Category Archives: Coalition

Australia news live: high court rules in favour of indefinite immigration detention; publisher of banned book to offer free download

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High court delivers judgment in the case of ASF1. Follow the day’s news live

Penny Wong is speaking on RN Breakfast now. Right off the bat she was asked by Patricia Karvelas if the Australian government will support admitting Palestine as a full member of the UN at a vote later today.

Wong begins with a preamble about Australia’s support for a two-state solution, then says:

We will consider the final resolution that comes before the General Assembly. Obviously, countries are still negotiating texts.

I don’t want to speculate about our vote … I think an abstention generally means you can agree in part with the resolution but not with sufficient, not with all of it, or not with a sufficient extent of the resolution for you to vote for it, so it can send a message that whilst you don’t agree with it in full, you’re not going to stand in the way.

I understand that question … I understand questions from those who don’t want us to deal with it at this time. I think one of the things we are aware of, and thinking about, is the timing of the situation on the ground. We know Hamas is still holding hostages. We want to look at the wording of the resolution to make sure we are being responsible, that what we commit to we are obliged to and look to the UN Charter and the resolution would have to be consistent with the charter. And of course it was with our partners, but your listeners, what I would say to them is Australia does support a two-state solution.

You’ve spoken to me many times over the years, Patricia, and you know I always try and bring a more nuanced discussion about what is really happening rather than getting drawn into the end the hard edges of the debate. Unfortunately, in this country, we seem, we see too much of this discussion, which is looked at by those who basically say you’re either with us or against us. And everything is black and white and simple. Regrettably, that is not what is happening in the Middle East. And regrettably, that is not how we should be looking at this.

The board finds that both posts violated the Coordinating Harms and Promoting Crime rule that prohibits content “advocating, providing instructions for, or demonstrating explicit intent to illegally participate in a voting or census process.

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Australia news live: Queensland poised to limit K’gari visits amid wave of dingo attacks; Electric Fields crash out of Eurovision semi

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The number of tourists on K’gari could soon be capped on the busiest days of the year. Follow today’s news live

CFMEU welcomes funding of 15,000 fee-free construction Tafe places in budget

The CFMEU has welcomed a funding boost for apprenticeships and traineeships in the upcoming budget.

This investment will mean more apprentices and trainees will get the training they need to build critical housing and infrastructure that Australia desperately needs …

There’s an often-overlooked distinction between apprenticeships and traineeships but thankfully the government recognises the importance of both – that’s critical to addressing construction skills gaps.

If they don’t mobilise this government into real action I just don’t know what will. Half of all threatened species becoming extinct is an intolerable outcome.

Report after report has shown the terrible decline of biodiversity in NSW, and the Ken Henry review of biodiversity laws gave the government very clear recommendations on how to slow and reverse this trend, but the government still hasn’t responded after seven months.

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Australia news live: Michele Bullock says data ‘pretty bumpy’ but RBA vigilant about continued high inflation risk

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The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, says the prime minister needs to “pick the phone up” and speak directly to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, after the Australian government accused a Chinese fighter jet of dropping flares close to an Australian helicopter in international waters.

The defence minister, Richard Marles, yesterday branded the incident as “unacceptable” and said the Australian pilot had to take evasive action to avoid the flares. You can read all the details below:

I think the prime minister needs to pick the phone up, frankly, and speak to the Chinese president … and express our deep concern, because at some stage, there’s going to be a miscalculation and an Australian defence force member is going to lose their life.

And that is a tragic circumstance that has to be avoided at all costs, but there will be a miscalculation by somebody who’s flying that jet or somebody who’s on the deck of a Chinese naval ship, something will happen.

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Bonza fleet’s grounding extended – as it happened

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Prime minister says trial ongoing into funding for women escaping violence

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to ABC RN about yesterday’s announcements after national cabinet.

Well, there is already a trial going ahead. We want to make sure that the processes are in place [so] that they will begin within the next financial year as a permanent program, not just offering financial support, but as well as offering support for referral services, risk assessments, safety planning, and other support …

This isn’t something that you solve with a meeting on one day. This is something that governments are determined to take action on. For some of us this is deeply personal, for others, it is incredibly important.

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Australia news live: Pauline Hanson ‘plainly targeted’ Greens senator with well-known racist phrase, court told

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Final submissions begin in racial discrimination case brought by Mehreen Faruqi against Hanson. Follow the today’s news live

As we flagged earlier, the treasurer Jim Chalmers will today announce foreign investment changes, with approvals to be made quicker and greater scrutiny to be placed on potential risks.

