Category Archives: Australian politics

Australia live news updates: Scott Morrison says he ‘understands’ Canberra antivax protesters; NSW records 32 Covid deaths and Vic 19; Perrottet tested in byelections

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Pauline Hanson mobbed by Canberra protesters as Lifeline book fair forced to cancel

From AAP:

Queensland’s health chief is “personally reluctant” to repeal a venue vaccine mandate before the end of winter and says it could in fact be the very last pandemic restriction ditched.

The state’s Omicron outbreak peaked on January 25 with 928 patients in hospital and 71 in intensive care, well below a predicted 3000-7000 general admissions and an ICU intake of several hundred.

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Scott Morrison says he ‘understands’ Canberra antivax protesters amid skirmishes with police

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Prime minister says Australia ‘a free country’ and blames states for Covid vaccine mandates

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, says he understands the concerns of anti-vaccination mandate protesters, with thousands of people again marching in Canberra.

The protesters marched on Parliament House on Saturday, chanting and waving flags, and shutting down streets around the capital. About 100 people leapt barricades and faced off against police, who were also monitoring the crowd with drones and helicopters.

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‘Equality is not negotiable’: the schools embracing gender diversity

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Students say LGBTQ+ safe spaces at Australian school help them grow confidence and be proud of their identities

Quinn Clements, 16, is gender fluid. The pronouns they use can change but they prefer they/them.

In year 10 they came out at their all-girls religious school in Melbourne.

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Australia news live updates: Victoria’s ‘code brown’ to end; WA records second Covid death of pandemic; Morrison ‘misled’ by MPs who crossed floor

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Peter Dutton confirms Scott Morrison was misled by Liberal MPs who crossed floor on religious discrimination bill; Martin Foley says code brown declaration for Victoria’s hospitals will end Monday; at least 49 Covid deaths recorded nationally. Follow all the day’s news

An electric scooter rider has died after a collision with a station wagon south-east of Melbourne, AAP reports.

Police said a white Volkswagen station wagon was driving on the Princes Highway in Narre Warren on Thursday afternoon when it collided with the e-scooter.

The rider, who has not been formally identified, died at the scene. The station wagon driver was not injured and stopped to help the rider.

Major collision investigation unit detectives are investigating the crash.

Opinion:

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It began with a pre-dawn insurrection on religious discrimination and it got worse for Scott Morrison | Katharine Murphy

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Clearly someone, or more than someone, wants to cause the prime minister some capital T trouble, but their endgame is entirely unclear

On Tuesday, Scott Morrison warned his colleagues disunity was political death. He told colleagues in the party room: “I’m going to lead, and I’m asking you once again to follow me to an election victory.”

Just before dawn on Thursday morning, five Liberals ignored the prime minister’s exhortation, and crossed the floor in the House of Representatives. The rebellion was bigger than senior figures had anticipated.

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Australia politics live news updates: Christian lobby says government should withdraw religious discrimination bill; at least 40 Covid deaths recorded

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NSW records 24 Covid-related deaths, Victoria records 16; TGA approves AstraZeneca booster for adults; Christian lobby says government should withdraw religious discrimination bill after controversial legislation moves to upper house. Follow all the day’s news

Need a quick recap of yesterday’s shenanigans in question time? As prime minister Scott Morrison said: Bring. It. On. Sarah Martin reports:

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has provisionally approved an AstraZeneca booster for adults.

The decision to receive Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) as a booster must be made in consultation with a medical professional.

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Lower house sits late to continue religious discrimination bill debate – as it happened

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Debate over religious discrimination bill to continue as House of Representatives agrees to sit late; Brittany Higgins calls for Jenkins review to be implemented; nation records at least 68 deaths from Covid – follow all the day’s news

The Coalition has been sitting on a major report into the state of the care workforce in Australia since September last year, Sarah Martin reports. The report “set out to examine the needs of the care and support workforce for aged, disability, veteran and mental health care”:

I mentioned the Health Services Union’s survey earlier, in the context of the opposition hoping to wound the government over the aged care crisis.

