Category Archives: Australian politics

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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Australia to announce Gaza aid as pro-Palestine and pro-Israel supporters rally

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Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in Sydney to demand a ceasefire while a separate pro-Israel rally against antisemitism took place in Adelaide

Pro-Palestinian protesters have taken to the streets after more than 100 Gazans were killed while trying to secure food as Australia flags more humanitarian aid.

About 120 Palestinians were killed as they tried to access humanitarian resources from an aid convoy, the local Hamas health authority said, attributing the deaths to Israeli gunfire.

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Australia news live: siege unfolds at Geelong home; PM says Dutton’s team ‘dominated by blokes’

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Albanese also flagged concerns over ‘nature of behaviour’ in comments in lead-up to Saturday’s Dunkley byelection. Follow the day’s news live

PM congratulates new MP Jodie Belyea for ‘strong and positive campaign’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, joined community leader Jodie Belyea at a polling station on Saturday, his 61st birthday, and praised the strong campaign she ran, AAP reports.

And I’m now going to be your strong local voice in Canberra.

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Australian who worked for foreign spies was in parliament at the time, Asio boss says

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Mike Burgess says actions of person who ‘sold out their country, party and former colleagues’ were legal because they predated 2018 espionage laws

The Asio boss, Mike Burgess, says an Australian who worked for foreign spies is no longer a politician and no longer a security threat “but this happened when they were a politician”.

Burgess has also stated that the unnamed former politician knew they were assisting a foreign intelligence service. “This person knew what they were doing,” he said.

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Dan Tehan condemns ‘big Australia’ policy but won’t reveal Coalition’s immigration plan

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Shadow immigration minister wants ‘better Australia’ but refuses to say what level of migration Coalition would pursue in government

The shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, has criticised a “big Australia” policy but refused to say what level of migration the Coalition would pursue in government, saying only that it wants “a better Australia”.

In an interview with the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Tehan was repeatedly challenged to spell out the Coalition’s view on acceptable migration levels, but said: “I can tell you what it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be as high as what it is today.”

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Asio cleared of unlawfully luring Daniel Duggan back to Australia, agency chief Mike Burgess says

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Exclusive: Duggan’s legal team continues to fight US request for extradition on charges of arms trafficking and money laundering

The spy agency Asio says it has been cleared by the intelligence watchdog of allegations of impropriety raised by the Australian citizen Daniel Duggan as he fights extradition to the US.

Duggan, a former US marines pilot accused of training Chinese pilots to land fighter jets on aircraft carriers, had complained to the inspector general of intelligence and security (IGIS) about Asio’s role in securing his return to Australia from China.

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Dunkley byelection: Labor’s Jodie Belyea triumphs but Liberals win modest swing

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Liberal candidate Nathan Conroy wins swing of more than 3% but well short of the 6.3% required, leaving Belyea as the newest federal MP

Peter Dutton’s Liberal party has won a modest swing in the Dunkley byelection but fallen short in the Labor seat vacated by the death of the popular local MP Peta Murphy.

The Liberal candidate, Nathan Conroy, has currently received 47.5% of the two-party preferred vote, a swing of more than 3% to the opposition, well short of the 6.3% swing required to win the seat off the Albanese government.

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Voters turn out for byelection; tributes to Jesse Baird and Luke Davies – as it happened

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Queensland government pledges over $40m to fertility treatments

More women and girls suffering complex medical conditions like cancer will have access to cheaper reproductive care after Queensland became the latest state to announce public funding for fertility treatments, AAP has reported.

When a significant health issue, such as cancer, impacts a person’s fertility, being able to afford access to fertility services should be the last thing Queenslanders need to worry about.

Longstanding and deep-rooted … abuse, racism and homophobia rampant within the NSW police.

About 8.30pm, the group moved onto the roadway, blocking all vehicle traffic at the intersection of Oxford and Flinders Street. With the assistance of additional police, the crowd were directed to move onto the footpath. Those who did not comply with police directions were physically removed.

The crowd later dispersed, with part of the group attending the Sydney Police Centre on Goulburn and Riley Streets, where they continued to protest.”

There were no reports of any property being damaged, person being injured, or any arrests being made.

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Julia Gillard enters Dunkley byelection campaign as Labor and Liberals brace for close result

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Exclusive: The former PM has been enlisted to front a social media campaign to help Labor hold the Victorian seat

Julia Gillard has been enlisted to help boost Labor’s chances in the Dunkley byelection, with Australia’s first female prime minister fronting a social media push aimed squarely at women in the Melbourne seat.

