Category Archives: Liberal party

SA hospitals under ‘extraordinary strain’; Perrottet asks MP to resign after charges – as it happened

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NSW MP Gareth Ward denies historic sexual abuse allegations; South Australian hospital system ‘under extraordinary strain’ new premier says, as at least 23 Covid deaths recorded nationally; Anthony Albanese proposes award in late Victorian senator Kimberley Kitching’s honour. This blog is now closed

Peter Malinauskas has promised to keep his shirt on from now on, after a photo of his muscled torso made quite a stir in the world of Australian politics.

ABC radio host Patricia Karvelas:

During the campaign, you were photographed shirtless in swimming shorts, and it caused a bit of a stir. I have to ask you ... the Australian’s Greg Sheridan said jokingly on [ABC] Insiders that you’re “far too good looking”. Which I thought was quite a statement. What have you made of the reaction to that picture?

Do you have any idea how much grief I’ve copped around the place as a result of that?

Have they told you just to buff to be premier?

They’ve piled it on, let me tell you. I haven’t stopped copping it, and I deserve every bit of it.

We were announcing a big investment at our major aquatics centre here in South Australia and a whole bunch of us jumped in for a swim in our boardies with our kids there. And, yeah, it got a bit more attention than I anticipated, fair to say.

So you’re going to keep your shirt on from now on?

Damn straight!

I think we’re about to see a federal election where a cost of living is a front and centre issue. And I think Australians get the price of petrol, but they can’t control the price of groceries.

The way we address cost of living as a nation is to start having an incomes policy focus on how we improve working in small businesses to improve the productivity of their labour, so they can earn a higher income. And that’s why education, training and skills is so important.

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Urban congestion funding for Coalition and marginal seats far outstrips safe Labor seats, report finds

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At last election, just one of 71 Coalition promises worth $100m or more based on approved business case, says Grattan Institute

The government’s controversial urban congestion fund is pumping tens of millions of dollars more into marginal and safe Coalition seats than strong Labor electorates, a new report has found.

The Grattan Institute on Sunday released a damning report examining the way successive governments have used transport spending promises to further their political interests.

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South Australia election: Labor win should have Morrison government ‘trembling’, ALP says

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Scott Morrison dismissed state and federal comparisons, saying ‘Anthony Albanese is not Peter Malinauskas’

The South Australian election result should have Scott Morrison’s Coalition “trembling” ahead of the federal poll, Labor says, after Peter Malinauskas became the first opposition leader to defeat an incumbent government since the start of the pandemic.

The outgoing premier, Steven Marshall, announced on Sunday he would step down as Liberal leader after the landslide loss to Labor, saying he “takes full responsibility for the result” and accepts “the will of the people”.

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Against the foil of the Morrison government, Dominic Perrottet’s flood response has been pragmatic

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The NSW government knows the more it is held up against the Coalition in Canberra, the better it looks despite its own shortcomings

It’s hard to imagine many inside the New South Wales government were particularly upset with veteran Nationals backbencher Geoff Provest when he aimed both barrels at the prime minister over his response to the state’s flood disaster this week.

Hardly the state government’s most prominent attack dog, Provest did not miss in his assessment of Scott Morrison after his north coast electorate of Tweed was inexplicably excluded from extra disaster funding announced by the prime minister last week.

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Australian Human Rights Commission to slash staff after budget cuts and surge in workload

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Agency says one in three jobs will be lost and warns current funding is insufficient for it to perform its statutory function

One in three jobs will be slashed at the Australian Human Rights Commission as a record number of complaints and low base funding take their toll.

The human rights agency has issued a blunt warning that its current funding “does not provide us with the resources required to perform our statutory functions”.

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Fresh court challenge filed in Liberal party’s NSW preselection stoush

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Infighting over preselecting candidates for the federal election previously led to a special committee briefly taking over the NSW branch

The Liberal party’s infighting over preselecting federal candidates is heading back to the supreme court after a member of the NSW state executive began fresh legal action on Tuesday, challenging the federal party’s intervention to save two ministers and a sitting MP.

A member of the NSW state executive, Matthew Camenzuli, has filed in the NSW supreme court a challenge to the endorsement of the sitting MPs, which was achieved last week by a brief takeover of the troubled NSW branch by a special committee appointed by the federal party.

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Labor demands Christian Porter resign before election after changes to ‘blind trust’ disclosure rules

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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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‘I’ve always been on the blue spectrum’: Dave Sharma denies mimicking independent rival’s colour scheme

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Climate 200-backed challenger says ‘copying our campaign colours is a great start … now he needs to copy our policies’

Wentworth MP Dave Sharma has denied he is trying to distance himself from the Liberal party following accusations his campaign material mimics the teal colour scheme of the independent candidate Allegra Spender.

