Category Archives: Australian politics

Australia politics live: Labor caucus endorses Payman suspension; Watt says no plan to ban live cattle exports

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PM calls for ‘a long-term solution in a peace process’ between Israel and Palestine. Follow today’s news headlines live

Shorten says he thinks Labor party is trying to give Senator Payman ‘space and time’

Bill Shorten continues:

I see why people feel so strongly. They can feel so strongly about the hostage is not being returned, or the deaths in Gaza. People could feel also very strongly about the near million deaths in Sudan.

I can get these very incredibly strong issues. And if you come from particular communities, they’re even more intense, although that doesn’t need to be the prerequisite.

Before I deny something, what’s your source?

No, I don’t believe that.

… Because I wasn’t there and I don’t believe it. I actually think the prime minister, Senator Wong and the leadership are handling a complicated issue pretty well.

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International students should make up no more than a third of university cohort, RMIT vice-chancellor says

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Foreign visa holders account for more than 35% at Australia’s prestigious Group of Eight institutions

International students should not exceed a third of any university cohort and it is “damaging to the sector” for foreign students to make up 50% of students at any given institution, RMIT’s vice-chancellor, Prof Alec Cameron, has said.

The proposal to cap international student numbers was raised last month by Deakin University’s vice-chancellor, Iain Martin, as an alternative to the draft framework which would allow the federal education minister to implement different enrolment limits depending on the university or course.

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Australia politics live: Butler tells convenience stores and corner shops ‘you need to stop’ selling vapes as new laws begin

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Aly believes amended motion on recognition of Palestine was stronger than Greens motion

The Greens motion that Fatima Payman voted for, called for recognition of Palestinian statehood. Labor amended the motion to say that recognition of Palestinian statehood was part of a peace process that ended in a two-state solution.

I think actually our motion strengthened it because the I think just saying the night to recognise a Palestinian state without any context is in some ways tokenistic. I don’t want this to be tokenistic. I want this to be a very clear message to the Palestinian people that Australia supports their aspirations for statehood.

And as I say, I was hoping that that would have a resolution, would have got passed. And unfortunately, it didn’t.

There’s never one opinion here and you know, different people in the Muslim communities will have different views.

And I’ve been in contact with quite a few who have a very different view, who argue one of those things, or they’re they’re saying that, you know, the way to make change may not necessarily be the way that Fatima has chosen.

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NSW Coalition at risk of collapse after Nationals leader backs Wes Fang in spat with Liberals

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Dugald Saunders took issue with Liberal leader Mark Speakman who sacked Fang from the shadow ministry over comments about a Wagga Wagga trip

The sacking of a Nationals MP from the New South Wales shadow ministry after he accused the Liberals of “pretending” to care about the Riverina has threatened the state’s longstanding Coalition.

The NSW Liberal party room will meet on Tuesday to discuss the rupture, which is the greatest threat to the Coalition since the then deputy premier John Barilaro threatened to walk away from the agreement over the koala wars in 2020.

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Labor hikes international student visa fees as sector warns of ‘death by 1,000 cuts’

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Australia’s charge out of step with competitors – ‘why would you waste that much money when you have more surety of going to the USA?’

The Albanese government has more than doubled the international student visa application fee from $710 to $1,600 in the latest measure to reduce arrivals to Australia.

The government announced the move on Monday, confirming pre-budget speculation in the tertiary education sector that fee hikes will be used in addition to the international student cap as a means to clamp down on net migration.

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Fatima Payman leaves Labor with little choice after vowing to cross floor again

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Australian senator has given voice to many who condemn the Israel-Gaza war while earning the scorn of her caucus colleagues

Fatima Payman’s career as a Labor politician is over.

The indefinite suspension from the Labor parliamentary caucus that Anthony Albanese imposed on her during a short conversation at the Lodge in Canberra on Sunday afternoon has the same effect as expulsion. She will not return to the fold.

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Fatima Payman indefinitely suspended from Labor caucus – as it happened

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“I think he has the capacity,” Marles says when asked if Joe Biden has what it takes for the next four years. “I’ve got no doubt there will be no issues in relation to that.”

Marles says Biden administration doing ‘fantastic job’

We work very closely with him and we are very pleased with how we’re progressing with the United States both in terms of their position in the world, but also in terms of our equities, most significantly, of course, the Aukus arrangements that we have in place.