In a sign of Labor’s effort to shore up every last vote in what is expected by both major parties to be a close-run contest, Gillard’s election-eve endorsement praises Jodie Belyea as a “strong local voice”.

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Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyers argue evidence is not available to rule out Britanny Higgins’ consent

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Lehrmann’s lawyers also admit client’s evidence is ‘unsatisfactory’ but say it would be overstating it to say he is a ‘compulsive liar’

If the court finds that sexual intercourse took place between Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins it will also have to find she was “so intoxicated as to be unable to consent” and that evidence is not available, Lehrmann’s lawyers have told the federal court.

“The evidence simply does not permit a positive finding of fact that Ms Higgins’ intoxication was, at any relevant time, such that she could not consent to sexual activity,” new submissions filed in Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten and Lisa Wilkinson said.

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Australia ‘horrified’ by Gaza humanitarian catastrophe – as it happened

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Both sides of politics are pulling out all the stops as the Dunkley byelection goes down to the wire.

Speaking on Sunrise this morning, the education minister, Jason Clare, and the deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, went head-to-head over a tweet she published last night.

You should delete the tweet… This is a classic example of why women aren’t joining the Liberal party and why they’re not voting for the Liberal party, because of that classic, desperate, grubby political scare campaign we saw from the Liberal party yesterday.

I don’t know, really, you must wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and think, after 25 years of being a member of parliament, is this what I’ve become? I’m reduced to putting out tweets like this?

Anyone who watched question time during this week and saw your hopeless immigration minister unable to demonstrate that he even knows where his criminals [are], what they’re doing, who’s monitoring them and whether the community is safe, would probably not agree with what you’ve just said.

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Questions raised about whether GPs will be ready for influx of people seeking vaping prescriptions

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Doctors admit helping patients quit vaping is a ‘new experience’ ahead of a near-total ban coming into force on 1 July

GPs are preparing for a rush of patients seeking prescriptions for vapes or help to give up smoking, with a peak doctor’s lobby admitting it is a “new experience” for some medical experts ahead of new government vaping crackdowns and a near-total ban on electronic cigarettes from July.

The health minister, Mark Butler, says there is a need to “upskill” some GPs to help Australians off vapes. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) says doctors are well-equipped to handle the looming changes, which will outlaw vapes without a prescription, but the head of the Australian Medical Association says it may be a difficult task.

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Global gambling company to leave Australia’s peak lobbying group

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Entain will withdraw from Responsible Wagering Australia in coming months, as a government crackdown on betting ads looms

One of the world’s biggest gambling companies has abandoned Australia’s peak lobbying group, just as the federal government prepares to announce tougher restrictions on betting ads.

Policy analysts believe Entain’s withdrawal from the Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) group highlights how bookmakers would be disproportionately affected if the government restricts betting ads, as recommended by a parliamentary inquiry.

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Alex Turnbull says he may have been targeted in espionage attempt revealed by Asio

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Spy agency says former Australian politician recruited by foreign regime once ‘proposed bringing a prime minister’s family member’ into their orbit

The son of former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says he may have been a target of suspected Chinese intelligence agents, as the federal government urged politicians to “wake up” to spying threats.

Australia’s domestic intelligence agency sparked an intense round of political intrigue after alleging that a former Australian politician “sold out their country, party and former colleagues” after being recruited by spies for a foreign regime.

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Australia politics live: Victorian premier cancels iftar dinner after Muslim peak bodies boycott; jump in renewable energy investment

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Jacinta Allan confirms dinner, which has been held since 2015, will not go ahead. Follow the day’s news live

Hockey says Asio boss should name accused politician in interests of transparency

Joe Hockey said it was “not standard practice”, as Hockey is now apparently an expert in how Asio and like-minded security agencies operate.

You know, they’ve launched investigations over here. I mean, you know, you had you had the Mueller inquiry into President Trump. You had an FBI inquiry into Hillary Clinton. You don’t just make this allegations, leave them unnamed and say, ‘Oh, yeah. They’re back in the community. They’re fine’, that just does not happen.

I mean, allegations have been made against Senator Menendez here as a sitting senator. They named the sitting senator.

Talking about a traitor amongst the ranks. He shouldn’t do that. If he’s not going to name that person. It’s absurd. It’s absolutely absurd.

It’s inconceivable here in the United States or the United Kingdom, or most other countries, that the head of the intelligence agency would go out and make that statement without telling everyone who it was.

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