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Australia politics live news updates: PM apologises to Brittany Higgins as parliament acknowledges history of bullying, harassment, sexual assault

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Apology for staff and politicians who have experienced sexual harassment, assault and bullying at Parliament House; Daniel Andrews welcomes border reopening, announces free RATs for kids in childcare; anti-vaccine mandate protests continue; Victoria records 9,785 Covid cases and 20 deaths, NSW records 9,690 cases and 18 deaths; Queensland records 5,178 cases and 12 deaths. Follow the latest updates live

The defence minister Peter Dutton has told the Today show he is reserving his right to take legal action against former NSW premier Bob Carr, who doubled down on his claims that Dutton was the “mystery minister” who called prime minister Scott Morrison a “psycho”. Dutton said:

It was not me. I mean, every family’s got this crazy uncle that wakes up from the rocking chair and sort of in a startled way shouts out something and I just don’t know what is going on with Bob Carr. Is he the full quid or not? He’s a bizarre guy. He hasn’t produced any evidence. He’s now saying if it’s not me, then the person needs to come forward to prove my innocence. I just find it bizarre. But anyway, I just find it bizarre. But anyway, I think he has discredited himself.

He hasn’t produced any evidence and you can’t just make a claim and then back away from it. But that’s what he’s done. I think it’s embarrassing for him and I think most journalists frankly have treated him as a bit of a joke and this sort of relevance deprivation syndrome cuts in for a lot of former politicians as we’ve discussed on the show before.

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Morrison signals attempt to pass religious discrimination bill ‘in the near future’

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Coalition faces fierce internal opposition to the legislation while Labor stalls on finalising a position

Scott Morrison has signalled he will seek to legislate the religious discrimination bill “in the near future”, as mounting internal opposition leaves securing Labor support the most viable path to pass the reform.

Morrison appealed for support for the “important bill” on Monday, telling reporters in Canberra that it is “something that should unite the parliament, not divide it”.

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Australia politics news live updates: Peter Dutton hits out at Bob Carr over text message claims as row deepens

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Barnaby Joyce ‘has some explaining to do’, Michael McCormack says; defence minister denies claims he was behind messages that branded the prime minister a ‘complete psycho’. Follow all the day’s news live

Communications minister Paul Fletcher is telling ABC radio about the restoration of funding to the national broadcaster (see Amanda Meade’s story, linked in a previous post).

The ABC will have to detail their levels of Australian content and other key services.

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Australia news live update: at least 45 Covid deaths recorded nationally; Qld says using ADF to evacuate aged care facilities ‘a last resort’

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Nation records at least 45 Covid deaths with 28 in NSW, nine in Queensland, six in Victoria and one each in South Australia and Tasmania; Scott Morrison addresses relationship with Barnaby Joyce ahead of deputy PM facing colleagues in Canberra this week after leaked text message savaging the prime minister. Follow all the day’s news live

Speers starts listing the leaders who have accused Scott Morrison of being a liar: Barnaby Joyce, the former prime minister, French president Emmanuel Macron. He asks whether this, plus problems in managing the pandemic, will make it harder to campaign with Scott Morrison at this year’s federal election?

Andrews:

We always knew that we would have our work cut out for us. This is a particularly difficult time in Australia and globally. We always knew that would be the case. Can we do without distractions? Absolutely. It is predictable that the opposition leader and Labor are going to go for a personal attack on the prime minister, of course it is...

Circumstances are very different now. He is a great campaigner. He was a great campaigner in 2019 and he connected very well with Australians.

“... out in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, all of the states across Australia. We all need to be doing that. It has been an incredibly difficult time for everyone and we all have to make sure that we are properly connecting.

You can understand the interest legitimately though. Trust matters, integrity matters. You are asking the Australian voters to re-elect a prime minister who has been called a liar, not just once and not just by his now deputy prime minister who even offered to resign over this. It is a pretty big deal.