Locals in the Sydney eastern suburbs electorate have taken to Twitter to point out the striking similarities between flyers distributed by Sharma and Spender.

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Australia news live updates: Palaszczuk says too late for emergency declaration in Qld; Rio Tinto ditching Russia; 21 Covid deaths

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Palaszczuk rejects Morrison’s move to declare national emergency in Queensland, where flood costs are ‘well into the billions’; Rio Tinto will terminate all contracts with Russian businesses; nation records at least 21 Covid deaths amid concerns over Omicron subvariant. Follow all the updates live

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is being questioned about his promises to keep the cost of living down as he chats to ABC News Breakfast:

Well, we have been making policies that have been driving down the cost of living, for example, around electricity prices which are down by 8% in the last two years.

They doubled under our political opponents, but what I was referring to last night is the international events in the Ukraine have seen a spike in oil prices, and that is flowing through with some people paying more than $2 a litre.

This high and increasing burden of skin cancer emphasises the need for continued investment in skin cancer education and prevention.

We know what needs to be done. Now is the time to do it so that one day Australia is no longer considered the skin cancer capital of the world.

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NSW Liberals again fail to resolve preselection deadlock making federal intervention likely

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Latest proposal on process to decide candidates ahead of May federal election scuttled by four votes against

The NSW Liberal party has again failed to resolve its preselection woes, virtually guaranteeing that the federal party will need to step in to finalise candidates for the looming election in May.

A proposal to hold branch votes in the electorates of Hughes, Parramatta and Eden-Monaro, where more than one person is running, and to endorse candidates in two other seats, largely failed, after the state executive rejected rule changes to fast track the process.

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Australia news live update: Lismore flood level breaks 1954 record as Perrottet warns worse to come in NSW; Queensland death toll rises to eight

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NSW premier says ‘unprecedented’ floods expected to get worse; Lismore residents call for help on social media as flood level hits record high; Australia lists Russia as ‘do not travel’ zone; Frydenberg discusses financial support for Ukraine ahead of Scott Morrison’s call with president; at least 12 Covid-related deaths recorded. Follow the latest updates live

Josh Frydenberg was asked if he believed the Russian president Vladimir Putin could turn the invasion into Ukraine nuclear.

He says it’s no secret that Putin may have ambitions beyond simply controlling Ukraine.

No one wants to see an escalation ... but these are the dangers of the times and the insanity of what Putin has done ... I’m worried there could be an escalation beyond the borders ...

I’m worried that there could be an escalation beyond the borders and no doubt. That’s what other European nations or neighbouring countries are concerned about ...

Just to get a sense of when will we find out the amount of money we’re committing to this issue ... we’re working the details through you will find out probably today.

I mean, we’re going to start with an initial payment. It will be in the millions, and it’s not going to be the same sort of quantum that United States or the United Kingdom would provide but you know, where we can ...

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Who said it? Australia’s political war of words over China – quiz

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Match each diplomatic, inflammatory or amusing quote to the politician from which it emerged

In an increasingly heated political debate in the lead-up to Australia’s election, claims of appeasing China and even labels of “Manchurian candidates” have flown thick and fast.

The truth is both major parties have been recalibrating their China policy over the past decade in response to what they see as a more assertive nation under Xi Jinping.

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Australia news live updates: Queensland and Victoria to lift mask rules as nation records 33 Covid deaths

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Clive Palmer cancels press club appearance; foreign minister condemns Russia’s declaration of Ukranian separatist independence as PM says Russia should ‘step back’; defence responds to China’s claim about laser incident; NSW and Victoria both record 14 Covid deaths, Queensland records five; mask rules lifted in Victoria from midnight Saturday and in Queensland next week. Follow the latest updates live

Jumping back to the Sydney train situation for a moment and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary, Alex Claassens, is discussing the return of limited train services with ABC News Breakfast:

Apparently, where we ended up late last night was we negotiated an outcome where trains will run today. We finally managed to get the management team to see some common sense and today they will be operating a service roughly around the half-hour to 15-minute mark.

They will then try and improve on that during the day. We will work together as much as we can to try to get as many trains on the tracks as we can, and you can imagine our disappointment yesterday morning when we got up like everybody else in Sydney to realise some genius had made a decision to cancel all of our train services.

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Scott Morrison’s China gambit is a Hail Mary from a flailing leader trying to galvanise fear | Peter Lewis

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The majority of Australians support a position which is the polar opposite to the government’s current tub-thumping on national security

Scott Morrison’s efforts to politicise Australia’s complex relationship with China seems to be further soiling his own flagging reputation.

