Category Archives: Liberal party

Australia news live: Jim Chalmers says he has ‘other priorities’ than a gas tax; Anthony Albanese calls to congratulate Andy Burnham

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Treasurer points to other reforms after Labor members call for ‘fairer return’ from natural resources. Follow today’s news live

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories before your regular blogger takes the reins.

Jim Chalmers has claimed rightwing political parties will “prey on” voter insecurities about a worsening economy while championing “anti-worker” policies. It comes as markets are now expecting another rate hike by the end of the year. He also continues to push back at rank and file Labor members’ calls for a new tax on gas exports, saying the government had “other priorities” for reform. More coming up.

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Australia news live: Derryn Hinch mourned at state funeral; Mark Dreyfus tells antisemitism inquiry of ‘deeply wounding’ attack

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The use of AI in automated decision-making by government departments and agencies will be subject to tough rules under a new national plan, expected to extend to consumer protections, workplace safety and privacy.

As the Albanese government grapples with the rapid growth in the use of artificial intelligence and a boom in datacentre construction, senior ministers have begun work to draw up new rules to ensure safety is built into AI processes inside government, prioritising fairness, accuracy and transparency.

I know who Pauline is, Mum is, and I know that’s not what her intention was in any way. I do think snippets of it was misinterpreted. Under no way, shape, or form did she say she wished the White Australia policy hadn’t have been changed. She does not support it and she does not want it back. So I do believe it’s been taken out of context.

We know that media grabbed their snippets and their grabs, and it’s all about clickbait, and then Labor’s obviously jumped on it, and so are the Liberals, right? That’s how they try to better themselves, by picking out a little slogan when she was talking about the history of immigration and the change that has occurred.

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Moira Deeming drops legal case against Victorian Liberal party and makes last-ditch bid to avoid disendorsement

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State MP abandons supreme court challenge, saying her party ‘can now decide whether to pursue mediation or reconvene to disendorse me’

Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has dropped legal action against her own party as she seeks to make a last-ditch appeal to avoid being disendorsed before the state election.

Deeming launched an 11th-hour supreme court challenge against the Victorian Liberal party president, Brian Loughnane, on 3 July after she made an assault allegation against former leader Matthew Guy and subsequently rejected calls to apologise after Victoria police determined “there was no offence detected”.

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Taylor defends Sarah Henderson’s triple-zero calls amid questions about claimed Telstra-outage death in SA

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South Australian police say they’re unaware of death despite claim by Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle

Angus Taylor says his shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson was “doing her job” when she “tested” the triple-zero system by making unnecessary calls to it during Telstra’s nationwide outage.

The opposition leader has also dismissed concerns about Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle’s claim that an elderly person died as a result of the outage, after South Australian police said they were unaware of any such death.

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Moira Deeming wins temporary reprieve as Victorian Liberal party postpones decision on her future

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State opposition tells court it will not take any steps to disendorse MP while legal proceedings under way

A Victorian Liberal MP who sued her party to stave off a meeting that will determine her political future has been handed a temporary lifeline.

Moira Deeming launched an eleventh-hour supreme court challenge against the Victorian Liberal party president, Brian Loughnane, and the party on Friday morning, seeking a temporary injunction to stop the meeting.

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Liberal frontbencher calls for party ‘rebrand’ after drop in polls, prompting ridicule from Labor

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Melissa McIntosh’s comment comes after Angus Taylor’s claim Morrison government ‘breached trust’

Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh has said the party might need a “rebrand” to win back voters who continue to desert the opposition, with the Coalition hitting a new historic polling low.

Her comments came after the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, claimed the Morrison government – of which he was a senior minister – had “breached trust” with the electorate during the Covid pandemic by supporting “big government”.

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‘No offence detected’: Victoria police close investigation into Moira Deeming allegation of assault by Matthew Guy

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Guy accuses Deeming of making ‘ridiculous and unsubstantiated’ claims as state Liberal party grapples with fallout

Police have concluded their investigation into Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming’s allegation that her colleague Matthew Guy assaulted her, making the finding “no offence detected”.

Deeming had reported to police on 16 June that Guy, the opposition’s public transport spokesperson, had assaulted her at a Macedonian community event in Sunshine on 23 May.

