Category Archives: Australian politics

Families set to pocket more than $60 a week from stage-three tax cuts

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Treasury analysis shows ‘mums and dads’ will be among the biggest beneficiaries when 1 July cuts kick in, Jim Chalmers says

Australian families are set to pocket more than $60 a week when the government’s tax cuts kick in from July, according to new analysis from Treasury.

The federal budget’s cost-of-living measures will come into effect on 1 July, including the tax cuts and energy relief for all households and 1m small businesses.

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US official warns against dropping 2030 climate targets after Dutton refuses to commit to 43% emissions cut

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Exclusive: State department official urges politicians to do ‘the right thing’, citing ‘collective responsibility’

A senior US official has urged Australia and other countries not to back away from their 2030 climate commitments, insisting that “we all have a collective responsibility for the planet we live in”.

The message from Australia’s top security ally contrasts with rhetoric from the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, who claimed on Saturday the Labor government was “appeasing the international climate lobby” and “global climate activists”.

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Peter Dutton vows to override state nuclear bans as he steps up attack on PM

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Opposition leader tells Liberal party officials that state premiers ‘won’t stop us’ and labels Anthony Albanese a ‘child in a man’s body’

Peter Dutton has vowed a Coalition government would override the states’ legislated ban on nuclear power, telling party officials on Saturday that state premiers “won’t stop us”.

The opposition leader made the comments in an address to the federal Liberal party council in Sydney, where he escalated his attacks on Anthony Albanese. He called the prime minister a “fraud” and a “child in a man’s body” that is “still captured in his university years”.

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Confusion reigns about the Coalition’s nuclear proposal. Here’s how the rhetoric has shifted

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We unpack the questions that remain about the Coalition’s plan – and the contradictions in their messaging

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, claims his nuclear power plan would underpin local economies and energy security for “another 80, up to 100 years” – but the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, claims the Coalition’s long-awaited idea has “fallen apart within 24 hours”.

Questions remain about the cost, type, output and design of the reactors. There has been opposition from state premiers and from the owners of the proposed sites, who don’t plan to sell.

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Coalition would not copy Morrison government’s approach to China diplomacy, says Simon Birmingham

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Shadow foreign minister says blasting Beijing in public had negative consequences and a future government would do things differently

The shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, has suggested the Morrison government’s megaphone diplomacy with China was counterproductive and a future Coalition government would approach the relationship differently.

In an interview for Guardian Australia’s Australian Politics podcast, Birmingham conceded that blasting China in public had had negative consequences.

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Shadow energy minister says system in ‘dire trouble’ – as it happened

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Australia needs more gas supply on east coast, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese is speaking to the ABC from Devonport.

We’ll work those issues through with Aemo.

We need more gas supply. We announced our future gas strategy a short while ago because we understand that we need more supply. Gas has an important role to play in manufacturing in particular. But also in providing firming capacity for the renewables rollout.

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Nuclear engineer dismisses Peter Dutton’s claim that small modular reactors could be commercially viable soon

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Hugh Durrant-Whyte says 2045 is a realistic timeframe, adding it was likely to be ‘more expensive than anything else you could possibly think of’

Australia would need “many decades” to develop the regulations and skills to operate a nuclear power plant, and the experience gained at the existing Lucas Heights facility won’t help much, according to New South Wales’ chief scientist and engineer.

Hugh Durrant-Whyte said he stood by comments made to a 2019 NSW upper house inquiry into uranium mining and nuclear facilities that running a plant and its fuel supply chain would require skills “built up over many decades”.

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Power bills could rise by $1,000 a year under Coalition plan to boost gas until nuclear is ready, analysts say

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Experts predict major electricity price hikes if opposition proposal to slow rollout of large-scale renewable projects goes ahead

Australians’ annual household power bills could increase by hundreds of dollars, and up to $1,000, under a Coalition plan to slow the rollout of large-scale renewable energy and use more gas-fired electricity before nuclear plants are ready, analysts say.

As Peter Dutton faced cross-party resistance to his announcement that he would go to the next election promising to eventually build seven nuclear plants, energy market analysts warned the Coalition’s proposal would probably lead to a significant rise in prices over the next decade, before a nuclear industry came online.

