Category Archives: Australian politics

Flights from Australia to Middle East cancelled – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, says Australia was not told in advance about the bombing of Iran but won’t say whether intelligence facilities here were used.

“We weren’t told advance. You wouldn’t expect us to be but you would see there’s obviously been a lot of discussion,” she said.

Continue reading...

‘People have lost all sense of shame’: three threats against federal politicians reported to police every day

Posted on by

At least 21 charges have been laid against individuals since October, Australian federal police say, following 951 reports to June

Nearly three violent or menacing threats against federal politicians are being reported to police daily, according to Australian federal police data, with rates almost doubling in two years.

The soaring danger for elected officials and their staff reached new heights this week when Anthony Albanese was evacuated from The Lodge in Canberra over a bomb threat.

Continue reading...

Polls, preferences, potential defections: can Victoria’s Liberal party ward off the rising threat of One Nation?

Posted on by

Opposition leader Jess Wilson is under pressure to reveal her position on a deal with Pauline Hanson’s party as the state election approaches

While internal divisions have long been the Victorian Liberal party’s main obstacle to winning government, a new threat is emerging on its right flank: One Nation.

Just four years ago, One Nation received just 8,077 lower house first-preference votes out of more than 3.6m cast in Victoria – equivalent to 0.22% of the total – and won a single seat in the upper house.

Continue reading...

Pauline Hanson’s daughter employed in taxpayer-funded job with NSW One Nation senator

Posted on by

Exclusive: Tasmanian Lee Hanson employed as senior adviser to Sean Bell in role worth as much as $180,000

One Nation has employed Pauline Hanson’s Tasmanian-based daughter as a senior adviser to a New South Wales senator, in a taxpayer-funded role worth as much as $180,000 a year.

Guardian Australia can reveal that Lee Hanson, who lives just outside Hobart, was appointed as the senior adviser to Senator Sean Bell in October last year.

Continue reading...

Albanese should demand reparations from Israel, say families of Australian soldiers whose graves were bulldozed

Posted on by

A third family says the Australian government must do more to hold Israel and the Israeli Defence Force to account, including demanding an apology

The families of dead Australian soldiers whose graves were bulldozed by the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza have called for reparations and urged the Albanese government to hold Israel accountable.

Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that the IDF had bulldozed parts of the Gaza War Cemetery – the resting place of Australian, British and Canadian soldiers who served in the first and second world wars.

Continue reading...

Grace Tame says ‘spare me the condescension, old man’ after Albanese defends ‘difficult’ comment

Posted on by

PM clarifies remark but says he disagrees with some language the 2021 Australian of the Year has used

Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame has said “we all know what you meant” after the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, claimed he meant to describe her “difficult life” when he labelled her “difficult”.

Speaking in Melbourne on Thursday morning, the prime minister said he had not meant to describe Tame as “difficult” at a News Corp event on Wednesday, when he was asked to describe public figures in one word. Instead he meant that her life had been “difficult”, he said.

Continue reading...

High-speed rail link between Sydney and Newcastle could be ‘shovel-ready’ in two years, Albanese government says

Posted on by

Transport minister Catherine King will pledge $230m for planning work for the first phase of a bullet train on Australia’s east coast

Long-mooted plans for high-speed rail could be “shovel-ready” within two years, according to the federal government, which will on Tuesday announce another $230m for further planning work for fast trains between Sydney and Newcastle, as part of the first phase of an eventual east coast bullet train.

Rail journeys on the new fast train could take as little as one hour between Sydney and Newcastle, and 30 minutes between Sydney and the Central Coast, the transport and infrastructure minister, Catherine King, said. It currently takes more than 2.5 hours to travel by train from Sydney to Newcastle, and almost 1.5 hours from Sydney to the Central Coast.

Continue reading...

Australia will ‘examine all options’ to avoid new 15% tariffs announced by Donald Trump

Posted on by

The trade minister, Don Farrell, says Australia has ‘consistently advocated’ against the ‘unjustified tariffs’, after the US president announced new levies

Australia will “examine all options” after the US president Donald Trump announced a temporary 15% tariff would apply to US imports from all countries.

