Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary must be seen to be independent, opposition leader says
The federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, has said top bureaucrat Phil Gaetjens must show his independence in the sports grants scandal “that just stinks”.
Gaetjens, the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, wrote on Friday to the Senate inquiry into the sports grants saga that cost the previous sports minister, Bridget McKenzie, her job.
Continue reading...Prime minister says reality for Indigenous children a ‘national shame’ as Senate turns up the heat on the government to release the PM&C report into the sports grants affair. All the day’s events, live
Scott Morrison:
There remains much to do.
And we will do it differently by working together. By moving from a fixation with what is going wrong to a focus on strength.
Scott Morrison:
I am saddened that we have not met the target for child mortality but I draw hope and result from the fact that we are making progress in tackling the risk factors.
More Indigenous mothers are attending antenatal care in the first trimester and more are going to at least five antenatal sessions.
Continue reading...The fallout from last week’s leadership spill continues, with rebel MPs refusing to fall into line. All the day’s events, live
There is a real pattern emerging of Nationals MPs wearing green ties with dark blue suits, and really I can see why the party room is in revolt.
Josh Frydenberg is yelling again, and I can’t transcribe it, because GUESSWHOTHATFINANCIALGENIUSWASSIRTAXALOT is doing my head in, and really, you only get one life.
Continue reading...The four-to-three split decision giving Aboriginal Australians special status is a major defeat for the deportation powers of the home affairs department
The high court has decided that Aboriginal Australians are not aliens for the purpose of the constitution, a major defeat for the deportation powers of Peter Dutton’s home affairs department and a significant development in the rights of Indigenous Australians.
In a four-to-three split decision on Tuesday the high court ruled that Aboriginal people with sufficient connection to traditional societies cannot be aliens, giving them a special status in Australian constitutional law likely to have ramifications far beyond existing native title law.
Continue reading...The fallout from last week’s leadership spill in the National party continues as Queensland MP Llew O’Brien quits party. All the day’s events live
The hands have been shaken and the talks had – Joko Widodo has left the chamber.
This is interesting.
Joko Widodo:
I would like to propose a number of priority agendas as we head into the century of partnership.
First, we must continue to advocate the values of democracy and human rights.
Continue reading...Dominic Raab calls on government to work with other countries to cut carbon pollution, saying Britain wants a ‘step change’ in international response to climate crisis
The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has called on Australia to work with other countries to bring down carbon pollution as it works towards the “challenge” of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
Raab, who met with Australia’s foreign affairs minister Marise Payne on Thursday, said the pair had a “good constructive conversation” about Britain’s goal to reduce emissions as it prepared to host the United Nations climate summit, COP26, in Glasgow later this year.
Continue reading...Online video emerges as the Senate sets up an inquiry into the Coalition’s $100m sports rort grants
Video has emerged online of a member of Scott Morrison’s electorate staff being lauded for helping Cronulla Sailing Club win an $8,400 grant, as the Senate moved on Wednesday to set up an inquiry into the controversial $100m community sport infrastructure grant program.
In the video posted to Facebook, a representative of the club thanks the staffer, identifying her as “Scott Morrison’s PA”, for helping push her to apply for a grant for a new stainless steel barbecue. GrantConnect shows the grant was approved in December 2017 as part of the stronger communities program.
Continue reading...Prime minister must deal with the National party turmoil as the parliamentary year gets under way in earnest. All the day’s events, live
So what can we expect today, given that parliament is officially back and the climate fires have been acknowledged?
Well, probably an end to what has been described as the “sombre bipartisanship” between Labor and the Coalition.
Awwwwww. I bet he still believes in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and that the Great Barrier Reef can be saved too!
Here’s Scott Morrison on Barnaby Joyce and the Nationals on the Nine Network this morning:
Continue reading...Joyce says he will challenge Nationals leader Michael McCormack for the top job when a party room spill is called on Tuesday
Barnaby Joyce will challenge Michael McCormack for the leadership of the Nationals when a party room spill is called on Tuesday, saying he has learned from his past mistakes and is the best person to lead the party to the next election.
The former leader’s tilt at a comeback won support from the cabinet minister Matt Canavan on Monday night, with the Queensland senator resigning his position to back Joyce in the leadership ballot.
Continue reading...Senator says after visiting remote Indigenous communities that many there feel they have not been properly consulted over new card
Independent senator Jacquie Lambie says “the government has a problem” with the rollout of its controversial cashless debit card, after her fact-finding visit to the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Lambie visited several remote Aboriginal communities to “get a view from the ground on how the card is functioning, before voting on the government’s proposed changes for its future”, she said. Most of the people she spoke to “didn’t know any change was being proposed at all”.
