Category Archives: Australian politics

Chalmers says Dutton’s budget reply lacks economic credibility – as it happened

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Shorten and Dutton clash over reduced migration

Earlier this morning the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, clashed over Dutton’s promise to reduce Australia’s migration intake in his budget reply speech last night.

Well, Bill, a couple of points. One is that we say that, in the first year, 40,000 homes will be freed up. That includes the numbers who would be bidding at auctions this weekend against Australian citizens.

If the government had have adopted our policy over a five-year period, you would free up 325,000 homes. So the number of people who are foreign citizens, who are buying houses in our country is low, but nonetheless it contributes to an overall shortage of housing in our country.

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Jim Chalmers labels Peter Dutton’s budget reply an ‘unhinged’ and ‘nasty’ rant

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Opposition leader promised in speech on Thursday to restrict property investment by non-residents

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has criticised the opposition leader Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech as “unhinged” and lacking in economic credibility, as he set out around Australia to explain the government’s own economic plan.

With parliament now in recess for a week, Chalmers headed to Port Augusta in South Australia with the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, and SA state and federal colleagues to promote the government’s renewable energy transition agenda, badged as Future Made in Australia.

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Labor spending millions more on urgent care clinics without evidence they work, experts say

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Budget includes $227m funding boost but health expert says ‘the value of urgent care clinics is yet to be established’

Doctors and health policy experts have questioned the federal government’s decision to fund an extra 29 urgent care clinics in the absence of strong evidence that they work.

Tuesday’s budget included $227m to fund the clinics, which will bring the total number across Australia to 87. The clinics offer bulk-billed walk-in care, seven days a week over extended hours, with the intention of reducing the burden on emergency departments and easing out-of-pocket health costs.

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Australian workplaces rated as ‘menopause friendly’ on flimsy grounds, inquiry told

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Companies are using training and accreditation services but there is a lack of evidence about which interventions really work, submissions say

Companies are accrediting workplaces as “menopause friendly” without using any strong evidence in their processes, according to leading women’s health organisations and doctors who say women must have input into any changes aimed at helping them.

A Senate inquiry has been established by the Greens senator Larissa Waters to investigate the health and economic impacts of menopause on Australian women, including its effects on workforce participation and productivity.

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Australia politics live: Speaker urges no political fundraising in parliament as Coalition MPs sell tickets to Dutton budget reply events

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‘We don’t think production tax credits is way to go’: Angus Taylor on Future Made in Australia

Is the Coalition going to vote against the Future Made in Australia policy, which was fleshed out in the budget and includes tax credits (in 2028) for things like critical minerals mining and green hydrogen?

We haven’t seen the act. We don’t think production tax credits is the way to go in order to have a strong manufacturing sector.

It’s about getting those fundamentals right whether it be approvals, whether it be getting rid of red tape or making sure the construction costs are competitive with the rest of the world.

Oh, but it’s also a drop in the ocean, you know. What are we saying? It’s a Band-Aid on a bullet wound compared to the pain that mum and dads in Australia are actually feeling.

I can tell you, they’ve paid a lot more than $300 under Mr. Albanese for their electricity. For the life of me, though, what it does show is Mr Albanese, [and the government] they’ve got their priorities all wrong.

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Coalition senator accuses Labor’s Fatima Payman of ‘supporting terrorists’ before withdrawing claim

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Comments come just hours after Senate passes motion urging senators to ‘engage in debate and commentary respectfully’

A Coalition senator accused the Labor backbencher Fatima Payman of “supporting terrorists” and then withdrew the claim, just hours after the Senate passed a motion opposing “inflammatory and divisive comments”.

The NSW Liberal senator Hollie Hughes denied she had directly referred to Payman as a “terrorist”, which is what was alleged by some senators who were sitting in the chamber at the time and did not wish to be named.

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Dutton readies budget reply as Chalmers links migration cut to inflation fight

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Treasurer says migration ‘important’ but needs to be ‘well managed’

Jim Chalmers has said the projected halving of net migration will contribute to Australia’s inflation fight, ahead of Peter Dutton’s budget reply which is expected to attack Labor over the spike in arrivals.

As Guardian Australia revealed in April, the Coalition will make home ownership a “core” election issue by linking the net migration intake to housing construction, a policy expected to be announced or at least constitute a major theme of the opposition leader’s reply on Thursday.

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Dfat accused of attempting to censor official history of military operations in Timor-Leste

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Exclusive: Bureaucratic process of ‘clearing’ book has dragged on for almost three years with historians arguing obstruction ‘amounts to censorship’

Australia’s foreign affairs department (Dfat) is refusing to approve the publication of an official history of military operations in Timor-Leste until references are removed that could embarrass officials and diplomats, leading to accusations of “censorship”.

