Category Archives: Australian politics

Dan and Dom: the two premiers leading a vibe shift in Australian politics

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Differences between Daniel Andrews and Dominic Perrottet are part of their successful relationship

Victoria and New South Wales’ premiers, Daniel Andrews and Dominic Perrottet, couldn’t be more different: one is a progressive from Labor’s socialist left faction and the other a conservative from the Liberal party’s right.

But together, they represent a political vibe shift – a sense that long-term ambitions for their states can be achieved, with cooperation paramount.

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Australia news live updates: Albanese extends Covid funding as nation records 51 deaths from virus; energy supply will meet weekend demand, Aemo says

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NSW premier says health funding ‘a great start’ after national cabinet meeting; electricity reserves improve across National Energy Market; ASX plunges to lowest level since November 2020; nation records 51 Covid deaths. Follow live

The PM is making the rounds this morning, appearing on Sunrise and repeating his line that almost a decade of “delay and denial” under the former Coalition government led to the current energy crisis (I feel like this will be a recurring theme today.)

People want an end to the nonsense that’s gone on for the last decade.

You can’t fix 10 years of inaction in just 10 days but we are taking immediate action through Aemo to make sure that the lights stay on. At the same time, we’re making sure that we create the investment environment to make sure we get it right.

The gas is actually the property of the people of the state, whichever state that is, and there should have always been enough for the state and the country in question. It just seems to me to be very strange that there’s no gas for local people yet.

Coal-fired power generation is very old technology and very difficult for coal plants to cope with renewables coming onto the grid, basically, new renewables every minute

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Craig Kelly staffer Frank Zumbo told alleged victim he was ‘very affectionate’ due to Italian heritage, court hears

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Zumbo, who has pleaded not guilty to 20 charges including sexual touching, insisted on driving woman to work so Liberal ‘spies’ wouldn’t see her catch bus

Former federal MP Craig Kelly’s office manager gave gift card vouchers to a young female employee and asked her to kiss him on the lips to repay the gesture, a Sydney court has heard.

Francesco “Frank” Zumbo, 55, is facing 20 charges, including sexual touching and indecent assault, linked to accusations by five women between 2014 and 2020. The third alleged victim gave evidence on Friday at Downing Centre local court.

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Anthony Albanese backflips on national cabinet secrecy and refuses to say why

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PM opts to continue to prevent release of documents related to meetings with state leaders despite his previous criticism of the practice

Anthony Albanese has backflipped on national cabinet secrecy, opting to continue to prevent the release of documents related to meetings of the prime minister and state and territory leaders, despite strident criticism of the practice in opposition.

At a press conference after his first national cabinet meeting as prime minister, Albanese confirmed the commonwealth had not proposed ending the practice, despite his accusation that Scott Morrison was “obsessed with secrecy”. Albanese refused to answer questions about why he had backflipped on the matter.

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Linda Burney launches campaign to raise support for referendum on First Nations voice to parliament

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Minister for Indigenous Australians tells crowd to ‘be loud and proud’ in expressing support for referendum

The government’s campaign to raise support for a referendum on a First Nations voice to parliament was launched to a packed and enthusiastic meeting in the inner west of Sydney on Thursday evening.

Australia’s new minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, received a standing ovation after she told the crowd at Marrickville town hall the Uluru Statement was an “incredibly generous invitation to the Australian people to walk together with First Nations people, and the journey begins here in Marrickville”.

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Australian Medical Association calls for overhaul of national cabinet secrecy rules

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Omar Khorshid says Australians ‘have a right to know’ what is discussed, ahead of Anthony Albanese’s meeting with states and territories

Secrecy rules should not “automatically” apply to national cabinet documents and deliberations, the head of the Australian Medical Association has said.

Omar Khorshid made the comments ahead of Anthony Albanese’s first meetings with the state and territory leaders on Thursday evening. Friday’s meeting is expected to deliver major changes to the intergovernmental body, including a greater productivity reform focus.

