Category Archives: Australian politics

Election 2025 live updates: Dutton tells Liberal campaign launch ‘Australia will become a nuclear powered nation’ and Coalition will again ‘stop the boats’

Posted on by

The opposition leader is launching the Liberal party’s campaign at an event in south-western Sydney. Follow live

Albanese tells Australian UFC fighter to ‘go hard’ in message of support before headline match

Some Australians will be glued to a brutal fight between two battle-hardened competitors duking it out in a no-holds barred street fight televised today across the land. And it’s sure to get ugly.

I’m in my own title fight at the moment, but I want to wish you all the best for yours. I know you’ll dig deep and make Australians proud. You are one of Australia’s great sporting champions. When you enter the octagon this weekend, Australians will be cheering you on. Go hard.

Continue reading...

Rightwing lobby group Advance says it makes ‘no apology’ for support given to anti-Greens groups

Posted on by

Spokesperson acknowledges supply of flyers, T-shirts and corflutes to ‘dozens of community groups’ seeking to defeat party’s candidates

The rightwing advocacy group Advance has acknowledged it is paying for election materials attacking the Greens to be used by third-party groups during the election campaign.

“Advance is working with hundreds of volunteers from dozens of community groups to defeat Greens candidates and we make no apology,” a spokesperson said.

Continue reading...

Community groups furious Coalition nuclear plan would go ahead even if locals oppose it

Posted on by

Opponents of policy say locals should be ‘very angry’ they will not be able to veto generators in their towns despite Coalition promise to consult them

There is a “growing backlash” to the Coalition’s nuclear plan, with community groups furious at the lack of consultation and angered that the policy would not give local communities the power of veto and that nuclear plants would be built regardless of local opposition.

Opponents say pro-nuclear lobby group Nuclear for Australia has been hosting information sessions but that they make it overly difficult for people to attend, make it hard to ask questions, and are not able to answer those questions that are posed.

Continue reading...

Revealed: nearly 2m hectares of koala habitat bulldozed since 2011 – despite political promises to protect species

Posted on by

Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystems

Nearly 2m hectares of forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a threatened species in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia.

The scale of habitat destruction in Queensland and New South Wales – states in which the koala is formally recognised as being at risk of extinction – has continued despite political promises it would be protected.

Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email

Continue reading...

Liberal candidate co-authored inquiry submission suggesting Hazaras not persecuted for ethnicity in Afghanistan

Posted on by

Exclusive: Zahid Safi, who is running in Melbourne seat of Bruce, listed as last author on 2021 Senate submission which says victims of Afghanistan war ‘not based on ethnicity’

The Liberal candidate for Bruce co-authored a parliamentary submission suggesting the Hazara community in Afghanistan was not persecuted on the basis of its ethnicity, contradicting the Australian government and drawing rebuke from international human rights groups.

Zahid Safi co-authored a submission to a 2021 parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s involvement in the Afghanistan war, which incorrectly cited a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report to allege Hazara “warlords” had “cut the breasts of women” and watched “live delivery of pregnant women” during the early 1990s. The 2005 HRW report does not mention these acts.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

It’s week two of Peter Dutton’s campaign and (almost) everything is tightly scripted

Posted on by

The Coalition leader muzzles the press pack in a way Albanese often struggles to achieve – after a train wreck opening week, he’s taking back control

“Who won the election?” 12-year-old Sammy asks Peter Dutton, leaning through the window of the passenger seat where the opposition leader sits.

The Coalition leader has just finished his last pit stop in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs for the day: a petrol station. By this point, he’s been to six of them in the last seven days – mostly cleared of regular punters – selling his party’s promise to bring down petrol costs by about $14 per car a week. Economic analysts put that estimate a lot lower – about $7.56.

Continue reading...

Police remove homophobic banners hung over Melbourne highway targeting Labor MP Julian Hill

Posted on by

Exclusive: Police confirm report of two offensive signs targeting Bruce MP Julian Hill, who is gay, hung on overpass bridge

Police have removed two offensive and homophobic banners targeting Labor MP Julian Hill that were hung over a major Melbourne highway on Friday morning.

