Category Archives: Australian politics

Coalition minister concedes plan to allow first homebuyers to access super will push up house prices

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Allowing access to up to $50,000 of retirement savings ‘like throwing petrol on a bonfire’, industry super group warns

The Coalition has conceded its plan to allow first homebuyers access to superannuation will push up prices, as industry super and progressive thinktanks warned it could add tens of thousands to the cost of a home.

The policy, unveiled at the Coalition launch on Sunday, to allow first homebuyers access to up to $50,000 of retirement savings has prompted warnings that house prices in Sydney could increase by as much as $134,000.

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Liberals launch new housing policy – as it happened

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Paul Keating condemns Liberal housing scheme; Anthony Albanese speaks at Brisbane rally, after promoting Labor’s manufacturing plan; 20 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Labor leader Anthony Albanese appearing on ABC Insiders now, opening with a cheeky comment about how “it’s good to have a political leader appearing on the ABC”.

First question is about cost of living and an increase to the minimum wage, which Albanese uses to wedge the government.

“There is a very clear divide here. A government that says that low wage growth was a key feature of their economic architecture and Labor that says that, “We want an economy that works for people, not the other way around” and that people who are on minimum wages are doing it tough.”

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Scott Morrison uses Liberal party campaign launch to set up housing battle with Labor

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PM announces spending boosts and ‘game changer’ for first-home buyers ahead of final election campaign week, as he urges voters to stick with government at polls

Scott Morrison has promised Australians a “new era of opportunity” if re-elected, while pitching a fight with Labor over a centrepiece housing policy to allow first home-buyers to tap into their superannuation savings.

Setting up a contrast with Labor for the final week of the election campaign, the prime minister used the Liberal party’s official campaign launch to promise a new super home buyer scheme that would allow people to access up to $50,000 of superannuation savings for the purchase of a first home.

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Josh Frydenberg opposes independents’ call for public hearings and tip-offs in proposed federal Icac

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Treasurer says public hearings would see politicians ‘guilty until proved innocent’, but integrity experts say objections ‘ring hollow’

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has defended the lack of public hearings in the government’s proposed federal integrity commission, saying he opposes a model that would see politicians “guilty until proved innocent”.

Frydenberg, who is under pressure in his Melbourne seat of Kooyong on the issue of integrity and climate change, said that while he agreed with the need for a federal anti-corruption commission, he disagreed with the independents on two elements – public referrals and public hearings.

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ACT Senate race: can independents chase down Liberal incumbent?

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Former rugby union star David Pocock and academic Kim Rubenstein hope marginal status will bring Canberra and surrounds more funding

Canberra is one of the most progressive cities in the country. ACT residents are more likely to be highly educated, less religious and better paid than the average Australian, making it an outlier in federal politics.

But for the last 50 years, the two Senate spots in the Australian Capital Territory have been held exclusively by the Liberal and Labor parties. Now in 2022, two high-profile independents are vying to replace the Liberal incumbent, Zed Seselja.

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Morrison hails close ties with India and Albanese pledges $970m for Medicare – as it happened

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Scott Morrison reiterates new pitch to voters, promising a ‘gear change’, and Anthony Albanese reveals plan to boost primary healthcare. This blog is now closed

Morrison has unfurled his famous boomer dad vibes, snorting at young people using “devices”:

I still remember the mates are used to play with when I was a kid, when I used to go play sport, I used to look forward to it every Saturday and be there with mum and dad, come and be on the sidelines, it is those great
experiences of family life which creates strong families and strong communities.

And by investing in a healthy lifestyles of our children, and doing that with the highly successful sporting schools program, this means we can get more and more about into healthy lifestyles, we need to get them off those phones and get them on the field. I hear some noise from parents who know exactly what I am talking about. And sure, they can have fun with their devices, that has to be on the timing at all the rest of it, you guys struggle without as much as I am sure we all do, but we want them out there running around, we want them living healthy lifestyles.

We have had to come through and toughed it out and push through as hard as we possibly can, and as a Prime Minister and as a government we have had to do that as well.

But as we go into this time of opportunity, and that is exactly what it is, and the kids reminded me of that again this morning, as we go into that time of opportunity, as a government, we change gears, as a Prime Minister, I change gears, and we go and secure those opportunities ahead.