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Shortfall warnings cancelled as units come back online – as it happened

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Foreign minister says Australia ‘has ground to make up’ in Pacific region; jobless rate steady at 3.9%; nation records at least 73 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

So the below comes as both the NSW and Victorian government move to introduce an extra, free year of preschool in the next decade.

Both the NSW and Victorian premiers, Dominic Perrottet and Daniel Andrews, want to introduce a new year for four- and five-year-olds.

It will mean that, in the next 10 years, every child in Victoria and NSW will experience the benefits of a full year of play-based learning before their first year of school. At the same time, it will benefit hundreds of thousands of working families.

We want to expand our existing preschools. It’s a game changer and it’s exciting and there is big money behind it, because we have to do well for our kids.

They do an amazing job, our early childhood workforce, so this is our chance to invest in them and grow and set children up for that best start of life.

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‘A clean slate’: new agriculture minister sees climate action as Labor’s chance to connect with the bush

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Murray Watt hopes to break down misconceptions between the ALP and rural Australia

The Albanese government has a chance to break down the misconceptions between the Labor party and rural Australia, according to new agriculture minister, Murray Watt, who flagged the climate crisis as a key area in which to work towards common ground.

“There have been some in Labor who have viewed rural Australia with suspicion and think that we can never get people to support us. Equally I think there’s been people in rural Australia who have viewed Labor with suspicion,” Watt said.

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Albanese government urged to keep focus on human rights as it rebuilds relationships in Asia

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Thawing diplomatic relations with China shouldn’t mean ‘taking a backwards step with Beijing’, Human Rights Watch says

The Albanese government should not compromise on human rights as it seeks to repair relationships with China and south-east Asian countries, a leading advocacy group has warned.

Human Rights Watch has written to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, urging him to “impose targeted sanctions against Chinese government officials who are responsible for crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang.

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Greens senator questions viability of new party convener over past comments about trans people

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Newly elected Victorian convener Linda Gale co-authored a 2019 document described as ‘inconsistent with Greens values’

Greens senator Janet Rice says the position of the party’s recently elected Victorian convener is “untenable” unless she distances herself from previous comments that have been labelled transphobic.

Linda Gale, a senior industrial officer at the National Tertiary Education Union, was elected on Saturday to fill a casual vacancy of state convener of the Victorian Greens.

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NSW residents urged to conserve power – as it happened

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Paul Erickson speaks at National Press Club; Bowen says energy system ‘under pressure’; AEC says it will not conduct a recount in federal seat of Gilmore; foreign affairs minister’s first trip to Solomon Islands since security deal with China; Victoria records 18 Covid deaths, NSW records 14. This blog is now closed

Quick note:

NSW is reporting 7,260 new Covid cases and 14 deaths this morning.

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Australia news live updates: Queensland on brink of power outage as eastern states battle big chill; WA to shut state-owned coal plants

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Penny Wong to visit New Zealand foreign minister; at least 31 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Lack of reserve notice from energy regulator

It’s going to be a long day by the looks of it when it comes to “lack of reserve” notices and intervention by the Australian Energy Market Operator, such as this early one in NSW:

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Ryan says supporters have received ‘threatening’ letters – as it happened

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Independent MP for Kooyong says some supporters have received anonymous handwritten letters; nation records at least 11 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Standing proud in the Nadesalingams’ Biloela back yard is a rusty old Hills Hoist.

Birds squawk in the paperbark trees lining the road as mum Priya strolls in and out of the kitchen, determined to make sure we are looked after, offering us tea and water.

It was such an extraordinary time, and things were moving so quickly early ... the advice to the various governments at the time were really monumental.

It was quite terrifying ... we would do what the data was [saying], the experts together provided advice. In the end, Australians have done very well and turned up and got their vaccinations and we managed to live through some significant lockdowns and have come out of this better than many other countries.

We live in a great country with a great health system and I was confident we would be able to get our way through this, we still are not out of it, Covid is still here ... if you haven’t had that third dose vaccination, have it.

