Category Archives: Australian politics

Bob Brown arrested at Tasmania logging protest – as it happened

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Birmingham backs Dutton’s asylum boat comments

The shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, was on ABC RN earlier this morning.

It is our responsibility to hold the government to account and if there are cuts to the Border Force budget, if there are reductions in terms of any aspects of maritime surveillance, if the Border Police Commissioner is saying that his resources are being stretched, then these are the things for us to absolutely call the government out on.

Vegetation clearing and repairs to damaged powerlines and poles continue. However, given the extent of the widespread damage, it may still take some days in extreme circumstances to restore electricity to all of those impacted.

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Albanese signs WA GST pledge on reporter’s arm and signals possible support for state’s nickel miners

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PM says federal government will make ‘no changes’ to Western Australia GST payments, which could hit $50bn over a decade

The federal government is considering “time-limited support” for the nickel industry in Western Australia as it faces growing international competition from Indonesian producers, Anthony Albanese has said.

The prime minister also pledged to maintain WA’s lucrative share of GST payments by signing a promise on a newspaper front page and on a reporter’s arm in marker pen, before encouraging the journalist to get it tattooed on his body.

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Barnaby Joyce says he has given up alcohol for Lent as Perin Davey admits having two drinks before Senate hearing

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New England MP accuses opponents of exploiting issue for political gain, while footage emerges of deputy Nationals leader appearing to slur her words

Barnaby Joyce says he’s giving up alcohol for Lent while accusing political opponents of seeking to exploit the issue of parliamentarians’ consumption of alcohol, as the conduct of politicians again falls under the spotlight.

The shadow veterans affairs minister made the comments on Monday after the deputy Nationals leader, Perin Davey, admitted she had two drinks before a Senate committee hearing in which she appeared to slur and stumble over words.

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Australia news live: Taylor Swift shows to go ahead at Sydney Olympic Park after no asbestos found – as it happened

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NSW environment watchdog gives venue green light after tests; agency says schools at Marsden Park and Orchard Hill found to have mulch containing bonded asbestos. This blog is now closed

Asked about the Barnaby Joyce incident and “issues of alcohol in Parliament House”, Chandler-Mather says the public is right to expect “a high standard for politicians”, even though they “don’t always deliver”.

Look, personally, in general I don’t think drug testing and alcohol testing in any workplace is necessarily a good idea. People are justifiably upset at the standard politicians hold themselves to.

When we talk about immigrants, we’re talking about the nurses and teachers, construction workers. Secondly, we saw during Covid net migration reached near zero and house prices continue to … go up. Property is treated as a massive speculative asset that drives up the price of housing.

I want to be clear, we have enough homes for people to live in. We have enough construction materials to build the homes for the new people coming to this country. We don’t have the political will to take on a housing system and property developers who restrict supply to make money for themselves and treat housing as a huge speculative asset.

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Asylum seekers taken to Nauru amid renewed political stoush over border arrivals

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Move comes after second group found in Western Australia and believed to have arrived on same boat as group found 25km away on Friday

More than 40 asylum seekers have been taken to Nauru after they were found in a remote part of Western Australia.

Guardian Australia has confirmed a second group of 13 asylum seekers was found at an Indigenous campsite at Pender Bay, about an hour after a group of 30 men were found at Beagle Bay on Friday.

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Anthony Albanese says Alexei Navalny’s treatment ‘unforgivable’ and Putin responsible for his death

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Peter Dutton says Russian president a ‘murderous dictator’ while foreign affairs minister Penny Wong says Navalny an inspiring figure

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has joined western governments across the globe in holding Vladimir Putin responsible for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Navalny, 47, died while being held in a jail about 65km north of the Arctic Circle, where he had been sentenced to 19 years under a “special regime”.

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Australia news live: Dutton says reports of WA boat arrival ‘disturbing’; Barnaby Joyce denies drinking problem

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Opposition leader calls on home affairs minister Clare O’Neil to provide explanation on whether government has ‘lost control’ of borders. Follow the day’s news live

About 400 requests for assistance remaining in Victoria, SES says

The Victorian state emergency service says there are about 400 active requests for assistance remaining, after the extreme weather earlier this week.

We’re making good progress restoring services following the severe storms in Victoria, with more than 90% of our mobile sites now back online.