The US president’s move came less than 24 hours after the US supreme court overturned his original 10% import tariff. Shortly after the ruling, Trump announced he was reinstating the 10% duties using a different law before raising it again to 15%.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: SA Labor pledges $100k stamp duty waiver for ‘empty nesters’; Burke says Hanson’s Lakemba comments a national security risk

Posted on by

The home affairs minister says the One Nation leader was frustrated with the Muslim community because it ‘didn’t give her what she wanted’. Follow live updates

Police investigating the mistaken kidnapping of grandfather Chris Baghsarian are appealing for information about suspicious car fires that could be related to the case, AAP reports.

Hopes are fading of finding the 85-year-old alive, who was taken captive more than a week ago when three men stormed his Sydney home and bundled him into an SUV.

Continue reading...

Tony Burke says Australia has few options to block return of 34 women and children from Syrian camp

Posted on by

One woman is subject to temporary exclusion order over security concerns, but home affairs minister says group is ‘not consistent’ in their beliefs

Tony Burke says authorities “know the state of mind” of each of the 34 Australian women and children stuck in a Syrian detention camp, but says his options to prevent them returning to Australia are limited.

The home affairs minister, who represents a south-western Sydney electorate with a high Muslim population, also warned Pauline Hanson’s recent derogatory comments against Muslims in Australia could incite violence.

Continue reading...

Federal MPs accept free sport tickets from gambling companies amid calls to restrict wagering ads

Posted on by

Tabcorp and Sportsbet provided tickets to at least six Liberal and Labor politicians, register of interests shows

At least six federal Labor and Liberal politicians, including an assistant minister and shadow ministers, have disclosed they accepted free tickets to lucrative sporting events from major gambling companies in the past six months, as the government faces calls to restrict wagering ads and better regulate the sector.

Anthony Chisholm, the assistant minister for regional development and agriculture, has declared twice in recent months taking tickets and hospitality from Tabcorp for major horse race meets in Victoria and Queensland. Sportsbet, Australia’s biggest online bookmaker, also provided tickets to rugby union, the Australian Open or race meets to the Labor MPs Raff Ciccone and Dan Repacholi, Coalition shadow ministers Dan Tehan and Tim Wilson, and Liberal MP Mary Aldred.

Continue reading...

NDIS plans will be computer-generated, with human involvement dramatically cut under sweeping overhaul

Posted on by

Exclusive: Staff were told of major changes to the way NDIS funding and support plans will be made during a recent internal briefing

Funding and support plans for national disability insurance scheme participants will be generated by a computer program and staff will have no discretion to amend them, under a major overhaul of the NDIS to be rolled out next year, Guardian Australia can reveal.

Under the changes, human involvement in deciding support for NDIS participants will be dramatically reduced.

Continue reading...

Labor rejects standalone AI legislation with plan that offers to help ‘unlock’ public and private data

Posted on by

Roadmap focuses on technology’s ‘economic benefits’ and says existing laws will cover the fast-growing new technology

The Albanese government has decided against legislation to manage artificial intelligence, with a new national roadmap emphasising Labor’s focus on the technology’s economic benefits and plans to “unlock” vast datasets held by private companies and the public service to help train AI models.

Supporting and reskilling workers affected by AI in their jobs, boosting investment in datacentres, and sharing the productivity benefits across the economy are key components of the Labor government’s National AI Plan, launched on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

New behaviour standards are in place for parliament but crossbenchers say question time still rife with bullying

Posted on by

Independent MP Zali Steggall says it’s not always clear who is behind disorderly behaviour – and sometimes it can be a whole section of a political party

Sweeping behavioural standards have now been in place in Australia’s parliament for years, but crossbench MPs have warned question time is still rife with bullying and a “mob mentality” that needs to be stamped out.

Data obtained through the speaker’s office shows 21 MPs across the Coalition and Labor have been booted out of question time 31 times, under standing order 94a during the first six months of the 48th parliament.

Continue reading...

