Category Archives: Australian politics

ALP under fire for ‘repurposing racist meme’ with ‘we love Medicare’ T-shirt

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Labor admits it ‘missed the mark’ with social media posts sharing T-shirt that states ‘This is Australia, we eat meat, we drink beer and we love Medicare!’

An Australian Labor party social media post has left followers scratching their heads, with its apparent send-up of white nationalist messaging triggering the question: “Have you been hacked?”

The Instagram post – which was uploaded on Sunday and then deleted on Monday – features a white man wearing a T-shirt with a flag-themed map of Australia and the words: “THIS IS AUSTRALIA / WE EAT MEAT / WE DRINK BEER AND WE LOVE MEDICARE!”. The Instagram caption stated: “CALLING ALL AUSSIE PATRIOTS NOW IS THE TIME TO PROTECT OUR MEDICARE.”

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‘Apoplectic’ environment groups halt Coalition attack ads to take aim at Albanese over species’ ‘death warrant’

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Exclusive: Australia’s top green organisations suspend anti-nuclear power ads to fund campaign against Labor’s move to protect salmon industry

Australia’s leading environment organisations have abruptly suspended advertising campaigns attacking the Coalition’s plan to introduce nuclear power and are instead funding ads accusing Anthony Albanese of signing “the death warrant” of an endangered species.

The shift from criticising the Coalition to Labor on the cusp of an election campaign was agreed by the bosses of green groups – including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, the WWF Australia and the Climate Council – at what campaigners described as an emergency meeting on Saturday.

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What a $5,000 ticket will and won’t get you at one of Canberra’s budget night fundraising soirees

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As you decipher how the budget may alter your life on Tuesday night, your politicians will be raking in the cash by wining and dining donors and lobbyists

As you decipher how the federal budget may alter your life on Tuesday night, your politicians will be raking in the cash by wining and dining donors and lobbyists in Canberra.

This year’s budget night fundraisers – often concealed from the general public – could be something of a final hoorah. New laws capping campaign spending will soon make these budget night soirees less important, at least financially.

Tickets will have to be publicly disclosed as gifts, meaning there will be a record of those who sipped champagne with politicians and filled the party coffers. But these changes won’t apply until 2026. For now, the show goes on.

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Labor vows to support working from home as Coalition touts public servants cuts – as it happened

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Angus Taylor calls Labor’s energy bill rebate ‘Band-Aid on a bullet wound’

The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, also says the Coalition will not “get in the way” of the government’s $150 energy rebate, announced last night.

We’re not going to get in the way of it. The starting point here though is very clear which is Labor’s failed on delivering its promise of a $275 power price reduction.

We’re not going to stand in the way of Labor cleaning up their own mess. This is putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. The solution here is to get a structural outcome which is a reduction in underlying electricity prices, which has not been achieved, of course. It’s gone the other way.

They are both supplied by the US with little to no sovereign input, are expensive and outdated. Like Aukus, this equipment is much more about signalling our loyalty to the US than defending Australia.

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Changes in Help to Buy housing scheme will make ‘most first home buyers’ eligible, Labor says

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Minister announces increase in both income and property price caps as part of 2025 budget

Labor will increase the income and price caps for its signature Help to Buy scheme as part of next week’s budget, which it has promised will deliver cost-of-living relief.

Under the shared equity scheme, the commonwealth provides first home buyers with 30% of the purchase price of an existing home, or 40% for a new home.

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Bob Brown urges Greens to punish Labor at election if Albanese amends law to protect salmon farming

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PM’s pledge to protect Tasmanian industry will weaken laws already failing to protect natural sites and at-risk species, environmentalists say

Former Greens leader Bob Brown has urged the minor party not to preference Labor ahead of the Liberal party in Tasmanian seats at the upcoming election if the Albanese government legislates to effectively exempt salmon farming from national environment laws.

Conservationists have sharply criticised Anthony Albanese’s pledge that he will rush through legislation next week to protect the salmon industry in Macquarie Harbour, on the state’s west coast, from the potential results of a long-running legal review.

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Police investigating alleged online threats to third Sydney mosque – as it happened

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Jim Chalmers was also up on ABC News Breakfast this morning, where he was asked if there’s a reason the government can’t commit to more of the 20 recommendations.

He said it was committing to all of the recommendations “in principle” and, like earlier, that the government was working on some of them already.

The ACCC has handed down a 441-page report and not on any of those pages does it support the divestiture powers which have been proposed by our political opponents.

