Category Archives: Australian politics

Passengers treated after ‘technical problem’ – as it happened

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Outer suburban drivers overtake inner-city drivers in EV uptake

New data from the Electric Vehicle Council shows that outer suburban drivers have overtaken inner-city drivers in their EV uptake.

I think some tired stereotypes about EVs in Australia will need to be updated.

What this data tells us is that the average EV buyer lives in the suburbs and might well be keen to use the new car to take the kids camping on the weekend. They might even be thinking about towing a boat.

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Australian politicians spending two-thirds of time on the road at taxpayer expense, data shows

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Nationals’ Bridget McKenzie and Andrew Willcox top list with more than $20,000 spent each on nights away from home

A handful of federal politicians are spending more than two-thirds of their time on the road and in hotels, with one Nationals MP billing taxpayers for accommodation nearly every night over a four-month period, latest travel expenses data shows.

Andrew Willcox, the first-time member for Dawson, spent 113 days travelling over a 116-day period between August and December 2022, according to the most recent independent parliamentary expense authority’s (Ipea) data.

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Lowitja O’Donoghue remembered at state funeral – as it happened

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North Melbourne’s Alastair Clarkson free to coach in round one after avoiding suspension for outburst in weekend’s trial match. This blog is now closed

Scooter rider dies in crash in Sydney

A scooter rider has died following a crash at North Ryde in Sydney this morning.

We are yet to see her beautiful eyes open, however, she has shown some really positive signs that she may be hearing her loved ones.

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Labor admits just 17 of 500 domestic violence staff promised have been hired

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Social services minister Amanda Rishworth says government ‘needed to work hard’ to fulfil election promise

Only a handful of the 500 domestic violence support workers promised by the Albanese government have been hired, the social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, has admitted, saying Labor “needed to work hard” to fulfil its election commitment.

“We put the money in our budget and we’re working with the states and territories through paying them to employ these workers and get these workers on the ground,” Rishworth told the ABC on Friday, confirming just 17 of the 500 domestic violence staff had started work.

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Polestar joins Tesla in quitting auto lobby over its campaign against proposed vehicle efficiency standard

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Electric carmaker concerned at ‘overblown’ claims that Albanese government’s plan to import environmentally cleaner cars would increase ute prices

Electric car brand Polestar has become the second company to quit Australia’s main auto industry lobby group over frustrations at its campaign against the Albanese government’s plan to import environmentally cleaner cars.

On Friday – a day after Tesla announced it would cease being a member of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) over the group’s opposition to the government’s proposed vehicle efficiency standard – Polestar Australia’s managing director, Samantha Johnson, wrote to FCAI CEO Tony Weber advising him the Volvo-owned brand was also cancelling its membership.

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Australia’s high court to hear two appeals over legality of re-detaining more than 100 non-citizens

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Greens senator Nick McKim says decision to hear both cases is welcome as legislation passed in February 2023 is ‘clearly punitive’

The high court has agreed to hear two appeals that threaten the legality of the re-detention of more than 100 non-citizens who had been sentenced and served more than a year in prison.

In February 2023, Labor and the Coalition teamed up to pass laws retrospectively authorising the cancellation of visas of people who were released from immigration detention by a full federal court decision in December 2022.

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Australia news live: former Victorian MP Fiona Patten winds up Reason party and rules out political comeback; police to provide update in Samantha Murphy press conference

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NSW government urged to double social housing by 2050

Homelessness NSW is urging the state government to spend $1bn each year for a decade to double the supply of social housing by 2050.

NSW has failed to invest in social housing for decades. Last year, just one-fifth of people seeking help from homelessness services could find long-term accommodation.

Right now, many of the 57,000 households on the social housing waitlist are forced to wait up to a decade for a safe and stable place to call home.

Underfunded frontline providers are being flooded with calls for help and forced to turn away one in every two people who need accommodation. Services will be unable to keep staff on or their doors open without more funding.

Even for people who get through the door, help is limited. Half of those who need temporary or crisis accommodation cannot access it. That means women and children are forced to return to violent partners, seek shelter in a vehicle, on a couch or the street.

