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Court to rule in Pauline Hanson-Mehreen Faruqi case
A federal court judge is ready to rule on whether Pauline Hanson made a racial slur when she told Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi to go back to Pakistan.
Continue reading...Opposition leader, who says Anthony Albanese is ‘obfuscating’ in his answers on Qantas upgrades, says he never personally asked mining magnate
Peter Dutton has admitted his office asked the mining billionaire Gina Rinehart’s company for a lift on a Hancock Prospecting jet to a Bali bombing memorial service, days after he said he had never personally asked Australia’s richest person for help with flights around Australia.
The opposition leader said his office’s request to Hancock came after he claimed the government would not help him get a flight on a special purpose flight, that commercial options were not available, and that a chartered jet would be too expensive. The admission came as Dutton again ridiculed Anthony Albanese for his explanations over the widening Qantas upgrades scandal, accusing the prime minister of being “dishonest”.
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Young man dies in multi-vehicle crash in Queensland’s Bundaberg Region
A fatal multi-vehicle traffic crash last night at Elliot in Queensland’s Bundaberg Region last night is being investigated by the police forensic crash Unit.
All travel has been appropriately declared and is a matter of public record.
The only people that need to look at the rules are [shadow transport minister] Bridget McKenzie and Peter Dutton. They’ve got some serious explaining to do.
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Mark Butler flags importance of an Australian CDC in future pandemic responses
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, spoke to ABC News Breakfast this morning, after the Covid inquiry report was released yesterday.
Currently, we’re the only developed country that doesn’t have that single authoritative body that can provide to governments and communities about an evidence-based approach to pandemic response and to other communicable diseases. So that is the foundation on which we build a system to respond to the next pandemic - because there will be a next one – much more effectively than we did to Covid.
We all remember just how incredibly difficult and challenging it was, how it affected every aspect of our lives. And in terms of how the government worked during that period of time – we worked with those public health experts and advisers. Our focus was very much on the health and wellbeing of our community, particularly the vulnerable members of our community who were most at risk.
This was a deadly disease. We saw, particularly overseas, it killed so many people. So we were focused on a public health response – a public health response that was focused on supporting the health of our community, and also too understanding the significant additional supports that we needed to provide to small businesses to support them during this incredibly difficult time.
Continue reading...Prime minister’s office says opposition leader is making a ‘pathetic attempt at creating a headline’ over flight upgrades from 2009 to 2019
Peter Dutton says Anthony Albanese should refer himself to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) after questioning whether the prime minister’s ties to Qantas influenced his government’s decision not to allow more Qatar Airways flights into the country.
It follows allegations in a book that Albanese had personally liaised with the former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce about obtaining free flight upgrades during his time as transport minister and opposition leader.
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Continue reading...Anthony Albanese to launch schemes in NSW and Victoria today; Domain says rate of price increases is cooling. Follow today’s news headlines live
Bowen derides Coalition’s ‘nuclear fantasy’
Chris Bowen, minister for climate change and energy, is speaking on ABC Radio National this morning.
If I was the energy minister of another country, I would consider the opportunities that I had in that country – but a country saying to Australia, with our excellent renewable resources, that we should go down the nuclear road when we have no nuclear industry, no nuclear expertise of the scale that we would need for a nuclear power industry, is like us going to Finland or Scandinavia and saying, ‘Listen, we know [you have] a lot of snow, but you should really try beach surfing.’ It just doesn’t make any sense.
We have to play to our strengths in Australia, and we have the best renewable resources in the world, and the opposition wants to stop us using them, and in turn, keep coal in the system for longer. They’re quite explicit about that while we wait for this nuclear fantasy to come on board. That would be terrible for emissions and fatal for energy reliability.
Continue reading...Earlier this morning, David Crisafulli said it was still a ‘no’ to any nuclear proposal, and Dutton said he ‘respected’ that. Follow the day’s news live
Employment minister Murray Watt has refused to comment on reports Anthony Albanese used his membership in Qantas’s chairman’s lounge to solicit flight upgrades when he was transport minister and opposition leader.
