Category Archives: Coalition

Israel must allow humanitarian relief to reach Gaza, Australia and UK say in new joint statement – as it happened

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As part of the latest Aukus developments, Australia will send A$4.6bn to the UK to clear bottlenecks at the Rolls-Royce nuclear reactor production line.

Richard Marles was asked why it costs so much, and why this component needs to be done in the UK. He told ABC News Breakfast:

We made clear a year ago that we wouldn’t be building the nuclear reactors in Australia. They will be built by Rolls Royce at its facility in Derby in the UK and once the sealed reactors are built, they will be taken here to the Osborne Naval ship yard and placed in the submarines which the rest of which will be built here at Osborne.

Building nuclear reactors is difficult to do and in order for this to play out, that facility in Derby, which is building nuclear reactors for Britain’s navy, that needs to be expanded and that is what this contribution is for.

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Landmark report calls for removal of LGBTQ+ discrimination exemptions for Australia’s religious schools

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Law Reform Commission says schools shouldn’t be allowed to discriminate against staff and students on basis of sexuality, gender identity or relationship status

Blanket exemptions allowing religious schools to discriminate against staff and students on the basis of sexuality and gender identity should be repealed, a key report to the federal government has recommended.

The long-awaited report from the Australian Law Reform Commission, released on Thursday, says the institutions should be allowed to preference staff in line with their beliefs so long as its proportionate and “reasonably necessary” to maintaining a community of faith and isn’t unlawful under existing discrimination laws.

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David Shoebridge says Julian Assange ‘may not survive’ trial and extradition – as it happened

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Expect to hear a lot more on this today:

Southern Australia could face gas shortages during “extreme peak demand days” from 2025 as Bass Strait supplies dwindle, the Australian Energy Market Operator has said.

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Australia politics live: Steven Miles says Suncorp Stadium will host Brisbane Olympics opening and closing ceremonies

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‘There’ll be a lot of people grieving today’

Both Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek were asked about soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon.

The Fitzgibbon family are a family of honour. Jack died in service to our nation. Joel has served our nation. The family will be absolutely grieving. We hope and pray Jack is with our maker, give comfort to them. You’ve seen the Fitzgibbons, you’ve watched them on television. They’re a great family. He is also my mate. We’ll turn up and give what support we can to Jack’s family.

It’s just the worst thing that any parent can imagine and so our hearts go out to Joel and Diane and their family and the friends and comrades that Jack had in the service as well. We know there’ll be a lot of people grieving today.

Well, first of all, of course it’s not on government devices in Australia either. We’ve got a ban here in Australia on government devices. But there are 8.5 million Australians who are using it.

We’ll take the advice of our security and intelligence agencies on anything we need to do around TikTok. I think people should be careful of the data that they put online in general. Like I say, if the security and intelligence agencies give us advice on TikTok, we’ll take it.

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Liberal MP urges Australia to follow US in TikTok crackdown, calling app a ‘serious threat’ to national security

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Shadow home affairs spokesperson James Paterson labels social media platform a ‘bad faith actor’

The shadow home affairs spokesperson has labelled TikTok a “bad faith actor” and a “serious threat” to Australia’s national security, urging the Albanese government to follow the United States in its crackdown on the video-sharing app.

The Liberal senator James Paterson said he was not advocating for a total ban on the popular app but wants Australia to emulate the United States in its bid to force the Chinese tech company that owns TikTok to divest its business in the US.

Paterson told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday he hoped changes to the app’s ownership structure would lower the risk of Australian data being harvested by the Chinese government and prevent its influence in spreading disinformation.

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Passengers treated after ‘technical problem’ – as it happened

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Outer suburban drivers overtake inner-city drivers in EV uptake

New data from the Electric Vehicle Council shows that outer suburban drivers have overtaken inner-city drivers in their EV uptake.

I think some tired stereotypes about EVs in Australia will need to be updated.

What this data tells us is that the average EV buyer lives in the suburbs and might well be keen to use the new car to take the kids camping on the weekend. They might even be thinking about towing a boat.

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Lowitja O’Donoghue remembered at state funeral – as it happened

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North Melbourne’s Alastair Clarkson free to coach in round one after avoiding suspension for outburst in weekend’s trial match. This blog is now closed

Scooter rider dies in crash in Sydney

A scooter rider has died following a crash at North Ryde in Sydney this morning.

We are yet to see her beautiful eyes open, however, she has shown some really positive signs that she may be hearing her loved ones.

