Charges related to incidents in 2015 and 2016 in which Buswell assaulted Melissa Hankinson multiple times
Former West Australian treasurer Troy Buswell has been handed a suspended prison sentence for repeatedly attacking his ex-wife.
Buswell, 56, pleaded guilty in Perth magistrates court to two counts of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated assault causing bodily harm.
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Continue reading...Queensland senator Matt Canavan adds to uncertainty about Coalition climate commitments; foreign minister accuses Labor of ‘playing politics’ on national security after Penny Wong criticises Scott Morrison for ‘refusing to take responsibility in Pacific’; at least 50 Covid deaths as WA to ease mask mandate in some settings. This blog is now closed
Scott Morrison is in Townsville (north Queensland) today where he will be making announcements on energy.
Given what we just heard from Scott Morrison there, it’s worth your time having a listen to climate and environment editor Adam Morton on today’s Full Story podcast examining if the policy differences between the Coalition and Labor and ultimately asking: is either party preparing enough for the transformational change ahead?
Economic modelling should be used as a guide. Both sides of politics lean on it more as a forecast that will be fact ... I don’t think anybody can tell us exactly what our power bills will be in 2025, 2030, 2050 but no one disagrees that more solar and wind is good in terms of lowering prices because it is much, much cheaper to generate what’s in place.
Continue reading...Deputy Labor leader says Chinese Solomon Islands base would make Australia ‘less safe’; Anzac Day services and marches return for the first time since pandemic began; Peter Dutton compares events in Ukraine to ‘the 1930s’; ABC presenter Fauziah Ibrahim under social media review; at least 17 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed
Sticking with Brendan O’Connor for a moment, the shadow defence spokesperson says Labor would have “grave concerns” if a Chinese military base were established in Solomon Islands.
This comes after Scott Morrison yesterday said the establishment of a base there would be a “red line”, without saying how his government would actually respond, with O’Connor saying it was just “post-facto rhetoric”:
We understand what the prime minister says by that. But, really, it’s post-facto rhetoric. We need to see better investment and better engagement in the region ... rather than react after the fact.
Given the change in tone and rhetoric and words used by the prime minister, we will seek a briefing from the government. We’ve been getting updates all the way through, and we appreciate that.
It was a smaller sum. [The government’s plan] would go no way to provide support for veterans. It would not increase the frontline staff required to respond to their needs. It would do in no way enough to support those people who’ve put themselves in harm’s way.
People are waiting for days, weeks, months just for some of the more simple applications and claims.
Continue reading...A member of the premier’s family contracted the virus earlier this week
The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, has tested positive to Covid while isolating at home with his family.
McGowan had initially returned a negative test after a family member contracted the virus earlier this week, rendering him a close contact.
Continue reading...Record number of Australians enrol to vote; Morrison says he won’t allow embattled Warringah candidate to be ‘silenced’; Australia losing green energy opportunities due to Coalition inaction, Albanese says; Shorten launches Labor’s NDIS policy; nation records 18 Covid deaths. Follow all the latest news
These two are debating each other on Sky News tonight
Former South Australian senator Nick Xenophon, who is making another tilt at the Senate, wants a royal commission into housing affordability in Australia.
With house prices rising in Adelaide, and around the country by almost a quarter in just a year, the issue of young Australians being able to afford to buy their own home is becoming more and more vexed, and there are policy failures all round at a local, state and federal government level.
Only a royal commission can tackle this issue head-on by looking at a range of solutions that will get us back on track to make the dream of home ownership attainable once again.”
Continue reading...Labor says Anne Ruston as health minister if Coalition re-elected should ‘send a shiver down the spine’; WA records eight Covid deaths, NSW six, Victoria two and Tasmania one. This blog is now closed
Marise Payne has told the ABC’s Insiders she does not share the views expressed by Katherine Deves about transgender and gender diverse people that have prompted calls for her to be dropped as the candidate for Warringah.
