Category Archives: Australian politics

David Crisafulli claims LNP victory in Queensland election ending Labor’s decade-long reign

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Outgoing premier Steven Miles concedes he cannot form majority government despite a last-minute vote surge

David Crisafulli has claimed victory for the Liberal National party in the Queensland election after a campaign that focused heavily on a series of hardline crime promises.

The election marks the end of Labor’s decade-long reign in Queensland and is only the second time the Liberal or National parties have won a state poll since 1989.

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Albanese government pauses controversial debt recovery method until appeal resolved

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Legality of income apportionment has been under question for years but social services says it is confident system is lawful

The Department of Social Services will pause work on recovering debts using its income calculation method while it awaits the outcome of an appeal against an administrative appeals tribunal (AAT) decision in the federal court.

The legality of income apportionment – where a recipient’s job income is divided over fortnightly periods in order to calculate support payments – has been under question for years.

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Lidia Thorpe says ‘no issue’ with missing a third of sitting days, citing assault that led to spinal injuries

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Independent senator says her doctor ordered her not to travel, after records reveal she attended just 46.2% of votes since the 2022 election

The independent senator Lidia Thorpe has taken more unexplained days off from parliament this term than any other senator and participated in less than half of all Senate votes in that time, according to official attendance records.

The records show that in the 47th parliament, Thorpe has been absent for 11 days without obtaining leave from the Senate. Permission for leave can be sought before being absent, or afterwards, and is generally granted.

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WiseTech shares surge after CEO stands down – as it happened

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Dutton and Shorten weigh in on Queensland state election

The federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, both spoke with the Today show earlier from Queensland, before the election.

He’s focused on the issues which affect Queenslanders: housing, health, cheaper transport and of course tackling youth crime. So we’ll find out soon enough who’s going to win.

The fact is that it’s time for a change in Queensland and law and order is out of control.

Well, yes, he did. He did three days ago and, despite that, the government’s scare campaign continues.

The scare campaign on a sensitive issue that has been run, quite frankly, crosses the line, and we’re better than that as Queenslanders … There won’t be changes to abortion laws and Queenslanders need to know that.

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Australians must keep up the fight for abortion rights, Jacinta Allan warns

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Exclusive: Conservative forces pose ‘genuine threats to the protections women have fought for and won’, Victoria’s premier says

Jacinta Allan is warning that the battle for abortion rights must continue as conservative forces pose “real and genuine threats to the protections women have fought for and won” amid “frightening” debate in South Australia and Queensland.

Victoria’s Labor premier made her strongest comments to date on abortion in an interview with Guardian Australia, just days before Queenslanders go to the polls in an election that has become dominated by the issue.

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Albanese rejects China’s claim that Australia plagued by ‘systemic racism’ – as it happened

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The Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW (RTBU) conducted a five-minute work stoppage early this morning, which is leading to delays across the network.

Sydney Trains says this has led to minor delays and “larger than normal gaps in services may be experienced”, according to an alert:

Trains stops and platforms may change at short notice and some trains may be cancelled. Extra travel time may be experienced in some cases and you may need to change to continue your trip.

The action was set to happen in select locations across the network to ensure we could ramp up stoppages whenever needed.

The rail agencies continue to bargain in good faith with the Combined Rail Unions for a new enterprise bargaining agreement. Sydney Trains are working to minimise the disruption to commuters as much as possible.

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Simon Birmingham floats new ‘disorderly conduct’ penalties after Lidia Thorpe’s protest against the king

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Liberal senator says world leaders may avoid visiting Australia unless measures brought in to stop senators protesting outside chamber

The opposition Senate leader has flagged the possibility of new penalties for senators who engage in “disorderly conduct” beyond the chamber itself, after independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s shouted protest at a parliamentary reception for King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Simon Birmingham suggests parliamentary censure is an insufficient response to deter future protests and that new measures could be required. A civil disobedience expert, however, has raised questions as to whether such further measures were necessary or “appropriate”.