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NDIS crackdown welcomed by advocates as organised gangs infiltrate scheme

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Experts say scheme ‘not working well for everyone’ after Bill Shorten says Labor will target fraudsters

Providers and peak bodies have welcomed a planned crackdown on fraud and other criminal activity inside the national disability insurance scheme, warning organised gangs and dodgy services have for too long undermined the system and disadvantaging vulnerable people.

The new Labor government has also been urged to quickly engage with state governments on better integrating disability support into mainstream education, health and employment systems, with concerns over neglect of “tier 2” supports for people who can’t access the NDIS.

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Richard Marles’s ‘full and frank’ meeting with China ends Australia’s diplomatic freeze

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Defence minister says the controversial interception of an Australian aircraft by a Chinese jet last month was discussed, as well as broader issues in the Pacific

Australia’s deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, has had a “frank” hour-long discussion with China’s defence minister in Singapore, marking the highest level in-person contact between the countries in almost three years.

Marles, also the defence minister, said he raised the controversial interception of an Australian aircraft by a Chinese jet last month and broader issues in the Pacific with China’s minister of national defence, Wei Fenghe, during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue ministerial conference in Singapore.

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Defence minister rubbishes Coalition claims on France compensation deal – as it happened

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Marles brushes off suggestions former Coalition government was close to signing compensation deal with France; nation records at least 24 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Interview with minister for NDIS and government services Bill Shorten now. First question is about energy policy.

Shorten says “the real issue about power, in my opinion is for 10 years we’ve had a decade of denial and delay.”

What we are suffering from this winter in the short term is floods of coal mines, outages of a plant which is more than 50 years old, but the real long-term problem is that we haven’t made a plan for transition to renewables, now the chickens have come home to roost.

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Warning over Centrelink call centres as Services Australia slashes contracts

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Exclusive: Agency says decision to cut outsourced workload by 30% is due to reduced demand as unions warn of longer wait times

Services Australia has embarked on a massive shake-up of its call centre operations, slashing the work it sends to labour hire firms as it approaches one of its busiest periods of the year.

Guardian Australia has learned the agency last week informed its outsourced “service delivery partners” it was cutting the “workload” sent to these four firms by about 30%.

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What will the teal wave mean for Victorian and NSW state elections?

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Swings at federal election hint at shifts that could be replicated in state polls due in November and March

With the federal poll decided, upcoming elections in Australia’s two biggest states will be the next electoral test for our country’s political parties. The dramatic swing to independents raises interesting questions about what might happen in Victoria in November and New South Wales in March.

It’s important to note that federal election results are not predictive of what happens in state elections, or vice versa. Indeed, there is a history of state and federal elections held in quick succession producing quite different results. The 1992 Victorian state election swept Jeff Kennett to power, less than six months before the state voted strongly for the Keating Labor government in 1993.

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Aukus pact: Australia pays $830m penalty for ditching non-nuclear French submarines

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Anthony Albanese pledges to reset Australia’s strained relationship with France after settling cancelled contract with Naval Group

The Australian government has agreed to pay €550m (A$830m) in a settlement with Naval Group over the former Morrison government’s controversial decision to scrap the French attack class submarine project.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced on Saturday the confidential settlement would draw a line under the cancelled $90bn project. Labor gave bipartisan support to the Aukus partnership that replaced the project – under which the US and the UK have offered to help Australia to acquire at least eight nuclear-propelled submarines and cooperate on other advanced technologies.

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Australian defence minister warns China risks sparking arms race

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Richard Marles outlines vision of economic cooperation and military deterrence but warns lack of transparency can upset balance

China’s military buildup must be accompanied by transparency and reassurances to its neighbours or risk triggering an arms race, Australia’s deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, has said.

Speaking in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday, Marles laid out a vision of economic cooperation balanced with military deterrence, but sounded a warning about militarisation in the Asia Pacific.

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