If you make one of the big chains sell in the community, there’s a risk that it’s just snapped up by the other big player in the supermarket sector and that would be counter-productive. Or if it chases supermarket options out of town in regional communities. It’s got hairs all over it, frankly.

We’re making the food and grocery code mandatory. We’re empowering the ACCC. We’re cracking down on mergers and acquisitions. We’re working to make it easier for new entrants to compete with the two big supermarkets in particular. These are all of the things that we’re cracking down on when it comes to the supermarkets.

We don’t want the supermarkets to be treating Australians like mugs.

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Major-power conflict ‘no longer unimaginable’, Australian intelligence review finds

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Independent assessment, which was handed to government before US election, warns of ‘global geopolitical and economic fragmentation’

Australia faces a world more volatile and dangerous than it has known for more than four decades, and “major-power conflict is no longer unimaginable”, a review of the country’s intelligence agencies has found.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, commissioned the review of the work of the 10 agencies that make up Australia’s national intelligence community in September 2023.

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There have been shifts in relative global power balances, accompanied by a sharp contest between nation-states for power and influence. This contest is at once diplomatic, military, economic and technological, and is pursued within Australia’s borders as much as beyond them, including through cyber-attacks and foreign interference.

New technologies are being used to amplify some old threats while creating entirely new ones.

There are a range of transnational challenges, including climate change, pandemics, irregular migration, terrorism, and polarisation and fraying social cohesion in many democracies. In a globalised world, the ripples from even geographically distant conflicts inevitably reach Australia, with significant, often grave, consequences.

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Dutton calling Albanese ‘limp-wristed’ over Chinese ships ‘unsurprising’, Wong says

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Opposition leader criticised for using historical slur against gay men, with a spokesperson for Dutton saying ‘no offence was intended’

Penny Wong says it’s “unsurprising” Peter Dutton would use an historical slur to attack the prime minister’s response to China, noting the opposition leader had opposed marriage equality.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Dutton said: “It was a phrase that shouldn’t have been used, and no offence was intended from Mr Dutton.”

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Australia in discussions to avoid ‘devastating consequences’ of US aid cuts for Pacific nations

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Exclusive: Penny Wong says diplomats are consulting US government and ‘engaging with countries in our region’ to determine need for additional support

The Australian government is consulting Pacific nations to assess the “devastating consequences” of the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid and considering what additional support it can provide ahead of next week’s federal budget.

In a letter to a Liberal MP concerned the freeze could cause “irreversible” damage to Pacific communities, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said Australian diplomats were discussing its impact with US government officials.

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Australia news live: Albanese asked if he ‘trusts’ Trump; Dutton says he is confident an Aukus ‘plan B’ is not needed

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On the issue of Aukus, the opposition leader said the Coalition is committed to increased defence spending. Follow today’s news live

‘Israeli government does not have a lot of palatable options’ – Sharma

The Liberal senator and former ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma was up on ABC News Breakfast earlier to discuss the latest strikes carried out by Israel on Gaza.

If any of us were in their position, we would be single-mindedly focused on the return of our loved ones. I can understand that. This is a politically contentious issue in Israel, there’s no walking away from that, but I don’t think the government has a lot of good choices.

Continuing the ceasefire was not going to lead to the release of further hostages, at least according to the mediators involved in the talks. Hamas had basically said they weren’t planning on returning any more. As I said, in that situation, the Israeli government does not have a lot of palatable options.

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PBS-listed medicine to cost no more than $25 a script if Labor re-elected

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Election pledge part of Albanese’s focus on cheaper medicines as a cost-of-living measure that will also help reduce inflation

A re-elected Labor government would reduce the price of PBS-listed medicines to no more than $25 a script, in a major new election pledge to be included in next week’s budget that builds on Anthony Albanese’s focus on cheaper medicines as a cost-of-living measure.

With the formal election campaign to start within weeks, where Labor will focus strongly on health as a key issue, Albanese will on Thursday deliver a major speech promising that four out of five medications on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme would become cheaper under the plan which would cost the government $689m.

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Albanese to rush through new laws to protect Tasmania’s salmon industry from legal threat

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Labor will push the contentious bill through parliament next week despite concerns about the extinction of the Maugean skate

Anthony Albanese plans to rush through contentious legislation next week to protect Tasmania’s salmon industry from a legal challenge over the industry’s impact on an endangered fish species.

The future of the salmon industry on the state’s west coast has become a sharp political issue centred on whether it can coexist with the Maugean skate, a ray-like species found only in Macquarie Harbour’s brackish waters.

