Category Archives: Australian politics

Australia should rejoin UN climate fund to prove commitment to Pacific neighbours, thinktank argues

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Report finds Australia’s ‘Pacific step-up’ could lack credibility if perceived to be only in response to China’s presence

Australia must move on from a “crisis mentality” as it seeks to reset its relationship with Pacific island countries, including by rejoining a key UN climate fund, a thinktank says.

Australia must do more than simply position itself as a first responder to natural disasters if it is to become “an effective climate ally with the Pacific”, according to a series of policy papers to be published on Tuesday.

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Environment report Coalition didn’t release paints ‘damning story of neglect’, Tanya Plibersek says

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Minister will release five-yearly report which she says details ‘alarming story’ of native species extinction and cultural heritage loss

Tanya Plibersek says a damning national environmental report card received by the former Coalition government last year but not released, tells an “alarming story” of decline, native species extinction and cultural heritage loss.

In one of her first interviews as the new federal environment and water minister, Plibersek said the state of the environment report – a five-yearly official scientific assessment – would be released when she gave a National Press Club address on 19 July. It would help inform changes Labor planned to strengthen the country’s widely criticised national environment laws, she said.

She wanted Australia, which has one of the world’s largest marine parks areas, to take a global leadership role in ocean protection. She plans to attend the UN ocean conference in Portugal next week.

She would release the water for the environment special account report – on the recovery of environmental water in the Murray-Darling Basin – after parliament returned in July.

Her impression of the environment department was of “fantastic, highly professional, skilled public servants with real commitment to doing the job well”, but with an “extraordinary reliance” on contractors. She hoped to reduce that and have more permanent positions, in line with Labor policy.

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Craig Kelly staffer Frank Zumbo told alleged victim he was an ‘ultimate feminist’, court hears

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Francesco ‘Frank’ Zumbo, 55, has pleaded not guilty to 20 charges including sexual touching and indecent assault

Former federal MP Craig Kelly’s office manager told a young female employee she was “very selfish” and “self-centred” for refusing to give him a “little thank you kiss”, a Sydney court has heard.

The trial of Francesco “Frank” Zumbo, 55, also heard covert recordings where he repeatedly referred to himself as an “ultimate feminist”.

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Coalition criticises ‘parliamentary go-slow’ as sitting calendar released – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese says government will improve energy security ‘in the shortest time possible’; nation records 13 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Julian Assange’s wife and human rights lawyer, Stella Moris, says she is “extremely worried” about what will happen to Assange next, while noting there has been a “shift” in sentiment towards the WikiLeaks founder.

Moris was on RN Breakfast earlier, and says she has also welcomed reports Australia are in discussion with the United States on Assange, and that she intends to appeal against Britain’s decision to approve his extradition to the US to face criminal charges:

I’m feeling definitely there’s a shift.

It feels like we’ve been running a marathon for a long time. And you know, that’s hard – mentally, physically. But now it feels like we have many people running alongside us, and we might see the finish line.

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Vanuatu calls on Australia to back its UN bid to recognise climate change harm

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Pacific islands urge new Labor government to support push for international court of justice to issue climate advisory opinion

Australia’s new Labor government has been called on to prove its commitment to climate action and support for Pacific countries by backing a campaign led by Vanuatu to see international law changed to recognise climate change harm.

In a letter to the prime minister sent by leading Pacific and Australian NGOs, shared exclusively with Guardian Australia, the groups urged Anthony Albanese to support Vanuatu’s campaign for the international court of justice to issue an advisory opinion on the question of climate change.

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Under-55s and higher educated voters propelled Labor to victory, study finds

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Labor was more popular with women, ANU study finds, but difference ‘mostly due to a higher vote for the Greens’

Labor was propelled to victory over Scott Morrison by women, under-55s and those with higher levels of education, with people in the latter two groups most likely to have abandoned the Coalition since the 2019 election.

Those are the findings of a survey of 3,500 voters by the Australian National University and researchers at the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, released on Monday.

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‘Stakes never higher’: energy board releases capacity market blueprint

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Energy Security Board says fossil fuel generators might need to be paid to stay in business to retain capacity

Coal- and gas-fired power plants could be paid to stay in business to bolster the stability of the main electricity grid and attract enough investment to build the equivalent of 50 times the original Snowy Hydro scheme by 2050, according to a high-level design paper released by the Energy Security Board.

The fossil fuel generators would be required even as Australia continues to decarbonise the electricity sector, the paper released on Monday said.

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Australia yet to sign up to treaty banning nuclear weapons but will attend UN meeting as observer

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Exclusive: Anthony Albanese committed Labor to signing the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons while in opposition

Australia will attend – as an observer – a UN meeting of countries that have outlawed nuclear weapons, parties to a treaty Anthony Albanese championed in opposition and committed Labor to ratifying in government.

Government backbencher Susan Templeman’s attendance at the meeting in Vienna on Tuesday comes as a group of 55 former Australian ambassadors and high commissioners have written an open letter to the prime minister urging the government to sign up to the treaty, which outright prohibits the development, testing, production and use of nuclear weapons.

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Australia live news updates: Burke blames high inflation on Coalition’s ‘neglect’; at least 42 Covid deaths

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Employment minister says inflation not being driven by high wage growth; opposition leader takes aim at Labor and avoids voicing support for government’s renewable target; nation records at least 42 Covid deaths – follow all the day’s news live

Dutton is being grilled (again) on where he got information that the United States could provide two nuclear submarines to Australia by the end of the decade.

Speers presses Dutton on whether he used classified information to make that point, eventually gleaning from the opposition leader it was a “commonsense conclusion”.

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‘Fault all round’: Peter Dutton aims to deflect blame for Australia’s energy crisis

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Liberal leader says Coalition made ‘huge investments’ in renewables when in power and blames states for locking up gas reserves

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has sought to deflect blame for the national energy crisis, saying there is “fault all round”, while blaming states for locking up gas reserves.

In a wide-ranging interview on the ABC on Sunday, the former defence minister also rejected suggestions he had relied on classified information to claim Australia could access two new Virginia-class submarines from the US by 2030, and held back support for an Indigenous voice to parliament.

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New South Wales to trial $780m shared equity scheme for first homebuyers

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State government to fund 40% of purchase for single parents, older singles, nurses, police and teachers

The New South Wales government has announced a shared equity trial to help single parents, older singles, nurses, police and teachers to buy their first home.

The $780m shared equity scheme was announced by the state government on Sunday ahead of its state budget on Tuesday, which will include a broader $2.8bn package to address the housing crisis.

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Victorian Greens leader ousts party’s state convener over past comments about trans people

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Parliamentary leader Samantha Ratnam says she acted under party rules to overturn the recent election of Linda Gale

The leader of the Victorian Greens has ousted the party’s controversial state convener after successfully applying to have recent election results set aside.

Linda Gale, a senior industrial officer at the National Tertiary Education Union, was elected last Saturday to fill a casual vacancy as state convener of the Victorian Greens, despite co-authoring a 2019 paper that had been labelled “transphobic”.

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Albanese urged to intervene in Assange case; Perrottet defends Barilaro job; at least 55 Covid deaths – as it happened

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NSW premier says John Barilaro’s new role ‘no surprise’ to him; government ministers say Assange case ‘should be brought to a close’. This blog is now closed

Could an eighth world title be in the offing?

AAP reports:

Once I got past Caroline [Marks], I was super confident and I knew I could do it.

Lakey [Peterson] is an amazing surfer, so I knew it was going to be a tough Final but it doesn’t get any better. I love doing this. I love winning, I love doing this sport.

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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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