Australian senator has given voice to many who condemn the Israel-Gaza war while earning the scorn of her caucus colleagues
Fatima Payman’s career as a Labor politician is over.
The indefinite suspension from the Labor parliamentary caucus that Anthony Albanese imposed on her during a short conversation at the Lodge in Canberra on Sunday afternoon has the same effect as expulsion. She will not return to the fold.
Continue reading...Party spokesperson says WA senator ‘placed herself outside the privilege’ of participation in caucus after defiant TV interview
WA Labor senator Fatima Payman has been indefinitely suspended from the Labor party’s parliamentary caucus after she was summoned to a meeting with the prime minister at the Lodge on Sunday.
Payman’s previous one-week caucus suspension was upgraded after a Sunday morning television interview in which she vowed she was prepared to repeat her rebellion of last week and cross the floor in the Senate to support recognition of a Palestinian state.
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Housing minister Julie Collins is speaking to the ABC RN about Labor’s build-to-rent bill which was knocked back in the Senate yesterday, with the Greens and the Coalition combining to delay it:
What we want to do is get this done. We’ve already been consulting, we announced it in the previous budget. Any delays will actually stop the pipeline of construction and the certainty for the sector.
What we want to do is get more affordable homes and more homes of every type on the ground as quickly as we can.
We’re saying they have to have a minimum of 10% to be eligible for the tax concessions that we’re talking about for each development.
That’s what our consultations and our discussions with the sector have done and, as I said, this is not the only thing we’re doing for affordable homes … My point here is that they continually delay and block housing up every time by coming together and having this unholy alliance between the Liberals and the Greens in the Senate, because they’re more interested in votes than they are about people.
We’re not open to negotiation and we want to get this done.
Continue reading...Labor MP for Newcastle Tim Crakanthorp said he and his staff were safe and unharmed after the ‘very serious incident’
A New South Wales teenager has been charged with planning a terrorist attack after he allegedly entered Labor MP Tim Crakanthorp’s office carrying items including “knives and tactical equipment” with the “intention to kill”.
Jordan Patten, a 19-year-old from Raymond Terrace, was arrested in Newcastle after midday on Wednesday and was charged with one count of preparing or planning a terrorist act.
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Wong rejects Birmingham’s criticism, says US alliance ‘deep and strong’
Asked about her Liberal counterpart Simon Birmingham’s criticism of Anthony Albanese’s phone call with Julian Assange and his claims that the deal to release Assange has “damaged” the US-Australian alliance, Penny Wong says:
That’s not not correct and disappointing that Simon would go to the alliance. He would know that our relationship with the United States is deep and strong.
And that is why we were able to advocate in the way we did. And ultimately, the pathway to resolving this, … had to be through the resolution of the legal process.
Dr Yang remains a priority for our government. We continue to raise his case with the Chinese authorities at all appropriate levels and we will continue to do so. It was obviously raised, as you know, when Premier Li was here.
What I would say is today I am very pleased to see Mr Assange reunited with his family in Australia.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Labor Friends of Palestine hit out at federal government’s stance as ‘weakening’ commitment to Palestinian statehood
Labor Friends of Palestine have praised Fatima Payman’s decision to cross the floor to support Palestinian statehood as “entirely consistent with Labor principles and policy” and rejected federal Labor’s stance as a “weakening” of its commitment on the issue.
After Anthony Albanese temporarily suspended the senator from caucus, the group wrote to Payman declaring that she had “the support of thousands of rank-and-file ALP members”.
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The Queensland government plans to establish a new greater glider forest park as part of a $200m plan to reform the state’s timber industry.
The premier, Steven Miles, will today announce he will ban logging in between 50,000 and 60,000 hectares of high value ecosystem within the Eastern Hardwoods region in Wide Bay, north of Brisbane.
In addition, a new park to protect the greater glider will be established in the south-east Queensland bioregion.
The state government will also appoint an advisory group to develop a 30-year plan for the sector. It will include representatives from the timber industry, forestry experts, the conservation sector, First Nations peoples, the Australian Workers’ Union, construction sector and outdoor recreational groups.
