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And here is the standard of some of the “debate” among senior parliamentarians.
Meanwhile, Australia’s sense of social cohesion is at its lowest recorded ebb.
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Immigration detention: Labor to rush through emergency legislation after high court ruling
Home affairs minister says it’s ‘garbage’ that legislation could completely reverse high court decision that led to 81 leaving immigration detention
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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.
Continue reading...Australia politics live: students protesting over climate crisis ‘are being the adults’, Adam Bandt says
Follow the day’s news live
- Exclusive: Anthony Albanese’s Labor branch calls for Gaza ceasefire and condemns Israeli ‘retribution’
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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.
Continue reading...More Australians support providing assistance to Palestinians than Israel in Gaza conflict, Essential poll finds
But majority want Australia to stay out of the conflict entirely as less than a third of those polled approve of federal government’s response
Australians’ sympathies in the Israel-Gaza conflict have flipped, with more now wanting to provide assistance to Palestine than Israel and a big drop in those who say Israel’s reaction to the 7 October attack by Hamas is proportionate.
The Guardian Essential poll of 1,150 voters, released on Tuesday, also found that Anthony Albanese’s approval rating is now negative for the first time in his prime ministership.
Continue reading...Australia politics live: Gaza civilian casualties ‘unacceptably high’, Plibersek says; ANZ posts record profit as customers ‘muddle through’ rate rises
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.
Continue reading...As the federal government prepares to scrap road and rail projects – find out what is being funded in your area
The government is backing hundreds of infrastructure projects across Australia, however some may now be cancelled due to cost overruns
The Australian government has committed to hundreds of infrastructure projects around the country, mostly road and rail projects.
However, as many as 250 projects that have yet to begin construction may be scrapped or delayed as a cost-saving measure to pay for at least $33bn in cost overruns.
Continue reading...Why Labor is on a ‘tightrope’ over its response to the Israel-Hamas war
Calls for ALP to support a ceasefire grow as rank and file members quit and migrant communities in heartland seats threaten to turn away
When asked how Muslim and Arab communities feel about Labor’s stance on the conflict in Gaza, Randa Abdel-Fattah doesn’t hesitate.
“They are feeling rage, disappointment and betrayal,” the activist and author said.
Continue reading...Australia news live: ‘we let him down,’ WA corrective services minister admits after death of 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd
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.
Continue reading...Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marjorie Taylor Greene unite in push to free Julian Assange
Maga Republican and leftwing Democrat among 16 US Congress members lobbying Joe Biden to drop extradition attempts against WikiLeaks founder
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Maga Republican and fierce Trump supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene and leftwing Democratic firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have found common ground in freeing Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The pair are among 16 members of the US Congress who have written directly to president Joe Biden urging the United States to drop its extradition attempts against Assange and halt any prosecutorial proceedings immediately.
Continue reading...Small modular nuclear reactor that was hailed by Coalition as future cancelled due to rising costs
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.
Continue reading...Optus confirms ‘network event’ behind outage – as it happened
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- Labor facing showdown with Pocock and Lambie after Senate passes industrial relations bills
- Optus outage: network faces Senate inquiry and government review after Australia-wide loss of service
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Rowland: ‘consumers were clearly frustrated with lack of information’ over outage
Rowland says the key issue of the Optus outage was “getting some more understanding of the nature of the problem”. She tells ABC TV:
I made it clear from the outset that consumers were clearly frustrated with the lack of information. Australians are reasonable people. They understand that things need to be resolved and that may take some time, but the key issue here was getting some understanding of the nature of the problem, how long it may take and what the impacts would be.
And I think it goes to the issue of how reliant we are on our digital devices and connectivity overall, including for consuming messages and news media. And, in this case, the broadcasting platforms were there to be utilised and I did encourage Optus to do that as well.
It’s important, I believe, to have a post-incident review that is both thorough in scope but also is completed expeditiously and goes to the precise issues of what has caused this, considering the considerable amount of disruption, the distress it has caused, but also the economic impact as well. And to understand what [can] be done in future by the sector as a whole to take the lesson and mitigate that going forward.
So this is important, because Australians expect that there will be follow-up, that there will be lessons learned. But, importantly for the sector as a whole, it’s important to understand how this can be certainly avoided in future.
Continue reading...Almost 200 asylum seekers returned by Albanese government since May 2022, new details show
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.
Continue reading...Australia news live: RBA tipped to hike interest rates today; last day of PM’s China visit; Melbourne Cup 2023
A record level of stressed households are projected as economists tip Melbourne Cup Day interest rate rise. Follow the day’s news live
The government services minister, Bill Shorten, was also asked about the Reserve Bank’s upcoming decision on interest rates later today.
He acknowledged the Reserve Bank is independent of the government but said “I hope it stays static”:
[I] just know a lot of mortgage holders are doing it tough, but the bank will make its decision independently.
For the Albanese government, we know that inflation is a cost of living issue. We have put in a whole heap of measures from childcare to parental leave and energy support. People are doing it tough at the moment, I think it’s hard out there.
