Category Archives: Australian politics

Queenslanders encouraged to wear masks as nation records 13 Covid deaths – as it happened

Posted on by

On pandemic leave payments – which are coming to an end – Speers asks Butler about the decision by the government not to extend them. Butler responds that ending these payments was necessary because of the budget.

This emergency payment was designed by the former government and the state governments. It’s a co-owned scheme that came to end an on 30 June. We are one trillion in debt and at some point emergency payments of this type have to be wound up as we move to a new phase. That’s the decision that former governments took and it’s a decision we have decided to follow as well.

There’s state rules to isolate. These emergency payments have to be wound up at some point.

I accept whenever you end an emergency payment of this type it’s going to impact people. I deeply regret that. But at some point these emergency payments simply have to be wound up. We don’t have the financial capacity to keep making them forever. They were intended to wind up on 30 June, that was the decision taken by the former government, and all state governments who are co-signatories to that scheme and it’s a decision we had to continue.

Butler: In this phase of the pandemic mask mandates and things like that are best done in a targeted way. There’s mask mandates in aged care, in health facilities, on public transport, in airplanes. And if you’re in a crowded indoor space with no ability to socially distance you should give strong consideration to wearing a mask.

Speers: Again... You only need to go to the movies or a shopping centre or the footy to see how ineffectual a recommendation is. So many people not wearing masks. Wasn’t one of the lessons of this pandemic, mask mandates for a fixed period, work?

Continue reading...

Queensland LNP pledges net zero 2050 target at next election amid ‘deeply troubling’ rise in emissions

Posted on by

Leader David Crisafulli’s announcement drew immediate criticism from environmentalists saying the move is not science-based

Queensland’s opposition has announced it will bring a net zero emissions target by 2050 to the next state election at the LNP’s annual convention in Brisbane over the weekend.

LNP leader David Crisafulli said it was “deeply troubling” that emissions had increased in Queensland over the past several years.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Greens to seek changes to Labor’s integrity commission legislation to protect whistleblowers

Posted on by

David Shoebridge reveals suite of amendments including budgetary independence and lowering bar to investigations

The Greens will seek to amend Labor’s integrity commission legislation to protect whistleblowers and lower the bar for investigations, in a test for government cooperation with the crossbench.

On Sunday the Greens justice spokesperson, David Shoebridge, revealed the party in the Senate would adopt a suite of amendments requested by transparency experts to align the Labor proposal with the crossbench bill championed by independent MP Helen Haines in the last parliament.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Australians over 70 granted access to Covid antiviral treatments

Posted on by

From Monday, access will also be expanded to over 50s and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over 30 with two or more risk factors

All Australians over 70 with Covid will be eligible to take antivirals from Monday, after the health minister, Mark Butler, expanded access to the treatments.

Butler revealed that access will also be expanded to people aged over 50 with two or more risk factors for severe disease and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged over 30 with two or more risk factors.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Labor aims to legislate spending caps and truth in advertising, says Don Farrell

Posted on by

Special minister of state signals ambitious suite of electoral reforms to be rolled out before next election

Labor will push to legislate spending caps and truth in political advertising, as well as promote adherence to the one-vote one-value principle in an ambitious suite of electoral reforms, Don Farrell said.

The special minister of state said that Labor will be “putting the case” to an inquiry into the 2022 election “as to why those things should be done”, signalling their likely inclusion in a government bill to be presented ahead of the next election.

Continue reading...

Executive bonuses will need to be justified in a review of NBN Co, new communications minister says

Posted on by

In opposition, Michelle Rowland said publicly-owned firm ‘might have an incentive to set and surpass artificially low targets’

NBN Co will need to demonstrate that the targets it sets for bonus payments to executives represent actual performance, under a review brought on by the new Labor government.

Communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said NBN Co targets would be considered as part of the review of government-owned business bonuses initiated under the Albanese government, which also includes Australia Post.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

At least 77 Covid deaths; Albanese pays tribute to Abe; NSW counts cost of floods – as it happened

Posted on by

Foreign minister Penny Wong meets her Chinese counterpart in Bali, breaking three years of diplomatic hostility. This blog is now closed

Collaery case: ‘only stress if you’re being shot at’

One of the biggest stories of the week was the announcement from the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, that the government would drop its long-running case against lawyer Bernard Collaery.