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Fatima Payman suspended from Labor caucus over vow to cross the floor again on Palestine

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Party spokesperson says WA senator ‘placed herself outside the privilege’ of participation in caucus after defiant TV interview

WA Labor senator Fatima Payman has been indefinitely suspended from the Labor party’s parliamentary caucus after she was summoned to a meeting with the prime minister at the Lodge on Sunday.

Payman’s previous one-week caucus suspension was upgraded after a Sunday morning television interview in which she vowed she was prepared to repeat her rebellion of last week and cross the floor in the Senate to support recognition of a Palestinian state.

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Albanese says ‘no place for extremism in Australia’ after teen allegedly enters MP’s office with ‘intention to kill’

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Jordan Patten, 19, allegedly wrote a document in which he expressed a desire to attack Labor politicians before visiting Tim Crakanthorp’s office

Anthony Albanese has declared “there’s no place for extremism in Australia” after a 19-year-old man was charged with planning a terrorist attack after he allegedly entered a New South Wales Labor MP’s office carrying “knives and tactical equipment”.

The prime minister was on Friday asked about a document allegedly written by Jordan Patten who was arrested on Wednesday. A Sydney magistrate on Thursday said police would allege Patten had intended to kill Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp “due to his position in the Labor party”.

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Fatima Payman admits she ‘upset a few colleagues’ by crossing the floor – as it happened

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Housing minister Julie Collins is speaking to the ABC RN about Labor’s build-to-rent bill which was knocked back in the Senate yesterday, with the Greens and the Coalition combining to delay it:

What we want to do is get this done. We’ve already been consulting, we announced it in the previous budget. Any delays will actually stop the pipeline of construction and the certainty for the sector.

What we want to do is get more affordable homes and more homes of every type on the ground as quickly as we can.

We’re saying they have to have a minimum of 10% to be eligible for the tax concessions that we’re talking about for each development.

That’s what our consultations and our discussions with the sector have done and, as I said, this is not the only thing we’re doing for affordable homes … My point here is that they continually delay and block housing up every time by coming together and having this unholy alliance between the Liberals and the Greens in the Senate, because they’re more interested in votes than they are about people.

We’re not open to negotiation and we want to get this done.

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‘Hero’ homecoming for Julian Assange was political grandstanding, former Asio boss says

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Ex-US ambassador Dennis Richardson says Albanese government’s reception for WikiLeaks founder minimises legitimate concerns about his activities

The Australian government’s “hero” homecoming for Julian Assange was political “grandstanding” and minimises legitimate concerns about the impact of his activities with WikiLeaks, according to a former senior bureaucrat and Asio chief who served as ambassador to the United States.

Dennis Richardson said the prime minister’s phone call to Assange when he landed in Australia on Wednesday night was inappropriate, given that Assange had pleaded guilty to espionage in legitimate US legal proceedings.

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Nuclear more costly and could ‘sound the death knell’ for Australia’s decarbonisation efforts, report says

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Analysis from Bloomberg New Energy Finance says even if nuclear is successfully implemented it would be ‘at least four times’ more expensive than average cost of renewables

A nuclear-powered Australian economy would result in higher-cost electricity and would “sound the death knell” for decarbonisation effort if it distracts from renewables investment, a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) argues.

The report comes as ANZ forecast September quarter power prices will dive as much as 30% once government rebates kick in. A separate review by the market watchdog has found household energy bills were 14% lower because of last year’s rebates.

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Labor-led committee raises human rights concerns over NDIS bill as Shorten blasts delays

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Minister says more consultation with states would be a ‘circle-jerk’ after Coalition and Greens team up to delay vote on NDIS reforms until late August

A Labor-chaired parliamentary committee has flagged human rights concerns with the Albanese government’s proposed changes to the national disability insurance scheme, warning some aspects may not be “sufficiently flexible” and others not in line with international human rights law.

The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, used a press conference on Thursday evening to attack the opposition and the Greens after the unlikely alliance teamed up to send the NDIS reform bill back to a committee until early August.

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Shorten says NDIS ‘too important for political games’ after bill blocked – as it happened

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Wong rejects Birmingham’s criticism, says US alliance ‘deep and strong’

Asked about her Liberal counterpart Simon Birmingham’s criticism of Anthony Albanese’s phone call with Julian Assange and his claims that the deal to release Assange has “damaged” the US-Australian alliance, Penny Wong says:

That’s not not correct and disappointing that Simon would go to the alliance. He would know that our relationship with the United States is deep and strong.