Continue reading...Scrap stage-three tax cuts to fight inflation rather than cut infrastructure funding, Queensland says
Deputy premier Steven Miles says it’s ‘too late’ to cancel projects and any effect on demand is likely to be years away
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The Queensland deputy premier has demanded that federal Labor explain why it is cutting infrastructure spending to fight inflation rather than revisiting controversial tax cuts for high income earners.
Steven Miles has upped the pressure on the Albanese government over looming infrastructure cuts in an opinion piece in the Courier-Mail, arguing it is “too late” to cut projects to fight inflation and urging it to reconsider stage-three tax cuts instead.
Continue reading...Tanya Plibersek accuses Peter Dutton of ‘killing people’s faith in government’
Environment minister hammers opposition leader’s record, as Labor and Liberal road test lines of attack for next federal election
Senior government minister Tanya Plibersek has accused Peter Dutton of seeking to “kick the underdog when they’re down” and “killing people’s faith in government”, as Labor targets the opposition leader ahead of the next election.
Plibersek will use a speech at Labor’s state conference in Western Australia on Saturday to criticise Dutton, calling his politics “the poisonous politics of no”.
Continue reading...WA town stops using Wiggles song to deter homeless people; Paul Keating lauds Bill Hayden at state funeral – as it happened
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- Israel-Hamas war: live coverage
- Qantas chairman heckled by shareholders at AGM as investors reject executive pay plans
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Husic was on the show to discuss the results of the AI Safety Summit held in the UK this week, where Australia and 27 other countries signed a major artificial intelligence agreement.
The Bletchley Declaration affirms that AI should be developed, designed and deployed in a human-centric and safe manner.
It has been very clear from a number of countries, not the least of which the US, which brought in a big executive order this week to improve AI safety and security, that there will be more safety testing and also evaluating those AI models, and holding companies much more accountable for the way that they do that development work.
There will be safety institutes set up in the US and the UK to help with that testing and it will involve researchers in that work and a state of the science report that will look at the developments particularly around what they call frontier AI, generative AI and Australia will have a voice there with the CSIRO’s chief scientist, Dr Bronwyn Fox, who will represent our country in the development of that research work to give governments and regulators a heads up on how the technology is evolving too.
I have been concerned for weeks about where things would head. I was concerned that innocent Palestinian families would bear the brunt and the heaviest burden, in terms of the type of action that was being foreshadowed.
I think the world, the international community, is watching very closely. I have said previously there has to be a much more strategic, precise way to hold Hamas to account. Israel’s actions do matter, in terms of the way in which they conduct these military operations, and I think a lot of us are deeply concerned about the impact, not only on innocent Palestinians but particularly kids.
Continue reading...Labor accused of ‘dragging feet’ on reinstating program that monitors airlines for potential price-gouging
Opposition says there’s ‘no excuse’ for further delays on the government reviving the ACCC flight monitoring regime
More than two weeks after announcing it was reviving an airline industry monitoring program, the Albanese government is yet to formally direct the competition watchdog to conduct the investigation.
After months of scrutiny into Qantas’s influence in the government’s decision to block rival Qatar Airways’ push to boost its flights to Australia, the Greens and independent senator David Pocock in October knocked back a proposal to extend a Senate inquiry on the topic.
Continue reading...Scrap blue cards for First Nations kinship carers, Queensland family and child commissioner says
Damning report finds state’s blue card screening system creates unnecessary barriers to placing children with their families
Queensland’s family and child commissioner has called for blue card requirements to be scrapped for First Nations kinship carers after a report found the system relies on “irrelevant information, overpolicing and subjective assessments”.
Since 2001, Queenslanders who work around children have needed to obtain a blue card, with offences including drug trafficking, murder and child abuse disqualifying a person from obtaining one. But a report by the Queensland Family & Child Commission (QFCC) found blue cards create additional barriers to placing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with their families.
Continue reading...Indigenous voice defeat doesn’t mean voters want assimilation, Albanese says
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”.
Continue reading...Wiggles ‘deeply disappointed’ over use of Hot Potato to deter homeless people – as it happened
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- Israel-Hamas war: live coverage
- Centrelink officials recalled to Senate estimates after failing to answer ‘basic questions’
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Watts has gone on to confirm that there are still 65 Australians stuck in Gaza that the government is “supporting” and are being provided consular assistance.
Watts says Dfat is working to get those individuals to the Rafah crossing and out of Gaza “as soon as possible”.
We know this is an incredibly distressing time for Australians in Gaza and their families and we are providing all possible support we can, communicating through all available channels the best information and options we have about their safety in a very difficult situation.
The circumstances on the ground are incredibly challenging and they are changing on a day to day basis. This is a conflict zone. It is a very difficult operating environment so we do the best job we can in the circumstances.
Crossings like this are the result of an enormous effort from Australian consular officials and diplomats in the region. So many conversations at the ministerial level, foreign minister Wong spoke with her counterparts in the region and we’re grateful that this initial cohort has made the crossing from Gaza to Egypt.
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