Category Archives: Australian politics

Ken Wyatt says Australia Day should stay on 26 January

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Minister says that instead of rallying to move the date, Australians should engage in a new generation of ‘truth telling’

The federal government frontbencher Ken Wyatt says Australia Day should remain on 26 January but commemorations around the country should mark both the “good and the bad” of the nation’s history.

Wyatt, the first Indigenous man to be minister for Indigenous Australians, told Nine newspapers “dark beginnings” must be recognised in communities across the country.

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Australia fires live: Canberra airport closed, reports of air tanker crash in NSW bushfires – latest updates

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ACT residents near bushfire south of Canberra told to seek shelter as contact lost with large water-bombing plane fighting New South Wales bushfire. Follow latest news and live updates

There’s a steady stream of people arriving at the Moruya Showgrounds, which has been re-opened as an evacuation centre. For a lot of people, it’s becoming a home away from home.

One woman from Congo, just south of here, told me it was her third time here since New Years Eve.

The sky is looking ominous outside the Moruya showground where our reporter on the ground, Michael McGowan, captured this image.

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Christian Porter defends Bridget McKenzie over $36,000 grant to sport club she belongs to

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Attorney general claims being a ‘paper member’ of the shooting club raises no issue for the minister

Christian Porter has defended Bridget McKenzie after the revelation she approved a $36,000 grant to a shooting club of which she is a member, claiming being a “paper member” of a club raises no probity issue.

The attorney general made the comment to 6PR Radio on Wednesday, continuing the government’s defence of the Nationals deputy leader and former sport minister after a scathing auditor general’s report found she had skewed the $100m sports grant program towards marginal seats.

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Former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull says Trump is the world’s ‘leading climate denier’

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Turnbull says US president is ‘actively working against global action to reduce emissions’

Donald Trump is the world’s “leading climate denier”, the former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has said.

Turnbull, who lost the prime ministership in August 2018 in part because of his own party’s opposition to his plans to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, made the comments to BBC Newsnight on Tuesday (Wednesday morning, Australian time).

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Coalition awarded $500,000 sports grant to rejected project after Andrew Broad quit

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Seat became hotly contested once the then National MP quit after allegations of improper conduct on a work trip

The Morrison government awarded a $500,000 sports grant in the rural Victorian seat of Mallee a year and a half after it was first rejected – when the seat became hotly contested due to the resignation of Nationals MP Andrew Broad.

The Northern Grampians shire council applied for the grant in September 2018 and was rejected in the first round of the controversial community sport infrastructure grant program, only to see the $500,000 Lord Nelson Park project in St Arnaud approved in April 2019, just weeks out from the election.

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Explainer: Bridget McKenzie is digging in over calls to resign but does her defence stack up?

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Labor’s Ros Kelly was forced to quit over a sports grant scandal but Nationals deputy says she is going nowhere. So what’s the difference?

In 1994, at the height of an eerily familiar sports rorts scandal, John Howard stood up in parliament and fired a question at besieged Labor sports minister Ros Kelly.

Does the minister agree that, whatever debate there may be concerning the principle of ministerial responsibility, the practice has almost invariably been that a minister resigns when his or her continued presence is causing damage and embarrassment to that government?

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Emergency payments for people affected by Australia’s bushfires ‘seriously inadequate’

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Acoss calls on government to boost the Disaster Recovery Payment after fires destroy more than 2,000 homes

Australia’s peak welfare body is calling on the federal government to immediately boost emergency payments for those affected by bushfires, saying it is concerned the current amount is “seriously inadequate”.

The Australian Council of Social Service chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, has written to the prime minister, Scott Morrison, with a range of recommendations the organisation says are urgently needed to help provide relief to those affected by the bushfire crisis that has destroyed more than 2,000 homes.

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Scott Morrison looks for wriggle room on climate as he detects the whiff of backlash | Sarah Martin

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The prime minister is clearly under pressure as the bushfire crisis lays bare the consequences of a warmer planet

It’s too early to say whether the prime minister, Scott Morrison, is speaking with a forked tongue when he says the government will “evolve” its climate change policy.

