Category Archives: Australian politics

Australia news live: New Zealand agrees to travel bubble; wild weather hits south-east Queensland

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Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand’s cabinet has agreed to a proposal for a trans-Tasman travel bubble; storms forecast to continue in parts of south-east Queensland and northern NSW. Follow the latest updates

If you were hoping to grab some of the Victorian government’s vouchers for travelling into regional Victoria for a holiday, you have missed out on the second round, AAP reports 30,000 vouchers sold in 31 minutes.

An extra 30,000 Regional Travel Voucher Scheme vouchers, worth $200 apiece, were snapped up within 31 minutes of becoming available from midday on Monday via a new-look state government webpage.

AAP reports the extreme weather in northern NSW and southeast Queensland will continue to intensify overnight.

Sites in NSW’s Northern Rivers District had about 400mm of rain in just a few days, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Jane Golding told reporters on Monday.

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ABC chair Ita Buttrose accuses government of ‘political interference’ in draft letter to Paul Fletcher

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Exclusive: Buttrose mounts robust defence of broadcaster’s independence in response to questions about Four Corners’ episode Inside the Canberra Bubble

The ABC chair, Ita Buttrose, has accused the government of a pattern of behaviour which “smacks of political interference” in a robust defence of the public broadcaster’s independence, according to a draft of a letter responding to a barrage of Coalition complaints about the Four Corners program Inside the Canberra Bubble.

In the program broadcast last month, the journalists Louise Milligan and Lucy Carter investigated complaints about attorney general Christian Porter, including an alleged history of sexist and inappropriate behaviour towards women, and an affair the acting immigration minister, Alan Tudge, had with a female adviser in 2017.

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Deported to danger and death: Australia returns people to violence and persecution

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Asylum seekers forcibly returned to their home countries have faced arrest and threats. Some have died

They came for him, as he had said they would. They came for him with knives.

Samad Howladar had spent five years inside Australia’s offshore detention regime, held within the Manus Island detention centre until he was deported, in handcuffs, back to Bangladesh in March 2018.

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China tariffs offset by rising Australian iron ore prices due to ‘fear tax’

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Boosted iron ore prices due to anxious markets are likely to help federal budget’s bottom line, Deloitte says

Australia’s losses from trade tensions with China are being offset by rising iron ore prices, according to new analysis, which also predicts the Morrison government will announce a smaller budget deficit than originally forecast.

Deloitte Access Economics said Chinese government moves against wine, beef, barley, lobsters and thermal coal have cost Australia money “but we’ve more than made that up in overall terms thanks to iron ore – and the taxman will be a considerable beneficiary of that”.

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Australia live news: Queensland border opens to New Zealand and UQ Covid vaccine trial abandoned

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Australia had ordered 51m doses of the UQ/CSL vaccine. Follow latest updates

In better news for Victoria, another doughnut day:

Yesterday there were 0 new local cases, 0 new cases acquired overseas and 0 lost lives reported. Thanks to all who were tested: 9,760 results received #EveryTestHelps #StaySafeStayOpen
More info https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/6Ts9mijiD9

So it looks like the website to apply for the Victorian government’s tourism vouchers is still down.

The site crashed after being inundated as holidaymakers rushed to snap up the first batch of the $200 vouchers.

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Five asylum seekers released from detention before court hearing – as it happened

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Scott Morrison says quarantine rules to be tightened for airline crews and UQ vaccine trial abandoned. This blog is now closed

That’s where I’ll leave you for this evening. Thanks as always for reading.

Here’s what we learned today:

Five asylum seekers, who were transferred to Australia under Medevac, have been released from immigration detention this week, it has been confirmed.

Three asylum seekers were released today – including musician and artist Farhad Bandesh – and two people were released on Tuesday, according to the Refugee Advocacy Network.

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Australian politics live: government approves $500m war memorial redevelopment

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Sussan Ley says it will ensure the memorial ‘continues to recognise and commemorate an important part of Australia’s history’. Follow latest updates

Labor has the matter of public importance, and then the adjournment debate begins - but parliament is all but over for 2020.

And that’s a wrap on the Christmas speeches.