Continue reading...

Labor vows to shake up ‘cosy monopolists’ with fines of up to $50m for anti-competitive behaviour

Posted on by

Andrew Leigh says stopping ‘excessive market concentration’ is key to lifting competition to benefit workers and consumers

Australia’s economy needs a shake-up to ensure “cosy monopolists” don’t dominate the market, with the new minister for competition, Andrew Leigh, pledging to legislate tough new penalties of up to $50m for anti-competitive behaviour.

With stagnant wages growth and high inflation identified as key priorities for the new Albanese government, Leigh says preventing “excessive market concentration” will be a key focus of his role to encourage more competition to the benefit of both workers and consumers.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Welfare penalties paused after new Workforce Australia app struggles to cope

Posted on by

Welfare recipients say they have been unable to log on to the new app to log job search efforts required to maintain their benefits

The Albanese government has extended a 30-day pause on welfare payment suspensions to thousands of jobseekers with disability who risked having their benefits stopped due to the trouble-plagued Workforce Australia rollout.

Five days after the launch of the successor to the much-maligned Jobactive scheme, welfare recipients have told Guardian Australia they are still having trouble logging into the application used to log job search efforts and complete other necessary mutual obligations tasks.

Continue reading...

Penny Wong: China and Australia take ‘first steps towards stabilising relationship’

Posted on by

Foreign affairs minister meets Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at G20 in Bali to push for end to ‘coercive’ sanctions

Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign affairs minister, says Canberra and Beijing have taken the “first step towards stabilising the relationship” after the first face-to-face meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers since 2019.

After a meeting with Wang Yi, her Chinese counterpart, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali on Friday, Wong told reporters Australia would continue to push for an end to Beijing’s “coercive” trade sanctions against a range of exports, and would also not recoil from any domestic policy decisions taken “on the basis of our national interest, our security and our sovereignty”.

Continue reading...

‘A bit of pub talk’: Scott Morrison denies push for job in rugby league

Posted on by

Former PM says he didn’t tell powerbrokers he would like to join the Australian Rugby League Commission

The former prime minister Scott Morrison has denied making a bid to join the Australian Rugby League Commission, describing the reports as “a bit of pub talk”.

The Nine Network reported on Thursday that Morrison had spoken to “powerbrokers” in rugby league and made it “quite clear to them that he would like to be a part” of the commission, which runs the code, despite there not being a vacancy.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Reboot of Jenkins review into toxic parliamentary culture already begun, Katy Gallagher says

Posted on by

Minister for women says mission to improve workplace conditions is urgent and will not ‘die a little slow death’

Minister for women, Katy Gallagher, says she will kickstart implementation of the Jenkins review in the opening fortnight of the new parliament, declaring the mission to eradicate toxic parliamentary staffing culture is not going to “die a little slow death”.

In her first interview as the new federal minister for women, Katy Gallaghersaid the Jenkins reboot had begun this week. She said Kerri Hartland, the independent chair of the Jenkins review implementation taskforce, had contacted MPs across the parliament to revive the process that went into hiatus because of the May election.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Labor’s new ministerial code of conduct bans blind trusts like Christian Porter used

Posted on by

Changes come after Labor criticised Porter for not declaring who contributed to fund he used to pay for ABC defamation case

Blind trusts of the kind Christian Porter used to partially pay for his defamation case against the ABC have been explicitly banned by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, in a new code of conduct for his ministers.

While in opposition, Labor had attempted to have Porter, the former attorney general, disciplined for failing to declare who had contributed to the fund he used to pay for the ultimately aborted defamation court action he instigated against the ABC.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Penny Wong to meet Chinese minister in sign of thawing relations between Australia and China

Posted on by

Following days of speculation China’s foreign ministry confirmed the meeting after Wong signalled she was open to a direct conversation

Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, will meet her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Bali on Friday in a direct conversation that is a further sign of thawing relations between Canberra and Beijing after a diplomatic deep freeze.

