Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Exclusive: US advice was that the men, who have refugee status and were accused of murdering tourists in Uganda in 1999, presented no security threat
The national security committee of cabinet was briefed about all aspects of the American refugee swap deal in late 2016, including the resettlement of two Rwandan men accused of murdering tourists in Uganda.
Guardian Australian understands the NSC was briefed, and the then treasurer, Scott Morrison, the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, and the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, were aware of all the elements of the agreement signed by Malcolm Turnbull and Barack Obama in 2016.
Labor leader wants to bring together business groups and unions for meeting, as Bob Hawke calls Shorten a ‘consensus leader’. All the day’s events, live
Today the high court has released its full reasons for its decision in the case brought by former Liberal National Queensland president Gary Spence to challenge Queensland’s developer donation ban. Orders were delivered in April upholding Queensland’s ban, closing a loophole that would have allowed developers to donate to candidates in the federal election campaign.
The first thing to note is that Spence did not come close to winning on the point of whether the ban impermissibly burdens the implied freedom of political communication.
Caroline Danaher remains unapologetic after being charged with trespassing in front of Sarah Henderson’s office
A 76-year-old woman arrested and charged for trespassing at Liberal MP Sarah Henderson’s office said she’ll be back again to protest against political inaction on climate change, and that “every one in this country should be doing the same to their local representatives”.
Every Friday for the past four months, Caroline Danaher has sat outside Henderson’s office with two deck chairs. In 40C heat or in the rain, her goal is a meeting with Henderson, whose office is in the marginal Victorian seat of Corangamite.
The ALP’s candidate for Dawson confirms ‘scary incident’ where the fuel tank of her car was broken into. All the day’s events, live
And then it ends with this:
PK: Finally, you want to remove Josh Frydenberg, who fought hard for the National Energy Guarantee and for a compromise to move forward on climate change and energy. Is that a smart move?
Patricia Karvelas: One of the critiques of you is past involvement in Link Energy’s purchase of fossil fuel assets in 2010. Do you regret that?
Oliver Yates: I think the question is you need to see it was a company who bought them before I was even on the board. This is part of the Liberal dirt sheet. It’s round to everybody...
Chris Bowen says the opposition can afford the policy because it is ‘closing loopholes’ for the wealthy
Labor will match Scott Morrison’s election pitch to first home buyers, saying it can afford to support the government’s home deposit scheme because it is “closing loopholes” for the wealthy.
After the Coalition used its campaign launch on Sunday to announce the new housing affordability measure, Labor’s shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, criticised the government for the 11th-hour decision, but supported the proposal.
Some of central bank’s new numbers match budget while others undermine it
The Reserve Bank’s quarterly economic forecast has been used as campaign fodder by both Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten after some predictions matched those of the government but some undermined it.
On Friday the central bank said it was now forecasting year-average growth of 2.25% for 2018-19 and 2.5% for 2019-20. The figures for this financial year are down on those given by the RBA three months ago, but are “consistent” with the Coalition government’s federal budget forecasts, Scott Morrison said.
Home affairs minister makes rare appearance on the campaign trail while Tanya Plibersek says Labor is ‘not contemplating a royal commission’ into media monopolies. All the day’s events live
OMG the Sky ticker has actually changed to “Latham calls out political correctness”.
This has made my day.
The Sky ticker currently says “Latham criticises ‘leftist elites’” and truly, it is not just death and taxes we can rely on any more in this crazy world, and I for one am grateful for some sort of consistency. It’s comforting.
It would only be more obvious if the ticker said something like “Latham stands against political correctness”, but I guess we have to save some things for tomorrow.
Prime minister blames ‘cowardly activists’ after egg misses his head. The economy is again in the spotlight, as both parties wait to hear if the bank will cut interest rates. All the day’s events, live
Prime Minister attacked by a protester at the Country Women’s Associations meeting in Albury. The egg missed his head, but the vision shows that her hand did not. @9NewsBorderNE#9NewsAt6pic.twitter.com/Bvg0rITray
AAP has also reported the woman accused of attempting to egg the prime minister was protesting against the government’s asylum seeker policies:
Outside the venue, the protester told reporters she didn’t mean to knock the other woman down.
“I don’t want to give a report, no thank you. I’ve got to go to work. No comment,” she told reporters.
Labor leader says he doesn’t share former PM’s concerns that the nation’s spy chiefs are damaging our relationship with China. All the day’s events, live
Well that looks like it answers that question
Don’t expect people like Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott at the Liberal campaign launch - they are busy defending their seats says @JoshFrydenberg who is on tv with me very soon #auspol19
It’s amazing the differences an election campaign can make to people’s positions.
From ABC Adelaide, where Georgina Downer is again trying to take the seat of Mayo off Rebekha Sharkie:
Mayo Liberal candidate Georgina Downer says the minimum wage is “about right” after previously pushing for it to be abolished along with penalty rates.
In an interview with ABC Radio Adelaide this morning, Ms Downer backtrackedon comments she made while working at the Institute of Public Affairs about the role of the Fair Work Commission.
The second debate of the campaign produced more sparks than the first, with the Labor leader branding the PM ‘a classic space invader’
Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten have clashed over their tax and climate policies in the second debate of the election campaign.
In a wide-ranging discussion between the two leaders in Brisbane on Friday night, undecided voters put questions to the leaders ranging from support for veterans to climate change.
