Category Archives: Australian politics

Set more ambitious climate targets to save Great Barrier Reef, Unesco urges Australia

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Reef escapes being classed ‘in danger’ for now but the government must submit a progress report to World Heritage committee by February

Unesco has urged Australia to set more ambitious climate targets for the Great Barrier Reef in a list of recommendations to preserve its status as a world heritage site.

The report, published in Paris late on Monday, did not recommend the reef be placed on a list of sites “in danger” – a threat that has hung over the reef for years – when the 21-country world heritage committee meets next month.

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Matt Kean criticised by Coalition MPs after Labor appoints him new chair of Climate Change Authority

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Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan lead criticism of former NSW treasurer while Labor declares him ‘best for the job’

The former New South Wales Liberal treasurer Matt Kean has faced criticism for taking a new job as the new chair of the Climate Change Authority after he was appointed by the Albanese government on Monday.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, revealed the former NSW Liberal treasurer had been chosen for the “important” role on Monday in a surprise cross-party appointment.

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Medicinal vapes to be sold over the counter at pharmacies after Labor and Greens reach deal

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Government’s original proposal would have made vapes a prescription-only product but Greens raised concerns about criminalising users and cost of seeing a GP

Plain-packaged vapes will be sold over the counter at pharmacies as a therapeutic tool under amendments to the Albanese government’s crackdown on vaping products.

Greens amendments to the model, which will now allow access to vapes as a medical product without a prescription, also include an eight-month amnesty period after concerns about criminalising users. The legislation is expected to pass parliament with the Greens’ support this week, shortly before the new system comes into effect on 1 July.

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Labor seeks to raise incoming governor general’s salary by more than $214,000

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Albanese government wants bill passed to lift Sam Mostyn’s salary by 43%, in line with estimated average of chief justice of the high court’s salary

The Albanese government is seeking to raise the pay for the incoming governor general, Sam Mostyn, by more than $214,000, saying the change is appropriate because she is not receiving the same sort of additional pensions that previous officeholders have enjoyed.

Mostyn will be sworn into her new office on 1 July. Patrick Gorman, the assistant minister to the prime minister, introduced a bill into federal parliament on Monday morning which would raise the salary for the governor general from $495,000 to $709,017.

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Labor and Greens strike anti-vaping deal – as it happened

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David Pocock also spoke to the ABC about his private member’s bill that would see housing treated as a human right. He said it was needed because:

There’s no overarching national plan and this would legislate that these are the objectives, we want to see housing affordable, we want to reduce homelessness and then it would be up to the government to actually work out – how are we going to do that?

What are the policies that we think will address this?

One of my heroes Desmond Tutu used to say ‘don’t raise your voice, improve your argument’.

It’s pretty tragic the major parties tear the opposition down rather than improving their argument and making their plans stand on their own two feet.

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Supermarkets could face billions in fines for grocery code breaches as Labor commits to reforms

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Government to adopt recommendations of conduct review in full amid consumer and supplier complaints about soaring profits

Labor has promised to legislate massive new fines for breaches of the grocery code of conduct, which would be made mandatory under changes proposed by Craig Emerson’s independent review.

On Monday the Albanese government will announce it is adopting in full the recommendations of Emerson’s report on the code, an interim version of which was released in April amid consumer and supplier complaints about soaring supermarket profits.

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Doctors accuse Nationals of serving interests of tobacco lobby by opposing vaping prohibition

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Exclusive: AMA president says party’s push to regulate vapes like cigarettes is a ‘tax grab’ that shows ‘complete disregard’ for health

The Australian Medical Association has accused David Littleproud and the Nationals of taking the advice of the tobacco lobby over health experts on vaping and accused the junior Coalition party of seeking “to gamble with people’s health”.

Ahead of a crucial vote on the government’s anti-vaping restrictions in parliament this week, the AMA president, Prof Steve Robson, claimed the Nationals’ suggestion of regulating vapes the same way as cigarettes is “a tax grab that shows a complete disregard for the health of Australians”.

