Category Archives: Labor party

‘Slap in the face’: independents furious at PM’s decision to cut advisory staff from four to one

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Anthony Albanese’s move to reduce crossbench staffers to pre-Coalition levels met with outrage

Furious independent MPs and senators have accused the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, of an “attack on democracy” after he decided to slash their staff allocation in one of his first dealings with the newly expanded crossbench.

One Nation has threatened to reject all government legislation as their “default position”, while crucial Senate vote David Pocock called the decision “extremely damaging” to the relationship with the crossbench. The Greens also claimed they have been given an effective staff cut, allocated the same number of staff as the last parliament despite their representatives growing from 10 to 16.

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‘Considerable strain’: how Australian officials saw the China rift

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Officials kept in ‘regular contact’ with Chinese embassy even as Morrison government ministers frozen out, FoI documents shows

Australian officials stayed in “regular contact” with the Chinese embassy in Canberra to “explain our decisions” even when Australian ministers were subjected to a two-year diplomatic freeze, newly released documents show.

The former Morrison government had been “willing to engage with China in dialogue at any time”, according to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade briefing notes, which also described the relationship as being under “considerable strain”.

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Senior ministers to retire before Victoria’s election – as it happened

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Housing market posts first monthly decline since September 2020; at least 52 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Australian scientists celebrate world first

AAP is reporting that in a world first, Australian scientists have developed a device with “exquisite precision” that they say is a huge step towards a commercial quantum computer.

This is a remarkable piece of engineering. This experiment paves the way for larger and more complex quantum systems to be emulated in future.

It won’t be long before we can start to realise new materials that have never existed before.

All of this is just a fantasy because they don’t understand what actually happens at the bargaining table.

I think the Reserve Bank governor has weirdly changed his tune, he was the one who said so long as wages keep up with inflation and productivity, they are not inflationary.

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NSW Labor pledges measures for public transport, toll relief and preschools in state budget reply

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Opposition denies claims of running a ‘low-level scare campaign’ on Perrottet government’s proposed land tax implementation

Public transport built in NSW, toll relief and 100 new public preschools will centre the state opposition’s budget reply speech, as the NSW treasurer, Matt Kean, continues selling his “reform” agendaahead the state’s March polling date.

Chris Minns, the NSW opposition leader, will on Thursday unveil a number of pledges but will stop short of presenting his entire pitch to the voting public, with his plans for home ownership remaining under wraps despite an earlier attack on the government’s planned stamp duty reform for first home buyers.

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Public service shake-up continues with four new secretaries for government departments – as it happened

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Dominic Perrottet called on to halt Barilaro appointment pending inquiry; at least 63 Covid deaths recorded nationwide. This blog is now closed

NSW teacher strike ‘about politics, not pay’, Kean says

Matt Kean has hit out at plans by public and Catholic school teachers to strike next Friday after receiving a 3% pay rise offer, well below the rate of inflation.

Our 3% pay increase is far more than the Labor government’s 1.5% pay increase for public servants down in Victoria.

So the same unions complaining about our generous pay rise up here in NSW and protesting aren’t marching in the streets down in Victoria.

A senior woman, a senior public servant with knowledge of financial markets and trade particularly with the United States was offered the job, it was rescinded by the New South Wales government.

We don’t know by whom. And then John Barilaro mysteriously was given it just last week.

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Public servant who reported to John Barilaro was on interview panel for lucrative New York trade job

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Exclusive: Investment NSW chief executive did not have ‘conflict of interest’, agency says after former deputy premier’s appointment to $500,000-a-year role

A senior public servant who reported directly to John Barilaro before his resignation from parliament was on the interview panel who gave the former deputy New South Wales premier a $500,000-a-year trade commissioner job, but the agency involved says there was no conflict of interest.

Amy Brown, the chief executive of Investment NSW, was one of four bureaucrats who interviewed Barilaro for the New York-based trade commissioner job.

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Fake Twitter accounts for new senator suspended – as it happened

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Twitter suspends two fake accounts pretending to be Fatima Payman; nation records at least 59 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Victoria is reporting a spike in Covid related deaths, after 28 people lost their lives overnight:

Rally outside NSW parliament to protest government’s wages policy

We are losing skilled teachers, nurses, cleaners – and we’re going to have more pressure in NSW for services to be provided that we can’t retain.

It’s not much to ask and the government needs to act.

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Trains, housing and royalties: what we know about the Queensland state budget

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Funding boosts in social housing, health and rail projects flagged ahead of Tuesday’s budget

The Palaszczuk government has been relatively tight-lipped ahead of the state budget being handed down on Tuesday.

Over the past few weeks, the New South Wales government has made a series of major announcements – totalling more than $30bn in commitments – in the weeks leading up to an election budget, also being handed down on Tuesday.

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Environment report Coalition didn’t release paints ‘damning story of neglect’, Tanya Plibersek says

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Minister will release five-yearly report which she says details ‘alarming story’ of native species extinction and cultural heritage loss

Tanya Plibersek says a damning national environmental report card received by the former Coalition government last year but not released, tells an “alarming story” of decline, native species extinction and cultural heritage loss.

