Category Archives: Coalition

Greens-Coalition alliance may force Chalmers to keep power to overrule RBA on rates

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Chalmers had announced plans to scrap the veto power but former treasurers and RBA governors say it is a vital ‘safety valve’

An alliance between the Greens and Liberal parties in the Senate could force Jim Chalmers to keep a government power that allows treasurers to overrule Reserve Bank decisions on interest rates.

Chalmers announced plans to scrap the veto power in the government response to recommendations from a panel which reviewed the Reserve Bank operations and made suggestions for improvement.

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Nationals deputy leader Perin Davey could face official complaint over apparent slurring in Senate

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Exclusive: Davey says she is aware complaint may be lodged, which could lead to her party membership being cancelled or suspended if upheld

The Nationals’ deputy leader, Perin Davey, is facing the prospect of an official complaint from a party member over an incident in which she slurred and stumbled over words in a Senate hearing.

According to the NSW Nationals’ constitution, complaints that a member’s “general behaviour, public utterances, or writings, have been such as to bring or attempt to bring discredit or undue embarrassment to the party” can be grounds to cancel or suspend their membership.

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Australia news live: NSW police officer charged with murder after disappearance of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies

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Former celebrity blogger expected to face court. Follow updates live

What will happen if there’s a storm during today’s Taylor Swift concert?

With a thunderstorm forecast at Sydney Olympic Park this evening, many are asking what this means for the Eras tour?

The show will play, rain or shine. The only exception would be severe weather, which could impact the safety of artists and patrons. Such a decision would be made by NSW Police, the event promoters and Venues NSW staff.

Please follow venue screens and staff instructions in these circumstances.

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Fire situation ‘will get worse before it gets better’ – as it happened

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Competition minister Andrew Leigh just spoke with ABC RN about, you guessed it, competition.

Speaking about supermarket prices and concentration in particular, Leigh said he is worried that Australia’s market concentration has “increased over recent decades”.

We’ve got evidence now from very good micro data, which wasn’t available a few years back, that market concentration has gone up, that markups have increased – that is the gap between costs and prices – and that there’s less job switching than there was in the past which is a problem, because switching jobs is one of the best ways people boost their wages. All of that points to a less dynamic economy, and maybe one of the reasons why we just had the lousiest decade of productivity growth in the post-war era.

It’s not a priority that we’re focusing on at the moment.

In London to support Julian Assange’s hearing on whether he can appeal his extradition to the US. Julian’s extradition would strike at the very heart of free speech [and] democracy. Enough is enough. The US must drop the extradition of Julian Assange.

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Australia news live: wages rise by 4.2% over 2023 in highest growth since 2009; flight cancellation crackdown

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Transport minister Catherine King unveils overhaul to legislation governing Sydney airport, to significantly increase transparency over allocation of take-off and landing slots. Follow the day’s news live

Man dies after electric unicycle crash in Victoria

A man has died after crashing his electric unicycle in Bellfield yesterday evening.

We have concerns for his health. We have been working consistently since coming to government, particularly behind-the-scenes, to say that we believe Mr Assange should be returned … These sort of issues of diplomacy are not always best done through a megaphone, but we will continue to advocate for an end to this and see Mr Assange returned home.

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Hastie’s defence comments ‘unhinged and misleading’, Conroy says – as it happened

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Ex-cyclone Lincoln could gather strength and redevelop

A massive storm that lashed the Top End with heavy rain could gather strength and redevelop into a tropical cyclone, AAP reports.

We’ve seen all the leaders of major parties say they take on board and accept in the recommendations … but it appears very little has changed on the ground. We still have unlimited and unmonitored alcohol consumption in Parliament House and in the workplace.

That’s why I put to the prime minister random testing could be introduced. Because we know from – even from driving, it’s a deterrent. As soon as you have a risk of getting caught, it changes behaviour.

People have had enough of politicians thinking there’s different standards that apply to them in Parliament House than what applies in other workplaces.

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Barnaby Joyce says he has given up alcohol for Lent as Perin Davey admits having two drinks before Senate hearing

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New England MP accuses opponents of exploiting issue for political gain, while footage emerges of deputy Nationals leader appearing to slur her words

Barnaby Joyce says he’s giving up alcohol for Lent while accusing political opponents of seeking to exploit the issue of parliamentarians’ consumption of alcohol, as the conduct of politicians again falls under the spotlight.

The shadow veterans affairs minister made the comments on Monday after the deputy Nationals leader, Perin Davey, admitted she had two drinks before a Senate committee hearing in which she appeared to slur and stumble over words.