The finished manuscript was presented for vetting 30 months ago and Dfat is the only agency of nine in the declassification process not yet largely or wholly satisfied it does not pose a risk to national security, defence or international relations.

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Budget 2024 live updates: reaction and fallout from the Australia federal budget – latest news

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Treasurer grilled on inflation and migration after National Press Club address. Follow today’s news and 2024 federal budget reaction live

Jim Chalmers said the government didn’t create a new system for the energy payments (so everyone gets it) because it is done through the energy retailers, who don’t have people’s income data.

It’s not a cash payment paid directly to you – instead, it is paid through the energy sector, which takes money off your bill. In this case, $75 a quarter.

I don’t see it in political terms. I think primarily the motivation of this budget is to help people who are doing it tough. More help is on the way for people who are doing it tough via the tax system, via their energy bills and with rent assistance and cheaper medicines and in other ways as well. That’s our primary motivation.

Once you go beyond providing this to people on pensions and payments, you have to design a whole new system in order to create a new distinction. We are providing this energy bill relief to every household. We think that’s a good way to help things make things easier. Some of the other measures are more targeted.

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Future Made in Australia: what’s in the $23bn package meant to create a ‘renewable energy superpower’

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Jim Chalmers’ budget didn’t answer all the questions about what projects will be funded but there is a lot more clarity now

The federal government has been talking up its Future Made in Australia (FMIA) policy in recent months and more detail was revealed in Tuesday night’s budget.

Here’s what we know so far.

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How it began v how it’s going: 2024 budget shows limits of financial forecasting

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Australia’s financials have generally improved compared with forecasts made a year ago but there are threats to the country’s outlook lurking

Financial forecasting is difficult at the best of times, let alone during a period marked by persistent inflation against a backdrop of global economic unease.

But forecasts still provide a framework for governments to build their policy and spending plans around. Australia’s financials have generally improved compared with forecasts made a year ago but there are more than a few threats to the country’s outlook lurking.

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Federal budget 2024 live updates: energy bill rebate and rent assistance boost confirmed ahead of Australian treasurer Jim Chalmers’s budget speech tonight – latest news

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Treasurer will be able to boast back-to-back surpluses when he speaks at 7.30pm tonight. Follow live updates today

Nick McKim said he agrees with EY chief economist, Cherelle Murphy, who says that you can look after people without impacting inflation by taking the money you are spending on people who don’t need it, and redirecting it to people who do. (Therefore it is the same pool of money, but targeted differently.)

McKim:

For example, you could end the massive tax breaks for property investors who own multiple investment properties then put in place a rent freeze and a rent cap, for example.

You could tax billionaires and CEOs on the basis of their wealth and you could use that revenue to raise income support, which would lift a large number of Australians out of the grinding poverty that they experience every day.

No, certainly not. I mean, what the surplus shows is that they’re prioritising their own political benefit over investing in the kind of programs that would provide genuine help to people who are really doing it tough at the moment.

So what you’re going to see in the budget tonight is that having talked up an absolute storm on things like climate change and on things like cost of living, Labor is simply not prepared to take the action necessary to respond to those challenges that the urgency and the scale that is required.

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PM promises ‘Labor party budget through and through’ – as it happened

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More details on government’s plan to cap international student numbers

The government has released a little more information on its plan to cap international students in a bid to ease housing shortages and clamp down on sub-standard education providers and agents. It will introduce legislation next week which will:

Prevent education providers from owning education agent businesses.

Pause applications for registration from new international education providers and of new courses from existing providers for periods of up to 12 months.

Require new providers seeking registration to demonstrate a track record of quality education delivery to domestic students before they are allowed to recruit international students.

Cancel dormant provider registrations to prevent them being used as a market entry tool by unscrupulous actors.

Prevent providers under serious regulatory investigation from recruiting new international students.

Improve the sharing of data relating to education agents.

[The Coalition will announce its] energy policy not at the time of the media’s choosing or at a time of the government’s choosing but a time of the Coalition’s choosing.

But it will be very clear in advance of the next election the way we want to go about opening up a new energy source for Australia. That will deliver emissions free energy and lower energy prices by increasing the mix of types of energy over the long term.

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Price, speed and Elon Musk: why some Australians are ditching the NBN

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While politicians argue over who to blame for a decline in Australia’s broadband uptake, customers are seeking more affordable ways to get online

Tens of thousands of Australians are abandoning the National Broadband Network for 5G mobile and other ways of accessing the internet with experts saying three main factors are driving people away: price, speed and Elon Musk.

