Category Archives: Australia news

‘Do what it takes’: Nationals leader defends preference deals with One Nation

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Michael McCormack raises eyebrows saying his party is ‘aligned with One Nation’ more than Labor or Greens

The Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, has unveiled a new statutory authority for water infrastructure in an effort to contain a bush boilover at the election – and has declared his party is happy to enter preference deals with One Nation because their policies align.

McCormack used a speech to the National Press Club on Tuesday to unveil a new Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility-style body for dams, with the new body charged with using “the best available science” to examine how large-scale water diversion projects could be established to deliver reliable and cost-effective water to farmers and regional communities.

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One Nation’s Steve Dickson resigns over strip club footage

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Pauline Hanson calls Senate candidate’s behaviour in leaked al-Jazeera footage broadcast on Nine’s A Current Affair ‘unacceptable’

The One Nation Australian senate candidate Steve Dickson has resigned after footage emerged of him groping dancers and making disparaging comments about a woman in a Washington DC strip club.

Dickson said he was “deeply remorseful for my disrespectful comments towards women” and his wife was standing by him. “I found the footage difficult to watch as my words and actions under intoxication and in that environment, are not a true reflection of myself,” he said in a statement.

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Australian election quiz 2019: how much do you remember of this forgettable campaign?

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Did you listen to Barnaby Joyce’s laboured interview – or Turnbull turning up on a reality TV show? Test your knowledge here

According to Captain GetUp – the confusing, supposedly-satirical parody of GetUp, founded by rightwing group Advance Australia – who is Captain GetUp’s biological father?

Richard Di Natale

Adam Bandt

Bill Shorten

Kevin Rudd

What did a voter in Strathfield say to Scott Morrison when he greeted her with “Ni hao” on the first weekend of the campaign?

“Goodbye!”

“Sorry, I don't understand what you mean."

“And a Ni Hao to you too mate”

“I’m Korean”

What is Scott Morrison doing in this picture?

Cheering at a Cronulla Sharks supporters event

Singing in church

Singing the national anthem

Announcing the date of the election

How many times did Barnaby Joyce say "Labor" in his 30 minute interview on water buybacks with Patricia Karvelas?

22

47

65

80

What is between Scott Morrison’s teeth in this picture?

Spinach

A bit of meat pie

A fly

Raw onion skin

What is Jenny Morrison reacting to in this picture?

The full audio of Barnaby Joyce’s Patricia Karvelas interview

Scott Morrison describing his tips for maintaining a healthy marriage

A candidate describing Labor's franking credits policy

A voter who just told her he wants an electric car

Which newspaper columnist was photographed in a Tony Abbott campaign shirt, and uploaded to Abbot's own Instagram and Twitter, on the first weekend of the campaign?

Andrew Bolt

Piers Akerman

Peter Fitzsimons (with matching bandana)

Gerard Henderson

Sydney barrister Bridie Nolan made news when she gave a 300 word statement to the Daily Telegraph criticising Warringah candidate Zali Steggal – who is the former wife of Nolan’s husband. On her website, what did Nolan describe herself as?

"Ruthlessly accomplished"

“Lethally competent”

“Devastatingly experienced”

“Extremely experienced and incredibly devastating”

What baffling question did Bill Shorten ask of an adult man in an Adelaide shopping centre during week 2?

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“Hope you’re having an OK school holidays”

“What was your ATAR?”

“Do you like Bluey?”

Just before the close of nominations on 23 April, the prospective Nationals candidate for the seat of Whitlam had to withdraw because he was a British dual citizen. What was his incredibly British-sounding name?

Stephen Walker-Jones

John Buckingham-Peters

James Harker-Mortlock

David Mountbatten-Maguire

What Channel 10 reality TV show did former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull turn up on – for some reason – in week 2 of the campaign?

Bondi Rescue

Bachelor in Paradise

Gogglebox

I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here

The day the election was called, Tasmanian Labor senator Helen Polley posted a baffling homemade video where she:

Wore a large sombrero, then waved it in the air saying “Adios amigo!”

Put a banana on her head and said “The Liberal government has to split!”

Started playing a small snare drum, saying Tasmanians were going to "drum the Liberals out of town."

Rode past the camera on a skateboard and said "Cowabunga!

In week 3, John Howard took to the streets to campaign for Liberal candidate Fiona Martin in the seat of Reid. When asked, he admitted he hadn't met her before, but had "heard" good things. What positive thing did he say?

“I heard that she won every vote in the pre-selection in her local branch."

“I heard that every business owner on this street loves her and knows her name."

“I heard that she attended Santa Sabina school in Strathfield, which I know quite well."

“I heard that she was a captain of the Strathfield Strikers, a local football club."

13 and above.

12 and above.

11 and above.

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9 and above.

8 and above.

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4 and above.

3 and above.

