Category Archives: Coalition

Singtel rejects Optus claims it caused network outage; gillnet fishing banned in Great Barrier Reef – as it happened

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Labor MPs furious over ‘one political party’ pitting Jewish community against another

Labor MPs are still furious over the motion Peter Dutton moved in question time on Wednesday, where he linked anti-semitism with the release of detainees, including some criminals, after the high court decision which deemed indefinite detention to be unconstitutional.

As a leader of the Jewish community and someone who represents a large Jewish community, I’ve always thought it was extremely important to act in the interests of the community.

And that means working across the political aisle. It means working with people like Allegra Spender, who represents the largest Jewish community in Australia, and of course with my friend Julian Leeser, who I will always stand with members regardless of what political persuasion they have, in order to act in the interests of the Jewish community.

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Immigration detention: Labor to rush through emergency legislation after high court ruling

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Home affairs minister says it’s ‘garbage’ that legislation could completely reverse high court decision that led to 81 leaving immigration detention

Labor is set to rush through emergency legislation this week to deal with the fallout of the high court’s decision that indefinite immigration detention is unlawful.

The move follows demands by the Coalition that parliament “should not rise” until legislation is passed, upping pressure on the government by demanding a response even before the high court gives its full reasons.

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Australia politics live: students protesting over climate crisis ‘are being the adults’, Adam Bandt says

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Shorten reiterates support for two-state solution

Patricia Karvelas then raises with Bill Shorten what was said on Q+A last night, when Nasser Mashni, the president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, argued that hopes for a two-state solution “ended years ago”.

Oh, no, our policy has been to support a two-state solution.

There was a policy which we developed many, many years ago about respecting the security of Israel and the right of Palestinians to have a say in controlling their own land. I don’t think that’s a radical policy.

I think it’s unexceptional what the foreign minister said. We’re in very close step to the United States and other western nations. We’ve called for humanitarian pause, but we completely recognise that Israel’s dealing with Hamas who don’t want to negotiate, so the idea that we want an enduring peace, as Penny said, of course, is what we want.

We all know we’re a long way off that and Hamas should be prevailed upon by world opinion to hand back the hostages to say that they’re going to stop trying to kill Israelis and destroy Israel.

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Australia politics live: Gaza civilian casualties ‘unacceptably high’, Plibersek says; ANZ posts record profit as customers ‘muddle through’ rate rises

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Environment minister says ‘well‑behaved and peaceful’ pro-Palestine protests in Australia are ‘just part of democracy’. Follow the day’s news live

Minister focuses on multicultural cohesion

Pressed on why he wouldn’t call for a ceasefire, Andrew Giles says:

We have seen a considered and careful response by the Australian government through foreign minister Wong pushing towards the sort of outcomes that I think every Australian was to see.

In the last few weeks as minister for multicultural affairs I’ve spent an extraordinary amount of time engaging directly with Australians who have a close personal connection to this conflict.

Palestinian Australians, Jewish Australians and members of the wider Arab and Muslim communities and I’m, of course, deeply affected by every one of these conversations.

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Australia news live: ‘we let him down,’ WA corrective services minister admits after death of 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd

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Aboriginal teenager died in a hospital in October, a week after being found unresponsive inside a maximum security prison. Follow live

This morning Guardian Australia revealed that the Albanese government will immediately begin releasing people from indefinite detention after receiving a flurry of demands from long-term detainees to be set free due to Wednesday’s landmark high court ruling.

In question time on Thursday the government confirmed it had released the plaintiff in that case, a stateless Rohingya man known as NZYQ who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old, but claimed it needed to wait for the court’s full reasons and legal advice before making a call on others.

Yesterday the government assured the Senate they would not be releasing any other detainees before the court published its reasoning. The fact they are doing so less than 24 hours later shows how unprepared they were for this case. Sadly the Australian people cannot rely on their assurances about community safety if they are not even across fundamental legal questions like this.

It is the duty of journalists to seek out sources, including documentary evidence, in order to report to the public on the activities of the government. The United States must not pursue an unnecessary prosecution that risks criminalising common journalistic practices and thus chilling the work of the free press. We urge you to ensure that this case be brought to a close in as timely a manner as possible.

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Small modular nuclear reactor that was hailed by Coalition as future cancelled due to rising costs

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Opposition climate and energy spokesperson had pointed to SMRs as a solution to Australia’s energy needs, but experts raise questions over price tag

The only small modular nuclear power plant approved in the US – cited by the Australian opposition as evidence of a “burgeoning” global nuclear industry – has been cancelled due to rising costs.

NuScale Power announced on Wednesday that it had dropped plans to build a long-promised “carbon free power project” in Idaho. It blamed the decision on a lack of subscribers for the plant’s electricity.