After days of speculation, China’s foreign ministry announced on Thursday night Canberra and Beijing’s foreign ministers would meet on the sidelines of the G20 in Indonesia for the first time since 2019. Friday’s meeting was later confirmed by Australian officials.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Australia news live: fourth covid vaccine dose to be offered from 11 July; NSW rain and flood risk move north

Posted on by

In his speech, Jason Clare also lamented the fact that although the target of 40% of people aged 25 to 34 having bachelor degrees had been achieved, a separate target for 20% of enrolments to be from people from low socioeconomic backgrounds had not.

Instead, it had “barely moved” from 15%, from when the target was set in 2008. Indigenous enrolment was less than 10%.

I don’t want us to be a country where your chances in life depend on your postcode, your parents, or the colour of your skin. None of us want that. But that’s where we are today. I am not naive, I know this is hard to shift.

And that, at its core, is what the Australian Universities accord will be about: a reset. And an opportunity to build a long-term plan for our universities, together. Drawing on the advice of the leadership in this room, your staff, unions, business, students, parents and all political parties.

Looking at everything from funding and access to affordability, transparency, regulation, employment conditions and also how universities and TAFEs and other higher education and vocational education providers and training institutions work together.

Continue reading...

Morning mail: Boris Johnson refuses to quit, Kyrgios makes Wimbledon semi-finals, veggies to buy this month

Posted on by

Thursday: Covid-19 led Australia to record 3,105 more deaths than expected in January and February. Plus: UK prime minister told to step down by his own ministers

  • Want to get the morning mail to your email inbox every weekday? Sign up here

Good morning. A fourth Covid vaccine is to be made available to more Australians as it was revealed hospital admissions have reached their highest levels since early February. In the UK, Boris Johnson has been told by his own ministers to quit. And Nick Kyrgios is through to the semi-finals of Wimbledon.

Johnson’s woes have continued amid a string of resignations from his collapsing government and a series of senior Conservatives called for him to step down. But the PM is refusing to budge, even after a delegation of cabinet ministers met him at Downing Street to demand his resignation on a day of rapidly unfolding political drama. Follow all the latest developments as they happen here.

Continue reading...

Penny Wong says she is open to meeting with Chinese counterpart at G20

Posted on by

Foreign minister confirms Australia’s willingness to engage with China but insists ‘coercive’ trade sanctions must be scrapped

Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has signalled she is open to meeting her Chinese counterpart at a looming meeting of G20 foreign ministers, but she has warned any diplomatic thaw will require the removal of Beijing’s “coercive” trade sanctions against a variety of exports.

Wong was asked during a visit to Singapore on Wednesday to disclose whether or not arrangements were now in place for a conversation at the G20 meeting in Indonesia later this week – and if so, what her message would be to China’s Wang Yi.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

More major warnings issued as focus turns to mid-north coast – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

Sussan Ley criticises Labor over flood response

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley is upping the Coalition’s attacks on the Labor government over the floods, asking why they haven’t activated disaster recovery payments for affected residents.

We have already announced a wide range of support for people but I think it’s fair to assume that there will be more coming.

I can’t commit to anything specific like that but what I can tell you is that from the weekend, I began talking with our authorities about what we could do to make sure that any disaster support we approved got out the door quickly.

Continue reading...

Biosecurity beefed up for Australians returning from Bali to stop foot and mouth disease

Posted on by

Detector dogs will operate at some airports and biosecurity officers will begin boarding flights from Indonesia to try to stop the livestock virus arriving here

Biosecurity measures have been strengthened at Australian airports after the highly contagious foot and mouth disease was found in Bali.

Detector dogs will operate at Darwin and Cairns airports and biosecurity officers will begin boarding flights from Indonesia in coming days to try to stop the livestock virus arriving here.

Continue reading...

Australian superannuation industry leaders to visit Indonesia to turbocharge business ties

Posted on by

Former Labor frontbencher Greg Combet says group will examine viability of infrastructure investment opportunities as Australia tries to move past its reliance on China

Former Labor frontbencher and chair of IFM Investors Greg Combet will lead a high-powered delegation of leaders from the superannuation industry to Jakarta next month as part of efforts to turbocharge the economic relationship between Australia and Indonesia.

Combet has confirmed the group will examine the viability of investment opportunities in infrastructure on the back of a successful visit in June, when Anthony Albanese took a business delegation to Jakarta during his first visit to the country as prime minister.

Continue reading...