Like a bull in the proverbial, he has spent the past fortnight bombarding the airwaves with hastily googled dossiers and cold war-era panics to suggest an Albanese government would become an antipodean branch office of the Beijing Politburo.

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Australia news live updates: Perrottet urged to work with union over NSW train dispute; international border reopens; 17 Covid deaths

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Perrottet urged to work with union over NSW train dispute; Peter Dutton says all signs on Ukraine ‘pointing in one direction’; at least 17 Covid-related deaths; Australia’s international border reopen for the first time in nearly two years. Follow the latest updates live

AGL Energy has rejected a takeover bid by tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canadian asset management giant Brookfield, saying the preliminary offer “materially undervalues the company”.

Brookfield and Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures made the extraordinary offer to take over Australia’s most polluting company on Saturday, with a goal to shut its coal power plants earlier than planned.

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Morrison and Dutton are imperilling Australia’s national security to hang on to power | Katharine Murphy

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The prime minister and the defence minister are imperilling Australia’s national security as they try to hang on to power

Too often, political journalism is the art of asking the wrong question.

We can preoccupy ourselves wondering whether or not a particular tactic will work. These are valid enough deductions, but the whole exercise can read like theatre criticism.

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‘Do your job’: Morrison urges MPs to point out stark difference between Coalition and Labor

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Under-pressure prime minister tells party room ‘you haven’t seen me as focused as I can be yet … I know what the path is’

Scott Morrison has urged colleagues to ramp up examples of “sharp contrast” with Labor as the opposition signalled it could support a strengthening of the character test legislation despite previously helping to scuttle the proposal in the Senate.

The prime minister has revived the Coalition’s character test bill in the hope of wedging Labor on national security in the final sitting weeks of the current parliament. Morrison is attempting to regroup politically after an internal revolt scuttled his signature religious discrimination legislation last week.

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Australia politics news live updates: parliament marks anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations; at least 22 Covid deaths recorded

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Parliament marks anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations; Acoss calls for next budget to address climate crisis; at least 22 Covid deaths recorded; treasurer asked about possible axing of low-income tax offset; politicians back in Canberra for final sitting week before federal budget. Follow all the day’s news

NSW treasurer Matt Kean is talking about the weekend’s byelection results. He says:

This wasn’t a referendum on the government ... these were four byelections that had unique issues in each of the seats.

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Uncertainty over jobs data due to Omicron as nation records at least 47 virus deaths – as it happened

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Uncertainty over jobs data due to Omicron; Mark McGowan says WA border reopening still to be decided; Daniel Andrews announces LGBTQ+ support package; Victoria’s Covid rules under review as nation records least 47 Covid-related deaths; Scott Morrison condemns ‘bullying’ on Ukraine border. This blog is now closed

Things get trickier when Speers asked Keneally whether Labor believes schools should be allowed to hire and fire teachers based on whether they are gay or transgender under the law.

Keneally started by saying that “Labor also supports the right of religious schools, faith-based schools to be able to hire staff, whether it is teachers or other staff, that support the mission and the values of the school.”

And so it’s straightforward with children, we think there are some slight complexities with teachers and staff that should be looked at by the Australian Law Reform Commission.”

David, let’s look at what Labor did in the parliament this week. We do believe that people of faith deserve protection from discrimination and extending the law to do that and we think that should not come at the expense of increasing discrimination to other groups of people. We also believe that students at school should be protected and that reflected in the amendments we moved and supported.

So we would like to see the government now accept that amendment that has been supported by the House of Representatives with those five Liberals crossing the floor, and they should just get this bill done. The prime minister promised some years ago to people of faith he would provide this legislative protection. He promised in writing that he would protect children. He is – if he is going to break that promise, he needs to explain it to the Australian people.

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Australia news live updates: Victoria’s ‘code brown’ to end; WA records second Covid death of pandemic; Morrison ‘misled’ by MPs who crossed floor

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Peter Dutton confirms Scott Morrison was misled by Liberal MPs who crossed floor on religious discrimination bill; Martin Foley says code brown declaration for Victoria’s hospitals will end Monday; at least 49 Covid deaths recorded nationally. Follow all the day’s news

An electric scooter rider has died after a collision with a station wagon south-east of Melbourne, AAP reports.

Police said a white Volkswagen station wagon was driving on the Princes Highway in Narre Warren on Thursday afternoon when it collided with the e-scooter.

The rider, who has not been formally identified, died at the scene. The station wagon driver was not injured and stopped to help the rider.

Major collision investigation unit detectives are investigating the crash.

Opinion:

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