Category Archives: Australian politics

Dfat says it has told Israel ‘unacceptable’ targeting of UN personnel in Lebanon must cease – as it happened

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Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on Voice referendum, one year on

The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, was on ABC News Breakfast earlier on the first anniversary of the Voice referendum.

We have been calling for an inquiry into statutory authorities for the last 18 months, which we believe need to be looked at closely because of their failures to ... well, not all statutory authorities, but some, in terms of their failures of how they’re supposed to serve the interests of those that they are supposed to represent.

And this has been ongoing now and something that the Albanese Government has continued to ignore. But those voices – especially of Traditional Owners – that I have been speaking to, are growing louder, with more concern. And, really, there is a need to fix the structures that currently exist, and it begins with an inquiry.

There’s no evidence at all that current laws led by the Albanese government are stifling businesses from employing people. In fact, we’ve actually created nearly 1 million jobs since coming to office a bit over two years ago … So unfortunately, for some of the leading business groups calling for this, the evidence of what’s going on in the economy just doesn’t back up their wish list.

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‘No settlement to the original grievance’: voice champions give rallying cry for unity in Australia

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‘Our mob across the country wanted structural reform', Pat Anderson told online audience; ‘that’s what we’re still fighting for,’ Prof Megan Davis said

A key proponent of the Indigenous Voice to parliament, rejected at a referendum a year ago, has challenged Australians to be “bigger and wider – to be grand” and to forge from that bruising experience “an authentic Australian nation”.

Pat Anderson’s rallying cry on the eve of the anniversary came at the close of an hour-long online event for key ‘Yes’ advocates to reflect, lament and commit to “stay true to Uluru”.

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Business Council blames slow local decision-making for feeding Australia’s housing supply crisis

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Peak business body proposes deadlines to ‘speed up’ local councils, saying delays are making developers reluctant to invest

Local councils would be forced to set deadlines for deciding on housing development applications and lose approval rights if they cannot stick to them, under a proposal from the national peak body representing big business.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) is urging state governments to force local councils to consult housing development proponents and set agreed deadlines, case by case, for ruling on their applications – then be held accountable for meeting them.

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Steven Miles bats away accusations of pinching policies from Greens ahead of Queensland polls opening

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State premier announces free state primary school lunches at campaign launch after revealing plan for state-owned health clinics

Premier Steven Miles has warded off allegations of plagiarism from the Greens for a signature free school lunch policy announced at Sunday’s election campaign launch.

The Labor leader promised a free lunch for every Queensland state primary school student, the day before polls open in the state’s election. It came just a day after he unveiled a policy of state-owned, privately run GP clinics.

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Tanya Plibersek defends Aboriginal heritage order blocking ‘irreversible damage’ of goldmine tailings dam

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Financial impact on mining company does not outweigh ‘permanent loss’ to cultural sites, environment minister says

Tanya Plibersek has defended her decision to issue an Aboriginal heritage protection order for the site of a proposed goldmine near Blayney, saying the financial impact on the mining company does not outweigh “irreversible damage and permanent loss” to Aboriginal cultural heritage sites.

The environment minister made a partial declaration under section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act in August, blocking a proposal by mining company Regis Resources to build a tailings dam for its $900m McPhillamys gold project in the headwaters of the Belubula River. The declaration did not cover the rest of the proposed mining area.

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Sussan Ley says Richard Marles should resign if he failed to provide safe workplace for chief of staff

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Deputy opposition leader expresses concern for Jo Tarnawsky’s welfare after chief of staff claims she was effectively sacked

The deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, says Richard Marles should resign if he has failed to provide a safe and respectful workplace as required under the ministerial code of conduct.

Ley said on Friday that allegations from the deputy prime minister’s chief of staff, Jo Tarnawksy, were “extremely serious” and expressed concern for her welfare.

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Australia news live: QLD LNP leader says end of coal before 2030s ‘fanciful’; patients at Sydney GP given less-effective vaccines

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The LNP leader, David Crisafulli, appears to be walking away from a commitment to 75% emissions reduction by 2035. Follow today’s news live

Rowland questioned on gambling ad ban

Michelle Rowland was also asked why it has taken 16 months for the government – as yet – to make no decision on gambling ads. The communications minister said the government has “been working diligently in this space” but action “should have been taken on this some 10 years ago”.

