Category Archives: Australian politics

Muslim advocacy group to preference Greens above Labor in some seats despite disagreement on religious freedom

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Muslim Votes Matter concerned about policy preventing religious schools from discriminating against teachers or students

A potentially influential Muslim advocacy group is planning to tell voters to preference the Greens above Labor on how-to-vote cards in several key seats, despite objecting to the minor party’s position on religious freedom in schools.

Muslim Votes Matter has expressed concern about the party’s plan to ensure religious schools cannot discriminate against teachers or students on the basis of their sexuality, but has welcomed a commitment to ensure “all rights are acknowledged and taken into account”.

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Brisbane Greens MP joins OnlyFans to ‘make people pay attention’ to HIV prevention drug policy

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Exclusive: Stephen Bates spruiks free PrEP and PEP proposal on subscription platform best known for adult content, as well as on dating app Grindr

The Greens MP Stephen Bates has joined OnlyFans – a first for an Australian politician – as the party pushes to make the HIV prevention drugs PrEP and PEP free.

It may normally be a career-ending move for a politician to be joining a site known for pornography, but Bates has joined the site with the first video on his free-to-subscribe page announcing the Greens’ push to make PrEP and PEP prescriptions free to anyone with a script.

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Axing Labor’s free Tafe would mean fewer builders and higher house prices, experts warn

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The Coalition remains opposed to the scheme, claiming it is ‘badly designed and poorly targeted’

Australia’s construction worker shortage – and prospects for affordable housing – would worsen if Peter Dutton scraps Labor’s free Tafe program, experts warn, pushing housing prices even further out of reach of prospective buyers.

After a video emerged of Liberal frontbencher Sarah Henderson saying the fee-free Tafe policy was “just not working”, the opposition leader was asked on Tuesday if he would cut the scheme – designed to encourage people to work in priority industries like the construction sector.

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Peter Dutton says he will help his children with a house deposit ‘at some stage’

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Both major parties spruik housing policies, with Anthony Albanese saying critics may not have read all the detail of Labor’s plan

Peter Dutton says he will help his son with a housing deposit “at some stage”, a day after dodging questions about whether he would use his family wealth and salary to assist his children to get into the market.

Dutton on Monday brought his 20-year-old son, Harry, on the campaign trail to talk about the difficulties of saving for a home. Harry said he and his sister, Rebecca, had both been “saving like mad” to scrape together deposits of their own.

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Australia does not have enough tradies to fulfill Labor’s housing promise, experts say

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Construction industry already faces shortfall of 80,000 workers as government vows to build 250,000 homes a year for four years

Australia does not have enough construction workers and other tradies to meet election pitches to boost housing supply, experts say, casting doubt over the major parties’ pledges to address housing affordability.

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton announced their competing housing plans this week, with both major parties seeking to increase the number of new home builds above the current annual rate of about 170,000.

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Victorian Liberal leader distances state party from Peter Dutton’s nuclear proposal: ‘Our focus is gas’

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Exclusive: Brad Battin says he had a conversation with the federal opposition leader about the ‘language’ he would use about plans to build a nuclear reactor in eastern Victoria

The Victorian opposition leader says he discussed the language he would use to distance the state party from the federal Coalition’s campaign to build a nuclear reactor in the Latrobe Valley, telling Peter Dutton “it’s your campaign”.

The Loy Yang coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley east of Melbourne is one of seven proposed sites for the federal Coalition’s proposal to build nuclear reactors, the centrepiece energy policy the federal Liberal leader will be taking to the 3 May poll.

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Finance minister vows to slash more consultants and accuses Coalition of importing Trump’s Doge agenda

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Exclusive: Katy Gallagher says focus will be ‘on driving cultural change’ within public service if Labor wins the election

The finance minister has vowed to continue slashing the government’s use of consultants and rebuilding the public service if re-elected, while accusing the Coalition of importing a Doge-style agenda from the US.

In an effort to highlight the public service as a key campaign issue, Katy Gallagher said Labor had inherited an agriculture department that was “going broke”, a “bin fire” at home affairs, a social services department with no internal policy unit and “total disasters” in aged care and veterans’ affairs agencies.

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Coalition scores just 1/100 points for environment and climate policies from conservation organisation

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Australian Conservation Foundation says opposition has ‘failed every single test’ while Labor passes with 54% and Greens achieve 98%

One of Australia’s largest conservation organisations has awarded the federal Coalition just 1 out of 100 for its environment and climate change policies – the lowest score it has given the Liberal and National parties in more than 20 years of compiling pre-election scorecards.

Labor scraped through with a pass – on 54% – while the Greens achieved 98%, according to the scorecard, which ranked the major parties and key independents on their policies for protecting nature, championing renewable energy, and rejecting nuclear and fossil fuels.

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Labor announces $10m to provide ‘inclusive, culturally safe’ healthcare for LGBTQ+ Australians

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Exclusive: Funding would go towards third-party training for doctors and nurses, which advocates say would remove barriers to treatment

Labor would provide health workers with training to care for LGBTIQA+ Australians in a $10m package to upskill doctors and nurses alongside a new accreditation program, the health minister, Mark Butler, has said.

The election promise, to be announced on Monday, would see Labor contract a training provider to design programs to train healthcare workers to help give “inclusive, culturally safe primary care” for gay, lesbian and gender-diverse Australians.

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Ten things we learned from Anthony Albanese’s speech at the Labor party campaign launch

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The PM addressed a crowd of 500 people in Perth, spruiking new policies on housing and tax deductions, celebrating WA and invoking Donald Trump. Here’s what you may have missed

Labor’s election campaign launch in Perth was headlined by a $10bn housing pledge, a vow to help first home buyers and a new $1,000 “automatic” tax deduction for all workers.