Exclusive gun club linked to Andrew Hastie awarded almost $20,000 in government grants

Posted on by

Liberal MP has declared conflict of interest with Port Bouvard Pistol and Small Bore Rifle Club, of which he is a patron

An exclusive gun club with links to the Liberal MP Andrew Hastie was awarded three government grants worth a total of almost $20,000 after being nominated by his office.

Hastie has declared a conflict of interest with the Port Bouvard Pistol and Small Bore Rifle Club. He is a patron, and has competed there at least twice.

Continue reading...

Not-for-profit disability services are closing due to untenably low price caps, NDIS architect warns

Posted on by

Providers report a median operating loss of nearly 4% in the last financial year – with losses totalling about 12% over five years

Not-for-profit disability services that support some of the most vulnerable Australians are being forced to close and exit the national disability insurance scheme because of untenably low price caps for NDIS services, one of the architects of the scheme has warned.

“For some years, many of us in the sector have been telling the National Disability Insurance Agency that flaws in their pricing are contributing to not-for-profit registered providers of disability services going broke,” warned Martin Laverty, who is now the CEO of not-for-profit disability provider Aruma.

Continue reading...

Australian federal MPs warned to turn off phones when Chinese delegation visits Parliament House

Posted on by

Liberal party senator calls Department of Parliamentary Services email ‘incredibly concerning’

Politicians and staff in parts of Parliament House have been urged to turn off their phones, laptops and internet during a visit by Chinese officials, with parliament administrators warning building occupants about interruptions to wifi service.

The shadow cybersecurity minister, Claire Chandler, called the warning “incredibly concerning”, saying the parliament advisory raised worries about threats to sensitive data.

Continue reading...

‘Now is the hour’: Labor urged to speed up fossil fuel phase-out to justify Cop30 pledge

Posted on by

Despite Australia signing the Belém declaration, Albanese rejected suggestion Labor shouldn’t develop new gas fields

The Albanese government is being urged to explain how it will drive a fossil fuel phase-out, after it joined dozens of countries at a UN climate summit to back a declaration that the world should quickly wean off coal, gas and oil.

Australia signed up to the declaration on a just transition away from fossil fuels at a side event at the Cop30 conference in the Brazilian city of Belém, which finished on Saturday night local time, more than 24 hours after the scheduled close.

Continue reading...

Standoff looms for final week of parliament as Coalition holds out on nature laws – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

Greens senator says party wants native forest protections as part of nature law negotiations

The Greens’ environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young has appeared on ABC’s Insiders amid the government appealing to the minor party with concessions in order to pass their nature laws.

Three more years of the destruction of our native forests when we’ve got 2,000-plus species already endangered in this country, where we’ve got billions of dollars of taxpayer money already being spent subsidising an industry that’s about destroying our native forests. I mean, it’s 2025 and it’s time we ended native forest logging, protected these beautiful, ancient forests that aren’t just there for the richness of biodiversity, but they’re so important when it comes to combating climate change, they are carbon sinks.

I was probably finally convinced only in the final couple of days, to be honest, I had colleagues come and have chats. I have a really good relationship with Mark Speakman. It was a friendly chat with Mark. It was a hard chat, but it was a very friendly one. And then when I’m in, I’m in 100%. I think what a lot of people would do in my position is weigh up the pros and cons and think of all the reasons that I shouldn’t do it, but at the end of the day, the reasons I should outweighed those, and I’ll be a committed leader. I’m very clear eyed once I’ve made up my mind.

Continue reading...

Academics who say they are ‘pro-white’ and have ‘ethnic conception’ of Australia turn spotlight on Sydney’s Campion College

Posted on by

Higher education regulator investigates Catholic institute after comments by academics, including endorsing the White Australia policy

An influential Catholic college in Sydney is under investigation by the higher education regulator over a series of comments made by two of its prominent academics supporting the White Australia policy and calling for Anglo-Celtic Australians and Europeans to become a “supermajority” in the country.

The federal education minister, Jason Clare, said the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa) was “undertaking a compliance process” with Campion College in relation to a number of comments made by Stephen McInerney, a dean of studies, and Associate Prof Stephen Chavura, a senior lecturer.

Continue reading...