She tells host David Speers:
I don’t share Ms Deves’ comments that she has made, but importantly she has apologised and withdrawn those views and as the prime minister said yesterday, in public life, we do have to be very careful about the way we express our opinions.
It is a matter for the organisation in New South Wales. I need to get on with my job, that’s what I’m doing. I don’t agree with the remarks she made, I’ve made that explicitly clear.
Continue reading...Plane crashed as pilot tried to land at East Kimberley regional airport in Kununurra
A passenger has died and a pilot was seriously injured after a charter plane crashed in Western Australia’s remote north.
WA police confirmed the male in his 50s lost consciousness during the rescue efforts and could not be revived.
Continue reading...On a per-voter basis, Coalition-held seats of Bass in Tasmania and Canning in WA given biggest spending commitments so far
Voters in the Tasmanian marginal seat of Bass are the most spoilt in the country, with each voter promised the equivalent of almost $6,000 in spending commitments in the opening stages of the election campaign.
In the first week of the six-week campaign, almost $500m has been pledged by both major party leaders as they crisscross the country. The focus is on a handful of marginal seats that will decide the election.
Continue reading...Small breached section 44 of the Australian constitution by also holding New Zealand citizenship, but still plans to contest the upcoming election
Western Australian Liberal senator Ben Small has been forced to resign due to his New Zealand heritage, the latest victim of the section 44 constitutional requirements, but has pledged to stand again at the looming election.
Small released a statement on Friday saying he had written to the Senate president to advise him he was resigning as a senator for WA.
Continue reading...The PM campaigned in Gilmore in NSW, while Labor leader is in Bass in Tasmania; Tanya Plibersek defends Anthony Albanese after opposition leader addresses his rates stumble; phone voting available for people in isolation on election day; NSW reports three Covid deaths and Victoria one. This blog is now closed
Scott Morrison just appeared on ABC breakfast TV, where he was asked about his relationship with the Liberal candidate for Gilmore, Andrew Constance.
Q: Andrew Constance said that you got the welcome that you deserved [in the region after the bushfires]. Emotions are still running deep in the bushfire-affected communities. Are you concerned about that being repeated today?
With Andrew Constance being part of my team and choosing to be part of that team, I think that that addresses it. Andrew and I spoke not long after the terrible experiences that particularly he and others and so many went through, and we worked the issue. We ensured that we addressed thing like small business payment and we got the money on the grouped and supported people in the areas that the federal government were responsible for. And I really thank Andrew for the way that we came together and really started to work together to address those issues. He’s a fine advocate for this part of Australia on the south coast of New South Wales.
He’s demonstrated that time again. And the fact that he wants to be part of my team and is running here as our Liberal candidate in Gilmore, I think that that addresses those issues fairly, squarely, that we’ve actually addressed the short comings that he was outlining at the time and we’ve gone forward with a strong plan to ensure that we’re providing that support. Not just in relation to the fires, but in relation to other natural disasters. And we’ve seen so many of those over the last three years.
Continue reading...Mining giant funded latest excavation at Yirra, which yielded stone tools, charcoal and bone showing habitation during the last ice age
An Aboriginal sacred place located 65 metres from a land bridge used by Rio Tinto to haul iron ore is at least 50,000 years old, with new research finding evidence of occupation during the height of the last ice age.
The mining giant, which funded the latest excavation, has promised to ensure the site “is preserved for future generations”.
Continue reading...Ukraine ambassador flags need for further support from Australia; RBA says potential rate rises to hit borrowers’ repayments; PM says election call ‘won’t be very long from now’; Russia bans 228 Australian officials; NSW records first ‘Deltacron’ cases as nation records at least 30 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed
Australian Border Force officials searched 822 travellers’ mobile phones in 2021, despite admitting it has no power to force arrivals to give them the passcode to their devices.
In January, Sydney software developer James told Guardian Australia that he and his partner were stopped on their return from Fiji by border force officials who asked them to write their phone passcodes on a piece of paper before taking the codes and their phones to another room to examine for half an hour. The phones were then returned and they were allowed to leave.