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Almost 200 asylum seekers returned by Albanese government since May 2022, new details show

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Seven vessels have been turned back or returned to their place of origin as Labor quietly continues Coalition policy of operation sovereign borders

The Albanese government turned vessels back or returned asylum seekers aboard them on seven occasions in its first nine months in office, quietly continuing the Coalition’s operation sovereign borders policy.

New details of the ventures to Australia reveal that almost two hundred people, including 14 children, have attempted to come by boat since Labor’s election in May 2022.

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Indigenous voice defeat doesn’t mean voters want assimilation, Albanese says

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PM says he hopes there’s a retreat from ‘rhetorical positions’ on social issues, adding family violence is not ‘confined to one section of the population’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the government will “push back” on Coalition calls to promote assimilation of Indigenous communities in the wake of the voice referendum, saying the vote’s defeat is not an endorsement of such policies.

Albanese also appeared to take a swipe at the Coalition’s calls for inquiries into social issues in Indigenous communities, saying family violence is not “confined to one section of the population”.

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Fires in Queensland tropics – as it happened

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The NSW RFS has confirmed that just after 4am this morning one of its firefighting tanks rolled over 10km south of Jennings in the Tenterfield LGA.

A spokesperson said there were four firefighters on board. They were all taken from the truck, with three being taken to hospital for observation.

They’ve said they’ll be returning to bulk billing, or many of them who are considering a change would stick with bulk billing, for those more than 11 million Australians.

That’s about 60% or more of the throughput of the average general practice. So it’s a huge boost in confidence and funding to a sector that I think is probably in its most powerless status been in the 40 year history of Medicare.

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Australia news live: ‘that’s a question for Keating,’ Albanese says when queried on former PM’s abstention from Israel-Hamas statement

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PM also acknowledged ‘tragic’ Queensland bushfires on Tuesday, warning pf ‘difficult summer’. Follow the day’s news live

Fire at Tara ‘remains uncontained’, QFES acting deputy commissioner says

QFES acting deputy commissioner Joanne Greenfield also spoke to Sunrise this morning, and provided an update on the bushfire at Tara:

The Tara fire is quite large now and still remains uncontained in most of its edges.

Crews have been down there working overnight trying to strengthen the control line and try to bring areas of it into containment.

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Icac says Berejiklian inquiry sent ‘clear message’ – as it happened

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Australia’s ‘agricultural demands’ did not meet recent negotiations, EU spokesperson says

According to Politico, a spokesperson for the EU executive had this to say about the breakdown of free trade deal negotiations:

The European Commission regrets the lack of progress made during talks in Osaka today.

Our negotiating teams made good progress in recent weeks, including in the days leading up to the Osaka meeting. There was optimism that a deal was within reach.

My job as Australia’s trade minister is to get the best deal that we can for our producers, our businesses, our workers and our consumers.

Unfortunately we’ve not been able to make progress.

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Penny Wong urges Australians in Lebanon to ‘consider leaving’ – As it happened

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Foreign minister flags government’s concerns about ‘volatile security situation’. This blog is now closed

Pay deal averts six-day strike by dairy workers

A looming strike at one of Victoria’s major milk companies has been averted after the processor struck a pay deal with the union.

There is some concern around Mount Isa, and we are looking at what we can do to support that area being so remote in the western part of our state.

So looking at the weather we have today, still very extreme fire danger in the western part of Queensland. We are certainly looking at another challenging day.

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Australia news live: devastation revealed in Queensland bushfire aftermath

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There is ‘a lot of anxiety’ in the Western Downs where at least 16 houses have been destroyed, the mayor says. Follow the day’s news live

Civilians in the blockaded Gaza Strip will receive an extra $15m in humanitarian aid from the Australian government.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement at a joint press conference with US president Joe Biden.

The plaintiff served years in prison that he otherwise would not have. At no stage did Victoria Police take positive steps to remedy its wrongdoing by expeditiously informing the plaintiff of Gobbo’s conduct in order to quash his conviction. Victoria Police has not apologised to the plaintiff.

Starting this court case is a significant moment for me. I am anxious about the future but also cautiously optimistic about finally holding police to account for what they did to me.

In the pursuit of justice, vindication came first, and now I see compensation as a measure of accountability.

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Eight more Australians leave West Bank – as it happened

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Military deployment to Middle East will be for evacuation of Australians

Defence minister Richard Marles was asked on Today what the role of the aircraft and troops sent to the Middle East would be.

We’ve made our position really clear.

Israel has a right to defend itself and to move against Hamas. What is absolutely essential in doing that is that the protection from the centre and and all the steps that Israel takes, and that the rules of war are adhered to and we’ve been making that very clear, as well.