But there has been no improvement in closing the gap on life expectancy, with Indigenous Australian males and females expected to live 8.8 and 8.1 years respectively, less than other Australians.

The target to reduce the number of children in out of home care is not on track, while the target to reduce adult imprisonment is not on track and worsening.

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Mediation talks between Linda Reynolds, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz postponed

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Reynolds said she proposed a fortnight’s pause in the defamation case after ‘a tiring and difficult day’ of discussions on Tuesday

Mediation between Linda Reynolds, Brittany Higgins and David Sharaz is due to resume in coming weeks after initial talks failed, the supreme court of Western Australia has said.

Reynolds said she had proposed a fortnight’s pause in her defamation case after what she called a “a tiring and difficult day” of discussions on Tuesday. Higgins reportedly attended hospital after Tuesday’s proceedings, which lasted more than nine hours. A further conference scheduled for Wednesday was abandoned.

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Labor will require companies who want government contracts to meet gender equality targets

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Katy Gallagher announces businesses with more than 500 employees won’t get Australian government business without targets for their boards and workforces

Big business and government boards will be pushed to improve gender equality under new measures announced by the Albanese government.

The minister for women, Katy Gallagher, announced on Thursday that businesses with 500 employees or more will be required to meet new gender equality targets if they want to win government contracts.

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Labor pledges 12% superannuation on publicly funded paid parental leave

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Plan designed to help close retirement savings gap between women and men is expected to cost $250m a year from July 2025

Parents will receive 12% superannuation – or about $106 a week – on their publicly funded paid parental leave from July 2025, under a major initiative to be announced by the Albanese government.

The decision, expected to cost at least $250m a year to the federal budget, responds to calls from the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, unions and the crossbench to pay super on PPL as a way to help close the retirement savings gap between women and men.

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Australia news live: West Gate Bridge climate protesters jailed; Greens propose plan for 360,000 homes

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Proposal to create a public property developer, with 70% of homes offered for rent, and rents capped at 25% of average household income. Follow the day’s news live

New analysis shows 2m hectares of Queensland forest destroyed in five years

More than 2m hectares (4.94m acres) of bushland in Queensland that included large swathes of possible koala habitat has been cleared over a five-year period, new analysis shows.

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Disability pension claims blew out to more than 80 days on average at the end of last year, data reveals

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Department of Social Services figures show some areas had average wait times of more than 200 days between September and December

Claims for the disability support pension took more than 80 days on average in the final months of last year and some local government areas are experiencing average wait times of more than 200 days, data has revealed.

According to the data provided by the Department of Social Services in Senate estimates last month, disability support pension claims took an average of 82.2 days to be processed between September and December 2023.

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Australia news live: Higgins and Reynolds in defamation mediation talks; first apparent lithium battery-related fire deaths in NSW

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Zoe Daniel says Asean has not done enough on crisis in Myanmar

The independent MP for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, was just on ABC RN to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. She argued that Asean hasn’t done enough on the issue, and needs to do more.

There’s also I think, a desire within Asean for economic cooperation and to try to take that route with the junta as a form of leverage … My concern though is that, I think, that we might be heading down the path of a form of normalisation with the junta and you’ve currently got a situation where about 30% of the country is in stable control of rebel ethnic groups, and the junta is really only holding the major cities.

Any form of normalisation with the junta that is pushed by Asean, and I think will be raised with the Australian government for support this week, could backfire because it could in effect allow the junta to enter some of those areas that are reasonably stable and are actually managing themselves.

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Talk of nuclear power plant sites ‘conjecture’, says Liberal MP amid internal division on Dutton’s policy

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Rowan Ramsey says overturning ban on nuclear first is the ‘most logical thing’ to do as opposition leader prepares to nominate up to six locations

The Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey has said any talk of where nuclear power plants would be built or waste would go is “conjecture” that cannot sensibly be tackled until after the nuclear ban is lifted.

