Category Archives: Australian politics

Indigenous voice campaigners say ample detail already available in wake of PM’s stirring speech

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Uluru Statement from the Heart advocates praise Anthony Albanese’s Garma festival speech but Coalition wants more details

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, acknowledged we have been here before as a nation: at a crossroads, about to decide a path that will affect the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Islander people for generations to come.

But for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, this time the stakes are so much higher, because the past is littered with the broken promises of politicians.

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Coalition offers qualified support for Indigenous voice as PM reveals referendum wording – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese announces draft wording of referendum question in Garma festival speech. This blog is now closed

AFP says reports of human trafficking and slavery reach highest ever level

Reports of human trafficking and slavery to the AFP have increased to their “highest ever reported”, according to new data released today.

This is the first time in Australia’s history where the uptake of a unified training and awareness-raising protocol to combat human trafficking and slavery will be delivered across all frontline agencies and jurisdictions.

This represents a critical step to addressing the scourge of human trafficking in the Australian community and it’s a job the AFP and our partners will work together to combat.

Dr Khorshid was elected AMA president during the first peak of the pandemic and quickly became the voice of reason, of calm and of urgency when needed – lobbying government, and fronting the media, along with hard-working vice-president Dr Chris Moy, to send clear messages about the pandemic.

His leadership was particularly critical during the early stages when there was no vaccine, and the focus was on implementing effective public health measures to ensure the safety of the community and healthcare workers.

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Uluru statement campaigners welcome Albanese’s referendum commitment

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Campaign director Dean Parkin says the prime minister flagging set referendum question brings ‘level of clarity’

Key players in the Uluru Statement from the Heart campaign have welcomed the PM’s commitment to a referendum question on an Indigenous voice to parliament and a form of words in the constitution, saying the proposal is almost identical to the wording they had put forward in 2018.

The From the Heart campaign director, Dean Parkin, said the announcement is a very promising step forward in a long campaign for change.

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Anthony Albanese reveals ‘simple and clear’ wording of referendum question on Indigenous voice

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Prime minister uses Garma festival speech to suggest Australians should be asked a simple yes or no question on enshrining a voice in the constitution

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the Australian people should be asked a “simple and clear” yes or no referendum question regarding whether an Indigenous voice to parliament should be enshrined in the constitution.

“We should consider asking our fellow Australians something as simple as ‘Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice?’” Albanese said in a landmark speech at the Garma festival in Arnhem Land on Saturday.

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‘Momentum is building’: high hopes for an Indigenous voice to parliament as Garma festival starts

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Anthony Albanese is first prime minister to visit Arnhem Land festival since Malcolm Turnbull in 2017

Momentum is building for an Indigenous voice to be enshrined in the constitution, an Uluru Statement from the Heart leader says, as the annual Garma festival begins in the Northern Territory.

The opportunity for a voice to parliament has arrived and if it is missed it may not return for another generation, Wiradjuri man Geoff Scott warned on Friday.

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Karen Andrews links June asylum seeker boat arrivals to Labor policy – as it happened

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Business Council calls Albanese government the most engaged she’s seen

Westacott, the council’s chief executive, told ABC Radio:

I can’t remember a more engaged government than this. I have had call after call after call from ministers.

When you add up all those little things it makes a big difference.

We need to rebrand Australia as a place we want people to come to work.

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Independents, diversity and climate: highlights of new MPs’ first speeches to Australian parliament

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As Australia’s most diverse federal parliament opened, new members introduced themselves and set out priorities

The 47th parliament is the most diverse ever, including a record number of women, 11 First Nations representatives and a lower house crossbench of 16 independent or minor party MPs.

But before any of the new MPs can speak on important bills or other parliamentary business, the first order of business is a speech to introduce yourself and set out priorities.

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Conservative Christian groups lobby federal MPs against territories’ assisted dying rights legislation

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Australian Christian Lobby says it is ‘… completely inappropriate for the new government to prioritise a controversial bill such as this’

Conservative action groups are mobilising supporters against a government push to allow territories to make their own laws on euthanasia, raising concerns around potential impacts on Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory.

The Australian Christian Lobby is flooding federal MPs with emails in a campaign to block a private member’s bill to be introduced next week, but territories minister Kristy McBain says she’s confident it will pass parliament.

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China’s targeting of Australian military planes ‘aggressive and irresponsible’, US says

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Defense department’s Ely Ratner says such incidents represent ‘one of the most significant threats to peace and stability in the region’

China’s targeting of Australian military planes was “aggressive and irresponsible”, the United States Department of Defense says, and it “represents one of the most significant threats to peace and stability in the region”.

In comments released on Thursday morning, the US defense department’s Ely Ratner said Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific was an attempt to challenge the rules-based order and assert greater control in the area.

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Jim Chalmers to cut economic growth estimates amid inflation ‘headwinds’

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Treasurer will use state of the economy speech to trim 2021-22 growth to 3.75% and provide new inflation, wage and unemployment forecasts

The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will use the state of the economy speech to trim the national growth estimates, citing global economic “headwinds”.

“[T]he headwinds our economy is facing – higher inflation at the top of that list, along with slowing global growth – are now reflected in the revised economic outcomes and forecasts,” Chalmers will tell parliament on Thursday according to an excerpt of his speech.

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Despite Australia’s soaring inflation rate, some economists say the peak may be ‘coming into view’

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Analysis: Inflation optimists look to falling global supply chain pressures but spiking energy prices suggest we haven’t reached a plateau yet

Some economists have tipped that the inflation rate has started to plateau, even after the Australian consumer price index on Wednesday showed the fastest annual pace of inflation since 2001.