We’re working very closely with the states and territories because the vast majority of recommendations in our late colleague Peta Murphy’s report go to issues that go across commonwealth and state jurisdictions.

We’re also working very closely to ensure that there are no unintended consequences here and it’s actually effective.

We have every anticipation that we will be able to respond comprehensively this year and that’s what we’re working towards as a government.

We will be taking advice on the appropriate form in which that can be done. Legislation is obviously an option because there is an interactive gambling act at the commonwealth level, which enables some of these approaches to be implemented.

There will be penalty for the platforms just as they are now in the Online Safety Act … These penalties will be drafted and, as I said, we’re currently reviewing the Online Safety Act because the penalties as they stand … the maximum penalties are less than $1 million for some offences.

They are being challenged but, at the same time, the industry does understand the need to comply here and, by and large, does comply with the rules under the Online Safety Act.

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Social media platforms with ‘low risk of harm to children’ could escape Albanese government age ban

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Communications minister Michelle Rowland says ‘likely’ changes to Online Safety Act ‘will place onus on platforms, not parents or young people’

Social media companies could escape the Albanese government’s proposed age ban if they can demonstrate a “low risk of harm to children”, the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, has said.

Rowland will announce on Friday that the “likely” amendments to the Online Safety Act banning children from social media will “place the onus on platforms, not parents or young people” to enforce the ban.

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Australia politics live: Richard Marles tells question time ‘I feel very sad that events have got to where they have’ after chief of staff’s bullying allegations

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The opposition communications spokesperson, David Coleman, is speaking to ABC radio RN, criticising the government’s legislation designed to keep the NBN in public hands.

He is having trouble saying whether the opposition will support the bill, or whether a future Coalition government would want to sell the NBN.

We’re not going to just sort of immediately jump at some silly theatrical statement from the government. The adults in the room will review this in a normal way.

We’ve got no intention of changing the ownership structure of the NBN. Nobody does. And frankly, because the NBN is going so badly, there’s not exactly a lineup of people [wanting to buy it].

Parents are crying out for a degree of certainty, they’re crying out for government guidance, a lot more rule that people can follow. That doesn’t mean there won’t be challenging but at least provides a starting point for parents. It gives them a tool about how to address this and parents who have gone through all this and all the pain that social media can place upon their children, they’re the ones I think are the most powerful advocates for this reform.

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Sudden ‘period of leave’ for head of Department of Parliamentary Services

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Former anti-corruption commissioner steps in after Rob Stefanic announces decision to take leave

The head of the Department of Parliamentary Services has announced a sudden “period of leave”, leaving a former anti-corruption commissioner in charge of the department.

The secretary, Rob Stefanic, announced to staff in an email on Wednesday morning he had made a decision to “take a period of leave”.

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Australian teens approaching age limit could be spared from social media ban, ACT leader says

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Exclusive: Andrew Barr says it ‘doesn’t make sense’ for existing users to be banned for a year or two before regaining access

It “doesn’t make sense” to remove existing teen users of social media from the platforms just a year or two before they regain access, Andrew Barr says.

The ACT chief minister’s comments point to the possibility that existing users could be grandfathered by the proposed social media ban so that they keep their accounts or are temporarily moved on to teen-friendly versions, such as that recently introduced for Instagram by Meta.

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A bizarre game of political chicken? How Queensland lurched to the right on law and order

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Labor’s cave-ins on youth justice over the past two years were meant to neutralise the opposition’s attacks – but they appear to have merely emboldened the LNP

Has the Queensland election campaign become a bizarre game of political chicken?

The economic debate has veered sharply to the left. The Liberal National party’s “small target” plan has involved adopting many of Labor’s policies, including cheap public transport fees and other cost-of-living handouts.

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Scientists contest environment minister’s claim of ‘blitzing’ Australia’s ocean reserve expansion goal

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Tanya Plibersek claims Labor is protecting 52% of its ocean territory, but experts say that is ‘misleading’

Scientists have challenged Tanya Plibersek’s claim that Australia is protecting more than half of its oceans and has “blitzed” a 30% target, arguing industrial longline fishing will still be allowed in some areas the government says it is conserving.