You can read all the details on this from Peter Hannam below:

Right now, we treat investments from right around the world more or less the same. We want to streamline it for the less-risky investments so we can devote much more time and energy and resources to screening the sorts of investments that we’re seeing in critical industries – like critical minerals, critical infrastructure, critical data, and the like.

This is all about strengthening the foreign investment framework to make sure that investment is in the national interest. We want to maximise the right kind of investment, but we want to minimise risk and that’s what these changes I’ll announce today are all about.

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Taylor Swift makes Arias history; Tucker Carlson and Clive Palmer to headline ‘Australian freedom conferences’ – as it happened

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As we reported, X has provided an update on its legal challenge against Australia’s eSafety commissioner, stating it had complied with a direction to remove content from the Wakeley church stabbing.

However, underneath the post from the platform’s global government affairs team (which we quoted in our previous post), the video is available to watch in a reply to the post, as of 7.45am AEST.

The eSafety Commissioner required X to remove posts containing a video of the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, filmed by an innocent bystander. [The bishop] has expressed his desire for the video to remain online.

X believes it has complied with the notice issued by eSafety, and with Australian law, by restricting all the posts at issue in Australia.

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Sussan Ley ‘really disappointed’ with Elon Musk – as it happened

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Hundreds gather in Sydney for Anzac Day dawn service

AAP has the details on Sydney’s dawn service where hundreds of people – including veterans – gathered under a full moon and clear skies for a solemn service in the CBD.

You who have loved will remember the glow of their glad young years, as you stand today to salute them in silence, with pride and with tears.

The best thing about the ceremony this morning is to see the number of people that come early in the morning.

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Sydney counter-terror raids – as it happened

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Inspired by similar protests in the United States, students from Sydney University established a protest on the quad in support of Palestine last night, stating they will remain until the uni cuts ties “with Israeli universities and weapons manufacturers”.

In the US, dozens of students have been arrested at pro-Palestine demonstrations at Yale University and New York University amid similar protests:

For six months now, we have watched bombs rain down on Gaza. These bombs hit their civilian targets because of the research carried out by universities like Sydney University... Students have a responsibility to stand up and refuse to be complicit in genocide.

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Senator’s X account removed – as it happened

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Anglicare says government spending eight times more on private investors than building housing itself

The Anglicare Australia executive director, Kasy Chambers, says the government must step up and intervene, instead of leaving housing to the private sector:

We found that the government spends eight times as much propping up private investors as it does on building housing itself. This approach is wrong, and it’s supercharging rents and house prices.

Housing cannot be left to hobby landlords and private developers. Only our government can ensure that rentals are affordable by building homes itself, and by fixing Australia’s unfair tax system.

289 rentals (0.6%) were affordable for a person earning a full-time minimum wage.

89 rentals (0.2%) were affordable for a person on the age pension.

31 rentals (0.1%) were affordable for a person on the disability support pension.

3 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person on jobseeker.

0 rentals (0%) were affordable for a person on youth allowance.

This is not hyperbole. It is Australia’s new normal.

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Australia news live: Dfat issues Middle East travel advice; Nationals concerned after fire ants spotted near Murray Darling Basin

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Reports of explosions in Iranian city of Isfahan prompt sell-off of stocks in Australia – and in other markets such as Japan. Follow the day’s news live

The NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, is speaking to the media after a 16-year-old was charged with a “terrorist act” for allegedly stabbing a bishop on Monday and is expected to appear at a bedside hearing today.

She said members of the joint counter-terrorism team interviewed the alleged offender at a medical facility last night, and he was subsequently charged with a commonwealth offence for terrorism and refused bail.

We expect he will be attending a bedside court hearing today to determine bail. This relates to the stabbing of the Bishop [Mar Mari Emmanuel, who] we allege on Monday night [was] stabbed up to six times.

We also allege that the boy had travelled for 90 minutes to attend that location from his home address.

We’ve got a crisis of male violence in Australia. We know that it’s a scourge in our society, we know it must end and I think it’s really clear women can’t be expected to solve violence against women although it is time for men to step up.

I don’t think debating definitions is the way to go … We need to act, we need to educate ourselves, men need to step up, we need to talk to our sons, to our colleagues, to our friends. We need to work together to a solution. And I think going down some kind of almost a wrong path to say let’s redefine – it’s not about definitions. This is about action. We need to shift the way in which we think about this …

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Seven boss departs – as it happened

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Marles continues breakfast rounds to discuss defence spending

The defence minister, Richard Marles, has been making the rounds this morning and has also spoken to ABC RN about yesterday’s defence announcement.