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Revealed: 1,500 people in limbo under Australia’s ‘bizarre and cruel’ refugee deterrence policy

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Australia declared in 2013 that asylum seekers who arrive by boat would never settle here. Hundreds of people’s lives are still on hold to prove that point

For more than seven years, Australia’s policy has been clear: if you seek asylum by boat you will never be settled here. You will be sent offshore and have your asylum claims heard there.

Between the declaration of that policy by prime minister Kevin Rudd on 19 July 2013 and the last transfer offshore in December 2014, Australia sent 3,127 people seeking protection as refugees to Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

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Projections suggest Australia could meet 2030 emissions target without using Kyoto credits

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Prime minister Scott Morrison wanted to announce the policy shift at a weekend summit but he’s not yet secured a speaking spot

The Morrison government will release updated national greenhouse gas emissions projections that claim Australia is nearly on track to meet the target for 2030 it set under the Paris agreement.

An annual emissions projection report to be released on Thursday shows the government now estimates emissions in 2030 will fall just short – by 56m tonnes – of meeting its target of a 26-28% cut compared to 2005 levels if Australia doesn’t deploy Kyoto credits to hit the target.

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Juukan Gorge inquiry: Rio Tinto’s decision to blow up Indigenous rock shelters ‘inexcusable’

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Parliament committee says miner must negotiate a compensation deal with traditional owners and ‘ensure a full reconstruction’ of the caves

A parliamentary inquiry into the destruction of 46,000-year-old caves has delivered a scathing report criticising the actions of Rio Tinto and calling for the Western Australian government to put a stop to the destruction of heritage until new laws are passed.

The majority bipartisan interim report said Rio Tinto’s decision to destroy two rock shelters in Juukan Gorge, against the wishes of the traditional owners and despite knowing the archaeological value of the site, was “inexcusable”.

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Australian politics live: Coalition to put forward IR changes; cruise ship ban extended

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Fair Work Commission to be given power to approve agreements that don’t guarantee workers are better off overall. Follow all the latest updates

Earlier, the Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus, set out the union movement’s objection to the “extreme” industrial relations bill.
Those are:

On the other side of that debate:

Take the sand out of your ears – and let's hope we can soften your hearts. Because all this legislation does is push people further and further in the ground. Please Senators, vote no to this horrendous legislation. My full speech: https://t.co/MTYbj02hyw

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Australia politics live: international border to stay closed until at least March

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Government extends country’s biosecurity emergency declaration; Josh Frydenberg unveils laws requiring Google and Facebook to pay for news. All the latest updates

In the UK, Margaret Keenan, a 90-year old grandmother from Coventry, has become the first person to receive the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.

Australia has currently secured enough doses of the vaccine for 5 million people.

Congratulations to Margaret Keenan on her pub quiz question immortality.

Related: Coventry woman, 90, first patient to receive Covid vaccine in NHS campaign

Independent senator Rex Patrick has tabled a bill today to ban the importing of goods made by the forced labour of Uighurs in China.

The bill would stop Australia importing any goods made in the Xinjing province of China, or goods from other parts of China produced “using forced labour” as defined by Australian criminal law.

The Chinese Communist regime’s persecution of the Uyghur people is undeniable. More than 1 million people have been rounded up and put in internment camps across Xinjiang and subjected to gross human rights abuses.

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PM apologises for erroneously stating Kevin Rudd had left and re-entered Australia during Covid

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Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the lower house correcting the record and apologising to the former Labor leader

Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the House of Representatives correcting the record and apologising to Kevin Rudd after declaring erroneously in question time that the former Labor prime minister had been allowed to leave and re-enter Australia during the pandemic.

The controversy began when Labor on Monday asked Morrison why Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer had been able to leave and re-enter the country multiple times this year “when there are thousands of vulnerable stranded Australians who haven’t been able to get home once?”

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Australian politics live: NSW and Victoria to ease Covid restrictions; final sitting week of parliament

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NSW to lift tranche of restrictions while in Victoria it will no longer be compulsory to wear face masks in offices or cafes; federal parliament returns for the final sitting week of 2020 – latest updates

Victoria will begin accepting international flights again from today – a flight from Sri Lanka is about to touch down in Melbourne. All up, there will be about 125 travellers arriving as part of the hotel quarantine program in Victoria today.