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Victorian Liberal MP Matthew Guy denies accusation he assaulted Moira Deeming in incident allegedly captured by CCTV

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Police confirm they are investigating as sources close to Guy say he vehemently denies the allegations and is considering legal action

The Victorian Liberal party is in turmoil just five months out from the state election after MP Moira Deeming accused colleague Matthew Guy of assaulting her at a community event.

Sources close to Guy, the opposition’s public transport spokesperson, said he vehemently denies the allegation, which is being investigated by police, and is considering a defamation legal action against Deeming.

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Former Liberal vice-president Teena McQueen dies from illness weeks after defecting to One Nation

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Tony Abbott says he has lost a good friend as NSW opposition leader pays tribute to ‘force of nature’

The former Liberal heavyweight Teena McQueen is being remembered for her contribution to the party despite her defection to One Nation.

McQueen, who served as the federal Liberal party vice-president from 2017 to 2023, died on Wednesday after battling severe sickness.

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Angus Taylor won’t say if he supports multiculturalism

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Treasurer says Coalition playing ‘footsie with the monoculture language’ after Liberal leader sidesteps questions at press conference

Angus Taylor has repeatedly refused to say whether he supports multiculturalism in Australia, sidestepping five questions at a press conference about his views and claiming “there’s all these vague words running around”.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, accused the opposition leader of “playing footsie” with One Nation and Pauline Hanson’s call for a “monoculture” in Australia, as Labor ministers committed to backing multiculturalism.

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NSW lifts drone ban over Sydney beach after shark attack – as it happened

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The Senate will deliver its report from the NDIS inquiry on Tuesday. Butler doesn’t directly answer a question about whether or not he is willing to make any significant changes to the legislation the government has put forward.

He says:

Look, the direction of travel I think is an important one for us to follow through. This largely reflects reviews and insights that we’ve gathered over the last three years since the independent review was done of the NDIS in 2023 and endorsed by all governments at national Cabinet later that year.

I’m utterly convinced this is the right plan for the NDIS… I’m not saying there won’t be any change. We heard ideas from the crossbench in the debate in the House of Representatives. I’ve very much heard that people want greater reassurance about what won’t change because of the reforms we’re putting in place.

We have to constrain that growth. Without reforms it would grow to $20 billion by the end of the decade and that’s simply not a sustainable position.

It’s also allowed us, as I said, to protect the core supports people rely upon for that safety that was part of your introduction.

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Liberal frontbencher Jonno Duniam to quit politics, says leadership spill ‘started to really wear on me’

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Tasmanian senator says he feels he is ‘letting down the team’ but needs to prioritise family

Liberal frontbencher Jonno Duniam will quit politics before the end of the year, in another major blow to the struggling Coalition as it experiences its lowest levels of popularity in decades.

The Tasmanian senator, who was elected to parliament in 2016 and is seen as one of the Liberals’ best talents, said it was an “extremely difficult decision to make” but one he had been considering for “quite some time” to spend more time with family.

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PM backs upping the volume at Sydney Opera House – ‘I’m a member of the fun faction’ – as it happened

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Australian borrowing personal loans in record amounts

Australians are borrowing record amounts in personal loans as a long-term buildup in living costs wipes out savings buffers.

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Linda Reynolds repays nearly $9,000 after partner billed taxpayers to visit son in Melbourne

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Former Liberal senator initially labelled ruling by parliamentary expenses authority ‘patently ridiculous’, saying visits were necessary

Former Liberal senator Linda Reynolds has paid back nearly $8,800 in parliamentary expenses after her partner claimed family reunion allowances to visit his son in Melbourne while en route to meet her in Canberra.

Reynolds accepted the ruling of the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) but initially disputed their ruling, saying her partner’s visits to his son – her stepson – were necessary after “high profile (and false) 2021 workplace allegations made against me”, seemingly a reference to her long-running court dispute with former staffer Brittany Higgins.

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Australia to buy only secondhand nuclear subs from US in major Aukus switch – as it happened

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Extra negative gearing limits could hurt market and family budgets, Labor says

Clare O’Neil has rejected calls from the Greens and others to put further limits on negative gearing access, saying the government should not interrupt “immediate arrangements”.