The reason why we make the observation that an invasion of Australia is a very unlikely scenario, no matter what happens, is because any adversary that wished to do us harm could do so much to us before ever setting foot on Australian soil – and disrupting those specific sea lines of communication, which I’ve described, would obviously achieve that. That that is where the risk of coercion lies, as one example.

And in order to protect ourselves in respect of that, we do need the ability to [project], because if you think about it, … the geography of our national security when seen through those lands is not the coastline of our continent. It in fact, lies much further afield.

We’re looking at a substantial increase on what’s already in the Online Safety Act. So not only a large amount – so for example, a $3m fine for an offence and ongoing fines, but a percentage of turnover as well.

We know that the revenues of some of these online platforms exceed those of some nations and so it needs to be a meaningful and substantial penalty system that’s put in place.

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Australia news live: Marles says Labor ‘utterly committed’ to Brereton response but can’t say when work will be completed

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Unemployment ‘might take up a little bit’ when new numbers released later this week

Q: Given the economic conditions we’re seeing, what should households with mortgages expect?

[Inflation] won’t necessarily continue to come off in a perfectly straight line, but [it] is a fraction of what it was a couple of years ago when we came to office. That’s a good thing.

So we’ve got a whole bunch of things going for us in Australia, but enough to concern us as well about the global conditions about the way that people are still under considerable cost of living pressure.

The way that I would describe it to your listeners is we’ve got inflation lingering in parts of the world, we’ve got growth slowing in China and elsewhere, we’ve got tensions rising in the Middle East and the war in Europe. We’ve got supply chains which are straining and we’ve got a global economy which is fragmenting and transforming and so all of these factors are really important to us as we finalise the government’s third budget.

These are going to be these global conditions are going to be a really big influence on our budget, so the trip to DC which will be a pretty quick and make the most of it but it’s a good opportunity to take the temperature of the global economy.

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Australia news live: Andrew Hastie warns of ‘breakouts of strategic disorder’ across globe; high court gives government win in ‘steering wheel’ visa case

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High court rules in favour of Andrew Giles in long-running case featuring a ‘bizarre’ photo of a signed ministerial brief next to a steering wheel. Follow today’s news live

‘Aid workers are to be protected’

Penny Wong was also asked to provide an update on the work done by Mark Binskin so far, who was appointed special adviser on Israel’s response to the deaths of World Central Kitchen aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.

There are positive engagements and we appreciate that this is a very important issue for Australia. We have been saying for a very long time it is important that international humanitarian law be adhered to.

Under international humanitarian law, as you know, aid workers are to be protected. Demonstrably, there was a deadly failure of deconfliction – deconfliction being the ways in which making sure that defence forces are aware of where humanitarian workers are so they can be protected and there was a deadly failure.

We’ve made no such decision, the discussion I want to have is to look at what is happening in the international community where there is the very important debate about how it is we secure long-lasting peace in a region where which has known so much conflict.

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Bridget McKenzie’s office wanted ‘sports rorts’ funding tripled after consultation with MPs and senators, documents confirm

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Exclusive: FoI documents show senator’s office spoke to other members, duty-senators and some cross-benchers to prioritise marginal and target seats

Bridget McKenzie’s office proposed tripling funding for the “sports rorts” program to deliver “priorities for target and marginal” seats after consultation with MPs and senators, new documents confirm.

After a three-year freedom-of-information battle, the Greens have secured the release of colour-coded spreadsheets related to the community sport infrastructure grant program and the “talking points” document prepared for McKenzie to pitch to then prime minister, Scott Morrison, to expand the program from $30m to $100m.

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Australia weather live updates: more heavy rain forecast for NSW and Qld as SES issues flood warnings; Sydney downpours cause train delays and airport flight cancellations

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Dozens of flights cancelled at Sydney airport and drivers told to avoid non-essential travel as inland low and coastal trough combine

Helen Reid from the Bureau of Meteorology has just provided us with an update on the Sydney rain and said the city could very well receive a month’s worth of rain in one day.

She pointed to the Observatory Hill gauge and said on average in April, there is around 126.5mm of rainfall during the month. Since 9am yesterday morning, there has been 106mm of rain.

We are expecting rainfall over Sydney to increase during today … I would suggest that if we got more than the April average, that wouldn’t be too beyond too far beyond this stretch of imagination.