Queensland’s timber industry is the backbone of the housing and building sectors.
That’s why I’m doing what matters to support timber workers and the industry to continue building our state, while also increasing our protected area estate.
The terms of reference released today map out our priorities as a government – that is, timber supply security, environmental protections, jobs and diverse employment opportunities.
WikiLeaks X account has tweeted that ‘Julian Assange is free’. Follow today’s news headlines live
‘It’s just a lazy delay’
Bill Shorten says a further delay of the Senate vote on the NDIS bill won’t actually lead to any changes:
There’s no good reason on God’s green earth to have another eight weeks of review, which isn’t actually eight weeks.
There won’t be a whole lot of new submissions come in, there won’t be some brand new arguments not considered.
I’m horrified after 12 months of reviewing the NDIS and then another six months of discussing the review including [in] the last three a Senate committee having public hearings calling for submissions.
The opposition has used words never ever said before by them.
Continue reading...Greens leader Adam Bandt accuses Labor of wanting to make ‘cuts to services’ for disabled people
Bill Shorten has accused the Coalition of a “disingenuous” and “lazy” decision on NDIS reforms, after the opposition proposed to team up with the Greens to delay a bill set to save at least $15m a day.
But the minister for government services’ plea to pass the bill before parliament’s winter break has been rebuffed by the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, who said it was “appalling” Labor wanted to make “cuts to services” to disabled people.
Continue reading...Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan lead criticism of former NSW treasurer while Labor declares him ‘best for the job’
The former New South Wales Liberal treasurer Matt Kean has faced criticism for taking a new job as the new chair of the Climate Change Authority after he was appointed by the Albanese government on Monday.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, revealed the former NSW Liberal treasurer had been chosen for the “important” role on Monday in a surprise cross-party appointment.
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David Pocock also spoke to the ABC about his private member’s bill that would see housing treated as a human right. He said it was needed because:
There’s no overarching national plan and this would legislate that these are the objectives, we want to see housing affordable, we want to reduce homelessness and then it would be up to the government to actually work out – how are we going to do that?
What are the policies that we think will address this?
One of my heroes Desmond Tutu used to say ‘don’t raise your voice, improve your argument’.
It’s pretty tragic the major parties tear the opposition down rather than improving their argument and making their plans stand on their own two feet.
Continue reading...Opposition leader tells Liberal party officials that state premiers ‘won’t stop us’ and labels Anthony Albanese a ‘child in a man’s body’
Peter Dutton has vowed a Coalition government would override the states’ legislated ban on nuclear power, telling party officials on Saturday that state premiers “won’t stop us”.
The opposition leader made the comments in an address to the federal Liberal party council in Sydney, where he escalated his attacks on Anthony Albanese. He called the prime minister a “fraud” and a “child in a man’s body” that is “still captured in his university years”.
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Australia needs more gas supply on east coast, Albanese says
Anthony Albanese is speaking to the ABC from Devonport.
We’ll work those issues through with Aemo.
We need more gas supply. We announced our future gas strategy a short while ago because we understand that we need more supply. Gas has an important role to play in manufacturing in particular. But also in providing firming capacity for the renewables rollout.
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Albanese calls Coalition nuclear policy a ‘fantasy’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has slammed the Coalition’s nuclear power policy, calling it a “fantasy” and saying it was “Peter Dutton and the Seven nuclear reactors.”
What you have here is something that I’ve never seen before. I mean, this is just a fantasy, instead of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs this is Peter Dutton and the seven nuclear reactors.
This is just absurd, to have a big buildup for an announcement and then say we won’t give you the details. I’ll make this prediction. All the details won’t be out there before the election. It will be just “trust me”, just the same as Peter Dutton said that [for the] 2030 target when it comes to emissions reduction, “I will let you know all of that after the election.”
