Energy minister accuses opposition of ‘grubby smear campaign against my family’ and ALP pursues Coalition over its superannuation schism. All the day’s events, live
With the chambers all quiet and the rush to the airport in full swing, we are going to go collapse in a heap and stare at a wall.
Until Monday, when the parliament is back for the last sitting ahead of the winter break.
Here’s how Mike Bowers saw some of the day
Continue reading...Alan Schmegelsky fears son will go out in ‘blaze of glory’ gun battle as police identify victim as Vancouver man Leonard Dyck
The father of one of the Canadian teenagers suspected of murdering Australian tourist Lucas Fowler and his partner, US citizen Chynna Deese, has voiced fears the manhunt will come to a violent end as police identified a third potential victim.
A distraught Alan Schmegelsky told Canadian Press his son, 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky, was dealing with some “very serious pain” and he expected the search to end in “a blaze of glory” gun battle with police. “He wants his hurt to end,” Alan Schmegelsky said.
Continue reading...Big challenges demand a big, convincing narrative that taps into the public mood
Writing publicly means living with the chance you will be a hostage to fortune. But I wrote in March that: “While Shorten has attempted to draw parallels to Bob Hawke’s style of leadership, the best comparison may instead be with a UK Labour government that never was: the unsuccessful campaign and platform of Ed Miliband in 2015.”
On 18 May, like many progressives, a sense of an incoming Labor government was replaced by shell shock that seemed to parallel what happened in Britain in 2015. The salience of a campaign mobilised against taxation, swings in regional and outer suburban electorates and the inability of Labor to cut through despite conservative chaos and division must prompt some deep reflection.
Continue reading...Rebekha Sharkie says if the government is successful in repealing the legislation it will cause ‘needless harm’
On the ensuring integrity bill, Rex Patrick says there are political elements to the bill it can’t support:
The aim was to deal with misconduct and there is no question that has been in the union movement.
I have seen the fairly significant sheet of judicial rulings against some of the unions and in some instances we have some very conservative, considered judicial officers stating things like this union is simply using the fines, treating the fines as the cost of business.
Rex Patrick is speaking to Patricia Karvelas on Afternoon Briefing and says while Centre Alliance supports the intent of the temporary exclusion order bill, it will abstain from voting for it, because it can’t support it in its current form.
Labor will be passing it, although it has raised its own concerns.
Continue reading...When you’re the child of migrants, your forebears may as well have come from the moon. So I set out to rediscover mine
Growing up in Queensland as ABCs (Australian-born Chinese), my siblings and I would get our backs up whenever strangers complimented us on our English – which was often. “Why wouldn’t I be fluent?” I’d think, fuming. “I was born in Nambour.” It didn’t matter: white Australians around us seemed as impressed by our English, as much as our Hong Kong relatives pitied our butchered Cantonese.
Yet I have an admission. Whenever I saw or encountered other Chinese-Australians speaking fluent English myself, my jaw would hang in disbelief. Seeing Chinese-Australians – or any Asian-Australians, really – on TV was rare in the 1980s and 1990s. But when people like Annette Shun Wah presented on SBS, Elizabeth Chong showed Bert Newton how to stuff a chicken with spring onions, or Dr Cindy Pan discussed prophylactics on Sex/Life – and with Australian accents, like mine! – my brain couldn’t process it. Weren’t my family the only ones?
Continue reading...Experts say the sector is infiltrated by dodgy operators cashing in on $1bn obsession with beauty
A huge increase in complications associated with cosmetic procedures has prompted a renewed push for increased regulation in a sector experts say has been infiltrated by dodgy operators cashing in on Australia’s $1bn obsession with beauty.
This week, a paper released by the journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that across the globe almost 200 people suffered blindness after receiving dermal fillers in the past year.
Continue reading...In a combative question time the energy minister suggests the Coalition has an ‘open mind’ on nuclear power
Angus Taylor has flagged the Morrison government has an “open mind” about pursuing nuclear power during a combative question time where the energy minister was pursued about rising emissions and his meetings with officials about the protection of grassland in the south-eastern highlands.
Taylor, who is the minister for energy and emissions reduction, was asked repeatedly by Labor on Tuesday whether emissions had risen in recent years, whether he supported calls by government backbenchers to establish a nuclear industry, and whether he had declared any relevant conflicts when meeting departmental officials.
Continue reading...Opposition will try to introduce amendments but if that fails it will pass the bill. All the day’s events, live
tl;dr - shut the hell up.
I'm also told @ScottMorrisonMP told backbenchers who have been out and about on issues, including, lately, superannuation, to calm their farms and work through party processes. Words to that effect @AmyRemeikis #auspol
You know what it absolutely is not, and was never, going to be? A third chamber.
