Category Archives: Coalition

Australia politics live: Littleproud heckled at Canberra farmers protest; Greens senator urges Chalmers to override RBA and cut interest rates

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Peter Dutton and David Littleproud addressed the crowd of hundreds from as far as Western Australia. Follow today’s news live

PM speaks on social media ban for kids

Anthony Albanese is doing the media rounds this morning, speaking on the government’s announcement it will ban children from social media platforms. This came after the South Australian announcement yesterday it would be moving to ban children under 14.

Well, we want to work with the states and territories. What we didn’t want to develop is eight different systems. We know this is a national issue and it’s pretty simple. We want to get kids off their devices and on to the footy fields, on to the netball courts, into the swimming pools.

We want them to have real experiences with real people, and we know that social media is causing social harm, which is why we put funding in the budget to have a trial to make sure that we get it right.

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‘Don’t run away’: Labor urged to collaborate with Greens and crossbenchers on environmental reforms

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Support for government’s environmental legislation offered in exchange for protections that deliver ‘immediate, tangible impacts’

Greens and crossbench senators have told the government not to “hide behind” Peter Dutton and Gina Rinehart and instead work with them on a better deal for the environment.

The Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, and independent senators David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe offered to support legislation to establish a new environment protection authority (EPA) and a separate new agency to manage environmental information, if the government agreed to a series of proposals to strengthen environmental protections.

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Bridget McKenzie forced to deny her oped on aviation divestiture signals support for breaking up Qantas

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Just hours after opinion appears in AFR, shadow minister clarifies divestiture as ‘one of the various tools the treasurer needs to look at’ but not Coalition policy

The shadow transport minister, Bridget McKenzie, was forced to clarify the Coalition does not support breaking up Qantas just hours after floating the possibility of forced divestiture powers in the aviation sector.

McKenzie warned the competition watchdog’s review of the aviation sector “will be a failure if it does not address the role of divestiture” in an opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review on Monday.

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Julia Gillard urges Labor to retain 50% female quota, warning women still at risk of being dragged back

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Australia’s only female prime minister marks 30th anniversary of ALP’s affirmative action rule by advocating for its adoption across federal parliament

Julia Gillard is urging the Labor party never to remove its 50% female quota for parliamentary candidates despite surpassing it federally, warning there are forces – especially in the “toxic sewer” of social media – which can still drag women back.

In an interview to mark this month’s 30th anniversary of Labor’s controversial affirmative action rule, Australia’s first and, so far, only female prime minister reflected on the hope she expressed the day she left office in 2013, that it would be easier for the next woman who runs the country.

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Tanya Plibersek accuses Peter Dutton of intent to ignore Indigenous heritage for mining projects

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Environment minister lambasts opposition leader over vow to overturn her rejection of tailings dam at McPhillamys goldmine

Tanya Plibersek has accused Peter Dutton of planning to ignore evidence of historical Indigenous cultural practice and trash heritage protection laws to greenlight certain mining projects and companies based on “the vibe”.

The environment minister told Guardian Australia that Dutton’s vow to overturn her determination rejecting the proposed site of a tailings dam at the $900m McPhillamys goldmine development in central-western New South Wales showed he had no respect for research or official advice.

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News live: Australia’s ability to fight off deadly bird flu to be put to test in series of exercises

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Julie Collins describes avian flu situation as ‘dynamic’ as she highlights concerns about the impact to wildlife and agriculture

Census to include questions on gender and sexuality

Speers finishes up by asking Chalmers about the ongoing census questions palaver.

We have listened to the community. We worked very closely with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. LGBTIQ+ Australians matter. They have been heard and they will count in the 2026 census.

Really the message that we want to ensure that Australians hear from us today is that we understand the feedback that we got, we listened to that, we took it very seriously, we listened very genuinely.

We said we would find the best way to do this and I believe that we have and we will and the ABS will continue to refine the actual wording of the questions now that this additional topic has been add.

We want to make sure that we are maximising this really important economic relationship with our key trading partner. It’s a relationship which is full of complexity, but also full of opportunity and I want to help the government maximise that opportunity for the Australian people, workers, businesses, employers, investors.

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Senate committee told foreign student cap would ‘gut’ private education sector – as it happened

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Michele O’Neil said this isn’t about “expecting everyone to have the same opinion all of the time” but continued:

We’re a diverse movement, and people have strong opinions, but it is at its core about who we are and what we stand for. And we don’t walk away when things get tough, we face up to them. And angry individuals lashing out and blaming everyone except themselves doesn’t get us through this.

We need to stay steady on what is in the interest of working people and what’s in the interest of working people is good, clean, strong, effective unions with leaders who see their job as representing workers and their members, not acting in their own self-interest.