And that is why we were able to advocate in the way we did. And ultimately, the pathway to resolving this, … had to be through the resolution of the legal process.

Dr Yang remains a priority for our government. We continue to raise his case with the Chinese authorities at all appropriate levels and we will continue to do so. It was obviously raised, as you know, when Premier Li was here.

What I would say is today I am very pleased to see Mr Assange reunited with his family in Australia.

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Labor group praises Fatima Payman for upholding party ‘principles and policy’ to cross floor

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Exclusive: Labor Friends of Palestine hit out at federal government’s stance as ‘weakening’ commitment to Palestinian statehood

Labor Friends of Palestine have praised Fatima Payman’s decision to cross the floor to support Palestinian statehood as “entirely consistent with Labor principles and policy” and rejected federal Labor’s stance as a “weakening” of its commitment on the issue.

After Anthony Albanese temporarily suspended the senator from caucus, the group wrote to Payman declaring that she had “the support of thousands of rank-and-file ALP members”.

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Australia politics live: Plibersek says protecting koala habitat one of the conditions for approving Rinehart-backed gas project

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The Queensland government plans to establish a new greater glider forest park as part of a $200m plan to reform the state’s timber industry.

The premier, Steven Miles, will today announce he will ban logging in between 50,000 and 60,000 hectares of high value ecosystem within the Eastern Hardwoods region in Wide Bay, north of Brisbane.

In addition, a new park to protect the greater glider will be established in the south-east Queensland bioregion.

The state government will also appoint an advisory group to develop a 30-year plan for the sector. It will include representatives from the timber industry, forestry experts, the conservation sector, First Nations peoples, the Australian Workers’ Union, construction sector and outdoor recreational groups.

Queensland’s timber industry is the backbone of the housing and building sectors.

That’s why I’m doing what matters to support timber workers and the industry to continue building our state, while also increasing our protected area estate.

The terms of reference released today map out our priorities as a government – that is, timber supply security, environmental protections, jobs and diverse employment opportunities.

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Inflation rises to 4%, stoking concern interest rates could increase again

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The consumer price index increased to its highest level in 2024, indicating the Reserve Bank is unlikely to cut interest rates soon

Australia’s monthly inflation rate increased to its highest level in 2024 in the latest indication that the Reserve Bank won’t be cutting interest rates soon and might yet hike again.

Consumer prices rose 4% last month from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. That compared with the 3.6% pace recorded for April, and the 3.8% rate expected for May by economists.

The jump in May’s inflation was propelled in part by automotive fuel prices, which were up 9.3% from a year earlier even as they retreated 5.1% during the month itself.

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Australia politics live: Julian Assange leaves Belmarsh prison after plea deal and will return to Australia, WikiLeaks says

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WikiLeaks X account has tweeted that ‘Julian Assange is free’. Follow today’s news headlines live

‘It’s just a lazy delay’

Bill Shorten says a further delay of the Senate vote on the NDIS bill won’t actually lead to any changes:

There’s no good reason on God’s green earth to have another eight weeks of review, which isn’t actually eight weeks.

There won’t be a whole lot of new submissions come in, there won’t be some brand new arguments not considered.

I’m horrified after 12 months of reviewing the NDIS and then another six months of discussing the review including [in] the last three a Senate committee having public hearings calling for submissions.

The opposition has used words never ever said before by them.

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‘No one should judge’ WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for accepting deal, Australian MP says

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Labor’s Julian Hill says prime minister Anthony Albanese deserves ‘enormous credit’ for pursuing the resolution of Assange’s case

The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be judged poorly “for accepting a deal to get the hell out of there and come home” in light of his poor health, an Australian MP has said.

Australian politicians have reacted cautiously to reports of a plea deal to end the US pursuit of Assange in connection with the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables.

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Bill Shorten ‘horrified’ after Coalition and Greens team up and propose delay to NDIS bill

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Greens leader Adam Bandt accuses Labor of wanting to make ‘cuts to services’ for disabled people

Bill Shorten has accused the Coalition of a “disingenuous” and “lazy” decision on NDIS reforms, after the opposition proposed to team up with the Greens to delay a bill set to save at least $15m a day.

But the minister for government services’ plea to pass the bill before parliament’s winter break has been rebuffed by the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, who said it was “appalling” Labor wanted to make “cuts to services” to disabled people.

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