2 and above.

1 and above.

5 and above.

0 and above.

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Federal election 2019: Clive Palmer rounds on Labor as he defends Coalition preference deal – politics live

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Scott Morrison also defends deal as Coalition attacks Labor’s childcare plan as ‘communist’. All the day’s events, live

Both campaigns are now in debate prep mode, so we are going to power down for the moment.

But it’s just a break, not goodbye. We’ll be back just before 7pm eastern time to bring you the blow-by-blow of the first leaders’ debate.

On what he would do in terms of climate policies (given his history on the subject with the Gillard government):

It was Tony Windsor and I who forced the changes. Both sides have the ability to get on with embedding climate change into the processes of government. At the time we did have world-leading legislation.

I concede we lost control of the politics and that Tony Abbott, as the alternate prime minister, came in on a wave of, you know, that carbon tax message, which even his chief of staff, you know, after the event, has admitted was more about the politics than anything to do with policy.

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Melbourne doctor who called for women to be raped stood down during investigation

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Health district responsible for hospital that employs Dr Christopher Kwan Chen Lee says it takes ‘professional misconduct’ seriously

The health district responsible for the hospital which employs an emergency doctor who said “some women deserve to be raped” has ordered the doctor be stood down while they investigate.

Earlier in April Dr Christopher Kwan Chen Lee was suspended by the Tasmanian health practitioners tribunal for six weeks after he admitted to posting a series of sexist and racist remarks online. While Lee previously worked in Tasmania, in 2018 he began work at Box Hill hospital in Victoria as an emergency doctor, and the suspension bars him from working anywhere in Australia.

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Question mark over eligibility of at least 19 Clive Palmer candidates

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Submissions to Australian Electoral Commission by a some United Australia party candidates fail to provide birth details of parents or grandparents

At least 19 United Australia party candidates have submitted incomplete or inconsistent information to the Australian Electoral Commission, failing to provide evidence they are eligible to run for parliament.

The candidates for Clive Palmer’s party have asserted they are not dual citizens disqualified by section 44 of the constitution, but have mostly failed to provide birth details of their parents or grandparents, even in cases where candidates admit parents or grandparents were born overseas.

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Two guns found in South Yarra park after eight recent shooting deaths in Melbourne

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Emergency crews search park where man’s body discovered on Friday

A search continues in the Melbourne park where the eighth man to be shot dead in as many weeks in the city was found.

State Emergency Service volunteers and police returned to Fawkner Park at South Yarra on Sunday following the murder of a 41-year-old Carnegie man, whose body was discovered by two members of the public on Friday night.

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‘You will get up with fleas’: Bill Shorten attacks Liberals’ deal with Clive Palmer

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Scott Morrison says Labor and the Greens present far bigger threat to the economy and jobs than the United Australia party

Bill Shorten has criticised the Liberal party deal to exchange preferences with Clive Palmer’s United Australia party.

Speaking in Hobart on Saturday where he announced that a future Labor government would invest $120m into Tasmanian tourism projects, the opposition leader did not deny that Labor officials had held discussions with Palmer over the course of the campaign, but said they would not risk preference swaps with the potential kingmaker in Queensland.

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Uranium miner coaxed government to water down extinction safeguards

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Cameco did not have to show if WA mine would lead to extinction of tiny fauna before its approval on 10 April

A multinational uranium miner persuaded the federal government to drop a requirement forcing it to show that a mine in outback Western Australia would not make any species extinct before it could go ahead.

Canadian-based Cameco argued in November 2017 the condition proposed by the government for the Yeelirrie uranium mine, in goldfields north of Kalgoorlie, would be too difficult to meet.

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Melbourne Chinatown death: mourners hold vigil for Natalina Angok

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Group gathers on steps of Victorian parliament to ‘bear witness’ to Angkok’s life

Mourners held a silent vigil on Friday night for Natalina Angok, the young African-Australian woman found dead in Melbourne’s Chinatown on Wednesday.

A small group gathered on the steps of the Victorian parliament on Spring Street for about an hour on Friday evening, vowing to “gather to bear witness to Natalina Angok’s life”.

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Federal election 2019: senior Liberal warns Morrison against Palmer preference deal – politics live

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Former WA premier Colin Barnett cites businessman’s ‘appalling’ record while Shorten rebuffs the Greens on climate policy. Follow the day’s news live

Mikey Slezak, of the ABC (oh how we miss him), has a story overnight regarding the last minute sign off by the Morrison government on a controversial uranium mine one day before calling the federal election.

Then there was a sneaky “public announcement” by the environment department when it uploaded the approval document the day before Anzac Day.

I want to find out what on earth has happened. The minister made no comment, no announcement beforehand. It looks like it might have been rushed. We don’t know....The reason I can’t tell you I’m on this side or the other side, we need to know what on earth she has done and what her reasons for it and the minister has gone missing.