Watt was on RN Breakfast, where he refused to be drawn on what he called “unsourced claim by a journalist” that Albanese would reach out directly to former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce directly about his travel.
If you have a look at Peter Dutton behaviour, for example, several upgrades from the Qantas and other airlines, he’s had free flights paid for by Gina Rinehart.
I really would wonder whether it’s wise for the opposition to start calling this kind of stuff into question.
We obviously spend an enormous amount of time at airports. I think this week, I’m going to be in about three or four different cities, flying from place to place. And it is helpful from time to time, to be able to have private meetings or private environments, to be able to have teams meetings with your office, which I do every time I fly.
We want Labor to negotiate like we did in the previous housing legislation, where we not only improved and passed Labour’s housing legislation, but we got $3bn to start building public and community housing.
I think this is part of the message that we’re trying to give to the government. We are up for negotiation.
Continue reading...Nationals MP Keith Pitt claims Coalition would have mandate if it won federal election despite opposition to nuclear power from state’s incoming LNP government
A senior federal Labor minister has accused Peter Dutton of trying to “force nuclear energy on Queenslanders” following the LNP’s state election win after which a Coalition MP claimed the federal party would forge ahead with its power plan.
The federal Nationals MP for Hinkler, Keith Pitt, on Sunday said the Coalition would have a mandate to press ahead with its nuclear policy if Dutton won the next election.
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Dutton and Shorten weigh in on Queensland state election
The federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, and the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, both spoke with the Today show earlier from Queensland, before the election.
He’s focused on the issues which affect Queenslanders: housing, health, cheaper transport and of course tackling youth crime. So we’ll find out soon enough who’s going to win.
The fact is that it’s time for a change in Queensland and law and order is out of control.
Well, yes, he did. He did three days ago and, despite that, the government’s scare campaign continues.
The scare campaign on a sensitive issue that has been run, quite frankly, crosses the line, and we’re better than that as Queenslanders … There won’t be changes to abortion laws and Queenslanders need to know that.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Conservative forces pose ‘genuine threats to the protections women have fought for and won’, Victoria’s premier says
Jacinta Allan is warning that the battle for abortion rights must continue as conservative forces pose “real and genuine threats to the protections women have fought for and won” amid “frightening” debate in South Australia and Queensland.
Victoria’s Labor premier made her strongest comments to date on abortion in an interview with Guardian Australia, just days before Queenslanders go to the polls in an election that has become dominated by the issue.
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The Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW (RTBU) conducted a five-minute work stoppage early this morning, which is leading to delays across the network.
Sydney Trains says this has led to minor delays and “larger than normal gaps in services may be experienced”, according to an alert:
Trains stops and platforms may change at short notice and some trains may be cancelled. Extra travel time may be experienced in some cases and you may need to change to continue your trip.
The action was set to happen in select locations across the network to ensure we could ramp up stoppages whenever needed.
The rail agencies continue to bargain in good faith with the Combined Rail Unions for a new enterprise bargaining agreement. Sydney Trains are working to minimise the disruption to commuters as much as possible.
Continue reading...Liberal senator says world leaders may avoid visiting Australia unless measures brought in to stop senators protesting outside chamber
The opposition Senate leader has flagged the possibility of new penalties for senators who engage in “disorderly conduct” beyond the chamber itself, after independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s shouted protest at a parliamentary reception for King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
Simon Birmingham suggests parliamentary censure is an insufficient response to deter future protests and that new measures could be required. A civil disobedience expert, however, has raised questions as to whether such further measures were necessary or “appropriate”.
Continue reading...Peter Dutton’s proposed 10-year freeze to national building codes would be a shame, one industry leader says, ‘given the serious impacts of our changing climate’
The industry minister, Ed Husic, has accused the opposition of condemning Australians to live in “shoddy” homes that could result in a “Grenfell Tower inferno” onshore, after it revealed plans to freeze building standard improvements for a decade if elected.
The proposal has already drawn criticism from housing experts and the independent ACT senator David Pocock, but some industry groups have also distanced themselves from the 10-year freeze to national building codes.