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Coalition’s building standards freeze could see a ‘Grenfell Tower inferno’ in Australia, Labor says

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Peter Dutton’s proposed 10-year freeze to national building codes would be a shame, one industry leader says, ‘given the serious impacts of our changing climate’

The industry minister, Ed Husic, has accused the opposition of condemning Australians to live in “shoddy” homes that could result in a “Grenfell Tower inferno” onshore, after it revealed plans to freeze building standard improvements for a decade if elected.

The proposal has already drawn criticism from housing experts and the independent ACT senator David Pocock, but some industry groups have also distanced themselves from the 10-year freeze to national building codes.

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Thorpe rebuffs Indigenous leaders’ criticism of protest – as it happened

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More on news media bargaining code and funding of media publishers

One of the committee’s key recommendations was a digital platform levy on companies like Meta and Google, which some have described as a tech tax to fund public interest journalism.

So in parts of Europe, for example, there’s a 2% digital services tax. You could look at a public interest journalism levy.

The issue that we have fundamentally here is the … offshoring of the digital platform’s profits, where currently they pay very little tax because they argue that they don’t operate in Australia, even though they’re getting this enormous profit yield of the advertising on their platforms. So that’s another thing that has to be resolved within legislation in order to impose a tax.

But simply imposing a tax and feeding [it] into media organisations … won’t fix the issue if Meta continues to deprecate news content – that is, reduce the exposure of news content to its consumers.

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Senior Coalition women and senator Matt Canavan reject Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s abortion comments

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Shadow Indigenous Australians spokesperson says she ‘cannot agree’ with later term abortions, sparking rebuke from Sussan Ley, Jane Hume and Bridget McKenzie

Senior Coalition women have rebuked Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s comments about abortion, saying the Liberal party had “no interest in unwinding women’s reproductive rights” and saying it was an issue advanced by “fringe” politicians.

Even staunchly “pro-life” colleagues of the senator would not back her comments on Wednesday, with Queensland’s Matt Canavan saying it would not be helpful to discuss abortion in the lead-up to the federal election, and calling to “turn the temperature down” on the debate.

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Moira Deeming created ‘extreme’ political problem akin to ‘lobster with a mobster’ incident, defamation trial told

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John Pesutto had to ‘cauterise the damage’ to the Victorian Liberal party caused by MP’s conduct, lawyer argues

John Pesutto’s lawyer has rejected claims the Victorian Liberal leader created a “false narrative” in order to expel Moira Deeming, telling a court he acted to “cauterise the damage” after neo-Nazis gatecrashed a rally the MP helped organise.

Deeming, who now sits on the crossbench after her expulsion from the state parliamentary Liberal party, is suing Pesutto for allegedly falsely portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at the Let Women Speak rally held on 18 March 2023, which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. Pesutto has denied the claim.

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Labor concerned Meta may ‘sidestep obligations to pay for news’ as media bargaining code fight reignites

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Social media company tells parliamentary committee Facebook and Instagram bring value to news outlets

Social media company Meta has accused a federal parliamentary committee of ignoring “the realities of how our platforms work” and the value Facebook and Instagram bring to news outlets, as a fight reignites over the news media bargaining code and funding of media publishers.

The Albanese government has also given its strongest indication yet it will look to reshape the code or replace the framework entirely, voicing concern that Meta is trying to simply “sidestep obligations to pay for news”.

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Australian senator Lidia Thorpe confronted King Charles with a string of claims. How do they stack up?

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The Gurnai Gunditjmara and Djab-Wurrung woman accused the crown of a range of crimes against Indigenous people at Parliament House

Independent federal senator Lidia Thorpe’s forthright haranguing of King Charles during his visit to the Australian parliament has made global headlines.

Reactions have been mixed. Many have criticised Thorpe’s decision to disrupt the event, labelling the 51-year-old’s behaviour as “disrespectful” and “grandstanding”.

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Thousands greet royals at opera house – as it happened

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The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been speaking with ABC RN about a range of issues – including Lidia Thorpe’s actions at King Charles’ parliamentary reception yesterday.

Dutton argued that “sometimes people make it all about themselves, and I think that’s what yesterday was.” He said it “didn’t advance anyone’s cause” and “add[s] to the self promotion … that she seeks.”