It also featured a former prime minister, gags about rugby league and more than a few digs at Peter Dutton alongside Labor’s claims that he is copying Donald Trump’s political playbook.

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Election 2025 live updates: Dutton tells Liberal campaign launch ‘Australia will become a nuclear powered nation’ and Coalition will again ‘stop the boats’

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The opposition leader is launching the Liberal party’s campaign at an event in south-western Sydney. Follow live

Albanese tells Australian UFC fighter to ‘go hard’ in message of support before headline match

Some Australians will be glued to a brutal fight between two battle-hardened competitors duking it out in a no-holds barred street fight televised today across the land. And it’s sure to get ugly.

I’m in my own title fight at the moment, but I want to wish you all the best for yours. I know you’ll dig deep and make Australians proud. You are one of Australia’s great sporting champions. When you enter the octagon this weekend, Australians will be cheering you on. Go hard.

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Rightwing lobby group Advance says it makes ‘no apology’ for support given to anti-Greens groups

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Spokesperson acknowledges supply of flyers, T-shirts and corflutes to ‘dozens of community groups’ seeking to defeat party’s candidates

The rightwing advocacy group Advance has acknowledged it is paying for election materials attacking the Greens to be used by third-party groups during the election campaign.

“Advance is working with hundreds of volunteers from dozens of community groups to defeat Greens candidates and we make no apology,” a spokesperson said.

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Community groups furious Coalition nuclear plan would go ahead even if locals oppose it

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Opponents of policy say locals should be ‘very angry’ they will not be able to veto generators in their towns despite Coalition promise to consult them

There is a “growing backlash” to the Coalition’s nuclear plan, with community groups furious at the lack of consultation and angered that the policy would not give local communities the power of veto and that nuclear plants would be built regardless of local opposition.

Opponents say pro-nuclear lobby group Nuclear for Australia has been hosting information sessions but that they make it overly difficult for people to attend, make it hard to ask questions, and are not able to answer those questions that are posed.

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Revealed: nearly 2m hectares of koala habitat bulldozed since 2011 – despite political promises to protect species

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Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystems

Nearly 2m hectares of forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a threatened species in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia.

The scale of habitat destruction in Queensland and New South Wales – states in which the koala is formally recognised as being at risk of extinction – has continued despite political promises it would be protected.

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Liberal candidate co-authored inquiry submission suggesting Hazaras not persecuted for ethnicity in Afghanistan

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Exclusive: Zahid Safi, who is running in Melbourne seat of Bruce, listed as last author on 2021 Senate submission which says victims of Afghanistan war ‘not based on ethnicity’

The Liberal candidate for Bruce co-authored a parliamentary submission suggesting the Hazara community in Afghanistan was not persecuted on the basis of its ethnicity, contradicting the Australian government and drawing rebuke from international human rights groups.

Zahid Safi co-authored a submission to a 2021 parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s involvement in the Afghanistan war, which incorrectly cited a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report to allege Hazara “warlords” had “cut the breasts of women” and watched “live delivery of pregnant women” during the early 1990s. The 2005 HRW report does not mention these acts.

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It’s week two of Peter Dutton’s campaign and (almost) everything is tightly scripted

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The Coalition leader muzzles the press pack in a way Albanese often struggles to achieve – after a train wreck opening week, he’s taking back control

“Who won the election?” 12-year-old Sammy asks Peter Dutton, leaning through the window of the passenger seat where the opposition leader sits.

The Coalition leader has just finished his last pit stop in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs for the day: a petrol station. By this point, he’s been to six of them in the last seven days – mostly cleared of regular punters – selling his party’s promise to bring down petrol costs by about $14 per car a week. Economic analysts put that estimate a lot lower – about $7.56.

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Police remove homophobic banners hung over Melbourne highway targeting Labor MP Julian Hill

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Exclusive: Police confirm report of two offensive signs targeting Bruce MP Julian Hill, who is gay, hung on overpass bridge

Police have removed two offensive and homophobic banners targeting Labor MP Julian Hill that were hung over a major Melbourne highway on Friday morning.

The banners prompted bi-partisan condemnation and were described by Victoria police as an example of “hate-based behaviour” that would not be tolerated.

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Dutton tight-lipped over how many voluntary redundancies would be offered in public service cuts plan

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Opposition under pressure to release secret modelling and costings revealing how it plans to downsize the public service by 41,000 jobs by 2030

Peter Dutton has dodged revealing how many voluntary redundancies could be offered as part of the opposition’s plan to downsize the public service by 41,000 jobs by 2030.

Speaking at a conveyor manufacturing factory in Perth on Friday, the opposition leader avoided providing further details about the plan.

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Coalition election win could cause loss of hundreds of jobs at agency scrutinising aged care mistreatment, modelling says

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Exclusive: Peter Dutton’s plan to reduce public service may see 26.5% jobs at Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission disappear, according to union

Hundreds of jobs could be lost at the government agency responsible for investigating allegations of serious wrongdoing and mistreatment in aged care homes if the Coalition wins the election, the public sector union has warned.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has hired more than 500 public servants since the 2022 election to deal with a backlog of complaints from residents and to resolve a “staggering” number of real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest involving consultants paid millions of dollars to conduct audits in homes.

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Gender politics: will the 2025 election send more female MPs to Australia’s parliament?

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Labor has made great strides towards gender equality among its MPs and senators, but the number of female Coalition members remains stubbornly low

The 47th parliament was Australia’s most diverse to date. Both houses broke records for gender, ethnic and cultural diversity.

Across both houses in the outgoing parliament, the gender split was 55% to 45% in favour of men. Women made up 39% of the House of Representatives and 58% of the Senate.

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