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Australia news live: Indigenous leader Rev Dr D Gondarra dies; mass cull ordered to stop NSW bird flu outbreak

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Albanese calls Coalition nuclear policy a ‘fantasy’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has slammed the Coalition’s nuclear power policy, calling it a “fantasy” and saying it was “Peter Dutton and the Seven nuclear reactors.”

What you have here is something that I’ve never seen before. I mean, this is just a fantasy, instead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this is Peter Dutton and the seven nuclear reactors.

This is just absurd, to have a big buildup for an announcement and then say we won’t give you the details. I’ll make this prediction. All the details won’t be out there before the election. It will be just “trust me”, just the same as Peter Dutton said that [for the] 2030 target when it comes to emissions reduction, “I will let you know all of that after the election.”

Well, our energy policy will and is absolutely focused on driving down prices as we did in government at … this is the important point. And that is because of a range of technologies, not one, nuclear needs to be part of that mix. You need to have every horse in this race. This is a hard race to win. And we want to have every horse in the race. Nuclear is an important one, gas is an important one.

Everyone wants to sort of say there’s one technology this the answer to everything. No. I’m just wondering. It’s a balance of technologies and right now, what is clear is Chris Bowen’s strategy is not getting us to where we need to go.

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Three-eyed koalas and Dutton as Snow White: how Simpsons memes have been weaponised in nuclear debate

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Labor MPs tweet Simpsons jokes about nuclear policy after Dutton earlier conceded research found people ‘didn’t want a Springfield’ in their back yard

Three-eyed koalas, Peter Dutton masquerading as Snow White in a “seven nukes” fairytale, and an arsenal of Simpsons gags to boot.

The Coalition is objecting about what they say are “juvenile” online memes from government MPs attacking its nuclear policy, as Labor MPs mount a social media attack on the opposition’s controversial and uncosted nuclear proposal.

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Senate opposition firms against Coalition’s nuclear power plan as David Pocock blasts ‘reckless’ proposal

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ACT senator says he is not ideologically opposed but Coalition’s nuclear proposal is ‘unrealistic’ while Lidia Thorpe says it doesn’t make economic sense

Senate opposition to the Coalition’s nuclear plan is firming, presenting a major hurdle to Peter Dutton’s proposal for seven nuclear power plants on top of state objections.

In addition to Labor and the Greens, independent senators Lidia Thorpe and David Pocock have voiced major criticisms of the policy, while Jacqui Lambie, who has previously expressed support for nuclear to be part of the mix, is investigating the Coalition’s proposal and is concerned nuclear plants are “incredibly expensive”.

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Gender pay gap in Australian public service more than 13%, study finds

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It compares with 21.7% in the private sector which WGEA report says is due to more flexible working practice and more full-time work

For every dollar a male federal public servant makes, his female counterpart makes 86c, data reported for the first time by the government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reveals.

An analysis of data reported by 116 commonwealth public sector employers found the public sector’s gender pay gap was 13.5% in 2022, which was roughly two-thirds that of the private sector’s pay gap (21.7%).

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Climate needs come a distant second to politics in Dutton’s nuclear plans

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The Coalition still has questions to answer about its energy proposals – not least cost – but some wonder if the aim is just to disrupt renewables

Last year, when Peter Dutton campaigned against the proposed voice to parliament, he said repeatedly that it shouldn’t be supported because it lacked detail. Now, as he seeks to upend the transition to renewable energy in Australia and spend billions of dollars to build nuclear reactors instead, there is almost none.

Dutton and Nationals leader David Littleproud have selected seven locations around Australia for future nuclear reactors. On Wednesday, they finally named them.

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Labor under pressure from within to act on gambling reform as one-year anniversary of landmark report nears

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Exclusive: Discontent growing among advocates, crossbenchers and Labor MPs over delay in implementing 31 recommendations, including advertising ban

Crossbenchers, gambling harm advocates and even some inside Labor are demanding the Albanese government speed up moves towards banning gambling advertisements, as pressure mounts on Labor to act.

Next week marks one year since Peta Murphy’s landmark gambling report was delivered, and a key Labor MP is planning to “urge” the government to respond soon. Discontent is growing over the government’s failure to respond to its 31 recommendations, including a ban on all advertising for online gambling.