Despite the NBN being only a few years past completion, between the end of June 2022 and the end of April 2024 the number of customers in the most common category of services declined by more than 65,000.

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‘Unable to meet the community’s expectations’: Australia to ban live sheep exports in 2028

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Government promises $107m package for industry to transition, after years of campaigning against trade

Australia’s live sheep export trade will end on 1 May 2028, the federal government has announced, after years of campaigning by animal welfare advocates.

Labor’s long-held policy to end the sea exports has been opposed by many in the agricultural sector, although the trade has been declining while bans on sending sheep on ships during the Middle Eastern summer were put in place.

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Coalition MPs dismiss International Energy Agency advice to ditch nuclear plans

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IEA chief urges Australia to prioritise ‘untapped potential in solar and wind’ as opposition pushes on with its nuclear policy

Coalition MPs have dismissed advice from the world’s international energy body urging Australia to ditch any nuclear plans in favour of the “untapped potential” of solar and wind power.

After the Albanese government’s announcement on Thursday that gas will remain key to the country’s energy and export sectors to “2050 and beyond”, the opposition has doubled down on its plans to unveil a nuclear energy policy before the next federal election.

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Australia’s support for UN resolution on Palestinian membership ‘not recognition of statehood’

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Penny Wong reiterates support for eventual two-state solution after watered-down resolution passed by general assembly

Australia’s support of a UN vote on Palestinian membership is “the opposite of what Hamas wants”, and is not about recognising Palestine as a state, according to the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong.

The draft resolution was significantly watered down in last-minute negotiations and Australia was among 143 UN general assembly members to pass the resolution calling on the security council to reconsider granting full membership to Palestine.

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Australia news live: high court rules in favour of indefinite immigration detention; publisher of banned book to offer free download

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High court delivers judgment in the case of ASF1. Follow the day’s news live

Penny Wong is speaking on RN Breakfast now. Right off the bat she was asked by Patricia Karvelas if the Australian government will support admitting Palestine as a full member of the UN at a vote later today.

Wong begins with a preamble about Australia’s support for a two-state solution, then says:

We will consider the final resolution that comes before the General Assembly. Obviously, countries are still negotiating texts.

I don’t want to speculate about our vote … I think an abstention generally means you can agree in part with the resolution but not with sufficient, not with all of it, or not with a sufficient extent of the resolution for you to vote for it, so it can send a message that whilst you don’t agree with it in full, you’re not going to stand in the way.

I understand that question … I understand questions from those who don’t want us to deal with it at this time. I think one of the things we are aware of, and thinking about, is the timing of the situation on the ground. We know Hamas is still holding hostages. We want to look at the wording of the resolution to make sure we are being responsible, that what we commit to we are obliged to and look to the UN Charter and the resolution would have to be consistent with the charter. And of course it was with our partners, but your listeners, what I would say to them is Australia does support a two-state solution.

You’ve spoken to me many times over the years, Patricia, and you know I always try and bring a more nuanced discussion about what is really happening rather than getting drawn into the end the hard edges of the debate. Unfortunately, in this country, we seem, we see too much of this discussion, which is looked at by those who basically say you’re either with us or against us. And everything is black and white and simple. Regrettably, that is not what is happening in the Middle East. And regrettably, that is not how we should be looking at this.

The board finds that both posts violated the Coordinating Harms and Promoting Crime rule that prohibits content “advocating, providing instructions for, or demonstrating explicit intent to illegally participate in a voting or census process.

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Win for Albanese government as high court rules indefinite detention legal in non-cooperation cases

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High court dismisses challenge from Iranian asylum seeker, ruling that detention is lawful if non-citizens refuse to cooperate in deportation process

Indefinite immigration detention is lawful if non-citizens’ lack of cooperation has frustrated efforts to deport them, the high court has held in a major win for the Albanese government.

On Friday the high court delivered judgment in the case of ASF17, an Iranian asylum seeker who refused to cooperate with efforts to deport him because he “fears for his life” because he is bisexual, Christian, and a Faili Kurd.

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Jim Chalmers flags cost of living help for job seekers in federal budget

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‘There is more than one way to help people who are on income support,’ treasurer says when suggesting rebates and concessions could be boosted

The federal government is poised to expand rebates and concessions available to job seekers in next week’s federal budget, which is also expected to increase rent assistance.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has confirmed that Tuesday’s budget will not increase the jobseeker payment but suggested it would boost concessions linked to social security payments, among a suite of measures designed to offer cost-of-living relief without pushing up inflation.

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