There is no longer any private security guards as part of the Victoria program – and any worker has to work exclusively for the Victorian government.

The latest foreign interference laws are also due to pass parliament this week – these ones are the ones looking at agreements with foreign governments that private organisations and state governments have made.

States, Territories and local governments will have three months to handover agreements with foreign governments which @dfat "will carefully and methodically consider against Australia's foreign policy settings" #auspol @Birmo @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/pwT5PtCEta

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‘Fun, spontaneous and full of love’: what three years of same-sex marriages looks like in Australia

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In the three years since same-sex marriage was legalised, more than 14,000 couples have taken the plunge. But for some, the struggle for full recognition continues

When Cynthia Nelson first heard about same-sex marriage in San Francisco in the 1980s, she wasn’t sure it was achievable in Australia.

“I didn’t believe it would become legal in my lifetime. In fact, I thought it was an unworthy goal for the LGBT movement – not only unattainable but too conservative, too mainstream,” the Sydney-based author and academic says.

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Chinese official’s ‘repugnant’ tweet of Australia soldier likely amplified by fake accounts, experts say

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Australian experts and Israeli cybersecurity firm allege ‘unusual behaviour’ by Twitter accounts retweeting or liking Zhao Lijian’s tweet

A Chinese official’s tweet of an image of an Australian soldier that sparked a furious reaction from Canberra was amplified across social media by unusual accounts, of which half were likely fake, Australian experts and an Israeli cybersecurity firm say.

The digitally created image that purported to show an Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to the throat of an Afghan child was tweeted by China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, on Monday.

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Three people in Daryl Maguire’s cash-for-visa scheme could be stripped of citizenship

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Home affairs will be ‘tough-minded’ if fraud is proven, Michael Pezzullo tells Senate estimates

Three Australians who received visas with the help of the disgraced former New South Wales Liberal MP Daryl Maguire could be stripped of their citizenship if it was obtained through fraud, the home affairs department chief has warned.

Michael Pezzullo made the threat in Senate estimates on Friday when he promised his department would be “tough-minded” if fraud was proven after a departmental and Australian Border Force investigation into the cash-for-visa scheme.

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Australia news live: China row simmers; NSW awaits Covid case numbers

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MP Andrew Hastie has criticised the release of details included in the war crimes report for allowing China to ‘malign our troops’; PM faces questions over Murdoch Christmas party flight; NSW awaits update on new Covid cluster. Follow all today’s news

Good morning, Matilda Boseley here. It’s nearly the end of the week and what better way to reach the finish line than to stick around on the Guardian live blog and get all your much-needed news updates, Covid-19 or otherwise.

First up, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has criticised the Brereton Report which he says was filled with “unproven rumours” of Australian soldiers murdering Afghan children, saying the report has given China an opening to malign Australian troops.

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Australian army to investigate soldiers’ use of dead Taliban fighter’s prosthetic leg

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Investigation follows revelation of pictures which show soldiers drinking from leg and carrying it on the battlefield

Australia’s defence department says an investigation has been launched into photos showing senior special forces soldiers drinking out of a dead Taliban fighter’s prosthetic limb and carrying it on the battlefield.

The move comes after the Guardian obtained images showing a trooper carrying the leg attached to a backpack with other photos showing soldiers drinking beer from the prosthetic at an unofficial bar – the Fat Lady’s Arms – that was set up at their special forces base in Afghanistan in 2009.

A defence spokesperson said on Thursday: “Army is inquiring into the matter.”

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Australian politics live: economy grows 3.3% in September quarter, national accounts reveal

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OECD warns Australia over China exports; agriculture and trade ministers to meet wine producers – follow the latest updates

Philip Lowe is accompanied at today’s hearing by Guy Debelle, a deputy RBA governor. Debelle has just shown Lowe the growth number in the national accounts.

The governor is pleased. It’s very good, he says. (Lowe was hoping for more than 2% in today’s numbers. The growth number is 3.3%).

Jim Chalmers has responded:

Today’s headline number is cold comfort for millions of Australians looking for work, or more work. For many people what looks like a recovery on paper will still feel like a recession. #auspol

What really matters is not one quarterly GDP number on a page but how Australians are actually faring and whether they can provide for their loved ones. #auspol

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