Tony Burke was also asked about Labor’s very specific, siloed commission of inquiry that only looks a the one water buyback conducted under Barnaby Joyce as minister from Eastern Australia Agriculture.

What we have announced is there is a specific transaction from Barnaby Joyce that is different to anything that Simon Birmingham, David Littleproud, Bob Baldwin, different to anything that any other minister has engaged with. And anything else … can be dealt with properly by the Australian national National Audit Office. This one, there was no tender. There [are] arguments about conflict of interest. And it has links all the way back to the Cayman Islands, where there is complete secrecy about who is involved. Everything else you don’t need coercive powers.

In terms of making sure that we’ve got probity, we will establish a national integrity commission and there will be an ongoing watchdog on probity. In terms of the purchases by Penny that you referred to, they went fully through the National Audit Office, a report in 2011 [and were] given a complete bill of health. If I was arguing that things should apply to every other member of the government who has been involved, then the government’s characterisation would be fair. The point is no other purchase is like this.

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Malcolm Turnbull says he urged Trump to develop 5G mobile networks

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‘Absurd’ that US and its closest allies are not leading players in technology, former PM says

Malcolm Turnbull has revealed that he encouraged Donald Trump to “take the lead” and develop 5G networks in cooperation with allies, including Australia, to hold out “ferocious competition” from China and to safeguard networks against cyber-attacks.

In a speech in New York overnight, the former prime minister said that in response to concerns China was stealing a technological march he had urged the US president to “ensure that we had at least one viable and secure 5G vendor from the United States and/or its Five Eyes partners”.

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Scott Morrison says reports of Isis plot to target Anzac Day Gallipoli events ‘inconclusive’

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Turkish police said they had arrested a Syrian national who was planning retaliation for New Zealand mosque attack

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has cast doubt on a possible plot to target Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli despite the arrest of a man with suspected links to Islamic State by Turkish police.

The suspect, a Syrian national, was arrested after a police operation in Osmaniye and was among several Isis members detained.

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Sydney police officer charged with neglect of duty over sex offender complaint

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Complaint failed to get Anthony Peter Sampieri off the streets before he allegedly raped a child at a dance studio

A police officer has been charged with neglect of duty after a complaint about a sex offender failed to get him off the streets before he allegedly raped a child at a Sydney dance studio.

Anthony Peter Sampieri, 55, allegedly raped, choked and filmed a seven-year-old girl he held captive in a Kogarah dance studio bathroom in November.

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Coalition announces $63m veterans’ spend before Anzac Day election hiatus

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Scott Morrison says spending on wellbeing centres and jobs assistance is ‘about backing veterans and their families’

The Coalition has promised to spend $63m on veterans’ initiatives, including wellbeing centres and employment assistance.

Scott Morrison and the veterans affairs minister, Darren Chester, will announce the funding on Wednesday ahead of a campaign hiatus on Thursday for Anzac Day.

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Independent’s day? The ‘orange army’ and its battle for Indi

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Can Cathy McGowan’s anointed successor keep Indi independent or will the Coalition strike back?

With the retirement of Cathy McGowan, the rural Victorian seat of Indi is once more back in play and the group of campaigners who unseated Sophie Mirabella in 2013 are now fighting to keep the seat in independent hands.

Orange spray-painted chairs adorn the verandahs outside homes across the electorate – a symbol of the battle.

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Barnaby Joyce dodges questions about who profited from water buyback in combative interview

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Former agriculture minister says he has ‘no problems whatsoever’ with unredacted documents about transaction being released

Barnaby Joyce has attempted to pin blame for a controversial $80m water buyback on the Queensland Labor government in a belligerent marathon interview.

Speaking to Radio National’s Patricia Karvelas on Monday evening, Joyce brushed off threats of a royal commission into the issue, arguing it would have to examine the previous federal Labor government and the state government, for recommending water buybacks from Eastern Australia Agriculture (EAA).

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Baby dies in arms of passenger on AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth

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Perth woman flight says two-month-old girl with her Saudi parents had been restless from take-off

A two-month-old baby has died in the arms of a fellow passenger following a medical emergency onboard an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth.

The child had been on the AirAsia flight D7236 with her Saudi parents, according to another passenger, Perth woman Nadia Parenzee, who said the baby had died in her arms.

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Father and son die after lifesaving boat flips in surf off Victoria’s Great Ocean Road

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Rescue boat crew were trying to help a tourist wading in dangerous waters at the mouth of the Sherbrook River

A Victorian town is in mourning after losing two of its well-regarded surf lifesaving volunteers, a father and son who died trying to rescue a tourist from treacherous swells.

Dairy farmers Ross Powell, 71, and his son Andy Powell, 32, have been remembered as heroes after their rescue boat flipped in two-metre swell on Sunday morning.

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