What appeared on Sunday to be a shift in rhetoric on the government’s emission reduction targets may be meaningful – or it may yet prove to be deliberately duplicitous.

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Scott Morrison flags bushfires royal commission and says Coalition could bolster emissions reduction

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Prime minister acknowledges he could have handled things better in the ‘strained’ emotional environment on the ground

Scott Morrison has indicated the government could bolster its carbon emission reduction efforts as he flagged a royal commission into Australia’s horror bushfire season and warned of a “new normal” that will require a greater role for the commonwealth.

Speaking at length about the government’s response to the bushfires which have claimed 28 lives and more than 2,000 homes, the prime minister also acknowledged for the first time that he could have done better in the “strained” emotional environment on the ground, despite visiting affected communities “in good faith”.

“There are things I could have handled on the ground much better,” Morrison told ABC Insiders’ host David Speers on Sunday.

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Australia bushfires live: NSW and Victoria survey damage as fires merge to form new ‘megablaze’ – latest updates

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This liveblog is now closed

We will leave our coverage of the ongoing bushfire crisis here for the night. A mercifully quiet day on firegrounds across the country.

Here is where things stand:

We have a bit more information about the man who was burned while defending his property near Tumbarumba in New South Wales yesterday.

The man was an RFS volunteer, but he was not engaged in RFS work yesterday. Instead, Guardian Australia understands, he was driving a quad bike around his own property defending against spot fires when he received burns to his leg.

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Blazes flare amid extreme conditions in Australia – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. Our live coverage will continue tomorrow morning

We are wrapping up the live blog now, but we will be back at 7am AEDT for the latest on the fires.

As of 9pm, this is what we know.

There’s now what media (but not RFS) refer to as a megablaze in the Kosciuszko national park with three fires at emergency level in that area of southern NSW, just near the Victorian border.

There’s also concern that a fire at watch-and-act level in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains could worsen around midnight once the southerly reaches there. People in the Wentworth Falls and Leura areas are being advised to stay alert.

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Australia bushfires: towns face anxious wait as strong winds drive fires

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Alpine areas of Victoria and NSW among those most under threat, while climate protesters take to the streets in major cities

Thousands of climate protesters flooded the streets of Australian state capitals on Friday night as fire authorities warned of another dangerous night ahead in four states.

Firefighters in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia continued to battle fires, with gusty winds expected to create hazardous firefighting conditions late into the night.

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Australian fires: Victorians urged to leave amid fears ‘heat spike’ will cause bushfires to merge

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East Gippsland and Victoria’s north-east told to evacuate as NSW braces for heatwave and firefighters battle Kangaroo Island blaze

Residents in large areas of Victoria have again been advised to leave their homes before a day of “extreme” fire conditions throughout south-eastern Australia that could see the merging of at least two major fires.

At least 5% of Victoria has already burned. Authorities sent a text message to East Gippsland and the north-east region on Thursday advising people within the at-risk area, which extends from the New South Wales border to the coast, to evacuate before “heat spike” conditions on Friday.

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Scott Morrison tells defence chief to ‘protect and defend’ Australians amid Iran’s bombing campaign

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Australia appears set to remain in Iraq, even as other US allies such as Germany and Canada pull their troops out

Scott Morrison has told the chief of the Australian defence force “to take whatever actions are necessary” to protect Australian troops and diplomats in Iraq after Iran began bombing allied military bases. All defence and diplomatic staff in the country were now safe, Morrison said.

Australia’s military appears set to remain in Iraq as long as the US does, even as other allies such as Germany and Canada pull their troops out of the country.

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Australia fires live: NSW and Victoria bushfires insurance bill tops $700m – latest updates

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Rain falls on some NSW, Victorian and South Australian bushfire-affected areas, but worse fire conditions are forecast to return. Follow all today’s latest news and live updates

Andrew Crisp:

Speaking with the incident controller here at Bairnsdale a short time ago, some of our concern is the fires up in the alpine area, around Omeo, and the potential for them to travel south with the northerly and join the fires down in this part of the world.

