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Nuclear costings coming ‘in coming weeks and months ahead of election’: Taylor
The shadow treasurer was also asked when the Coalition would release the costings of its nuclear plan.
We will not be announcing it on your program this morning, as much as you might like me to.
Continue reading...Inaugural address from Leeroy Bilney, outlining racist history of Australia and future challenges, greeted with acclaim
The First Nations Voice has delivered its first message to the South Australian parliament: “We are determined to prove you wrong.”
MPs had to squeeze together to make room for all those who turned up to Wednesday’s special joint sitting to hear the Voice’s inaugural address.
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The independent MP Zoe Daniel was on ABC News Breakfast earlier to discuss her alternative to the under-16 social media ban, which she introduced as a private member’s bill yesterday.
Daniel said her bill would implement an overarching statutory duty of care on social media companies “that goes to safety by design – but that in and of itself is not enough”.
What you need to make that work is the companies to assess the risks, mitigate the risks, be transparent about how they’re doing that.
The bill builds in penalties so if the companies do not comply, they could be fined up to 10% of global revenue. Also, their onshore executives could be held accountable for that … and the bill also has a provision to enable users to have control over the algorithm, as exists overseas, particularly in the EU …
[There are] obviously privacy concerns, and given the government’s had to pull their misinformation [and] disinformation – or their censoring the Australian public – bill from the Senate this week, we want to make sure we get strong, robust laws that don’t damage the [right to] privacy and make compulsory Australians having to have digital IDs.
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Does the delay on gambling ad restrictions have anything to do with the demands of lobbyists?
Clare O’Neil said it wasn’t about lobbying, but “about making sure that we get this right”.
And the minister has pointed to previous attempts to scale back gambling advertising that have actually resulted in more gambling advertising. This is a delicate area, and we’ve got to get the balance right, and that’s what the minister is seeking to do.
These complicated matters, they just are. You know, if this was a really simple problem to fix, then it would have been fixed a long time ago.
I would say our government deserves credit for stepping up and saying we’re going to take action on this, and the minister [Michelle Rowland] is doing what is appropriate, which is diligently working through what the proposals will look like.
The minister is working with people, experts, stakeholders, others who will be affected by this legislation, and the government has said will come forward with … proposals early next year.
Continue reading...Labor and Coalition would have missed out on $4.1m and $4.7m in donations after public funding boost, while the Greens would have been $2.9m better off
The Greens and independent MPs who ran low-cost campaigns have emerged as the biggest winners from Labor’s proposed donation cap and increased public funding of elections, data shows.
According to a Guardian Australia analysis of 2021-22 data, the Greens would have lost just $2.7m in donations if Labor’s proposed $20,000 cap had been law at the time, a sum more than made up for by a $5.6m increase in public funding. In net terms, the Greens would have been $2.9m better off.
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Heatwave conditions are building over parts of Victoria and New South Wales today.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, much of Victoria will experience heatwave conditions, with maximum temperatures in the mid to high 30s.
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New South Wales MPs condemned for ‘part-time’ parliamentary year
Scores of NSW MPs will earn the equivalent of more than $10,000 per sitting week in 2025 after a bid to increase the year’s 16-week calendar was rejected, AAP reports.
To do this, government MPs have to turn up to parliament and discuss matters. Voters won’t be happy that government MPs would prefer to hide in their electorate offices rather than turning up to parliament, where they face scrutiny.
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Oxfam reacts to Australia’s Cop29 pledge
Oxfam Australia has welcomed the government’s Cop29 pledge of $50m towards a global loss and damage fund to help the world’s most vulnerable people to repair the damage from climate breakdown.
If climate change losses and damages are not included in the new global climate finance goal, the new fund for responding to loss and damage risks becoming an empty vessel.
The danger is that developed country governments will prioritise meeting the new and ambitious climate finance goal, and will not prioritise a fund that doesn’t count towards it.
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First investment announced as part of National Reconstruction Fund
The science and industry minister, Ed Husic, was on ABC News Breakfast to discuss the government’s first investment via the National Reconstruction Fund – $40m to a Toowoomba mineral processing factory.
The difference in terms of what the [NRF] does is it provides loans, equity, and guarantees to firms that are [working across] seven priority areas to expand and grow their operations.
Given the sizes of the investments, it does take more time to be able to go through to shape up what the investment will look like, how big it’ll be, over what term, the rate of return – because the other important thing to stress to viewers is – this is not about handing out grants, and certainly not doing it on the basis of political colour-coded spreadsheets as we saw with the last government.
In fact, the social media users were less likely to have a negative attitude towards Jewish and Muslim people, irrespective of where they were on the political spectrum.
Continue reading...Senator rips up paper copy of motion against her and says she was ‘denied my right’ to be present during vote
Lidia Thorpe has ripped up a paper copy of the Senate motion censuring her protest against King Charles, promising “I’ll do it again” and saying she is not concerned about the parliamentary rebuke.
The independent senator was censured by the Labor and Coalition on Monday, as was the United Australia party senator Ralph Babet after he posted a tweet containing several offensive slurs.
Continue reading...Education minister Jason Clare says ‘never in my life’ did he expect to see opposition and Greens take same stand on immigration
The Albanese government has been left red-faced after the Coalition made a last-minute backflip over plans to cap international student numbers from next year.
