an inevitable new variant emerging over the northern winter.
I think workplaces and schools and aged care childcare facilities lack clarity about what the plan is for the inevitable next outbreaks of Covid and there’s a lot of uncertainty and anxiety about the fact that the government seems to have been winding back the mitigation strategies, whether we’re talking about mask-wearing, social isolation, quarantine, without really a plan for how this is going to affect people going forward.
Continue reading...And the London police have responded to the viral video of a police officer talking to a protester at Parliament Square – with a statement that reads like it is reminding officers people have the right to peaceful protests.
If you haven’t read the UK Guardian’s editorial today, you may enjoy it
Continue reading...Incoming brief to Albanese government cites risk of malicious employees accessing and inappropriately using systems
Defence is at “significant risk” from cyber insider threats, the department’s incoming brief to the Albanese government says.
That could include malicious, disgruntled or merely duped employees accessing Defence’s systems and threatening their security.
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Continue reading...Ayres stepped aside as deputy NSW Liberal leader and trade minister after a separate report into the controversial trade posting of John Barilaro. Follow all the day’s news live
Australia’s high commissioner to the UK meets with King Charles
Australia’s acting high commissioner to the UK Lynette Wood has had an audience with King Charles III.
Really what matters is we have the best possible person for the job, who can advance Australia’s interests in the best possible way, and that certainly needs a thorough and robust process to choose that person.
Continue reading...Prime minister says vote to recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution comes before any referendum on republic
Anthony Albanese has not ruled out holding a referendum on the republic if he is re-elected, saying only that it was “inappropriate” to discuss while commemorating Queen Elizabeth II.
Albanese made the remarks on Monday in a round of interviews defending plans to hold a national day of mourning public holiday on 22 September.
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Continue reading...Australia’s prime minister prepares to pay his respects to Queen Elizabeth II in the UK this week after announcing national day of mourning
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says “now is not the time” to discuss Australia becoming a republic, saying it is time of national mourning.
Albanese, who has previously expressed support for Australia becoming a republic had said any referendum on the topic would take second seat to an Indigenous voice to parliament.
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Continue reading...Anthony Albanese has set 22 September as National Memorial Service Day for Queen Elizabeth II. This blog is now closed
Howard says the popularity of the Queen was the key reason behind the republican movement failing, but that the monarchy offers stability.
I think there’s also a keener appreciation of the value of the institution and its strength. People look around the world at the moment and the alternative governance systems on offer, everyone in democracies, don’t look all that flash on occasions. I think the strength and durability and flexibility of the constitutional monarchy is something that more people appreciate than is imagined.
That is fair enough. It’s a democracy. People can argue for change. My observation is the strength of the monarchy in Australia was immeasurably increased by the personal popularity of the Queen.
Continue reading...Under little-known nationhood obligation, MPs supply patriotic objects including flags, national anthem recordings and portraits of the monarch
When Helen Browne woke to the news of the Queen’s death, she rang her federal MP.
Browne was hoping to secure one of the last complimentary portraits of Elizabeth II on offer in Australia, part of a little-known entitlement to citizens under a nationhood obligation.
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Continue reading...Guardian Australia understands the few remaining Qantas seats from Australian capital cities to London have been quickly booked since the news of monarch’s death
Australia’s travel industry says it is bracing for an “influx” of Australians deciding to travel to London to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
Guardian Australia understands the very few remaining Qantas seats from Australian capital cities to London have been quickly booked since the news of the Queen’s death. Peter Hosper, the commercial director of Travel Authority Group, said his agency was preparing for more inquiries on Monday.
Continue reading...Prime minister, opposition leader and governor general take part in ceremony. This blog is now closed
Prime minister Anthony Albanese and the governor general, David Hurley, are now walking towards the statue of the Queen, together with speaker of the house Milton Dick.
A crowd of parliamentarians and dignitaries are gathering at the Queen’s Terrace area of Canberra’s Parliament House, where a wreath-laying ceremony will take place at a statue of Queen Elizabeth.
Continue reading...People on disability pensions say they should be able to work more without having their financial support reduced
For Angela Finch, prime minister Anthony Albanese’s retelling of his story about growing up as the son of a single mother in Sydney’s public housing is wearing thin.