Many of our network sites have back up power that kept services running after the storms hit, but that back-up power may not last during extended power outages.

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Former LNP candidate Vivian Lobo fronts court accused of giving false details to Australian Electoral Commission

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Candidate in 2022 federal election facing up to 12 months’ prison if found guilty of knowingly providing false or misleading information

A Liberal National party candidate in the last federal election has faced court accused of providing false information about his residential address to the electoral commission.

Vivian Rakesh Lobo was issued a summons to appear in Brisbane magistrates court on Friday after a federal police investigation followed a referral from the Australian Electoral Commission.

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BoM issues cyclone alert for NT and Queensland; NSW Health warns of high-dose MDMA tabs in circulation – as it happend

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Heavy rainfall is expected to hit the Gulf of Carpentaria coast with a risk of a possible tropical cyclone from Thursday. This blog is now closed

Not everyone voted to bring Julian Assange back to Australia

Looking at the Hansard, it seems there were 11 MPs who abstained from voting on the Assange motion:

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Lidia Thorpe calls for ‘sleazy’ MPs to be excluded from sitting weeks and fined for bad behaviour

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Senator condemns two-year wait for parliament workplace enforcement body recommended in Jenkins review

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe says parliament has waited “too long” for a workplace enforcement body, and has called for “sleazy” politicians to be excluded from sitting weeks and fined for bad behaviour.

Thorpe alleged she had been inappropriately touched and made to feel unsafe by male politicians on numerous occasions in her three-and-a-half years in Canberra, saying Parliament House’s “old boys’ club” has been allowed to “run roughshod” with impunity for too long.

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Difficult to predict fate of Australia-Tuvalu deal on climate and security, intelligence boss says

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Senior intelligence officer agrees deal is facing risk of unravelling amid ‘political change and turbulence’ in Pacific nation after elections, Senate hears

A senior Australian intelligence chief has acknowledged a landmark climate and security deal with Tuvalu may be at risk in the wake of the Pacific nation’s election.

Andrew Shearer, who leads the government’s Office of National Intelligence (ONI), said his agency was “obviously aware of recent political change and turbulence in Tuvalu”.

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ADF chief unaware Fijian officer handed senior Australian army role was accused of torture, parliament told

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Angus Campbell tells parliament recently appointed brigade deputy commander Penioni (Ben) Naliva is entitled to presumption of innocence

The chief of the Australian defence force has told a parliamentary committee he was unaware of serious allegations against a Fijian military officer before approving his appointment to an Australian army brigade.

Colonel Penioni (Ben) Naliva, an officer from the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF), was named last month as a deputy commander of the 7th Brigade based at Gallipoli barracks in Brisbane.

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Australia politics live: Queensland introduces bill for carbon reduction target; Garnaut argues for zero-carbon exports

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‘Export of zero-carbon goods can underpin a long period of high investment, rising productivity, full employment and rising incomes,’ economist tells press club. Follow the day’s news live

When it comes to treaty and truth-telling though, things are a little less clear. For all intents and purposes the government seems to be backing away from a designated federal process. We heard some of that yesterday, but Linda Burney continues it today.

For all Jacinta Price is accusing the Labor government of doing treaty “by stealth” that doesn’t appear to be the reality. Instead, existing processes look like being utilised.

I am having discussions with the cabinet about that, and I’m not going to go into those discussions. But the issue of truth-telling is incredibly important. And there are many, many ways in which that can happen, including the school curriculum.

The reality is the treaty process is well under way at a state and in many ways at a local level. You look at the Noongar agreement in and around Perth. For all intents and purposes, that’s a treaty.

What I’m suggesting is that we will listen to what people are saying.

I know that there are some people in the media, but I want to talk also to community leadership. I’m meeting with land councils today, for example, who are in Canberra this week for estimates. Those are the organisations that really worked very hard towards the referendum and I want to hear from them where they believe the next steps should be.

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Commuter chaos as wild weather leaves half of Melbourne’s train lines offline – as it happened

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Today is the 16th anniversary of Rudd’s national apology

It is National Apology Day, which marks the anniversary of the day the former prime minister Kevin Rudd formally apologised to Indigenous people for the stolen generations.

