Category Archives: Australian politics

Deloitte joins RBA in tipping 4.5% Australian jobless rate thanks to slow consumer spending

Posted on by

Slowdown in household spending is finally flowing through to Australia’s jobs market, according to the latest forecasts from Deloitte Access Economics

Australia’s dream run with near record low unemployment is tipped to end due to weaker household consumption, with the jobless rate expected to increase from 3.7% to 4.5% by mid next year.

That is the conclusion of the latest Deloitte Access Economics employment forecasts, which attribute economic slowdown in part to the delayed effect of faster-than-expected rate rises by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘Two future Australias’: PM to address community rally in Adelaide ahead of voice poll announcement

Posted on by

South Australia and Tasmania expected to decide future of voice to parliament as Anthony Albanese confirms date at Adelaide rally

The Indigenous voice referendum date will be announced at a large community rally in Adelaide’s outer suburbs on Wednesday, kickstarting a campaign to change Australia’s constitution for the first time in nearly half a century.

Albanese will join South Australia’s premier, Peter Malinauskas, in Elizabeth in Adelaide’s north, to confirm the referendum date. If held on 14 October, as widely anticipated, it would kickstart a 45-day campaign.

Continue reading...

Qantas flight credits: Albanese says customers should get another flight or their money back

Posted on by

PM weighs in on expiring credits but government defends blocking Qatar airways from increasing its flights to Australia

The Australian government has defended its decision to block Qatar airways from almost doubling its flights to Australia, but has distanced itself from Qantas by insisting the national airline should compensate customers for pandemic flight credits.

On Tuesday Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to consumer anger about $470m of unclaimed Qantas and Jetstar flight credits, and the assistant minister for competition, Andrew Leigh, called for the introduction of more low-cost carriers to bring prices down.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Climate crisis to create ‘acute’ challenges for Australia’s economy, incoming RBA governor says

Posted on by

Michele Bullock uses speech to detail how central bank is preparing for increased risk of extreme weather events

Global heating will present the Reserve Bank with “acute” challenges, including heightened uncertainty around how the climate will change and the resulting impacts on the economy and financial system, the incoming governor, Michele Bullock, has said.

Bullock, now deputy RBA governor before her elevation to the top post on 18 September, used her Sir Leslie Melville lecture at the Australian National University on Tuesday – after a brief disruption from protesters – to detail how the central bank was preparing for a warming world and the increased risk of extreme weather events.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Facebook suspends RMIT FactLab after voice no campaigners criticise factchecker

Posted on by

Meta spokesperson says suspension was decided after voice opponents raised criticism and apparent lapse in accreditation

Facebook has suspended a key factchecker which monitors and debunks online claims after repeated criticisms from Indigenous voice no campaign leaders and some conservative media outlets about the factchecker’s work.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has temporarily suspended RMIT FactLab as one of the partner organisations for its factchecking program, which can slap warning or information labels on dubious content.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Protesters interrupt ANU event – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Victoria bans Nazi salute, symbols and gestures in public

The Victorian government will today introduce legislation to parliament to ban the Nazi salute.

Victorians have zero tolerance for the glorification of hateful ideology. We’re making sure people who use these symbols and gestures to harass, intimidate and incite hate are held accountable for their cowardly behaviour. While we wish making these laws wasn’t necessary, we will always tackle antisemitism, hatred and racism head-on – because all Victorians deserve to feel accepted, safe and included.

Continue reading...

AFP received 28 misconduct allegations involving MPs, staff or ‘official establishments’ in 12 months

Posted on by

Federal police declines to provide more details about the reports, which were made in the year after Brittany Higgins went public

Federal police received 28 allegations of misconduct by parliamentarians, their staff or “official establishments” in the year after Brittany Higgins’ allegations first became public knowledge.

But the Australian federal police has declined to outline any further details, including which state or territory police force it passed the reports to for further investigation.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia’s federal whistleblowing laws have not protected anyone since inception, analysis shows

Posted on by

Human Rights Law Centre says there has ‘not been a single successful case … brought by a whistleblower” under federal laws designed to protect those who speak out

Australia’s federal whistleblowing laws have not successfully protected a single person since their inception, an analysis of available court records suggests.

The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) released a report on Tuesday examining 78 court rulings in 70 separate cases in which whistleblowers sought protection under federal and state whistleblowing regimes.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Labor launches new body to evaluate public programs using randomised trials

Posted on by

Assistant Treasury minister Andrew Leigh says Australian Centre for Evaluation could help save government money and make spending fairer

Mimicking the way pharmaceutical companies use data to develop new drugs could help save the federal government millions of dollars while also making spending fairer, according to the assistant Treasury minister.

Andrew Leigh will use a National Press Club speech on Tuesday to help launch the Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE), a body funded in the May 2023 budget with an initial $10m over four years to design better policies.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Five key moments from Qantas boss Alan Joyce’s Senate grilling

Posted on by

Outgoing CEO faces fiery questions on the airline’s credibility, executive pay and ‘hoarding’ of flight slots

Alan Joyce has refused to answer questions related to his lobbying efforts, while delivering combative responses to allegations of Qantas misconduct, as he was grilled by a Senate committee on Monday.