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Australia news live: former Victorian MP Fiona Patten winds up Reason party and rules out political comeback; police to provide update in Samantha Murphy press conference

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NSW government urged to double social housing by 2050

Homelessness NSW is urging the state government to spend $1bn each year for a decade to double the supply of social housing by 2050.

NSW has failed to invest in social housing for decades. Last year, just one-fifth of people seeking help from homelessness services could find long-term accommodation.

Right now, many of the 57,000 households on the social housing waitlist are forced to wait up to a decade for a safe and stable place to call home.

Underfunded frontline providers are being flooded with calls for help and forced to turn away one in every two people who need accommodation. Services will be unable to keep staff on or their doors open without more funding.

Even for people who get through the door, help is limited. Half of those who need temporary or crisis accommodation cannot access it. That means women and children are forced to return to violent partners, seek shelter in a vehicle, on a couch or the street.

But there has been no improvement in closing the gap on life expectancy, with Indigenous Australian males and females expected to live 8.8 and 8.1 years respectively, less than other Australians.

The target to reduce the number of children in out of home care is not on track, while the target to reduce adult imprisonment is not on track and worsening.

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Australia news live: West Gate Bridge climate protesters jailed; Greens propose plan for 360,000 homes

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Proposal to create a public property developer, with 70% of homes offered for rent, and rents capped at 25% of average household income. Follow the day’s news live

New analysis shows 2m hectares of Queensland forest destroyed in five years

More than 2m hectares (4.94m acres) of bushland in Queensland that included large swathes of possible koala habitat has been cleared over a five-year period, new analysis shows.

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Australia news live: Higgins and Reynolds in defamation mediation talks; first apparent lithium battery-related fire deaths in NSW

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Zoe Daniel says Asean has not done enough on crisis in Myanmar

The independent MP for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, was just on ABC RN to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. She argued that Asean hasn’t done enough on the issue, and needs to do more.

There’s also I think, a desire within Asean for economic cooperation and to try to take that route with the junta as a form of leverage … My concern though is that, I think, that we might be heading down the path of a form of normalisation with the junta and you’ve currently got a situation where about 30% of the country is in stable control of rebel ethnic groups, and the junta is really only holding the major cities.

Any form of normalisation with the junta that is pushed by Asean, and I think will be raised with the Australian government for support this week, could backfire because it could in effect allow the junta to enter some of those areas that are reasonably stable and are actually managing themselves.

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Opposition reshuffles shadow ministry after underwhelming Dunkley byelection result

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There have been internal calls for the Coalition to announce more policy in the lead-up to the next election

Luke Howarth, a conservative, has been promoted to shadow assistant treasurer and minister for financial services in a Coalition reshuffle that also promotes Melissa McIntosh into the shadow ministry.

The Coalition has signalled it will target Labor over home ownership, creating a new shadow assistant ministry for Andrew Bragg a moderate senator, and energy affordability, a portfolio to be taken by McIntosh, a member of the centre right.

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Liberals pick management consultant Simon Kennedy for Cook byelection

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The party misses the chance to have a female candidate in the safe seat vacated by former prime minister Scott Morrison

Simon Kennedy will contest Scott Morrison’s seat of Cook for the Liberals in the byelection triggered by the former prime minister’s resignation.

Kennedy, a consultant and the former candidate for Bennelong, won preselection in the first round on Monday night with 158 out of 296 votes, beating the mayor of Sutherland shire, Carmelo Pesce, and war widow and veteran family advocate commissioner, Gwen Cherne.

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Australia news live: NSW government to look ‘really closely’ at GPS rules for police-issued weapons after killing of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird

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‘Change needs to be made’ on NSW police policies and procedures, premier says. Follow the day’s news live

‘Context has changed’ since NSW lit up Opera House to support Israel, Minns says

ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland:

You ordered the lighting up of the Sydney Opera House sails in support of Israel after 1,200 Israelis were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Since then, 30,000 Palestinians have died. Will you consider lighting up the Sydney Opera House in support of Palestine?

This is an international conflict now and I don’t want to further exacerbate or pull apart Sydney’s already quite volatile mix. I would make the point that much of what will be said in New South Wales will [not] affect the peace situation in the Middle East, but a lot of what could be said can affect peace right here in this state. So we need to be careful with our commentary, we need to focus on not exacerbating community tensions or divisions, and that’s going to be the NSW government’s approach over the coming months.

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Dan Tehan condemns ‘big Australia’ policy but won’t reveal Coalition’s immigration plan

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Shadow immigration minister wants ‘better Australia’ but refuses to say what level of migration Coalition would pursue in government

The shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, has criticised a “big Australia” policy but refused to say what level of migration the Coalition would pursue in government, saying only that it wants “a better Australia”.