The education minister, Jason Clare, has accused Peter Dutton of being a “fraud” on tough immigration policies after the opposition sided with the Greens and independents on changes to limit new enrolments from overseas students to 270,000 in 2025.
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Continue reading...ALP denies reforms rushed into parliament are designed to target Simon Holmes à Court and Clive Palmer
Australia’s two major political parties will more than double their public funding at the 2028 federal election to reap a combined $140m under the government’s proposed changes to electoral laws, according to the organisation which funded successful teal independent candidates at the 2022 election.
Climate 200 has calculated the likely increase in the amount the Labor and Liberal parties could claim in public funding at the 2028 election, after the proposed new system is slated to take effect.
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Could Donald Trump really fire Kevin Rudd?
The former prime minister’s criticism of Donald Trump has drawn the ire of those in the president elect’s inner circle, and prompted renewed debate about whether the incoming administration could seek retribution.
I’d be very much opposed to that.
You’ve got the world’s richest man, and you’ve given him this position of incredible influence in the American government. I think jobs for mates is a very bad idea. I don’t think that politicians should be putting their friends, their dear friends into positions of great influence in this country.
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The treasurer, Jim Chalmers will today announce funding of $900m for states and territories through a new national productivity fund to boost competition and productivity across the economy.
Launching the plan in a speech to the Australian Business Economists in Sydney, Chalmers is hoping the plan will will incentivise states to achieve productivity gains through pro-competitive policies such as streamlining commercial planning and zoning, and removing barriers to the uptake of modern construction methods.
In March this year, on behalf of the Council on Federal Financial Relations, I asked the Productivity Commission to model the potential impacts of a revitalised NCP.
Its final report landed this month and the benefits on offer are substantial, if not staggering. The PC found a revitalised NCP could boost GDP by up to $45bn a year and reduce prices by 1.45 percentage points. That GDP boost represents about $5,000 per household, per year.
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Meteorologists are forecasting that thunderstorms will develop over large swathes of the country every day this week, and likely into next.
Ben Domensino from Weatherzone has outlined the forecast as follows:
Early in the week, showers and thunderstorms will target central, eastern, southern and southeastern Australia on Monday and Tuesday. Severe thunderstorms are likely in parts of NSW and [Queensland] on both days and are also possible in other states.
Storms will become more focussed on a broad arc stretching across Australia’s eastern and northern states and down into the WA interior through the middle of the week. Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra will all be at risk of severe thunderstorm activity on Wednesday.
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Matt Keogh on Aukus, second Trump presidency
Matt Keogh was also questioned on what he thinks the challenges will be for the Australian government amid a second Trump presidency?
We understand regardless of who is in charge of the White House or what is happening across the globe, what matters to Australians is being able to make ends meet themselves.
We expect that to continue even under a Trump Presidency.
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Racism, colonialism ‘driving Indigenous self-harm’
Australia’s dark colonial past and ongoing racism are driving self-harm in Indigenous communities, according to a respected Aboriginal psychologist.
That whole process has left communities suffering from intergenerational trauma, disadvantage and ongoing racism, as well as the exclusion from the benefits of society and a lack of acknowledgment and respect for their different cultural values.
We still want clinical approaches but we want to see culture at the centre of that.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Independent David Pocock calls for disclosure reform while Liberal James Paterson says many politicians don’t update the log fast enough
Labor is unlikely to pursue formal Senate action against the Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie for not disclosing 16 flight upgrades over her time in parliament, despite parliamentary rules on travel requiring disclosures within 35 days.
The independent senator David Pocock said it highlighted the need for reforming parliamentary transparency rules.
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Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who had some colourful moments in his relationship with Donald Trump in his first presidency, is up now being colourful on the ABC. He says the Australian prime minister “has to stand up for Australia and not follow the conventional approach, which is being urged on everyone, which is to suck up to Trump and be utterly deferential:
I had a very successful relationship with Trump because I stood up to him, stood my ground, incurred his wrath, won his respect, and then got very good outcomes for Australia.
He did sort of encourage a mob to try to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power in 2021, on January 6.
The deal that Morrison instigated and Albanese signed up to is a very, very asymmetrical deal. All of the risk was on Australia. We have no agency and no leverage over this, and that’s why I think the most likely outcome is we’ll end up with no submarines, and that will be entirely our own fault because we signed up to a dud deal.
We have been clear, in terms of the Liberal party leadership, that Peter Dutton and the Liberal party have no plans, no intentions, to see any changes to abortion laws, that we respect the states’ rights in that regard, and I am very clear in terms of my respect for women’s reproductive rights.
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There was some seriously colourful language in Senate estimates yesterday, but in this case the media regulator found radio hosts’ words were a step too far. Sarah Martin reports on what the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young described as “revolting, sexist, racist, misogynistic, divisive stuff”:
A “dangerous anti-abortion bill” before the Senate should be withdrawn, if the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, wants credibility on women’s healthcare, the minister for women, Katy Gallagher, says.
It is typical of Peter Dutton to view this purely as a matter of winning or losing votes, rather than any genuine commitment to women’s healthcare.
If Peter Dutton wants any credibility on women’s healthcare, he must immediately ensure Senators [Matt] Canavan and [Alex] Antic withdraw their dangerous anti-abortion bill currently before the Senate.
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