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Australia news live: PM says it ‘isn’t good enough’ to say Gaza strike on aid workers ‘just a product of war’

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Prime minister reiterates that has ‘demanded full accountability for what has occurred’ from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Follow the day’s news live

After a number of comments about the state of famine in Gaza, which Hyman appears to be disputing – it’s quite difficult to keep up with his comments, though they seem to include allegations that Hamas is stealing aid – he is asked by host Sally Sara if he’s rejecting UN concerns of hunger and starvation in Gaza. I will come back and check his comments shortly but the upshot seems to be that he is, more or less.

I’ll bring you more direct lines from this interview shortly, bear with me.

I mean, obviously, we know that this isn’t something that the IDF would do or the Israeli Air Force would do on purpose.

There’s a war going on. Wars are awful. Nobody wanted this war, we certainly didn’t want this war, but we’re forced to fight it because it’s a war for our very existence.

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Youth curfew ‘not the long-term solution’, MP says – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese has called a snap press conference in Canberra at 8.30am. We’ll have coverage of this for you soon.

A man has died in Melbourne’s south after being struck by a truck on a major highway near Frankston.

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Penny Wong blames ‘Peter Dutton-Adam Bandt alliance’ for failure to pass Labor’s deportation laws

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But Greens’ David Shoebridge says Labor has ‘jumped the shark’ with the legislation and it requires more scrutiny

Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong has blamed a “Peter Dutton-Adam Bandt alliance” for the government’s failure to rush through “draconian” deportation legislation in the parliament last week.

But Greens senator David Shoebridge, who has described the laws as “draconian”, said the Labor government was alone in supporting the laws without scrutiny, arguing it was “everybody in the parliament except for Labor” who wanted further examination of legislation “that looked like it had been drawn in crayon without any rational basis behind it”.

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Australia politics live: Shorten to table bill to overhaul NDIS; Black Summer inquiry to deliver findings

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The Labor minister will present the proposed legislation to the lower house this morning. Follow the day’s news live

Ceasefire motion: Birmingham pushed for stronger condemnation of October 7 attacks

Simon Birmingham attempted to amend the motion to include a stronger condemnation of October 7 (the Australian parliament has passed motions condemning Hamas and the events of 7 October in the past).

We acknowledge the government in putting forward a resolution seeking to reflect much of the UN Security Council resolution; however, it is the opposition’s view that that does not say enough. It does not say enough to reflect the totality of the UN Security Council resolution nor does it say enough about the totality of what should be Australia’s clear, unequivocal moral conviction in this conflict.

That is why I present and seek leave to move amendments in this chamber, which would better reflect the UN Security Council resolution—namely, that the call for a ceasefire was for an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, a ceasefire that would secure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and that that can then lead to a sustainable ceasefire.

I know that this motion may not reflect every aspect of all our positions on these issues, but there is enough here to agree on. I ask senators to look for the points that are in front of them. Whether senators consider themselves a friend of Israelis or Palestinians or both, as I do, we should be able to come together in agreeing on the urgency of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. When hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are starving, we should be able to come together to underline the urgency of an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan leading to a sustainable ceasefire as per the UN Security Council resolution; we should be able to come together to demand Hamas comply with the Security Council’s demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages; and we should be able to come together to demand that the Netanyahu government comply with the Security Council’s demand that all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale are removed.

If the divided United Nations Security Council could come together on these issues then we ought to be able to do likewise. If countries as different as Algeria, Ecuador, France, the United Kingdom and others can agree on these points, then we ought to be able to do likewise. Not a single country voted against this resolution, and we should recognise what it means that not one of the permanent five members of the Security Council stood in the way. Right now we are faced with reports from the United Nations that 650,000 Palestinians in Gaza are starving and well over a million are at risk of starvation. Right now more than 1.7 million people in Gaza are internally displaced.

There are, as I have said, increasingly few safe spaces to go. Right now there are more than 130 hostages still being held by the terror group Hamas, and we condemn Hamas’ actions as we have always done.

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Australia politics live: Toyota boss says fuel efficiency standard ‘not a car tax’ as Labor defends secrecy around bill

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Renewed push to scrap activity level requirements for childcare subsidies

There was a lot of disappointment last budget when the government did not scrap the activity test as a way of making early child education more accessible and universal.

Zoe Daniel MP, Member for Goldstein

Georgie Dent, the CEO of the Parenthood

Sam Page, the CEO of Early Childhood Australia

Kate Carnell, the former Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and former ACT chief minister

Natalie Walker, the deputy chair of Goodstart Early Learning

Sue Morphett, a businesswoman and the former president of Chief Executive Women

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