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Australia politics live: flight chaos across country after air traffic controller no-shows, Senate told; Linda Reynolds announces retirement

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Airservices Australia were grilled in Senate estimates after nationwide flight disruptions due to the missing staff. Follow the day’s news live

Dutton says Liberals will bin ‘right to disconnect’ if they win next election

Switching gears now – Peter Dutton has vowed to scrap the “right to disconnect” if the Liberal party wins the next election. Last week, Dutton told Sky News:

If you think it’s OK to outsource your industrial relations or your economic policy to the Greens, which is what the prime minister is doing, then we are going to see a continuation of the productivity problem in our country.

And as the Reserve Bank governor pointed out, if you don’t address it you’ll see interest rates continue to climb or you’ll see them stay higher for longer.

We’ve been overwhelmed by positive feedback from people who say - yeah, it’s not right that I should be on call 24/7 when I’m not getting paid for it.

And Peter Dutton wants you electronically bound to your boss, and having to answer calls 24/7, even if you’re not getting paid for it.

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Australia warns Israel’s plans for Rafah ground offensive could have ‘devastating consequences’

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Failure to ensure special care for more than 1 million civilians in the area would ‘cause serious harm to Israel’s own interests’, foreign minister, Penny Wong, says

The Australian government has warned that Israel’s plans for a military offensive on the southern Gaza town of Rafah could have “devastating consequences” for Palestinian civilians sheltering there.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, also suggested on Monday that a failure to ensure special care for more than 1 million civilians in the area, many in makeshift tents, would “cause serious harm to Israel’s own interests”.

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Seven of the immigration detainees released in Australia were convicted of murder or attempted murder

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Home affairs department also reveals 24 former detainees have been charged with visa rule breaches or state offences since their release

The revelation that seven of 149 people released from immigration detention were convicted of murder or attempted murder has reignited a political firestorm around the government’s handling of the NZYQ high court case.

The home affairs department revealed on Monday that 24 of the people released as a result of the high court’s ruling have already been charged for visa condition breaches or state offences and 36 are not required to wear ankle bracelets.

72 convicted for assault and violent offending, kidnapping, armed robbery

37 for sexually based offending, including child sex offending

16 for domestic violence and stalking

13 for serious drug offending

Seven for murder and attempted murder;

Fewer than five for people smuggling, crimes of serious international concern; and

Fewer than five with “low level or no criminality”

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Australia paid companies linked to suspected drug and weapons smuggling to run offshore detention, review finds

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Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil says scathing report shows offshore processing ‘used as a slush fund by suspected criminals’

Contractors suspected of drug smuggling and weapons trafficking were handed multimillion dollar contracts due to a lack of due diligence in the administration of Australia’s offshore detention regime, a scathing report has found.

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, has seized on the findings of the inquiry to claim that the now opposition leader, Peter Dutton, oversaw “an offshore processing regime being used as a slush fund by suspected criminals” when he was the responsible minister.

A company whose owners were suspected, through the ownership of another company, of seeking to circumvent US sanctions against Iran, and with extensive suspicious money movements suggesting money laundering, bribery and other criminal activity;

Companies under investigation by the Australian federal police (AFP)

A company whose chief executive was being investigated for possible drugs and arms smuggling into Australia, “although, at the time it would have been unrealistic to have expected those responsible for contract and procurement to be aware of this”; and

An enterprise suspected of corruption.

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‘Pressure works’: Greens to stall Labor housing bill in campaign to limit negative gearing

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System is ‘stacked against renters and first-home buyers’ and government must change its position on negative gearing and capital gains tax, Greens say

The Greens are threatening to impede passage of the government’s “help-to-buy” housing scheme, as they seek to force Labor into winding back tax breaks on investment properties.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, on Sunday said the government had no plans to change negative gearing, as attention shifted to other areas of tax reform after the government’s amendments to stage-three income tax cuts.

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Albanese calls on Coalition to explain Barnaby Joyce footpath incident

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Prime minister says ‘there needs to be an explanation’ after former deputy prime minister was seen lying on a Canberra street swearing into his phone

The prime minister has called for the Coalition leadership to explain the actions of former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who was last week filmed lying on a Canberra footpath having a phone conversation.

Guardian Australia understands Joyce won’t attend the Nationals party room meeting scheduled for Monday.

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