“His mum could not do what she did today, like she just couldn’t,” Finch told Guardian Australia, adding that soaring costs and restrictions on how much she can work before losing her welfare funding were terrifying her.
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Continue reading...The prime minister Anthony Albanese is addressing the nation about the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
He said it is a loss that is “felt deeply in Australia”. The Queen was a rare and reassuring constant in a period of massive change, he said, and was the only monarch to visit Australia, which she did 16 separate times.
There is comfort to be found in Her Majesty’s own words. “Grief is the price we pay for love.”
This is a loss we feel deeply in Australia. Queen Elizabeth II is the only reigning monarch most of us have known, and the only one to ever visit Australia. Over the course of a remarkable seven decades, Her Majesty was a rare and reassuring constant amidst rapid change. Through the noise and turbulence of the years, she embodies and exhibited a timeless decency and enduring calm. Her
Continue reading...After success of federal ‘teals’, about half of all respondents are thinking about a shift away from major parties
About half of voters – and more than two-thirds of young people – are considering backing independents at the upcoming Victorian and New South Wales state elections, in a trend described as the “Uberisation” of politics.
The latest Guardian Essential poll shows 48% of 1,100 respondents in Victoria and NSW are considering voting for an independent if one were to run in their electorate.
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Continue reading...Plagued, which revealed Scott Morrison’s multiple ministries, also details secret discussions on China, defence and border closures
The government’s new chair of the intelligence and security committee, Peter Khalil, says he is “absolutely concerned” about what appear to be leaks from the national security committee of cabinet contained in a recently published book.
Plagued, which was written by Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers and revealed how Scott Morrison appointed himself to multiple ministries in his government, also contained details of previously secret deliberations of Australia’s national security committee (NSC) of cabinet.
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Continue reading...Mark Dreyfus says he has complied with code of conduct but Peter Dutton says attorney general should have known he had investments linked to legal firm
Attorney general Mark Dreyfus is the latest government member to become embroiled in a widening furore over investments held by ministers, with the Coalition claiming the financial arrangements of several frontbenchers breach Anthony Albanese’s ministerial standards.
The attorney general denied any wrongdoing but said he will “examine the matter”, after the opposition raised concerns over a potential conflict of interest, with deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley calling for the prime minister’s office to investigate the financial arrangements of the government frontbench.
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Continue reading...Labor is due to pass its climate bill through the Senate today. Follow the day’s news live
Looks like you can expect more questions for Kristy McBain in QT today.
Paul Fletcher dropped by doors as the opposition still try to make fetch happen:
We need to see the prime minister and his ministers demonstrate that they are taking compliance with the ministerial code seriously. The prime minister talked a great deal about integrity and accountability and he needs to explain how his code operates, how he’s satisfied that his ministers are in compliance with it. His ministers need to explain how that satisfied themselves that they are in compliance with the code.
We heard a lot from Mr Albanese … about new standards of integrity and accountability. This is now the first test, with a significant number of questions being asked about compliance with the ministerial code.
Continue reading...Philip Lowe has admitted ‘the magnitude of the pickup in inflation has come as a surprise to everyone’
The Reserve Bank will need to lift the official interest rate at least twice more to ensure the “scourge” of inflation is contained, with the pace and size of increases determined in part by how fast wages pick up, the bank’s governor, Philip Lowe, has warned.
In a speech on Thursday, Lowe admitted the pace of inflation had caught the RBA and other central banks flatfooted. They had no choice but to lift the cost of borrowing to stop an “inflation psychology” from taking hold.
Continue reading...Greens leader Adam Bandt’s wife, Claudia Perkins, and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young wear dresses with slogans calling for end of fossil fuels
Parliament House’s Midwinter Ball was punctuated by climate change demonstrations as protesters outside and Greens politicians inside called on the government to phase out fossil fuels.
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young wore a dress bearing the phrase “end gas and coal”, while the wife of Greens leader Adam Bandt, Claudia Perkins, arrived in a gown emblazoned with the slogans “coal kills” and “gas kills”. The fashion statements came after criticisms raised by Senator David Pocock and climate groups about fossil fuel companies Woodside and Shell sponsoring the annual press gallery ball.
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