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Social media age restrictions may push children online in secret, Australian eSafety commissioner says

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Minors could also miss crucial support under a potential ban, online safety regulator’s office tells inquiry

Restricting children from social media could risk limiting their access to critical social support and could result in them accessing social media in secret, Australia’s online safety regulator has warned.

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, this month said the Coalition would ban under 16s from social media within 100 days should they win the next election. The Albanese government is undertaking a $6.5m trial of age assurance technology and is assessing at what age children should be able to access social media as part of a wide-ranging parliamentary inquiry on social media and Australian society.

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Nuclear confusion: the Coalition’s power plan is becoming less and less clear

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The Peter Dutton-led opposition is seeking a mandate to pursue nuclear energy, but details are in short supply

The Coalition’s nuclear plan is becoming less – not more – clear.

The shadow climate change and energy minister, Ted O’Brien, now says there will be more than one nuclear reactor at each of the Coalition’s seven nominated sites, but he can’t say exactly how many.

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Coalition reveals plan for independent authority to rule on nuclear power plant output

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Ted O’Brien says Labor must respect mandate for nuclear if opposition wins election, but will not say if Coalition will drop policy if Labor reelected

The shadow energy minister, Ted O’Brien, has revealed an independent authority would determine how much nuclear power is produced at each of its seven proposed sites, despite the Coalition claiming it would set the proportion of nuclear in the national energy mix.

On Sunday, O’Brien urged Labor to respect that if the Coalition wins the next election, it arguably has a mandate for nuclear power, but then refused to commit to the opposition dropping the policy if it loses the poll, due by 2025.

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Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan could cost as much as $600bn and supply just 3.7% of Australia’s energy by 2050, experts say

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Coalition proposal would cost a minimum of $116bn – the same as Labor’s plan for almost 100% renewables by 2050, the Smart Energy Council says

The Coalition’s pledge to build seven nuclear reactors as part of its controversial energy plan could cost taxpayers as much as $600bn while supplying just 3.7% of Australia’s energy mix by 2050, according to the Smart Energy Council.

The analysis found the plan would cost a minimum of $116bn – the same cost as delivering the Albanese government’s plan for 82% renewables by 2030, and an almost 100% renewable energy mix by 2050.

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Families set to pocket more than $60 a week from stage-three tax cuts

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Treasury analysis shows ‘mums and dads’ will be among the biggest beneficiaries when 1 July cuts kick in, Jim Chalmers says

Australian families are set to pocket more than $60 a week when the government’s tax cuts kick in from July, according to new analysis from Treasury.

The federal budget’s cost-of-living measures will come into effect on 1 July, including the tax cuts and energy relief for all households and 1m small businesses.

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US official warns against dropping 2030 climate targets after Dutton refuses to commit to 43% emissions cut

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Exclusive: State department official urges politicians to do ‘the right thing’, citing ‘collective responsibility’

A senior US official has urged Australia and other countries not to back away from their 2030 climate commitments, insisting that “we all have a collective responsibility for the planet we live in”.

The message from Australia’s top security ally contrasts with rhetoric from the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, who claimed on Saturday the Labor government was “appeasing the international climate lobby” and “global climate activists”.

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Peter Dutton vows to override state nuclear bans as he steps up attack on PM

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Opposition leader tells Liberal party officials that state premiers ‘won’t stop us’ and labels Anthony Albanese a ‘child in a man’s body’

Peter Dutton has vowed a Coalition government would override the states’ legislated ban on nuclear power, telling party officials on Saturday that state premiers “won’t stop us”.

The opposition leader made the comments in an address to the federal Liberal party council in Sydney, where he escalated his attacks on Anthony Albanese. He called the prime minister a “fraud” and a “child in a man’s body” that is “still captured in his university years”.