No … I think that it’s important that we realise that the union movement – the vast bulk of unions – want to stay part of the united union movement, and have made that really clear.

What I’m saying, Patricia, is we’re talking to all of our unions all of the time … I haven’t had any other unions threaten to quit.

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Australia news live: severe weather warnings for parts of NSW and Victoria; Tasmania flood warnings downgraded but river rises still possible

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Moving to the 2026 census, Katy Gallagher was asked about comments from some of Australia’s major health institutions who say data on gender diverse Australians will be critical to inform care.

Is that something the government will consider, given that this is the advice from a lot of major health bodies?

It is, as you say, really important and it’s no surprise that health groups are saying that because, you know, it informs future health policy and identifies gaps and responses.

But the PM has already said there will be questions. We need to work with people about what those questions are and we’ll be doing that, but I’m very positive there’ll be a good outcome here.

You can see that from this data. You can see that household consumption, particularly on discretionary spending [which has] really declined substantially. I think that shows that household budgets are smashed and contributing to that, of course, is those 13 interest rate increases.

And the bank’s got a job to do to get inflation down, but we have also got a job to do to explain what we’re seeing in the economy and what we know is happening and that is that households are under huge pressure. So I think, you know, there’s been a lot said about this this week but it really is stating the facts and [that] played out for all to see in the national accounts yesterday.

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Australia news live: Murray Watt ‘concerned’ at Iran reaction to ambassador’s social media posts; children removed from AI image database

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IRNA said the foreign ministry summoned the Australian ambassador Ian McConville to Tehran, and condemned the publication of photos on social media. Follow today’s news live

Tehan responds to Asio boss’s accusation his comments on Palestinians have been ‘distorted’

Dan Tehan was also asked about comments from Asio boss Mike Burgess, who used an interview with the ABC’s 7.30 program on Tuesday to hit back at people who had “distorted” what he had previously said about the security vetting process for Palestinians seeking to come to Australia.

I won’t talk about what Mike Burgess may or may not be talking about when he says that. As you know, we had the prime minister also leave an important sentence out of what Mike Burgess said in the parliament, which basically distorted what Mike Burgess was saying. But I’ll leave that up to Mike Burgess, because our issue has never been with [him]. Our issue is with the prime minister …

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Australia news live: tens of thousands still without power in Victoria; poll shows growing support for drug injecting rooms

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Storms in three states is expected to ease today. Follow all the news headlines live

Crews are continuing to restore power to Victorians after strong winds damaged powerlines and left thousands without power.

According to AusNet, there are still 37,500 without power, and according to Citipower and Powercor, there are 17,484 customers still affected.

We have restored power to over 43,063 customers as crews continue repairing the power network that was extensively damaged during last night’s wild weather.

Crews are responding to more than 380 individual faults, replacing power poles, reconnecting fallen powerlines and repairing other electrical infrastructure damaged by trees, branches and other debris.

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Australia news live: parts of Victoria told to plan for up to 72 hours without power; two Tasmanian emergency workers injured during floods response

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Weather situation overnight in Victoria has led to about 1,900 calls to the SES for assistance. Follow today’s news live

Delays predicted at Melbourne airport amid strike action

Melburnians catching a flight this morning may want to give themselves extra time as severe delays are predicted, with security screeners striking between 6am and 8.30am at the domestic airport.

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‘Less money for health and education’: Albanese slams Coalition threat to cut GST unless states build housing

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The opposition is yet to announce a policy that would create more housing supply, while the Greens put Airbnb in their sights

The Greens and the Coalition are opening up new fronts in the battle over housing policy, as the government continues to struggle to get its agenda through the Senate.

The shadow assistant spokesperson for home ownership, Andrew Bragg, opened the door for a future Coalition government to withhold funding to states and local governments unless house building was accelerated.

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Questions on gender and sex variations ‘too complex’ for census, social services minister Amanda Rishworth says

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It’s the third explanation government ministers have given since last Sunday, while Coalition senator Andrew Bragg says questions are ‘reasonable’

The social services minister has offered up the latest explanation for why proposed questions on gender and sex variations were dumped from the next census, claiming they were too complicated.

In an interview with Sky News on Sunday, Amanda Rishworth gave a new reason for why new questions had been ditched from the census planning, saying the government had been shown “questions that were very complex in the census”.

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Albanese says ABS, not government, will determine scope of census question on sexuality

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Prime minister defends government’s backflip on census and says single question on sexuality will not limit scope of data

Anthony Albanese says the nature and scope of question on sexuality in the next census will be a matter for the Australian Bureau of Statistics, not the government.