The environment minister told a “global nature positive summit” in Sydney on Tuesday the government had quadrupled the size of the sub-Antarctic Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve, a world heritage area about 4,000km south-west of Perth.

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Doubts over legal regime to re-detain those released from Australian immigration detention, FoI documents reveal

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Exclusive: Meeting minutes show that without any offending by those released, it’s hard to ‘illustrate that they pose an ongoing risk’

Officials responsible for a regime to re-detain people released from immigration detention have cast doubt on its effectiveness, warning the minimum nine-month timeframe to put cases together could make it harder for the government to win.

“In the absence of any offending, [it is] hard to illustrate that they pose an ongoing risk – so the longer it takes it weakens [the applicants’] case,” officials said, according to minutes of a January meeting discussing the operation of the scheme, passed after the high court’s ruling that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful.

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Australia politics live: Dutton attacks Albanese for including calls for ceasefire and de-escalation in motion reflecting on 7 October

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So what’s that ARC research project on islands actually about, anyway?

A blog watcher has taken the trouble to look up the research project that has Liberal MP James Stevens all hot and bothered, Archipelagic Connections in Australian and Pacific Literature:

Australia is often defined as an isolated island-continent, ‘girt by sea’. This project aims to challenge this protectionist myth by analysing literary and historical connections between different geographical sites that have been represented as enclosed in Australian history.

It expects to offer new interpretations of interconnected narratives of Aboriginal Australian, South Sea Islander and migrant enclosure in Australian literature.

The project also contributes to national strategic initiatives into the ‘truth telling’ on Australia’s past relations to Aboriginal Australians and the study of environmental change in islands and archipelagos.

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More than half of Australians approve of Albanese government’s response to Israel-Gaza war, poll finds

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Of 1,139 people surveyed in the Guardian Essential poll, younger voters more likely to say Australia’s response is too supportive of Israel

About 56% of Australians are satisfied with the federal government’s response to the Israel-Gaza war, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.

As federal politicians paused to mark the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks and the Israeli military response, the poll showed a five-point jump in satisfaction with the Labor government’s stance since the question was last asked in August.

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Australian politicians mark 7 October anniversary – as it happened

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904 Australians and their immediate family members have now left Lebanon on assisted-departure flights – in addition to those who left on partner and commercial flights.

407 Australians left on 5 October, and 448 on 6 October.

Why so silent, Mark? This, I have been asked a lot. I have thought about it a lot too. I have said little in public about the Hamas-Israel war because I am not the foreign affairs minister. I am Australia’s first law officer. A minister, not a commentator. Just because I’m not talking doesn’t mean I don’t understand.

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Division among Australian politicians easy to see and hear on 7 October anniversary

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Labor condemns Hamas and acknowledges ‘devastating’ loss of civilian lives. Coalition offers emphatic support of Israel and chides calls for a ceasefire

The divisions within Australian politics over the Israel-Gaza war were on full display on Monday as senior leaders marked the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks.

The Labor government reaffirmed its unequivocal condemnation of the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

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Australia news live: NSW police minister says pro-Palestine protests must remain peaceful or ‘you can expect to be arrested’

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A pro-Palestine rally will take place in Hyde Park from 1pm today, after NSW police previously attempted to stop it from happening in federal court. Follow the day’s news live

Australians arrive in Cyprus after being evacuated from Lebanon

Some images are coming through of Australian citizens, residents and their families arriving at Larnaca airport in Cyprus after being evacuated from Beirut yesterday.

This is a tragedy that has been playing out in the Middle East. It is obviously difficult. It is obviously complex.

That is a patent lie, and it’s an intentional lie, and it’s a lie intended to create division within Australian politics and from there, within Australian society.

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Dutton ‘intentionally lying’ about Australia’s stance on Middle East crisis, Marles says

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Opposition leader’s claim Labor is ‘at odds with our allies’ an attempt to sow division, deputy prime minister says

The federal government has hit back at Peter Dutton’s claims that Australia is at odds with its allies over the conflict in the Middle East, characterising this as “an intentional lie” that aims to fuel division.

With more Australians expected to fly out of Lebanon on Sunday as Israel steps up strikes in southern Beirut, the government said it was “deeply anxious” about the “extraordinary loss of innocent life in Gaza” and the prospect of the conflict spreading.

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