We saw, only a few days ago, where there were more than 300 people on the oval at Omeo where some helicopters were there to take people out.

The Victorian emergency commissioner, Andrew Crisp, has an update:

There are three communities we haven’t been able to drive in. When I say ‘drive’ even with those other communities it is basically bushtracks and emergency vehicles to get in, it is where there is no real road access.

We’ve been able to get helicopters and sat phones in to make sure people have supplies.

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Craig Kelly interview: Piers Morgan calls MP ‘disgraceful’ for denying climate link to bushfires

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In Good Morning Britain appearance Australian Liberal MP accuses other politicians of trying to exploit tragedy

The Conservative Liberal MP Craig Kelly – a renowned critic of climate change action – has sparked a storm of controversy and been lambasted as a “denier” and “disgraceful” after telling UK television that there was no link between climate change and Australia’s bushfire crisis.

In a combative television interview with the conservative British commentator Piers Morgan and the meteorologist Laura Tobin, Kelly defended his view that climate change was not driving the bushfire crisis that has so far claimed 25 lives and almost 2,000 homes.

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Scott Morrison announces recovery effort with ‘months to go’ in bushfire crisis in NSW and Victoria – latest updates

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NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says he was frustrated to learn of ADF deployment from the media. Follow all today’s live news and latest updates

The situation is deteriorating in Eden on the Far South Coast. A bushfire moved quickly up from the NSW-Victorian border last night, as the southerly change moved up the coast and turned fires northward. The fire, dubbed the “border fire”, burnt last night from the Victorian border to Victorian Border to the southern shores of Twofold Bay.

It has already affected the areas of Wonboyn, Kiah, Narrabarba and surrounds. Properties have been damaged in the area and building impact assessment teams will be deployed to assess the destruction.

The border fire is now threatening the town of Eden. An update posted on the Bega Valley Shire Council’s website a short while ago warned Eden residents, including those in Snug Cove Wharf, to leave now and head to Merimbula or Bega. Authorities were still attempting to define the fire line near Eden.

NORTHERN TERRITORY

* No current bushfires

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NSW, Victoria fires live: Australia bushfires cause tens of thousands to flee in mass evacuation – latest updates

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Victorian premier Daniel Andrews declares state of disaster for East Gippsland, urging people to flee bushfire zones, while Scott Morrison is abused by fire victims in Cobargo. Follow today’s live news and latest updates

Pity the poor #Australians, their country ablaze, and their rotten @ScottMorrisonMP saying, “This is not the time to talk about Climate Change. We have to grow our economy.” What an idiot. What good is an economy in an uninhabitable country? Lead, you fuckwit!!

Greg Mullins says he has never seen a bushfire situation this serious. He was in Batemans Bay on New Year’s Eve in charge of an RFS crew and, “I’m still shocked.”

This is what 29 other fire and emergency chiefs, former chiefs, and I, tried to warn the prime minister about back in April and May. And we weren’t listened to.

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Australia bushfires: Scott Morrison defends his government’s climate policies – video

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Scott Morrison acknowledged the link between reducing emissions and protecting environments against worsening bushfire seasons, but despite mounting criticism maintained his government's current policies struck the right balance. Speaking at his first press conference since 29 December, the Australian prime minister said he understood people's frustrations but urged them to remain calm

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Australia fires live: tourists near NSW and Victoria bushfires told to leave – latest

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At least nine people have died since Christmas Day, and the RFS is urging people to evacuate the New South Wales South Coast before dangerous conditions on the weekend. Follow the live news and latest updates today

Yesterday, residents in the isolated community of Cann River were expressing concern about food shortages and other supply issues. Some told media they felt they were being forgotten.

The town is along the Princes Highway between Orbost and Mallacoota and has been cut off due to the fires.

But Constance adds, “once this (the fires) all goes, please come back”.

Tourism is crucial to communities on the south coast, which rely on the extra business during the holiday period.

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