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Albanese says Morrison broke faith with US by delaying Labor’s Aukus briefing

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Biden administration reportedly said defence alliance needed bipartisan support, but opposition was not told until day before it was announced

Anthony Albanese says the prime minister, Scott Morrison, broke “faith and trust” with the US by waiting four-and-a-half months to brief Labor on the Aukus deal, a claim the Coalition has criticised as “misleading” and “reckless”.

Albanese was responding to a report in Nine newspapers that the Biden administration would only consider the project if it had bipartisan support.

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From anti-vaxxers to revolutionaries: what do the minor parties running for the Senate stand for?

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Find out what the lesser-known groups in the Australian election are after – before you cast your vote

The Coalition, Labor and the Greens (plus the wave of independents) are getting most of the headlines in this election. But your ballot papers will also be full of candidates representing parties you might not know much – or anything – about.

From the big-spender ads of the United Australia party and the re-election desires of One Nation, to a bunch of micro-parties representing niche interests, Australia’s democracy and elections are a rich tapestry – and it takes all types to make a campaign.

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Election preferences: do you need to think strategically before voting in the lower house?

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With prominent independents creating unusual contests in some seats, voters may be confused about how to allocate preferences. But there is a simple solution

The increasing number of credible campaigns from independents in the federal election is making for some intriguing contests, and in some seats may raise questions for voters about where to place their preferences, as well as their primary vote.

The role of preferences in Australia’s election may at times seem complicated, but what voters need to consider is really quite simple (in the lower house, at least).

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‘Sick of it’: why so many Australians are voting early this election

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A drawn-out campaign and potential Covid risks are leading a record number of voters to cast their ballots before 21 May

A record number of Australians are voting early in the 2022 federal election, with many saying they’re “sick” of the drawn-out election campaign and want to avoid expected queues on 21 May.

Some 314,095 Australians cast their ballots on the first day of early voting this year, almost three times the 120,000 people that voted on day one of pre-poll in 2019.

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It’s unprecedented for Dutton to label a Chinese spy ship sailing outside Australia’s territory an ‘act of aggression’ | Daniel Hurst

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International law experts say ‘this is not an act of aggression and is in fact fairly standard activity for navies’

The defence minister, Peter Dutton, has called the presence of a Chinese spy ship off the coast of Western Australia “an aggressive act” but his department was far more sober in its assessment and international law experts have poured cold water on the claim.

It is not the first time such Chinese vessels have been in Australia’s exclusive economic zone. So, given we are a week out from an election and the Coalition wants the narrative refocused through a “we live in uncertain times” lens, let’s put the politics aside and step through the facts.

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Australian federal election 2022: Albanese seizes on PM’s ‘bulldozer’ admission; Chinese spy ship off WA coast ‘an act of aggression’, Dutton says

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Opposition leader says ‘bulldozers wreck things’ after prime minister blames pandemic for how he has governed country; Chinese spy ship spotted off Western Australia; Marise Payne and Penny Wong debate foreign policy at National Press Club; nation records at least 52 Covid deaths. Follow all the day’s news

On what Anne Ruston said, here is some of what Scott Morrison said about the 5.1% figure on 11 May:

Anthony Albanese says that he wants wages to go up by 5.1% and he thinks that Australians don’t know what the impact of that would be on their interest rates, on unemployment or on inflation in the cost of living.

He thinks Australians don’t get the link between these things. He thinks he can just say what he likes and you can have your cake and eat it.

I think you’ll find that the government has been very clear in its condemnation of the comments by Mr Albanese, not because of the figure that he put out there specifically, but the fact that he’s just chosen to put a figure out there you know, without bothering to consult, take advice, you know, there’s no science around it.

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Chinese-speaking voters critical of Coalition’s ‘militaristic’ stance on China in lead-up to 2022 election, WeChat study shows

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Labor also faces criticism, but Albanese is gaining ground in news coverage on Chinese social media platform, research finds

The Coalition’s muscular position toward China is not going down well with Chinese-speaking voters, while Labor is facing criticism over its more generous approach to humanitarian immigration, an analysis of WeChat audience comments reveals.

The study of more than 3,000 political news stories and associated comments appearing on the Chinese social media platform, WeChat, has been undertaken by researchers at Monash and Deakin Universities over the past 11 months, including during the election campaign.