Continue reading...Large numbers of easily exploited temporary migrants could have a ‘corrosive’ effect, says Kristina Keneally
Australia’s reliance on temporary migration is creating a new economic underclass that risks having a “corrosive” effect on the nation’s society, Labor’s shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, says.
In a major speech to the Curtin institute on Thursday night, Keneally will step up Labor’s attack on the government for its reliance on temporary migration, saying current trends could see as many as 3 million people – or 12% of the population – living in Australia on a temporary basis.
Continue reading...Minister says that instead of rallying to move the date, Australians should engage in a new generation of ‘truth telling’
The federal government frontbencher Ken Wyatt says Australia Day should remain on 26 January but commemorations around the country should mark both the “good and the bad” of the nation’s history.
Wyatt, the first Indigenous man to be minister for Indigenous Australians, told Nine newspapers “dark beginnings” must be recognised in communities across the country.
Continue reading...Attorney general claims being a ‘paper member’ of the shooting club raises no issue for the minister
Christian Porter has defended Bridget McKenzie after the revelation she approved a $36,000 grant to a shooting club of which she is a member, claiming being a “paper member” of a club raises no probity issue.
The attorney general made the comment to 6PR Radio on Wednesday, continuing the government’s defence of the Nationals deputy leader and former sport minister after a scathing auditor general’s report found she had skewed the $100m sports grant program towards marginal seats.
Continue reading...Turnbull says US president is ‘actively working against global action to reduce emissions’
Donald Trump is the world’s “leading climate denier”, the former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has said.
Turnbull, who lost the prime ministership in August 2018 in part because of his own party’s opposition to his plans to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, made the comments to BBC Newsnight on Tuesday (Wednesday morning, Australian time).
Continue reading...Seat became hotly contested once the then National MP quit after allegations of improper conduct on a work trip
The Morrison government awarded a $500,000 sports grant in the rural Victorian seat of Mallee a year and a half after it was first rejected – when the seat became hotly contested due to the resignation of Nationals MP Andrew Broad.
The Northern Grampians shire council applied for the grant in September 2018 and was rejected in the first round of the controversial community sport infrastructure grant program, only to see the $500,000 Lord Nelson Park project in St Arnaud approved in April 2019, just weeks out from the election.
Continue reading...Labor’s Ros Kelly was forced to quit over a sports grant scandal but Nationals deputy says she is going nowhere. So what’s the difference?
In 1994, at the height of an eerily familiar sports rorts scandal, John Howard stood up in parliament and fired a question at besieged Labor sports minister Ros Kelly.
Does the minister agree that, whatever debate there may be concerning the principle of ministerial responsibility, the practice has almost invariably been that a minister resigns when his or her continued presence is causing damage and embarrassment to that government?
Continue reading...Acoss calls on government to boost the Disaster Recovery Payment after fires destroy more than 2,000 homes
Australia’s peak welfare body is calling on the federal government to immediately boost emergency payments for those affected by bushfires, saying it is concerned the current amount is “seriously inadequate”.
The Australian Council of Social Service chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, has written to the prime minister, Scott Morrison, with a range of recommendations the organisation says are urgently needed to help provide relief to those affected by the bushfire crisis that has destroyed more than 2,000 homes.
Continue reading...The prime minister is clearly under pressure as the bushfire crisis lays bare the consequences of a warmer planet
It’s too early to say whether the prime minister, Scott Morrison, is speaking with a forked tongue when he says the government will “evolve” its climate change policy.
What appeared on Sunday to be a shift in rhetoric on the government’s emission reduction targets may be meaningful – or it may yet prove to be deliberately duplicitous.
Continue reading...Prime minister acknowledges he could have handled things better in the ‘strained’ emotional environment on the ground
Scott Morrison has indicated the government could bolster its carbon emission reduction efforts as he flagged a royal commission into Australia’s horror bushfire season and warned of a “new normal” that will require a greater role for the commonwealth.
Speaking at length about the government’s response to the bushfires which have claimed 28 lives and more than 2,000 homes, the prime minister also acknowledged for the first time that he could have done better in the “strained” emotional environment on the ground, despite visiting affected communities “in good faith”.
“There are things I could have handled on the ground much better,” Morrison told ABC Insiders’ host David Speers on Sunday.
This blog is now closed. Our live coverage will continue tomorrow morning
We are wrapping up the live blog now, but we will be back at 7am AEDT for the latest on the fires.
As of 9pm, this is what we know.
There’s now what media (but not RFS) refer to as a megablaze in the Kosciuszko national park with three fires at emergency level in that area of southern NSW, just near the Victorian border.
There’s also concern that a fire at watch-and-act level in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains could worsen around midnight once the southerly reaches there. People in the Wentworth Falls and Leura areas are being advised to stay alert.