There’s people in the debate who want to see the government go further. I really understand that but I just think we need to step back.

Negative gearing is a very immediate impact on a household and family budget and it’s not something that governments, when they’re making tax changes, should do, to interrupt people’s immediate arrangements.

We need to land this. We’ll do that in the appropriate time given the need … This is not a political timeline. It is a policy timeline … It’s important this gets resolved speedily and that’s what the government is working towards.

I think there’s a range of things that are on the table in those conversations and I won’t speak about them in detail …

The government wants to get the right outcome here and we are not going to be driven by the politics of the moment. It’s really important we reach the right landing point for this and I think I have spoken in previous interviews this week about some of the issues we see.

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Jacinta Allan launches state-sponsored apprenticeships at Victoria’s Labor conference ahead of election

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The premier is offering 2,000 apprenticeships at the revived State Electricity Commission as part of a pre-election push

Jacinta Allan has used Labor’s final state conference before the election to announce a plan for a government-owned electricity body to hire apprentices to address significant workforce shortages and job insecurity.

The Victorian premier announced the plan in a speech that drew on her father’s experience as a linesman at the State Electricity Commission (SEC), which was revived by Daniel Andrews in 2023 after being privatised by former premier Jeff Kennett in the 1990s.

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Budget to include extra $2bn for infrastructure – as it happened

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Wilson promises Coalition will be ‘very clear’ on migration

Wilson is asked about comments made by the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, after the byelection that hinted at a rightward shift toward “ending mass migration” and stopping net zero policies.

I can assure you in the coming weeks we’re going to make it very clear what we’re for. Australians need to know that we’re in favour of families, community, small business and self-starters.

My focus on migration is how we make sure we get new Australians integrated successfully.

One of the reasons Australians have become very nervous about migration is they feel that people are coming to Australia and getting the benefits without making the contribution. And I want the best, boldest, most confident new Australians we can have.

There would be some nervous Labor MPs because what people want to see is change.

One of the most consistent messages is that people want someone who is going to fight for them and their future.

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Australia news live: dozens paddle out in Sydney and Newcastle in solidarity with Gaza Flotilla; PM commits another $1.8bn to urgent care clinics

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Parents of Australian who was detained by IDF call for stronger government response. Follow updates live

Canavan defends Coalition decision to preference One Nation ahead of independent in Farrer: ‘Socialists and communists always go last’

Matt Canavan said he understood why voters in Farrer, set for a byelection next Saturday, were disillusioned with the federal opposition.

I‘ve been down there for 20 days, 15 nights – and 10 of those I’ve been in a swag – over the past month.

I’m doing everything I can to fight for them. I’d love to fight for that great part of our country again, it’s a wonderful part of our nation where we pioneered the use of irrigation and dams. It still produces 40% of our food, 60% of our fruit.

Under my leadership, [in] my view, socialists and communists always go last.

I think we need to really see how the overseas conflict evolves, how prices evolve for oil. But I think, you know, it is doing what it was intended to do. It’s not a silver bullet, but it is providing material support for people. And as I said, it’s providing support for people who are really doing it tough when they can’t shift away from using petrol.

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Liberals claim victory in Nepean byelection ahead of state poll

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Anthony Marsh appears to be in commanding position in significant boost to opposition leader Jess Wilson

The Liberals have claimed victory in a key Victorian byelection seen as a preview of what to expect when the rest of the state hits the polls in November.

As counting continued in the Mornington peninsula seat of Nepean, the Liberal candidate, Anthony Marsh, appeared to be in a commanding position in a significant boost to opposition leader Jess Wilson.

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Moira Deeming to secure top spot on Victorian Liberal ticket

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Reversal of fortune comes just one week after she was dumped in favour of Dinesh Gourisetty, who then withdrew his nomination

Moira Deeming will secure a top spot on the Victorian Liberal party’s upper house ticket unopposed – less than a week after members voted to dump her – after the withdrawal of candidates from a re-run ballot.

Deeming was on Sunday ousted from the number one spot for the western metropolitan region by Dinesh Gourisetty.

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