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Pocock says politicians using encrypted messaging apps damages ‘health of our democracy’

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Kevin Rudd once lobbied the Turnbull government for a UN position using encrypted app Wickr – and the messages could not be found

Independent senator David Pocock says the use of encrypted messaging platforms by politicians to avoid scrutiny is damaging to Australian democracy, urging the government to act on recommendations from the information commissioner and the National Archives that such messages should be retained.

In a report on Wednesday from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and the National Archives, a survey of 22 government agencies found 16 allowed use of messaging apps, three did not allow their use, and three did not have a policy.

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Network Ten and Wilkinson ordered to pay own costs in Lehrmann defamation case – as it happened

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Growing inequality erodes social cohesion – Leigh

In his speech, Andrew Leigh will say growing inequality is an issue because it erodes social cohesion.

When wealth is concentrated among a few, society becomes fragmented. Our sense of collective responsibility diminishes, and the fabric that binds us as Australians weakens.

This approach contrasts with our predecessors, whose tax policies disproportionately benefited the highest earners, widening the gap between rich and poor. By maintaining a fair and responsible tax structure, we can fund essential public services while ensuring that the most fortunate Australians contribute their fair share.

Yet since the 1980s, Australia has seen what economists describe as a ‘Great Divergence’, reversing the gains of earlier decades.

Today, the top 1% of income earners receive nearly 10% of national income, nearly doubling their share from 40 years ago. Wealth inequality is even more extreme, with the richest 10% owning more than 60 times the wealth of the bottom 10%.

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‘Disgusting’ antisemitic tactics used to threaten exiled Hong Kong man in Adelaide, Jewish group says

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Exclusive: Ted Hui and Melbourne resident Kevin Yam are both subjects of anonymous letters and pamphlets mailed from Chinese-controlled territories

A prominent Jewish group has condemned a “disgusting” attempt to intimidate an exiled pro-democracy campaigner who fled to Adelaide from Hong Kong, with the federal opposition accusing a foreign actor of weaponising antisemitism.

Human Rights Watch said a separate attempt that encouraged people to inform on another dissident, Kevin Yam in Melbourne, was designed to make critics of the Hong Kong government feel “unsafe and hunted, no matter where they are in the world”.

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Victorian man charged for allegedly making death threats and antisemitic comments to federal MP

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Man allegedly contacted the MP using social media multiple times between 7 January and 19 February this year

A Victorian man has been charged for allegedly making death threats and antisemitic comments to a federal member of parliament.

The 41-year-old was charged on Tuesday afternoon after the Australian federal police conducted a search of his home in the Melbourne suburb of Officer, the AFP said in a statement.

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Australia news live: Wong urges ‘all parties’ to respect Gaza ceasefire; renters need $130k income to afford average property, report shows

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‘Palestinian civilians cannot pay the price of defeating Hamas. It has now been two weeks since humanitarian aid last entered Gaza’ says foreign minister. Follow today’s news live

Labour-hire flight attendants to get pay boost

More than 750 domestic flight attendants funnelled to Qantas by labour-hire firms will get a hefty pay boost, AAP reports, in what is being hailed as a victory for “same job, same pay” laws.

Some of these crew will no longer need three jobs to make ends meet and put a roof over the heads of their families.

These are workers who wear the same uniform, do the same work, work the same rosters but have been paid significantly less than their colleagues. They do the same job and they deserve the same pay.

A crime scene has been established and an arson chemist will attend the scene [this] morning. The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fire remains ongoing.

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Guardian Essential poll: Albanese scores highest approval rating in almost 18 months as support for Dutton slips

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PM’s approval rating increases to 46%, up four percentage points since the last poll, as Labor and Coalition run neck-and-neck on a two-party preferred basis

More Australians approve of Anthony Albanese as the country’s leader than disapprove of him for the first time in almost 18 months since the referendum on the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament.

Albanese’s approval rating has increased to 46%, up four percentage points from earlier in March, the latest Guardian Essential poll shows, while his disapproval rating fell to 45%.

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Australia’s trade minister warns Trump tariff war could raise price of Big Mac in US

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Don Farrell points out most Australian beef exported to US goes to fast food giant McDonald’s

Donald Trump’s trade war could raise the price of American hamburgers, Australia’s trade minister has warned, amid fears that tariffs could be extended to beef and other agricultural products.

The trade minister, Don Farrell, said most of Australia’s beef exported to the United States went to fast food giant McDonald’s, and any new tariffs on our goods would inevitably increase the price Americans pay for their cheeseburgers or Big Macs.

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