Look, integrity is absolutely important and I’m not going to dismiss or attempt to dismiss any of that. But I would also say, too, that we are coming up to a federal election in the next couple of months and what Australians will be asked to decide on is who is going to lead that country, and that includes not just the issues that we are discussing today potentially tomorrow...

But it is a big part, minister, as to whether we can trust him?

Look, I would say to the people of Australia that my experience of Scott Morrison is that he has always been respectful and willing to listen to my point of view, but he has also got a very strong record, and that is as immigration minister, as treasurer and as the prime minister. Let’s put this into some context as well, that Scott Morrison has been the prime minister during a particularly difficult time in Australia...

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Victoria reports 41 Covid deaths, Qld 21 and NSW 18; anti-vaxxers protest in Canberra – as it happened

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Firefighters in Western Australia battle two emergency-level bushfires. This blog is now closed

NSW case numbers are in, and there have been 8,389 new Covid-19 cases detected over night from PCR and rapid antigen tests.

Sadly, 18 more lives have been lost overnight.

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Barnaby Joyce called Scott Morrison ‘a hypocrite and a liar’ in leaked text message

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Joyce said he did not ‘get along’ with the PM in message dating from before his return to the Nationals leadership

Barnaby Joyce labelled Scott Morrison “a hypocrite and a liar” in a private text message, sent before he returned to the leadership of the National party.

In another blow for the embattled prime minister, the leaked text, seen by Guardian Australia, was forwarded to the former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins by a third party.

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Australia live news updates: inside Victoria’s $1.4bn Covid package; at least 81 coronavirus deaths recorded

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Australia records at least 81 deaths from Covid-19; Victoria announces $1.4bn health package; government sought Labor support to wave religious bill through unamended; police attempt to clear ACT anti-vaccine protest camp – follow the day’s news

Albanese also called for the federal minister who sent the “psycho” texts to just come forward already. (He would love that, wouldn’t he!)

Well, it’s time for someone just to come forward and fess up as to who sent that text message. We know that one-half of the exchanges was Gladys Berejiklian.

And, for me, it wasn’t the personal abuse that is there and the character assessments. The most damning indictment of the prime minister was the premier of New South Wales at the time who was doing a job each and every day on the bushfire crisis, saying that the prime minister was more concerned about politics than he was about people at that time.

I’ve been asked this and I give the same answer I gave yesterday. The government should put in a submission supporting a wage increase. That’s what we did when we were in government for social and community service workers. And that led to a substantial pay increase, which has led to retention in that workforce. If we don’t deal with the issue of wages, then we won’t be able to retain a workforce in the aged care sector. The other thing we need, of course, is we need more workers and more carers, but we need a nurse in every nursing home, 24/7. We used to call them nursing homes for a reason – because nurses were there. It’s extraordinary that we have these aged care facilities that can go for considerable periods of time without having a nurse right there when they’re needed.

But not putting a figure on a proposed wage increase – isn’t the prime minister right when he says nobody knows how much it will cost the government, and therefore taxpayers?

No, the prime minister is not right. The prime minister is wrong. The prime minister is wrong by not supporting a nurse being in every nursing home.

The prime minister is wrong by not saying to the Fair Work Commission that he supports a wage increase for the aged care workforce.

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Albanese demands Colbeck ‘resign today’ as nation records 82 Covid deaths – as it happened

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Albanese says aged care services minister ‘must resign today’; CMO says ‘we are past the peak’ of Omicron as nation records at least 82 Covid-19 deaths, with dozens of cases in ICU; bushfire emergency warning issued for East Rockingham. This blog is now closed

Speaking of the ongoing Covid aged care crisis, health and aged care minister Greg Hunt is defending the government’s handling of the situation, telling ABC radio that 99% of aged care workers are now double-vaccinated:

We have over 99% vaccination rate amongst aged care workers, one of the highest rates in the world; 91% vaccination rate for residents. We’ve been able to have one of the lowest rates of loss of life in aged care in the world ...

But it is immensely hard for so many. The mental health impacts of people being locked down in aged care, which is a protective mechanism for them, but at the same time it has a huge impact on their quality of life.