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More on news media bargaining code and funding of media publishers
One of the committee’s key recommendations was a digital platform levy on companies like Meta and Google, which some have described as a tech tax to fund public interest journalism.
So in parts of Europe, for example, there’s a 2% digital services tax. You could look at a public interest journalism levy.
The issue that we have fundamentally here is the … offshoring of the digital platform’s profits, where currently they pay very little tax because they argue that they don’t operate in Australia, even though they’re getting this enormous profit yield of the advertising on their platforms. So that’s another thing that has to be resolved within legislation in order to impose a tax.
But simply imposing a tax and feeding [it] into media organisations … won’t fix the issue if Meta continues to deprecate news content – that is, reduce the exposure of news content to its consumers.
Continue reading...Shadow Indigenous Australians spokesperson says she ‘cannot agree’ with later term abortions, sparking rebuke from Sussan Ley, Jane Hume and Bridget McKenzie
Senior Coalition women have rebuked Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s comments about abortion, saying the Liberal party had “no interest in unwinding women’s reproductive rights” and saying it was an issue advanced by “fringe” politicians.
Even staunchly “pro-life” colleagues of the senator would not back her comments on Wednesday, with Queensland’s Matt Canavan saying it would not be helpful to discuss abortion in the lead-up to the federal election, and calling to “turn the temperature down” on the debate.
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The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been speaking with ABC RN about a range of issues – including Lidia Thorpe’s actions at King Charles’ parliamentary reception yesterday.
Dutton argued that “sometimes people make it all about themselves, and I think that’s what yesterday was.” He said it “didn’t advance anyone’s cause” and “add[s] to the self promotion … that she seeks.”
The vast majority of people have been very welcoming the king’s visit, and I think it’s been an opportunity to underscore the stability in our democracy, our rule of law, separation of powers, all of those institutions that we inherited from our British heritage.
That’s part of the success story of our country, and it’s a good reminder during his visit [that] if we change it, I think we want to be very careful about the system we’re changing to and whether or not we would be a safer, more secure, community and environment for decades to come or not.
Continue reading...Business Council of Australia also recommends phasing out stamp duty and fast-tracking migrant workers for building industry
The nation’s peak business body has called for a $10bn housing reform fund that will pay out to states that fix the regulation and planning bottlenecks contributing to the supply crisis.
The Business Council of Australia is also pushing for the nation-wide removal of stamp duty on homes, warning that it disincentivises people from moving to smaller dwellings and freeing up larger homes.
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Continue reading...Waverley council says no remaining evidence of the debris could be found at Bondi, Bronte and Tamarama beaches. Follow today’s news live
Max Chandler-Mather continued, and told ABC News Breakfast:
I would argue in this instance in the context of one of the worst housing crises we have seen in generations … now is precisely the time where we need more than tinkering around the edges and we need substantial change.
There is a building consensus we need to scrap these tax handouts. Increasingly the biggest barrier is a prime minister [who has just] gone through multiple days of scandal for buying another property and being a property investor.
So I think there’s a real moment here the government should seize to make real substantial change to the lives of hundreds of thousands of renters, and the bottom line is the Greens are ready and willing to work with Labor to do it.
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New polling from the Australia Institute shows that Australians view the supermarkets as “public enemy No 1” in the cost of living crisis.
The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work surveyed 1,014 voters, and 83% said supermarkets deserve some blame – or a great deal of blame – for the soaring cost of living.
Australians are pointing the finger squarely at supermarkets as public enemy No 1 in the cost-of-living crisis … More people blame supermarkets for the cost-of-living crunch than governments or banks.
The public’s appetite for increased supermarket competition is unmistakable. Nearly two-thirds of voters see it as crucial for alleviating cost-of-living pressures … There’s likely to be political rewards for taking actions that increase supermarket competition.
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Queensland leaders to lock horns again in election debate
After their deputies traded blows, the Queensland premier and opposition leader are set to face off again ahead of the state election, AAP reports.
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