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Australia news live: Taylor Swift shows to go ahead at Sydney Olympic Park after no asbestos found – as it happened

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NSW environment watchdog gives venue green light after tests; agency says schools at Marsden Park and Orchard Hill found to have mulch containing bonded asbestos. This blog is now closed

Asked about the Barnaby Joyce incident and “issues of alcohol in Parliament House”, Chandler-Mather says the public is right to expect “a high standard for politicians”, even though they “don’t always deliver”.

Look, personally, in general I don’t think drug testing and alcohol testing in any workplace is necessarily a good idea. People are justifiably upset at the standard politicians hold themselves to.

When we talk about immigrants, we’re talking about the nurses and teachers, construction workers. Secondly, we saw during Covid net migration reached near zero and house prices continue to … go up. Property is treated as a massive speculative asset that drives up the price of housing.

I want to be clear, we have enough homes for people to live in. We have enough construction materials to build the homes for the new people coming to this country. We don’t have the political will to take on a housing system and property developers who restrict supply to make money for themselves and treat housing as a huge speculative asset.

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BoM issues cyclone alert for NT and Queensland; NSW Health warns of high-dose MDMA tabs in circulation – as it happend

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Heavy rainfall is expected to hit the Gulf of Carpentaria coast with a risk of a possible tropical cyclone from Thursday. This blog is now closed

Not everyone voted to bring Julian Assange back to Australia

Looking at the Hansard, it seems there were 11 MPs who abstained from voting on the Assange motion:

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Australia politics live: Queensland introduces bill for carbon reduction target; Garnaut argues for zero-carbon exports

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‘Export of zero-carbon goods can underpin a long period of high investment, rising productivity, full employment and rising incomes,’ economist tells press club. Follow the day’s news live

When it comes to treaty and truth-telling though, things are a little less clear. For all intents and purposes the government seems to be backing away from a designated federal process. We heard some of that yesterday, but Linda Burney continues it today.

For all Jacinta Price is accusing the Labor government of doing treaty “by stealth” that doesn’t appear to be the reality. Instead, existing processes look like being utilised.

I am having discussions with the cabinet about that, and I’m not going to go into those discussions. But the issue of truth-telling is incredibly important. And there are many, many ways in which that can happen, including the school curriculum.

The reality is the treaty process is well under way at a state and in many ways at a local level. You look at the Noongar agreement in and around Perth. For all intents and purposes, that’s a treaty.

What I’m suggesting is that we will listen to what people are saying.

I know that there are some people in the media, but I want to talk also to community leadership. I’m meeting with land councils today, for example, who are in Canberra this week for estimates. Those are the organisations that really worked very hard towards the referendum and I want to hear from them where they believe the next steps should be.

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Commuter chaos as wild weather leaves half of Melbourne’s train lines offline – as it happened

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Today is the 16th anniversary of Rudd’s national apology

It is National Apology Day, which marks the anniversary of the day the former prime minister Kevin Rudd formally apologised to Indigenous people for the stolen generations.

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Seven of the immigration detainees released in Australia were convicted of murder or attempted murder

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Home affairs department also reveals 24 former detainees have been charged with visa rule breaches or state offences since their release

The revelation that seven of 149 people released from immigration detention were convicted of murder or attempted murder has reignited a political firestorm around the government’s handling of the NZYQ high court case.

The home affairs department revealed on Monday that 24 of the people released as a result of the high court’s ruling have already been charged for visa condition breaches or state offences and 36 are not required to wear ankle bracelets.

72 convicted for assault and violent offending, kidnapping, armed robbery

37 for sexually based offending, including child sex offending

16 for domestic violence and stalking

13 for serious drug offending

Seven for murder and attempted murder;

Fewer than five for people smuggling, crimes of serious international concern; and

Fewer than five with “low level or no criminality”

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Albanese calls on Coalition to explain Barnaby Joyce footpath incident

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Prime minister says ‘there needs to be an explanation’ after former deputy prime minister was seen lying on a Canberra street swearing into his phone

The prime minister has called for the Coalition leadership to explain the actions of former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who was last week filmed lying on a Canberra footpath having a phone conversation.

Guardian Australia understands Joyce won’t attend the Nationals party room meeting scheduled for Monday.

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Australia politics live: PNG PM James Marape praises legacy of Gough Whitlam in historic address to parliament

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Marape hails Whitlam for ‘hearing the cries of the founding fathers of Papua New Guinea for our own self-determination’. Follow the day’s news live

David Littleproud continued:

But there needs to be greater architectural reform, which is also what Professor Fels articulated, which is what the Nationals have said. When there’s too much market concentration, you have too much power.