Well, our energy policy will and is absolutely focused on driving down prices as we did in government at … this is the important point. And that is because of a range of technologies, not one, nuclear needs to be part of that mix. You need to have every horse in this race. This is a hard race to win. And we want to have every horse in the race. Nuclear is an important one, gas is an important one.
Everyone wants to sort of say there’s one technology this the answer to everything. No. I’m just wondering. It’s a balance of technologies and right now, what is clear is Chris Bowen’s strategy is not getting us to where we need to go.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Discontent growing among advocates, crossbenchers and Labor MPs over delay in implementing 31 recommendations, including advertising ban
Crossbenchers, gambling harm advocates and even some inside Labor are demanding the Albanese government speed up moves towards banning gambling advertisements, as pressure mounts on Labor to act.
Next week marks one year since Peta Murphy’s landmark gambling report was delivered, and a key Labor MP is planning to “urge” the government to respond soon. Discontent is growing over the government’s failure to respond to its 31 recommendations, including a ban on all advertising for online gambling.
Continue reading...Sites named at Collie, Mt Piper, Callide, Tarong, Liddell, Northern energy in South Australia and Loy Yang. Follow the day’s news live
Sussan Ley says Coalition nuclear policy will be a ‘sensible proposition’
I just wanted to return to Sussan Ley’s appearance on Sky News this morning, where she was asked how a potential future Coalition nuclear policy would circumvent nuclear bans:
We’ll work through all that. We have a sensible proposition to put to the Australian people and I know that when we talk about nuclear people are starting to tune in, understanding that if 19 of the 20 biggest economies in the world are using nuclear, if it makes sense for cleaner baseload power, because it’s zero emissions, if it helps us get to 2050 net zero, if it does all of the things that we want it to do in terms of emissions, and in terms of securing affordable cheaper power for Australians … why would people not consider it? And I believe they will.
Now, the government says it’s renewables only. We can see that that’s actually not going to happen. The government talks about hydrogen, it’s not at scale. It’s not even something they can demonstrate works in that short timeframe and they talk about batteries that aren’t going to provide the storage for their renewables.
So, they are in a complete mess over this, and they need to be put on the sticky paper and asked what they are going to do for families, households and manufacturing businesses.
Continue reading...Jewish MP says attack that used slogan ‘Zionism is fascism’ was ‘politically motivated’
Vandals have smashed windows and set fire to the front of the federal Labor MP Josh Burns’ Melbourne electoral office in what he has branded a “politically motivated attack”.
At least five people were seen near the office located on Barkly Street in St Kilda about 3.20am on Wednesday, police were told.
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Liberals criticise treatment of journalist by Chinese officials at press conference
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham has condemned the treatment of journalist Cheng Lei at federal parliament yesterday.
This was an entirely counterproductive and inappropriate act by Chinese officials that should have been called out by our prime minister and government officials.
It is a reminder that we have two very different systems, the Chinese system and the Australian system, different systems of government, of course as a democracy, different respect when it comes to media, to freedom of speech, but this visit is taking place in Australia.
It is concerning, I think a lot of this comes from so many Australians genuinely doing a tough at the moment, having to make really tough decisions, from telling their kids that they can no longer play basketball or be part of the scouts group because they can’t afford the … 500 bucks a year that costs, to other Australians who are deciding between going to see the GP or fulfilling a script and putting food on the table.
People are doing it tough and so when they hear politicians talk about these targets in the future … I think Peter Dutton use this to whip up fear.
Continue reading...Party were ‘fierce champions of Palestine’ in opposition and they must ‘summon that spirit of old’, she writes for Al Jazeera
The Labor senator Fatima Payman has called on her own government to “recognise Palestine” and undermined efforts by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to discredit protests against Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Payman, writing for Al Jazeera, argued that nations needed to take a “definitive stance” on Palestinian statehood because Israel “continues to disregard its obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and cease genocidal acts”. Israel denies committing genocide in its military response to the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
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Ex-Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann arrives at a Toowoomba court
Bruce Lehrmann arrives at a Toowoomba court for a committal hearing into allegations he raped a woman in 2021.
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