I'm told @SenatorMcGrath raised constitutional recognition in today's party room meeting. He asked what the position was. @ScottMorrisonMP and @KenWyattMP told him the voice could be many things & constitutional change wouldn't be radical @AmyRemeikis #auspol
Continue reading...Charges yet to be laid against former Melbourne nightclub promoters William Cabantog and David Van Iersel
Two former Melbourne nightclub promoters are being held in Bali amid reported links to a cocaine-trafficking operation.
The men have been named in media outlets as William Cabantog, 35, and David Van Iersel, 38.
Continue reading...The 51-year-old mother was jailed in 2003 for at least 25 years for killing her four babies
An inquiry into Kathleen Folbigg’s convictions for killing her four babies has reinforced her guilt, a former New South Wales district court chief judge has found.
Reginald Blanch QC, who presided over the inquiry, has concluded he does not have “any reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Kathleen Megan Folbigg”, in a report made public on Monday night.
Continue reading...Labor and Centre Alliance fear government will proceed with two key bills without recommended safeguards
The Morrison government is being accused of ignoring bipartisan recommendations and breaching commitments to reform the spy agency’s powers as it prepares a fresh push on national security when parliament resumes on Monday.
Labor and Centre Alliance fear the government is set to ignore advice to improve scrutiny of proposed new powers for the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, to exclude citizens from Australia and to phase out Asio’s detention powers.
Continue reading...Emboldened by the body-positive movement and a sense of rage, a growing chorus is pushing back against a common custom
The media officer of one of the UK’s top medical schools doesn’t realise she hasn’t muted herself as she puts me on hold.
She sniggers with her colleague as she passes on my request – to speak to an expert on male circumcision – before informing me they don’t have one.
Continue reading...Tasmanian member says he was asked to leave after trying to visit East Lorengau transit centre
The Greens senator Nick McKim says he was deported from Manus Island because he “simply stood on a public street and asked politely” to see conditions in a refugee and asylum seeker transit camp.
The Tasmanian senator arrived back in Australia on Saturday after he was told to leave Papua New Guinea on Thursday night.
Continue reading...Canadian police are calling the death of NSW senior police officer’s son and his US girlfriend a double homicide
The New South Wales police have sent two homicide detectives to Canada to assist in the investigation into the death of Lucas Fowler, the son of a senior NSW police officer.
They confirmed on Saturday that Fowler and his American girlfriend, Chynna Noelle Deese, were shot dead on Monday on the Alaska highway, 20km south of Liard Hot Springs, British Columbia.
Continue reading...Federal police say ministers may be ‘notified’ before raids, but outgoing commissioner Andrew Colvin says they are not ‘consulted’
The Australian Federal Police has added more confusion to the question of whether the AFP consults ministers before conducting raids, after its outgoing commissioner, Andrew Colvin, denied that it did so.
On the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday, Colvin was questioned about the recent raids on the ABC and on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst over leaked documents. Colvin was asked whether any government minister was consulted about the raids in advance.
Continue reading...Anthony Harvey murdered his wife, Mara Lee, their three children and his mother-in-law in their Perth home
A man who admitted using knives to murder his wife, three young children and mother-in-law has become the first person in Western Australia ordered by a judge never to be released from prison.
Anthony Robert Harvey, 25, killed two-year-old twins Alice and Beatrix, three-year-old Charlotte and their mother, Mara Lee Harvey, 41, at their Bedford home on 3 September 2018.
Continue reading...New Zealand has a long history of outstanding policy innovation and political leadership. Australia could learn a lot from it
The good and the great of Melbourne packed in to the town hall on Thursday evening to hear the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, speak on the topic of why good government matters.
Since the tragic Christchurch mosque massacre, Ardern has come to be seen not just as one of the world’s youngest leaders of a nation, but also as one of the world’s great leaders.
Continue reading...Counsel assisting coroner says public deserves to know ‘under what circumstances are police entitled to strip search patrons’
The New South Wales coroner will push for the state’s police force to release its strip search protocols as part of an inquest into drug-related deaths at music festivals.
Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer told the court on Thursday that the inquest had yet to receive “police protocols” on when strip searches could be carried out in the state, but that she intended to pursue the matter .
Continue reading...Yang, who has been detained for six months, is expected to be charged with endangering national security
Australian writer Yang Hengjun is expected to be formally charged with endangering national security, according to his lawyer.
Yang, a Chinese public intellectual who has long advocated for democratic reforms in China, has been detained for the last six months in an unknown location in China.
Continue reading...South Australian man and his son found the bottle, which was dropped from an ocean liner by 13-year-old Paul Gilmore in 1969
The British author of a message in a bottle that recently washed up on the South Australian coast after more than half a century has been found – and he is currently out to sea, his sister says.
South Australian man Paul Elliot and his son Jyah told ABC radio they found the bottle on the Eyre Peninsula’s west coast recently while fishing.
Continue reading...