And all we’re saying is that whether it is in the supermarket [or farm gate], we want fair prices from the farm gate to the supermarket gate.

I think that he demonstrated the need and reinforced what the Nationals have been calling for, when there’s evidence, clear evidence around price gouging.

We saw that with meat prices where farm grade prices dropped by 60% or 70% in June. Yet, the checkout price only dropped by 18%. They put pressure all the way down through the supply chain. And what Allan Fels has said in his inquiry is that we need to have more ACCC price investigations, where there’s clear evidence. And that’s what we were calling for and the government ignored that. And I think shoppers have paid too much.

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Australia politics live: army to hire UK military helicopters to fill Taipan gap; PNG PM coming to Canberra

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The ‘Juno’ training helicopters will support essential training for aircrew before the arrival of new Black Hawks from the US later this year. Follow the day’s news live

The ADF expects that the training helicopters will be available for operations in Oakey in Queensland by around the middle of this year.

The government will argue these helicopters have been chosen because they can perform a variety of roles “including personnel and equipment transport and Defence assistance to the civil community”.

We need a highly capable Army. When the tough but necessary decision was made last year to expedite the withdrawal of the MRH-90s from service, it meant that we needed to look at all options when it came to filling the capability gap and the training which our servicemen and women need.

We have been working with the United States and United Kingdom on ways in which we can bridge this gap, and their support and willingness with the acceleration of the Black Hawks and leasing of training helicopters will have a significant impact.

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Australia politics live: Coalition votes to back Labor’s changes to stage-three tax cuts

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PM says opposition ‘tying themselves in knots’ as parliament resumes. Follow the day’s news live

School funding data

(continued from previous post)

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News live: Australian government ‘appalled’ by Yang Hengjun’s suspended death sentence, Wong says

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The foreign minister, Penny Wong, says ‘Australia will not relent in their advocacy for justice’ for Dr Yang. Follow the day’s news live

Finance minister Katy Gallagher was asked about the Grattan Institute research (we had this earlier in the blog) showing that a third of households don’t pay tax and therefore miss out on the benefits.

Will the government consider raising jobseeker?

I think the treasurer and I have made it clear that every budget, we look at all aspects of expenditure across government, that would include looking at our payments and looking at our services … I think the PM committed to that before the election, this is something that we keep under consideration. It has to be balanced up with all of the other competing pressures where people want additional spending as well.

I think people are up for a rational and reasonable discussion… We made this decision based on putting people before politics.

I’m sure there’ll be others that will write things about [this] in future, but that hasn’t been something that we’ve been conscious of, it really has been about what we can do to help people – particularly those that have been feeling the crunch from the interest rate increases.

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Climate groups welcome fuel efficiency standards – as it happened

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Labor tried to amend stage-three tax cuts, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese says Labor attempted to amend the stage-three tax cuts but its proposal failed by a single vote:

What we did in the parliament in 2019 is two things. One, we tried to amend our the stage-three tax cuts. We weren’t successful. We failed by just one vote. When that occurred, we thought that we weren’t prepared to stand in the way of all of the government to say they knew what the economy would look like in five years’ time.

One of the things, David, I have done is go to the National Press Club – and say we have changed our position. Why? We listened to people and particularly low- and middle-income Australians are under financial pressure.

What I can’t do as prime minister of Australia is to wring my hands and say, “If only there was something I co-do about it” What we needed to do was to look at what is the best way we can take pressure off cost of living without putting pressure on inflation.

We want it to be passed as soon as possible. Certainly, it needs to be passed during this existing session, so as to provide that easy transition for employers, the tax office, for others as well.

Circumstances have changed. We’ve responded.

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Fuel efficiency standards: Labor unveils proposal, highlighting petrol savings of $1,000 a year for motorists

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Coalition-led scare campaign predicted for plan to place yearly cap on emissions for new cars sold in Australia

The Albanese government has unveiled its long-awaited plan for fuel efficiency standards for new cars while highlighting potential savings of $1,000 a year and predicting a Coalition-led scare campaign.

The proposed model, announced on Sunday, would place a yearly cap on the emissions output for new cars sold in Australia to incentivise carmakers to supply low- and zero-emissions vehicles and penalise companies that do not.

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Rightwing lobby group Advance Australia doubles donation revenue but half of donors unknown

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Campaigner for no vote in voice referendum received $5.2m last financial year, 47% of it ‘dark money’ from sources not revealed publicly

Advance Australia, the conservative lobby group that claimed success for defeating the voice referendum, more than doubled the amount of donations it received during the 2022-23 financial year.

But the origin of almost half of the funds remains unknown.

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