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Australia news live: properties lost in Queensland fires; Victorian hospital reopens Covid-19 ward

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NSW police have meanwhile appealed for public assistance as they investigate the cause of several bushfires along the state’s mid-north coast. Follow the day’s news live

Queenslanders in fire zones urged to pay attention to warnings

Turning to Queensland now, where the state’s Fire and Emergency Service chief, Tony Johnston, has spoken to ABC News Breakfast with an update on the bushfires across the state.

There’s been a number of structures that have been impacted but as you can appreciate, until the fire is actually contained, we won’t have a good picture of what’s actually been lost … When the crews can actually get in and ascertain the damage, we’ll have a full report.

Fires are spotting 200 metres in front of the fires themselves.

We’re asking residents to pay attention to the messaging. The messaging is important to enact your plan and what you’re going to do. Today is not a day to go sightseeing to see what’s happening in a fire area.

A lot of them are not easily contained. Some of those fires have been burning for quite some time. There’s a number of challenging fronts that we’ve got and obviously, worsening weather tomorrow that will cause a lot of problems with these fires and potentially new ones.

I know investigators are looking into a number of those fires and working with [police]. We have to wait for these fires to get under control before we can get in and assess the damage and carry out these investigations.

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Indigenous groups say voice referendum ‘unleashed a tsunami of racism’

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Yes supporters break week of silence by stating 14 October result was so mean-spirited it would remain ‘unbelievable and appalling’ for decades

Indigenous groups who supported the voice campaign have broken their week of silence to express shock and grief at last Saturday’s result, accusing Australians who voted no of committing “a shameful act whether knowingly or not”.

The 12-point statement – issued on Sunday evening and described as being the “collective insights and views of a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, community members and organisations who supported yes” – said Australia had chosen “to make itself less liberal and less democratic” by voting no at the 14 October referendum.

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Large crowd gathers at pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne as WA man mourns sister killed in Gaza

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Australians are grieving for those killed on both sides of Israel-Hamas war, Adam Bandt tells protesters

About 15,000 people have attended a rally supporting Palestine in Melbourne, with the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, telling the crowd they were mourning for those who had died on both sides of the bloody conflict.

Sunday’s protest was one of several held across the country at the weekend. Victoria police said that there were “no major incidents of note”.

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Labor MPs air clashing views over Israel-Hamas conflict – as it happened

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Abbott suggests ‘scaling back’ on ‘separatism’ after no referendum vote

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has some ... opinions ... on what the defeat of the voice referendum means the country should do next. It’s fair to say they’re not uncontroversial.

Flying the Aboriginal flag co-equally (as if Australia is a country of two nations) and the routine acknowledgement of country by all speakers at official events (as if those whose ancestry here stretches beyond 1788 are more Australian than anyone else).

The Department of Justice wishes to express deepest sympathies to the boy’s family, friends and community for their tragic loss. The department is continuing its investigation into all the circumstances of the incident.

The death will be subject to a mandatory inquest and the department will fully co-operate with the coronial process.

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Australians told ‘do not travel’ to Lebanon – as it happened

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No move on paying super to people on paid parental leave

But so far, the government has not moved on paying superannuation to parents (mostly women) on paid parental leave.

Super, of course, is really important and it’s something we would very much like to look to in the future when the budget can afford it. But this is a very big step forward, the current arrangements, but we’ll continue to look around superannuation into the future and consider it in each budget context.

I think with the reserved period as well, we’re going to see an increase in shared care, both parents taking some time out, which is really, really important if we want to get a more equal burden of, you know, of that share of care.

So that is really important as well.

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Australia politics live: Penny Wong condemns ‘any indiscriminate attacks and targeting of civilian infrastructure’ after Gaza hospital blast

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‘Protection of civilian lives must come first and respect for international humanitarian law is paramount,’ Australian foreign minister says. Follow the day’s news live

Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour speaks on the referendum

Just before the house adjourned for the evening on Tuesday, Labor Lingiari MP Marion Scrymgour gave a speech about the referendum which is very much worth your time:

I want to say a few things about what led us to the recent referendum and what it means for those first peoples Australians most affected by the outcome, particularly the first peoples Australians in my electorate of Lingiari.

Because of some arcane parliamentary tradition, which I understand derives from English House of Commons, we are obliged to call the making of a speech at this time and in this place a ‘grievance debate’.

The price tag of Israel’s right to defend itself cannot be the destruction of Palestine.

Israel’s right to defend its civilians cannot equate to the annihilation of Palestinian civilians. I hereby call for an immediate ceasefire to come into effect, alongside many world leaders and experts.

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