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Andrew Laming says watchdog has done ‘nothing’ since he refused to repay expenses it found he wrongly claimed

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Outgoing LNP politician rejects the finding, saying he will appeal and that he has not been contacted by anyone chasing him for payment

Outgoing Liberal National party politician Andrew Laming says the expenses watchdog has done “nothing” since he publicly refused to pay back more than $8,000 in travel expenses he was found by it to have wrongly claimed.

The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (Ipea) audited a single month of Laming’s travel in 2020 after a Guardian Australia series on MPs’ expense claims.

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Coalition targets marginal seats with almost $3bn in election spending promises

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Labor has pledged close to $1bn for its top 10 marginals with Victorian seat of McEwen leading list of commitments

The Coalition has made almost $3bn in spending promises across 10 marginal seats ahead of the election, including a surprising $300m to try to flip the Labor seat of McEwen in Melbourne’s outer north.

The knife-edge seats of Bass in Tasmania and Gilmore on the New South Wales south coast have attracted the most pork-barrelling commitments from the Liberal party, with more than $500m committed to projects in Bass, held by Liberal MP Bridget Archer on a 0.4% margin, and $430m in Gilmore, held by Labor on a 2.6% margin.

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Morrison’s objection to lifting wages in line with inflation puts spotlight on pensions linked to CPI

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Prime minister says such a move would be ‘incredibly reckless’ but payments such as pensions are already tied to cost-of-living changes

Economists and advocacy groups have seized on the Morrison government’s objection to lifting minimum wages by the inflation rate, noting benefits such as pensions are tied to how consumer prices change.

Prime minister Scott Morrison blasted comments by Labor leader Anthony Albanese on Wednesday that he would “absolutely” support wages keeping pace with prices. That call was “incredibly reckless”, Morrison said, adding that wage increases of 5%-plus were “like throwing fuel on the fire of rising interest rates and rising costs of living”.

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Australia election 2022 live news: former high commissioner to Solomon Islands attempts to confront Morrison on campaign trail

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Simon Birmingham says Anthony Albanese ‘making it up as he goes along’ on wage rises; Peter Dutton takes swipe at Clive Palmer over seat preferences; at least 53 Covid deaths recorded. Follow all the day’s news

Josh Frydenberg told ABC TV he believed Scott Morrison won last night’s debate.

He also believes moderate Liberals have done enough to influence the party from the inside:

Let me take those issues individually. Firstly, on climate, I was a strong advocate, so was Dave Sharma, Katie Allen, Trent Zimmerman, Tim Wilson and many others about getting Australia to net zero emissions by 2050.

We argued inside the tent for that commitment and it’s in Australia’s best interest that it’s a bipartisan commitment. It’s Australia’s best interest that we have a long-term economic plan to get there.

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Kevin Rudd attacks ‘idiot’ Peter Dutton over ‘hairy-chested’ comments on China

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Former Labor PM says if China wanted a reset with Australia he ‘could not think of a dumber thing to do’ than the Solomon Islands deal

Kevin Rudd has launched a personal attack on Peter Dutton, labelling the defence minister an “idiot” for believing hairy-chested commentary about China would improve Australia’s strategic circumstances.

The former Australian prime minister also took aim at Beijing, saying that if Chinese officials really wanted a reset in the relationship with Australia he “could not think of a dumber thing to do than what they just did in the Solomons”.

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Albanese wins final election debate over Morrison, according to Seven’s undecided voters

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Potential wage rises dominated the debate early, with the prime minister suggesting a 5% increase could see small businesses fold and jobs lost

Anthony Albanese has been declared the winner of the final leaders’ debate of the election campaign after he and Scott Morrison put forward competing views on wage rises, economic management and energy policy.

With less than a fortnight until polling day, about 150 undecided voters determined Albanese the clear winner of the Channel Seven debate on Wednesday night. The Labor leader convinced 50% of those who voted in the network’s “pub test” compared to 34% for Morrison and 16% who were still undecided.

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‘Over-the-top alarmism’: economists dismiss concerns wage rises cause inflation

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Australia’s minimum wage is shrinking compared to median pay, bucking global trends

The recent spurt in inflation has little do with workers being paid more, economists say, warning the claim that wage increases could set off inflation is “over-the-top alarmism”.

Debate over how much the lowest-paid workers should receive has flared during the election campaign after the ACTU this week raised its minimum wage claim to the Fair Work Commission to 5.5% from an earlier goal of 5%, after March-quarter consumer prices spiked.

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