In an interview with the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, Tehan was repeatedly challenged to spell out the Coalition’s view on acceptable migration levels, but said: “I can tell you what it shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be as high as what it is today.”

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Dunkley byelection: Labor’s Jodie Belyea triumphs but Liberals win modest swing

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Liberal candidate Nathan Conroy wins swing of more than 3% but well short of the 6.3% required, leaving Belyea as the newest federal MP

Peter Dutton’s Liberal party has won a modest swing in the Dunkley byelection but fallen short in the Labor seat vacated by the death of the popular local MP Peta Murphy.

The Liberal candidate, Nathan Conroy, has currently received 47.5% of the two-party preferred vote, a swing of more than 3% to the opposition, well short of the 6.3% swing required to win the seat off the Albanese government.

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Australia ‘horrified’ by Gaza humanitarian catastrophe – as it happened

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Both sides of politics are pulling out all the stops as the Dunkley byelection goes down to the wire.

Speaking on Sunrise this morning, the education minister, Jason Clare, and the deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, went head-to-head over a tweet she published last night.

You should delete the tweet… This is a classic example of why women aren’t joining the Liberal party and why they’re not voting for the Liberal party, because of that classic, desperate, grubby political scare campaign we saw from the Liberal party yesterday.

I don’t know, really, you must wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and think, after 25 years of being a member of parliament, is this what I’ve become? I’m reduced to putting out tweets like this?

Anyone who watched question time during this week and saw your hopeless immigration minister unable to demonstrate that he even knows where his criminals [are], what they’re doing, who’s monitoring them and whether the community is safe, would probably not agree with what you’ve just said.

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Australia politics live: Victorian premier cancels iftar dinner after Muslim peak bodies boycott; jump in renewable energy investment

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Jacinta Allan confirms dinner, which has been held since 2015, will not go ahead. Follow the day’s news live

Hockey says Asio boss should name accused politician in interests of transparency

Joe Hockey said it was “not standard practice”, as Hockey is now apparently an expert in how Asio and like-minded security agencies operate.

You know, they’ve launched investigations over here. I mean, you know, you had you had the Mueller inquiry into President Trump. You had an FBI inquiry into Hillary Clinton. You don’t just make this allegations, leave them unnamed and say, ‘Oh, yeah. They’re back in the community. They’re fine’, that just does not happen.

I mean, allegations have been made against Senator Menendez here as a sitting senator. They named the sitting senator.

Talking about a traitor amongst the ranks. He shouldn’t do that. If he’s not going to name that person. It’s absurd. It’s absolutely absurd.

It’s inconceivable here in the United States or the United Kingdom, or most other countries, that the head of the intelligence agency would go out and make that statement without telling everyone who it was.

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Deal allows police to march in parade – as it happened

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On the “broken promise” of changing the stage-three tax cuts (the latest Guardian Essential poll had Albanese falling in the trust stakes) the prime minister said:

We made not an easy decision. We made the right decision for all the right reasons. We know that families are under cost of living pressure.

The idea that we could sit back and ignore the clear recommendations that this was the best way that we could have an impact on providing that assistance to middle Australia without putting upward pressure on inflation – we couldn’t ignore that.

This is just a terrible incident that’s occurred here. The loss of the two young men and I feel for the grieving of the family, the friends. They obviously were full of life, because so many people interacted with them. It’s a really tough day for, as well, the queer community, and it’s been a very difficult time.

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Former NSW government accused of ‘pork barrelling at public’s expense’ after scathing audit

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The $5bn post-pandemic spending program ‘not informed by robust research or analysis’ auditor general finds

Labor has accused the former New South Wales Coalition government of “pork barrelling at the public’s expense” after the auditor general found the design of a $5bn scheme to funnel money into areas worst hit by Covid lockdowns “lacked integrity”.

In a report released on Wednesday, Margaret Crawford found that more than $1bn was allocated to “low or moderate merit” infrastructure projects in western Sydney as part of the massive post-pandemic spending program WestInvest.

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Lidia Thorpe backs Mardi Gras over NSW police decision – as it happened

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The trade minister, Don Farrell, is at the World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi where he had a sideline chat with China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, overnight.

Sideline chats are the unofficial official talks – it’s not considered a bilateral, but both sides have to agree to the talk in order for it to happen. So it’s not just a see them and grab situation between sessions. It’s a little more planned than that.

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