The banners prompted bi-partisan condemnation and were described by Victoria police as an example of “hate-based behaviour” that would not be tolerated.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Dutton tight-lipped over how many voluntary redundancies would be offered in public service cuts plan

Posted on by

Opposition under pressure to release secret modelling and costings revealing how it plans to downsize the public service by 41,000 jobs by 2030

Peter Dutton has dodged revealing how many voluntary redundancies could be offered as part of the opposition’s plan to downsize the public service by 41,000 jobs by 2030.

Speaking at a conveyor manufacturing factory in Perth on Friday, the opposition leader avoided providing further details about the plan.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Coalition election win could cause loss of hundreds of jobs at agency scrutinising aged care mistreatment, modelling says

Posted on by

Exclusive: Peter Dutton’s plan to reduce public service may see 26.5% jobs at Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission disappear, according to union

Hundreds of jobs could be lost at the government agency responsible for investigating allegations of serious wrongdoing and mistreatment in aged care homes if the Coalition wins the election, the public sector union has warned.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has hired more than 500 public servants since the 2022 election to deal with a backlog of complaints from residents and to resolve a “staggering” number of real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest involving consultants paid millions of dollars to conduct audits in homes.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Gender politics: will the 2025 election send more female MPs to Australia’s parliament?

Posted on by

Labor has made great strides towards gender equality among its MPs and senators, but the number of female Coalition members remains stubbornly low

The 47th parliament was Australia’s most diverse to date. Both houses broke records for gender, ethnic and cultural diversity.

Across both houses in the outgoing parliament, the gender split was 55% to 45% in favour of men. Women made up 39% of the House of Representatives and 58% of the Senate.

Continue reading...

Dutton ducks question on Liberal party vetting amid concerns over charge against Melbourne candidate

Posted on by

Opposition leader remains quiet on how Coalition will achieve promise to save $7bn through public service cuts

Peter Dutton has ducked questions about the quality of the Liberal party’s vetting processes after concerns were raised about a 2024 charge against a Melbourne candidate in the latest saga surrounding the party’s candidates.

The opposition leader, who visited a metalworks factory in the Labor-held seat of Aston in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs on Thursday, would also not divulge details about how his promise to achieve $7bn in savings by cutting 41,000 public service jobs by 2030 could match Labor’s plans to dramatically lift bulk-billing rates.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Australia election 2025 live: Bowen says Coalition modelling on gas bill savings is a ‘scamphlet’ missing important detail

Posted on by

Follow today’s news live

Health minister grilled on Labor’s $1bn mental health package

The health minister, Mark Butler, says Labor will not technically be building new mental health centres under its $1bn mental health promise.

We’re not building them. This is to fund the operations of these centres. Generally, they will rent existing premises.

They won’t be brand-new buildings. What we will do, say, in a particular area of say, north Brisbane or regional Queensland – we say we want to establish - let’s use the word establish other than build.

Head to Health – no one knew what it was, okay?

We did research. We basically, looked at how the existing services, which had started under the former government, were performing.

Continue reading...

Palau president backs Australia’s bid to host Cop31 climate summit after Dutton labels it ‘madness’

Posted on by

Surangel Whipps Jr says he would be ‘deeply disappointed’ if attempt were abandoned under Coalition

The president of Palau has delivered a pointed barb at Peter Dutton while strongly backing an Australian bid to host a UN climate conference on behalf of the Pacific, arguing that it would boost regional solidarity and he would be “deeply disappointed” if the attempt was abandoned under the Coalition.

Speaking at a renewable energy conference in Sydney on Wednesday, Surangel Whipps Jr described seeing two-thirds of an island in his archipelago country disappear under water in his lifetime. “For those of us in the Pacific who have lived through storm surges, rising ocean levels and increasingly high tides, the phrase ‘water lapping at our door’ is not a metaphor or a punchline. It’s our fear and reality,” he said.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Australian government gave $2.7m to Elon Musk’s X for advertisements in billionaire’s first year as owner

Posted on by

Exclusive: Spending came after the Albanese government paused ads for a week amid reports ads were appearing next to inappropriate content

The Australian government spent nearly $3m of taxpayer dollars advertising on Twitter/X in the first year after the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, took over the platform, despite warnings of brand reputation damage that caused the government to initially pause ads.