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Australia news live: Dutton announces Coalition’s nuclear policy and proposed sites, but no costs

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Sites named at Collie, Mt Piper, Callide, Tarong, Liddell, Northern energy in South Australia and Loy Yang. Follow the day’s news live

Sussan Ley says Coalition nuclear policy will be a ‘sensible proposition’

I just wanted to return to Sussan Ley’s appearance on Sky News this morning, where she was asked how a potential future Coalition nuclear policy would circumvent nuclear bans:

We’ll work through all that. We have a sensible proposition to put to the Australian people and I know that when we talk about nuclear people are starting to tune in, understanding that if 19 of the 20 biggest economies in the world are using nuclear, if it makes sense for cleaner baseload power, because it’s zero emissions, if it helps us get to 2050 net zero, if it does all of the things that we want it to do in terms of emissions, and in terms of securing affordable cheaper power for Australians … why would people not consider it? And I believe they will.

Now, the government says it’s renewables only. We can see that that’s actually not going to happen. The government talks about hydrogen, it’s not at scale. It’s not even something they can demonstrate works in that short timeframe and they talk about batteries that aren’t going to provide the storage for their renewables.

So, they are in a complete mess over this, and they need to be put on the sticky paper and asked what they are going to do for families, households and manufacturing businesses.

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Peter Dutton names seven potential nuclear power station sites but avoids questions on cost

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Coalition will push ahead with potential sites across Australia, but serious questions remain about viability and cost

Peter Dutton has announced seven potential sites for nuclear power plants including two in Queensland and two proposed small modular reactors but dodged questions about the cost of the Coalition’s nuclear power plan.

A snap Coalition party room meeting on Wednesday heard the opposition will propose that Tarong and Callide in Queensland; Mount Piper and Liddell in New South Wales; Collie in Western Australia; Loy Yang in Victoria; and the Northern power station in South Australia could host nuclear power plants.

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Labor MP Josh Burns’ electoral office has windows smashed in attack by vandals

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Jewish MP says attack that used slogan ‘Zionism is fascism’ was ‘politically motivated’

Vandals have smashed windows and set fire to the front of the federal Labor MP Josh Burns’ Melbourne electoral office in what he has branded a “politically motivated attack”.

At least five people were seen near the office located on Barkly Street in St Kilda about 3.20am on Wednesday, police were told.

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RBA governor says inflation still above target; Matt Kean to retire from politics – as it happened

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Liberals criticise treatment of journalist by Chinese officials at press conference

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham has condemned the treatment of journalist Cheng Lei at federal parliament yesterday.

This was an entirely counterproductive and inappropriate act by Chinese officials that should have been called out by our prime minister and government officials.

It is a reminder that we have two very different systems, the Chinese system and the Australian system, different systems of government, of course as a democracy, different respect when it comes to media, to freedom of speech, but this visit is taking place in Australia.

It is concerning, I think a lot of this comes from so many Australians genuinely doing a tough at the moment, having to make really tough decisions, from telling their kids that they can no longer play basketball or be part of the scouts group because they can’t afford the … 500 bucks a year that costs, to other Australians who are deciding between going to see the GP or fulfilling a script and putting food on the table.

People are doing it tough and so when they hear politicians talk about these targets in the future … I think Peter Dutton use this to whip up fear.

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Labor senator Fatima Payman calls on government to ‘recognise Palestine’ in rebuke to Albanese

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Party were ‘fierce champions of Palestine’ in opposition and they must ‘summon that spirit of old’, she writes for Al Jazeera

The Labor senator Fatima Payman has called on her own government to “recognise Palestine” and undermined efforts by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to discredit protests against Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

Payman, writing for Al Jazeera, argued that nations needed to take a “definitive stance” on Palestinian statehood because Israel “continues to disregard its obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and cease genocidal acts”. Israel denies committing genocide in its military response to the 7 October attacks by Hamas.

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Coalition’s climate and energy policy in disarray as opposition splits over nuclear and renewables

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Simon Birmingham contradicts Nationals’ leader, saying renewables are ‘an important part of the mix’ while Queensland LNP leader rules out nuclear

The federal Coalition’s climate and energy policy is in disarray, with a senior Liberal contradicting the Nationals’ anti-renewables push and the Queensland LNP leader ruling out allowing nuclear energy in that state.

After the Nationals further undermined the push for net zero by 2050 by claiming the Coalition would “cap” investment in large-scale renewable energy, the Liberal leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, declared on Tuesday it is an “important part of the mix”.

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