If they can’t endorse [federal environment minister Sussan Ley] they should get out of the way and let the federal executive ensure we can get things done.

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What’s the price of a loaf of bread? A whole lot of political trouble

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Scott Morrison this week admitted he didn’t know how much staples cost. Given similar questions have undone other politicians perhaps he was wise not to take a stab

Australians have been talking about foodstuffs this week after the prime minister was unable to nominate the price of a loaf of bread when quizzed during his National Press Club appearance.

A Sky News journalist on Tuesday asked Scott Morrison if he had “lost touch with ordinary Australians”. Could the PM, for instance, name the price of “a loaf of bread, a litre of petrol and a rapid antigen test?” Morrison stated that he “wasn’t going to pretend to you that I go out each day and I buy a loaf of bread and I buy a litre of milk”.

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Australia news live updates: Morrison’s jobs goal prompts reaction while handling of Covid in aged care under scrutiny

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ACTU’s Sally McManus says PM’s plan to lower unemployment rates doesn’t necessarily mean better pay or security – follow all the day’s news

Morrison is asked about the question he was unable to answer yesterday - the cost of basics like bread and petrol and, in this day and age, rapid antigen tests. Morrison says he “didn’t hear” the question about RATs.

To be honest, I heard bread and milk on the question yesterday, it was a pretty robust and torrid time at the press club yesterday, I must admit I didn’t hear the question about rats, that’s the honest truth. Didn’t hear it. It’s about $15-$20 and they can be less than that ... if it gets above that they will be coming after those who are price gouging, so to be honest I didn’t hear that part of the question, I heard bread and milk and for the record, it depends which bread.

Little milk comes from a cow anymore, there are so many different things that people have available but if it’s two, three bucks, you can get petrol from $1.60 to $1.80. That’s what it is. It’s one of those old things they do with the press club to make a bit of a headline.

No, I haven’t had the opportunity to do that but I appreciate what Gladys said yesterday in our own dealings with each other ... I think we work very positively and I think we work very well together as a premier and PM to do very great things from New South Wales in particular ... I can’t speak to the other things that are all anonymous and she doesn’t recollect it but it’s certainly not a conversation we have ever had.

People say nasty things about the prime minister all the time, they say nasty things about people in the media – just switch on social media. You will get yourself quite a giggle and I get one all the time. It goes with the job.

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Aged care workers to get bonus payments as Morrison government tries to claw back support

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Prime minister announces bonuses of up to $800 for more than 230,000 staff but union says ‘trinkets are not required when diamonds are needed’

Aged care workers will receive two pre-election bonus payments worth up to $800 in total as the federal government seeks to claw back public support for its troubled pandemic response.

Ahead of a major speech at the National Press Club on Tuesday, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced on Monday night that the bonus would be paid to more than 230,000 aged care workers in government-subsidised home care and to residential aged care staff providing “direct care, food or cleaning services”.

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‘It has been three years’: Australian activist’s wife pleads for government help in freeing him from Vietnam jail

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Chau Van Kham’s family urges Australian government to intervene as 72-year-old remains in prison for his pro-democracy work

The Vietnamese New Year, Tet Nguyen Dan, is a time of family reunion and feasting, of wishes of good fortune and health.

For three years now, Quynh Trang Truong has spent the Tet festival without her husband, Chau Van Kham, who languishes in a Vietnamese prison on terrorism charges, described by human rights groups as a “travesty of justice”.

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NSW Liberals fail to resolve preselection impasse raising prospect of federal intervention

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Vote on proposed peace deal to placate warring factions pushed to an electronic ballot next week after Friday night meeting of state executive

The New South Wales Liberal party has failed to resolve its preselection impasse for federal candidates and has delayed the issue until next week, dramatically raising the prospects that a federal intervention will be required.

The 27-member state executive met on Friday night for less than two hours, but did not consider a controversial deal which was designed to placate the warring factions and settle a number of key seats by bypassing branch votes.

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