Australian prices rose 6.1% in the June quarter, the quickest pace in 21 years. Yet even in that dire news from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, some economists were able to spy a silver lining.

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Australia still failing to hit more than two-thirds of Closing the Gap targets, new data shows

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Minister for Indigenous Australians says more is needed to address systemic disadvantage as data shows four of 13 targets on track

The nation is failing to address the systemic disadvantages experienced by First Nations communities, according to the latest Closing the Gap data released by the Productivity Commission on Thursday.

Four of the 13 targets are on track: the birth weights of Indigenous babies, preschool kids attending early childhood education, and youth detention rates are trending in the right direction, while gains are being seen in land and sea rights.

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From civil service to civil disobedience: Greg Hunt’s former adviser joins Extinction Rebellion protest

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Gregory Andrews was one of several former public servants at rally outside Parliament House calling for end to fossil fuel expansion

In 2013, Gregory Andrews was an adviser to the then environment minister Greg Hunt, working in an office that scrapped the Tim Flannery-led Climate Commission and abolished a national carbon price scheme.

Late last year he was Australia’s high commissioner in western Africa, where his job focused on helping push oil and gas developments by Australian companies.

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Australia politics live: Pauline Hanson under fire for welcome to country walkout; Kylea Tink and Stephen Bates make first speeches to parliament

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AAP has a preview of today’s inflation figures, which are going to be horrible:

Australia could be about to record its worst inflation outcome in more than 31 years, paving the way for higher mortgage and lending rates.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the consumer price index data for the June quarter – when the price of a supermarket iceberg lettuce hit $10 – on Wednesday.

The financial market consensus is for a headline annual inflation rate of 6.2% – the highest since the December quarter of 1990.

That would be more than the 5.1% rate logged in the March quarter, which was the fastest pace of annual price growth in 21 years.

“Since then, inflation has likely broadened and deepened,” St George chief economist Besa Deda said.

The quarterly outcome is forecast at 1.8%, which would be slightly lower than the 2.1% recorded in the previous quarter.

But the range of economists’ forecasts for the quarterly number is wide – between 1.6% and 2.8% – signalling uncertainty about how deeply entrenched price pressures have become since March.

While the main drivers of inflation in the June quarter will again be fuel and food costs, housing and building costs are also likely to be strong – perhaps as high as 20% year-on-year, according to JP Morgan economists.

Other factors are adding to the pressure, particularly in the housing sector, where rents are rising and demand for new homes and related construction services and products remains strong.

It is the first question time today. In case you missed it, here is Murph’s analysis on the plan so far:

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Cost of living 2022: see how inflation has changed prices in Australia in the June quarter – interactive

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Use this data explorer to see which goods and services are getting cheaper or more expensive in different Australian cities

Data released on Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed prices climbing by 6.1% in the June quarter – the fastest annual pace since 2001 – driven primarily by the increasing cost of food and fuel.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed up global oil and gas prices as well as food, with Ukraine unable to export its grain harvest as Russian missile strikes continue on its ports.

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Aged care reform first bill to pass lower house under Albanese government

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Legislation enacting royal commission’s recommendations for sector expected to pass parliament despite opposition’s accusation of ‘playing politics’

The aged care sector has urged the new federal parliament to quickly pass delayed legislation enacting key recommendations of the royal commission, saying residents “can’t afford to wait any longer” for reforms around new funding, governance and conduct of staff.

A bill legislating the royal commission’s recommendations was the first to pass the House of Representatives and expected to easily and rapidly pass through the parliament. The Labor government is also calling on the Coalition opposition to back some of its central election promises, including mandating nurses in aged care facilities on a 24/7 basis.

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Anthony Albanese rules out banning fossil fuel projects, citing risk to Australian economy

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PM says if Australia didn’t export coal there would be ‘replacement coal from other countries that’s likely to produce higher emissions’

Anthony Albanese says Labor will not support a moratorium on fossil fuel projects because doing so would have a “devastating impact on the Australian economy”.

Ahead of the introduction of legislation on Wednesday enshrining Labor’s 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets, the prime minister told ABC TV on Tuesday night a moratorium was “the policy of the Greens”.

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Albanese believes in politics with purpose – he’s determined to pop Morrison’s ‘Canberra bubble’ | Katharine Murphy

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As PM, Scott Morrison focused on stopping Labor, but at the opening of the new parliament, Anthony Albanese envisioned a more humanist business

We might look back in three years, or sooner, and conclude the modest promise of the opening day of the new 47th parliament was a mirage, or worse, a lie. But Tuesday conveyed the sense of a corner being turned.

Scott Morrison wasn’t there. His absence was probably for the best, because the style of politics that Morrison personified was repudiated in myriad ways.

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Scott Morrison ditches parliament’s return to speak at Japan event not starting until Thursday

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Former PM says he is ‘unable to attend’ first sitting week in Canberra as Labor calls for details about Tokyo engagement

Scott Morrison has skipped the first sitting week of parliament to speak at a conservative leaders’ summit in Tokyo that does not begin until Thursday afternoon.

The former Australian prime minister and member for Cook announced on Monday that “as a consequence” of having accepted the invitation he is “unable to attend the first three sitting days of the new parliament this week”, from Tuesday 26 July to Thursday 28 July.

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Zoe Daniel and Sally Sitou call for climate action in first speeches to parliament – as it happened

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Cash: No way the Coalition will support a lower emissions target

The next interview on ABC radio RN is with the shadow employment minister, Michaelia Cash, who has a lot to say about the scrapping of the ABCC. Cash, you may remember, was one of its biggest supporters while in government.

The Coalition won more votes than the Australian Labor party.

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