It will be a big win for the Ukrainian forces in their attempts to stare down the barbaric efforts of the Russian forces.
Continue reading...PM abused and mocked in Edgeworth pub hours after man interrupts Anthony Albanese’s Perth press conference
Scott Morrison has been berated at length by a man angry about pensions and his government’s failure to legislate a federal integrity commission, during a visit to a pub in regional New South Wales.
The prime minister on Thursday shrugged off the exchange from the night before, saying he was “keen to understand” the man’s issues and that he enjoyed hearing from people in the community.
Continue reading...Matthew Camenzuli expelled from Liberal party after seeking leave to appeal preselections ruling in high court; Scott Morrison says he has been ‘upfront with Australian people’ about running full term; Albanese calls Berejiklian a ‘straight talker’ after second round of leaked texts; at least 23 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed
New text messages from former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian have emerged, building on former leaks and labelling Scott Morrison “obsessed with petty political pointscoring.”
News.com.au has reported it has received a second screenshot of text messages between Berejiklian and a mystery cabinet minister, in which she says she is “so, so disappointed,” in Morrison:
Thx. I’m just so so disappointed. Lives are at stake today and he is just obsessed with petty political pointscoring. So disappointed and gutted.
We’ve seen unprecedented collaboration with both the local government and state government, with support being delivered in record time … we were able to get $3bn of recovery support out, in just over the first three weeks – that’s a record number of people supported.
The PM has written to Premier Perrottet to say we’re very happy to share in costs of that program ... but the PM has made clear that it’s for the one-in-500-year flood event.
Continue reading...Trucks with ads showing the Chinese president voting for Labor have been seen across Australia this week
The West Australian premier, Mark McGowan, has slammed the “idiots” and “morons” who parked a truck outside his home with a political ad linking Labor with the Chinese Communist party.
Large trucks with advertisements showing the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, voting for Labor have been seen in cities across Australia this week, depicting the CCP leader voting with a ballot reading “Labor 1” alongside the words “CCP SAYS VOTE Labor”.
Continue reading...Every photograph of bleached corals a reminder we’re not doing enough to tackle climate crisis, conservationists say
Conservationists say they have have recorded evidence of coral bleaching under way at Ningaloo off Western Australia’s north-west coast.
It comes just as the Great Barrier Reef on the other side of the country undergoes another devastating mass bleaching event.
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Continue reading...Mining billionaire alleges social media giant failed to stop clickbait advertising scams using his image on its platform
Facebook believes an Australian court has no jurisdiction to hear a criminal case brought against it by mining magnate Andrew Forrest – who claims the tech giant failed to stop clickbait advertising scams using his image.
The case in the magistrates court of Western Australia is believed to represent the first time Facebook – owned by Meta Platforms – has faced criminal charges.
Continue reading...Three crew members rescued by Singapore-flagged bulk carrier with one now in a critical condition in Broome hospital
Six people are dead and another three are believed to have drowned after an Indonesian fishing boat capsized off the north-west coast of Western Australia.
There were 12 people aboard when the boat, named Kuda Laut which translates to Horse Sea, capsized on Sunday evening about 180km west of Ashmore Reef.
Continue reading...Porter had previously stepped down as minister after refusing to identify contributors to a trust that paid his legal fees in a defamation case
A rule change requiring federal politicians to list contributors to crowdfunding campaigns and financial trusts has reignited Labor’s call for Christian Porter to resign over his so-called “blind trust”.
But Porter has dismissed the latest Labor attack as “ridiculous”, arguing the changes are not retrospective.
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Continue reading...Environment minister Sussan Ley asks Perdaman not to go ahead until a review is carried out after traditional owners raise concerns
The federal government has asked a multinational fertiliser company to stop work on plans to remove Indigenous rock art from a world heritage-nominated area in the Burrup Peninsula after traditional owners raised concerns.
Perdaman is planning to build a $4.5bn fertiliser plant in Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula. The company is already contracted to buy gas used to make the fertiliser from Woodside Energy’s Scarborough gas field.
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