As the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, prepares to announce an energy policy nominating up to six possible sites for nuclear plants, he faces internal divisions about the level of government support required, proposed locations and questions about storage of nuclear waste.

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Opposition reshuffles shadow ministry after underwhelming Dunkley byelection result

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There have been internal calls for the Coalition to announce more policy in the lead-up to the next election

Luke Howarth, a conservative, has been promoted to shadow assistant treasurer and minister for financial services in a Coalition reshuffle that also promotes Melissa McIntosh into the shadow ministry.

The Coalition has signalled it will target Labor over home ownership, creating a new shadow assistant ministry for Andrew Bragg a moderate senator, and energy affordability, a portfolio to be taken by McIntosh, a member of the centre right.

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Australia to launch $2bn fund to ‘turbocharge’ trade with south-east Asia

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Anthony Albanese plans to boost clean energy and infrastructure exports, and increase visas for travellers from the region

Australia will set up a $2bn fund to “turbocharge” trade and investment in south-east Asia, with a focus on clean energy and infrastructure.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will announce the fund in Melbourne on Tuesday when he addresses a gathering of 100 chief executives from Australia and south-east Asia.

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Australian program to eradicate red fire ants is a ‘shambles’, Senate inquiry told

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Invasive species could be worse than rabbits, cane toads, foxes, camels, wild dogs and feral cats combined, committee hears

A Senate inquiry into the spread of fire ants in Australia has heard that the government program tasked with their elimination is an “absolute shambles” and that an independent eradication body is urgently needed.

The highly invasive insect is believed to have entered Australia in the 1990s and was discovered at Brisbane port in 2001. A program spanning state, territory and federal governments was created to eradicate red imported fire ants and it has received more than $1.2bn of federal and state funding. Of that, $593m covers 2023 to 2027.

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Liberals pick management consultant Simon Kennedy for Cook byelection

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The party misses the chance to have a female candidate in the safe seat vacated by former prime minister Scott Morrison

Simon Kennedy will contest Scott Morrison’s seat of Cook for the Liberals in the byelection triggered by the former prime minister’s resignation.

Kennedy, a consultant and the former candidate for Bennelong, won preselection in the first round on Monday night with 158 out of 296 votes, beating the mayor of Sutherland shire, Carmelo Pesce, and war widow and veteran family advocate commissioner, Gwen Cherne.

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Australia news live: NSW government to look ‘really closely’ at GPS rules for police-issued weapons after killing of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird

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‘Change needs to be made’ on NSW police policies and procedures, premier says. Follow the day’s news live

‘Context has changed’ since NSW lit up Opera House to support Israel, Minns says

ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland:

You ordered the lighting up of the Sydney Opera House sails in support of Israel after 1,200 Israelis were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Since then, 30,000 Palestinians have died. Will you consider lighting up the Sydney Opera House in support of Palestine?

This is an international conflict now and I don’t want to further exacerbate or pull apart Sydney’s already quite volatile mix. I would make the point that much of what will be said in New South Wales will [not] affect the peace situation in the Middle East, but a lot of what could be said can affect peace right here in this state. So we need to be careful with our commentary, we need to focus on not exacerbating community tensions or divisions, and that’s going to be the NSW government’s approach over the coming months.

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‘Nearly a billion dollars’: BoM chief indicates cost of IT overhaul to staff after refusing to disclose to senators

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Exclusive: January 2023 video shows Andrew Johnson detailing Robust project’s initial and ongoing costs, despite telling senators such details were bound by cabinet secrecy

The CEO and director of the Bureau of Meteorology, Andrew Johnson, revealed to staff the cost of its delayed IT overhaul – one of Australia’s most expensive ever – despite repeatedly telling senators such details must be kept under wraps for cabinet secrecy reasons.

Johnson declined senators’ requests in October to disclose the cost of the bureau’s computer upgrade, labelled Robust. He again rejected such calls during Senate estimates on Tuesday, telling the South Australian Greens senator Barbara Pocock: “I wish I could tell you, but as a cabinet decision … I’m not at liberty to disclose those to you.”

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