The vast majority of people have been very welcoming the king’s visit, and I think it’s been an opportunity to underscore the stability in our democracy, our rule of law, separation of powers, all of those institutions that we inherited from our British heritage.

That’s part of the success story of our country, and it’s a good reminder during his visit [that] if we change it, I think we want to be very careful about the system we’re changing to and whether or not we would be a safer, more secure, community and environment for decades to come or not.

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Low and slow: the tactics that have made the Greens a threat in traditionally safe Queensland Labor seats

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With an aggressive on-the-ground campaign, the party is courting multicultural communities in outer Brisbane

At a suburban park in Logan, more than 20km from the Brisbane CBD, two dozen Greens volunteers stop to take a photograph before heading out to knock on doors.

These are the sorts of intensive “social work” style campaigning efforts that have been responsible for the leftwing party’s growth in Brisbane’s inner suburbs, culminating in the capture of three federal seats in 2022.

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Indigenous elder scolds Lidia Thorpe for yelling ‘disrespectful’ comments at King Charles

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Aunty Violet Sheridan says the Victorian senator ‘does not speak for me and my people’ and called Thorpe’s yelling of ‘fuck the colony’ inappropriate

A Ngunnawal elder has rebuked Lidia Thorpe over her confrontation with King Charles, saying the Victorian senator doesn’t speak for her people and that her comments of “fuck the colony” were “disrespectful”.

Aunty Violet Sheridan, 69, met the royals as part of an official greeting party on Monday and was sitting near the king in Parliament House when Thorpe “jumped out”, marched forward and started shouting at the royals. Thorpe yelled at the king to “give us our land back”, and shouted “fuck the colony” and “you are not my king”.

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‘I believe I can win’: the immigrant hoping to upset Labor in western Sydney stronghold

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Ahmed Ouf, a pharmacist from Egypt, says local election success means he can take Blaxland from Jason Clare

Brimming with confidence after barreling his way onto Cumberland council, Ahmed Ouf has his eyes on a bigger prize: the historically safe Labor seat of Blaxland.

“Labor didn’t believe I could get onto the council, but I proved them wrong. And we are confident we will to do it again. I’m not here to shake a narrative, or to swing a seat, I believe I can win,” he said.

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Australia news live: king meets Hephner the alpaca en route to war memorial; Sussan Ley declares purchase of Cessna plane

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King Charles III and Queen Camilla have greeted the crowd at the Australian War Memorial, shaking hands and high-fiving kids. Follow the day’s news live

Independent Kooyong MP responds to Victorian government rezoning plan

Monique Ryan, the federal member for Kooyong, was up on ABC News Breakfast earlier to discuss the Victorian government’s rezoning plan:

The announcement this weekend from the premier was for nine massive new developments just in the electorate of Kooyong. That’s huge. These could be up to 20 storeys high. Of course that will cause some concern from people who live in the area, who have chosen to live there, because it’s a beautiful part of the world.

We’re not saying we don’t want it, I think people in my part of the world are welcoming it. We’d also like some assurances from the government they will include social and affordable housing in these developments. We really don’t have any detail as of yet and that’s the stuff that’s missing at this point.

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Big business calls for $10bn housing reform fund to reward Australian states that streamline supply

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Business Council of Australia also recommends phasing out stamp duty and fast-tracking migrant workers for building industry

The nation’s peak business body has called for a $10bn housing reform fund that will pay out to states that fix the regulation and planning bottlenecks contributing to the supply crisis.

The Business Council of Australia is also pushing for the nation-wide removal of stamp duty on homes, warning that it disincentivises people from moving to smaller dwellings and freeing up larger homes.

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Jane Hume defends Dutton over clashes with ABC journalists after testy exchange in WA – as it happened

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The family of stabbing victim Vyleen White has helped the Queensland Liberal National party to launch its election campaign.

The LNP is promising to introduce “adult time for adult crime” amid claims of a youth crime “crisis” in the state.

In our family’s hour of need, both men came to our home. But there was only one who is a true leader.

We as a family will not allow her death to be in vain.

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