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Confusion reigns about the Coalition’s nuclear proposal. Here’s how the rhetoric has shifted

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We unpack the questions that remain about the Coalition’s plan – and the contradictions in their messaging

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, claims his nuclear power plan would underpin local economies and energy security for “another 80, up to 100 years” – but the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, claims the Coalition’s long-awaited idea has “fallen apart within 24 hours”.

Questions remain about the cost, type, output and design of the reactors. There has been opposition from state premiers and from the owners of the proposed sites, who don’t plan to sell.

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Coalition would not copy Morrison government’s approach to China diplomacy, says Simon Birmingham

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Shadow foreign minister says blasting Beijing in public had negative consequences and a future government would do things differently

The shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, has suggested the Morrison government’s megaphone diplomacy with China was counterproductive and a future Coalition government would approach the relationship differently.

In an interview for Guardian Australia’s Australian Politics podcast, Birmingham conceded that blasting China in public had had negative consequences.

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Shadow energy minister says system in ‘dire trouble’ – as it happened

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Australia needs more gas supply on east coast, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese is speaking to the ABC from Devonport.

We’ll work those issues through with Aemo.

We need more gas supply. We announced our future gas strategy a short while ago because we understand that we need more supply. Gas has an important role to play in manufacturing in particular. But also in providing firming capacity for the renewables rollout.

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Nuclear engineer dismisses Peter Dutton’s claim that small modular reactors could be commercially viable soon

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Hugh Durrant-Whyte says 2045 is a realistic timeframe, adding it was likely to be ‘more expensive than anything else you could possibly think of’

Australia would need “many decades” to develop the regulations and skills to operate a nuclear power plant, and the experience gained at the existing Lucas Heights facility won’t help much, according to New South Wales’ chief scientist and engineer.

Hugh Durrant-Whyte said he stood by comments made to a 2019 NSW upper house inquiry into uranium mining and nuclear facilities that running a plant and its fuel supply chain would require skills “built up over many decades”.

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Power bills could rise by $1,000 a year under Coalition plan to boost gas until nuclear is ready, analysts say

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Experts predict major electricity price hikes if opposition proposal to slow rollout of large-scale renewable projects goes ahead

Australians’ annual household power bills could increase by hundreds of dollars, and up to $1,000, under a Coalition plan to slow the rollout of large-scale renewable energy and use more gas-fired electricity before nuclear plants are ready, analysts say.

As Peter Dutton faced cross-party resistance to his announcement that he would go to the next election promising to eventually build seven nuclear plants, energy market analysts warned the Coalition’s proposal would probably lead to a significant rise in prices over the next decade, before a nuclear industry came online.

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Australia news live: Indigenous leader Rev Dr D Gondarra dies; mass cull ordered to stop NSW bird flu outbreak

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Albanese calls Coalition nuclear policy a ‘fantasy’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has slammed the Coalition’s nuclear power policy, calling it a “fantasy” and saying it was “Peter Dutton and the Seven nuclear reactors.”

What you have here is something that I’ve never seen before. I mean, this is just a fantasy, instead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this is Peter Dutton and the seven nuclear reactors.

This is just absurd, to have a big buildup for an announcement and then say we won’t give you the details. I’ll make this prediction. All the details won’t be out there before the election. It will be just “trust me”, just the same as Peter Dutton said that [for the] 2030 target when it comes to emissions reduction, “I will let you know all of that after the election.”

Well, our energy policy will and is absolutely focused on driving down prices as we did in government at … this is the important point. And that is because of a range of technologies, not one, nuclear needs to be part of that mix. You need to have every horse in this race. This is a hard race to win. And we want to have every horse in the race. Nuclear is an important one, gas is an important one.

Everyone wants to sort of say there’s one technology this the answer to everything. No. I’m just wondering. It’s a balance of technologies and right now, what is clear is Chris Bowen’s strategy is not getting us to where we need to go.

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