After a week in which his government was heavily criticised for excluding proposed new questions on sexual orientation and gender identity, the prime minister reneged and said the 2026 census would include “one question about sexuality, sexual preference”.

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Australia news live: BoM predicts warm spring as Sydney faces high fire danger and four states warned of high winds

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Windy weekend in prospect as BoM forecasts warmer-than-usual spring. Follow the day’s news live

Good morning and welcome to the end-of-week news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories to get you up to speed before hosting duties switch to Emily Wind.

Mano Yogalingam was 23 years old and had “his whole life in front of him”. But the stresses and strains of living with the prospect of being deported back to Sri Lanka pushed him over the edge and he took his own life this week. Our top story this morning hears from refugee advocates who say the death of the Tamil asylum seeker has exposed the failings of the fast-track immigration system. “All of these people have been failed by the system. It’s a total cobweb of cruelty,” one said.

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Australia news live: Josh Burns breaks ranks to call for gender and sexuality questions in census

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Severe weather warnings are in place across southern parts of the country for strong winds, including Victoria and Tasmania.

Here’s a wrap of the warnings currently in place, according to the Bureau of Meteorology:

Victoria – a strong cold front is expected to reach Victoria later today, clearing to the east tomorrow morning. Locations which may be affected by the wild weather include Portland, Bacchus Marsh, Falls Creek, Mt Hotham, Mt Buller and Omeo.

For the Central, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland areas, a warning for abnormally high tides is in place.

Tasmania – a strong cold front is also expected to reach Tasmania later today, crossing the state tomorrow morning. The entire state is covered by the severe weather warning.

New South Wales – north-westerly winds are forecast to strengthen later today as a strong cold front approaches from the west. Locations which may be affected include Wollongong, Nowra, Bowral, Batemans Bay, Katoomba and Goulburn.

Meanwhile, fire danger ratings for the greater Sydney and Illawarra have been downgraded to “moderate” today after reaching “high” yesterday.

Western Australia – gusty, showery conditions are expected over parts of the South West Land Division today.

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Australia news live: thousands rally in capital cities as CFMEU workers walk off sites; fears of overdose crisis as use of nitazenes grows

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Rallies in support of the CFMEU have kicked off across the nation’s capital cities, from Sydney, Melbourne to Brisbane. Follow the day’s news live

Jim Chalmers accuses Liberals of ‘economic insanity’ on potential housing cuts

Jim Chalmers was asked about the $100bn in cuts the Coalition is set to announce today, mostly from Labor initiatives, if it wins the next election. Would this appeal to the electorate?

What we know from what’s in the newspapers today is that they plan billions of dollars to cuts in housing at a time when we’ve got a very severe housing shortage, and this goes with the absolute economic insanity of the Liberals and Nationals. During an extreme housing shortage, they want to swing the axe on billions of dollars in housing funding.

Also this is $100bn they reckon – let’s see the details. They flagged more than three times that amount when it comes to cuts, so let’s hear them come clean on the other cuts. Let’s hear what it means for Medicare and pensions and for the economy more broadly.

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Australia urged to show ‘true climate leadership’ as Pacific Islands Forum begins – as it happened

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Investigations under way after alleged theft of non-fuctional guns from museum

An investigation is under way after a museum in Lithgow, in the NSW Central Tablelands, was allegedly broken into overnight.

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Australia news live: winter heat record set in South Australia; NZ suspends import of all Australian tomatoes

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South Australia has notched up its hottest winter day on record. Follow the day’s news live

David Anderson says it was ‘the right time for me’ to resign from ABC

The ABC managing director, David Anderson, is speaking with ABC RN after yesterday’s announcement of his resignation.

And I think the right time for the ABC. It is something I had thought about now for months, and went away on leave, spoke to [ABC chair] Kim [Williams] a lot. Kim tried to get me to change my mind. [I] came back from leave with it, certain in my mind that I was making the right decision.

We’ve got a long lead time for the board to find a new managing director, and I’ve been asked to and I agreed to stay on until that person starts, which could very well be April next year.

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‘End the private school boys’ club’: slashing salaries of badly behaved MPs not enough, Lidia Thorpe says

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Independent senator says Australians are sick of ‘privileged, high-paid politicians’ not taking their jobs seriously in ‘toxic and unsafe’ Parliament House

Lidia Thorpe has questioned whether docking the salaries of highly paid federal politicians will be enough to deter bad behaviour as parliamentarians contemplate the introduction of a sanctions body for MP misconduct.

The independent senator believes racism in the halls of power should also become a focus of the workplace behaviour enforcement body, describing Parliament House as a “toxic and unsafe environment”.

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