Data obtained by Guardian Australia, after a protracted freedom of information battle with the federal finance department, revealed $2.7m was spent between November 2022 and November 2023. Musk finalised his purchase of the platform on 28 October 2022.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Coalition releases long-awaited modelling showing energy plan could drive down household gas bills by 7%

Posted on by

Peter Dutton says policy would be ‘gamechanger’ despite experts questioning whether it would work

The Coalition’s plan to create a domestic gas reservation for the east coast would drive down household gas bills by 7% and industrial gas bills by 15%, newly-released estimates.

The opposition’s long-awaited modelling by Frontier Economics, released on Tuesday evening, estimated the changes would bring down new domestic gas supplies to $9 or $10 a gigajoule, and came after experts shed doubt on whether the policy could drive down prices through a government market intervention.

Continue reading...

Albanese accuses Coalition of ‘gaslighting’ public over energy as Dutton touts economic credentials in first leaders’ debate

Posted on by

Prime minister asks ‘how can you believe what they’ll do after the election’ as opposition leader accuses Labor of having the wrong priorities

Anthony Albanese has accused Peter Dutton of “gaslighting” Australians on key Liberal policies in a spirited first leaders’ debate of the election campaign which focused heavily on energy, health and tax policies.

Neither man made a major misstep in the Sky News forum on Tuesday evening in western Sydney, where Albanese was voted the winner in a poll of 100 undecided voters. Albanese won 44 votes, Dutton won 35 and 21 remained undecided.

Continue reading...

Could the Coalition’s spectacular backdown be the circuit breaker that Peter Dutton needs?

Posted on by

Junking a signature policy to focus on his pet areas could help get his rocky campaign back on track

As mid-election mea culpas go, it was a big one.

After campaigning for months on a crackdown on those “entitled” Canberra public servants, those fat-cat bureaucrats supposedly taking hard-working Aussies for a ride with their generous work-from-home conditions, Peter Dutton’s latest policy backdown has seen the Coalition spectacularly concede defeat on plans to “bring our public servants back to work” and apologise for raising it.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Dutton playing ‘Donald Trump anti-migration card’ in plan to slash international students, higher education peak body says

Posted on by

The Coalition would retain Labor’s cap on the private sector but cut an extra 30,000 places at universities

The Coalition has been accused of using the “Donald Trump anti-migration card” with its election policy to slash international students, as the university sector warns it favours the private vocational education and training (VET) sector.

On Sunday, Peter Dutton announced he would reduce the number of international students to 240,000 a year, a reduction of “over 80,000 in annual new overseas student commencements compared with 2023 levels”, he said.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

‘We’ve made a mistake’: Peter Dutton backs down on work from home policy

Posted on by

The Coalition has also walked away from plans to sack 41,000 public service employees, raising questions about how it will pay for major election policies

The Coalition spectacularly reversed its policy to restrict work from home arrangements and sack 41,000 government employees, walking away from plans to make major changes to the public service.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has admitted he “made a mistake” and “got it wrong” with the unpopular plan, backing down on the signature policy and raising questions about how the Coalition will pay for major election promises it said it would fund with savings from cutting the public service.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...

Port of Darwin operator says Albanese and Dutton are treating it like ‘a political football’ in election

Posted on by

Labor and Coalition would both end Chinese company Landbridge’s long-term lease of strategically important asset

The Chinese company that controls the Port of Darwin has accused Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton of treating it like “a political football” in the middle of a federal election campaign.

Federal Labor and the Coalition have both announced that if elected on 3 May they would end Landbridge’s long-term lease of the Port of Darwin, arguing it is strategically important and should be controlled by an Australian entity.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Continue reading...