Jessica Whelan, the Liberal candidate for Lyons, says comments posted under her name not made by her and were doctored
The major parties are standing by the two latest candidates in hot water for offensive social media posts attributed to them after a flurry of resignations overshadowed the third week of campaigning.
Minister grilled about Lyons candidate Jessica Whelan, who claims her Facebook page was doctored. Meanwhile, the climate policy debate heats up. Follow all the updates, live
Pre-poll is happening in droves.
About 375,000 people have cast a pre-poll vote after three days of early voting, running at approx 125,000 votes per day so far. This compares to a total of 225,000 votes at the same stage of the 2016 federal election. #ausvotes#auspol
Asked about preference deals, and whether the Coalition, being a coalition, had to accept blowback for their partner’s choices, David Littleproud had this to say:
I hardly see it’s disingenuous where we have a democracy, where the Australian people decide. They walk into the ballot box, not me, and they get to determine where they put each number on that ballot paper. And that’s the way it should be. This is merely a way that parties have come to an agreement around where they believe they should go, the least worst possibility, if you don’t want to vote for us. But the reality is, it is and always will be the gift of the Australian people. And it’s something we should always fiercely protect.”
The candidate’s comments came in response to a post by another commentator, Michael Taouk, who said he was not in the Liberal party, calling for the “Liberal grassroots” to “remove preselection from that notorious homosexual Tim Wilson”.
Mr Taouk wrote: “No true Christian can fight on the same side of that man.”
Scott Morrison also defends deal as Coalition attacks Labor’s childcare plan as ‘communist’. All the day’s events, live
Both campaigns are now in debate prep mode, so we are going to power down for the moment.
But it’s just a break, not goodbye. We’ll be back just before 7pm eastern time to bring you the blow-by-blow of the first leaders’ debate.
On what he would do in terms of climate policies (given his history on the subject with the Gillard government):
It was Tony Windsor and I who forced the changes. Both sides have the ability to get on with embedding climate change into the processes of government. At the time we did have world-leading legislation.
I concede we lost control of the politics and that Tony Abbott, as the alternate prime minister, came in on a wave of, you know, that carbon tax message, which even his chief of staff, you know, after the event, has admitted was more about the politics than anything to do with policy.
Speaking in Hobart on Saturday where he announced that a future Labor government would invest $120m into Tasmanian tourism projects, the opposition leader did not deny that Labor officials had held discussions with Palmer over the course of the campaign, but said they would not risk preference swaps with the potential kingmaker in Queensland.
Former WA premier Colin Barnett cites businessman’s ‘appalling’ record while Shorten rebuffs the Greens on climate policy. Follow the day’s news live
Mikey Slezak, of the ABC (oh how we miss him), has a story overnight regarding the last minute sign off by the Morrison government on a controversial uranium mine one day before calling the federal election.
Then there was a sneaky “public announcement” by the environment department when it uploaded the approval document the day before Anzac Day.
I want to find out what on earth has happened. The minister made no comment, no announcement beforehand. It looks like it might have been rushed. We don’t know....The reason I can’t tell you I’m on this side or the other side, we need to know what on earth she has done and what her reasons for it and the minister has gone missing.
Tony Burke was also asked about Labor’s very specific, siloed commission of inquiry that only looks a the one water buyback conducted under Barnaby Joyce as minister from Eastern Australia Agriculture.
What we have announced is there is a specific transaction from Barnaby Joyce that is different to anything that Simon Birmingham, David Littleproud, Bob Baldwin, different to anything that any other minister has engaged with. And anything else … can be dealt with properly by the Australian national National Audit Office. This one, there was no tender. There [are] arguments about conflict of interest. And it has links all the way back to the Cayman Islands, where there is complete secrecy about who is involved. Everything else you don’t need coercive powers.
In terms of making sure that we’ve got probity, we will establish a national integrity commission and there will be an ongoing watchdog on probity. In terms of the purchases by Penny that you referred to, they went fully through the National Audit Office, a report in 2011 [and were] given a complete bill of health. If I was arguing that things should apply to every other member of the government who has been involved, then the government’s characterisation would be fair. The point is no other purchase is like this.
Can Cathy McGowan’s anointed successor keep Indi independent or will the Coalition strike back?
With the retirement of Cathy McGowan, the rural Victorian seat of Indi is once more back in play and the group of campaigners who unseated Sophie Mirabella in 2013 are now fighting to keep the seat in independent hands.
Orange spray-painted chairs adorn the verandahs outside homes across the electorate – a symbol of the battle.
Former PM warns electricity prices will be higher because the Coalition dumped the national energy guarantee
The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has returned to the fray to warn dumping the national energy guarantee – a decision taken by Scott Morrison – will drive up power prices.
Turnbull took exception to a column at the weekend characterising the national energy guarantee as “Malcolm Turnbull’s Neg”, pointing out the policy had strong support within the cabinet, “including and especially the current PM and treasurer”.
Sarah Hanson-Young demands a royal commission as Bill Shorten urges prime minister to produce all documents
The Coalition is facing calls for an inquiry into the Murray-Darling Basin plan water contracts signed off by the former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce.
As the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called for a royal commission on Saturday, Bill Shorten also weighed in, saying there were now “question marks about the probity” of the “nation’s biggest water purchase”.