At an explosive public hearing of the select committee on the cost of living, which Joyce had to be summonsed to after repeatedly refusing to appear, the outgoing Qantas chief executive defended the record $2.47bn full-year profit he announced just days earlier.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Services Australia backtracks after ‘unfair’ approach to botched child support assessments

Posted on by

Commonwealth ombudsman says agency initially planned not to inform people affected by 15,803 potentially ‘inaccurate child support assessments’

Services Australia proposed not to contact past customers affected by 15,803 potentially “inaccurate child support assessments” but backtracked after the commonwealth ombudsman warned this could leave parents out of pocket.

In a statement on Monday the ombudsman revealed that poor IT systems had resulted in errors in up to 47,488 assessments, but Services Australia had wanted to avoid notifying about a third of the caseload, a plan the ombudsman labelled “unfair”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

CEO grilled at fiery inquiry – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Stephen Jones on stage-three tax cuts: ‘very, very few’ young Australians he knows will benefit

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, was asked about the stage-three tax cuts while appearing on ABC RN this morning, and reaffirmed the governments commitment to them:

[The] prime minister made a promise before the election and there’s been no change to our policy.

We’ve made it quite clear that our priorities [are] multinational tax avoidance [and] ensuring we have greater compliance with the existing tax laws before we were to go to Australians and say we think you need to pay more.

Very, very few.

[The] stage-three tax cuts benefit everybody over $45,000 a year and before you jump into it, yes, I know, the greatest benefit flows to the people on the highest incomes, no doubt about that.

Continue reading...

Australia tells big development banks to ‘lift their game’ in the Pacific

Posted on by

There are concerns the World Bank and ADB are giving contracts to low-price bidders who then demand more when budgets blow out

The Australian government has told big development banks to “lift their game” in the Pacific amid concerns they are approving poor-quality, cut-price projects only for the budgets to blow out.

Largely funded by governments, development banks provide grants and low-cost loans to developing countries to help them build infrastructure and other projects.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Detained Australian writer fears he may die of kidney condition in China jail

Posted on by

Yang Hengjun has told supporters he is in pain from a cyst on his kidney that remains untreated

Detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun fears he could die in a Chinese prison from a worsening medical condition he says is not being properly treated.

He has told supporters he is in pain from a large cyst on his kidney. The Australian government is being urged to intervene and secure, through diplomatic means, his release to Australia on medical parole.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Labor dumps attempt to modernise business records after $2bn budget blowout

Posted on by

Assistant treasurer Stephen Jones blames ‘failure of planning and oversight’ by previous Coalition government

The Albanese government is abandoning an attempt to modernise the way businesses record public information such as the identity of company directors, after a review found the Coalition-era project would run more than $2bn over budget.

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, is now considering the review’s call to instead spend a further $515m returning registry functions to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and investing to improve data integrity in other ways.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Bridget Archer says it is ‘irresponsible’ to cast doubt on integrity of voice referendum after questions over crosses

Posted on by

Shadow minister Jane Hume calls it an ‘inconsistency’ that a cross on a ballot paper will not count as ‘no’

The Liberal MP Bridget Archer has warned it is “irresponsible to cast doubt on the integrity” of the Australian Electoral Commission, after senior members of the Coalition and some no campaign groups raised concerns over whether crosses count as valid votes in the voice referendum.

On Sunday, the shadow minister for finance and special minister of state, Jane Hume, called it an “inconsistency” that a tick would count as yes but a cross would not count as a no.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Rumours of a Queensland coup are premature – but Palaszczuk’s popularity is waning

Posted on by

The deputy premier, Steven Miles, called speculation about a challenge ‘rumours and gossip’

Annastacia Palaszczuk has never faced a serious threat to her leadership.

In 11 years as Labor leader – the past eight as premier – there have been no attempted coups or plots, or Canberra-style white-anting by ambitious rivals. Most senior ministers are part of the furniture. Backbenchers rarely vent their concerns, even privately.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Michael Long begins long walk for Indigenous voice to parliament: ‘The hatred’s got to stop’

Posted on by

AFL legend wants Australians to join recreation of his Long Walk of 2004 which ended with a meeting with then PM John Howard

The AFL legend Michael Long has declared it high time for Australia to embrace Aboriginal people as he embarked on a walk to Canberra in support of an Indigenous voice to parliament.

Recreating his Long Walk in 2004, the son of two stolen generations members will trek hundreds of kilometres in the lead-up to the referendum.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley spared preselection challenge after opponent blocked from running

Posted on by

Opposition leader Peter Dutton says he supports Ley along with other Liberals facing challenge, including Alex Hawke, Paul Fletcher and Melissa McIntosh

Deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has been spared an embarrassing preselection contest after her would-be opponent was blocked from running against her in Farrer.

Guardian Australia understands that former state executive member, Jean Haynes, has had her candidacy blocked by the NSW Liberals’ nomination review committee, effectively preventing her from contesting the preselection ballot.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Fraudulent course providers face closure in Labor’s international education crackdown

Posted on by

Under reforms to sector, foreign students will also need more savings to study in Australia to mitigate cost-of-living increase

Dodgy course providers could be shut down by the federal government as part of a sweeping crackdown on rorts in the embattled international education sector.

A package of reforms, to come into effect immediately, aims to reverse an uptick in exploitation and fraud that risks causing reputational damage for Australia’s higher education system.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...