In one of her first interviews as the new federal environment and water minister, Plibersek said the state of the environment report – a five-yearly official scientific assessment – would be released when she gave a National Press Club address on 19 July. It would help inform changes Labor planned to strengthen the country’s widely criticised national environment laws, she said.

She wanted Australia, which has one of the world’s largest marine parks areas, to take a global leadership role in ocean protection. She plans to attend the UN ocean conference in Portugal next week.

She would release the water for the environment special account report – on the recovery of environmental water in the Murray-Darling Basin – after parliament returned in July.

Her impression of the environment department was of “fantastic, highly professional, skilled public servants with real commitment to doing the job well”, but with an “extraordinary reliance” on contractors. She hoped to reduce that and have more permanent positions, in line with Labor policy.

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Coalition criticises ‘parliamentary go-slow’ as sitting calendar released – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese says government will improve energy security ‘in the shortest time possible’; nation records 13 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Julian Assange’s wife and human rights lawyer, Stella Moris, says she is “extremely worried” about what will happen to Assange next, while noting there has been a “shift” in sentiment towards the WikiLeaks founder.

Moris was on RN Breakfast earlier, and says she has also welcomed reports Australia are in discussion with the United States on Assange, and that she intends to appeal against Britain’s decision to approve his extradition to the US to face criminal charges:

I’m feeling definitely there’s a shift.

It feels like we’ve been running a marathon for a long time. And you know, that’s hard – mentally, physically. But now it feels like we have many people running alongside us, and we might see the finish line.

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Australia yet to sign up to treaty banning nuclear weapons but will attend UN meeting as observer

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Exclusive: Anthony Albanese committed Labor to signing the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons while in opposition

Australia will attend – as an observer – a UN meeting of countries that have outlawed nuclear weapons, parties to a treaty Anthony Albanese championed in opposition and committed Labor to ratifying in government.

Government backbencher Susan Templeman’s attendance at the meeting in Vienna on Tuesday comes as a group of 55 former Australian ambassadors and high commissioners have written an open letter to the prime minister urging the government to sign up to the treaty, which outright prohibits the development, testing, production and use of nuclear weapons.

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Under-55s and higher educated voters propelled Labor to victory, study finds

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Labor was more popular with women, ANU study finds, but difference ‘mostly due to a higher vote for the Greens’

Labor was propelled to victory over Scott Morrison by women, under-55s and those with higher levels of education, with people in the latter two groups most likely to have abandoned the Coalition since the 2019 election.

Those are the findings of a survey of 3,500 voters by the Australian National University and researchers at the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, released on Monday.

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‘Fault all round’: Peter Dutton aims to deflect blame for Australia’s energy crisis

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Liberal leader says Coalition made ‘huge investments’ in renewables when in power and blames states for locking up gas reserves

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has sought to deflect blame for the national energy crisis, saying there is “fault all round”, while blaming states for locking up gas reserves.

In a wide-ranging interview on the ABC on Sunday, the former defence minister also rejected suggestions he had relied on classified information to claim Australia could access two new Virginia-class submarines from the US by 2030, and held back support for an Indigenous voice to parliament.

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Australia news live updates: Albanese extends Covid funding as nation records 51 deaths from virus; energy supply will meet weekend demand, Aemo says

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NSW premier says health funding ‘a great start’ after national cabinet meeting; electricity reserves improve across National Energy Market; ASX plunges to lowest level since November 2020; nation records 51 Covid deaths. Follow live

The PM is making the rounds this morning, appearing on Sunrise and repeating his line that almost a decade of “delay and denial” under the former Coalition government led to the current energy crisis (I feel like this will be a recurring theme today.)

People want an end to the nonsense that’s gone on for the last decade.

You can’t fix 10 years of inaction in just 10 days but we are taking immediate action through Aemo to make sure that the lights stay on. At the same time, we’re making sure that we create the investment environment to make sure we get it right.

The gas is actually the property of the people of the state, whichever state that is, and there should have always been enough for the state and the country in question. It just seems to me to be very strange that there’s no gas for local people yet.

Coal-fired power generation is very old technology and very difficult for coal plants to cope with renewables coming onto the grid, basically, new renewables every minute

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Australian Medical Association calls for overhaul of national cabinet secrecy rules

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Omar Khorshid says Australians ‘have a right to know’ what is discussed, ahead of Anthony Albanese’s meeting with states and territories

Secrecy rules should not “automatically” apply to national cabinet documents and deliberations, the head of the Australian Medical Association has said.

Omar Khorshid made the comments ahead of Anthony Albanese’s first meetings with the state and territory leaders on Thursday evening. Friday’s meeting is expected to deliver major changes to the intergovernmental body, including a greater productivity reform focus.

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NSW residents urged to conserve power – as it happened

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Paul Erickson speaks at National Press Club; Bowen says energy system ‘under pressure’; AEC says it will not conduct a recount in federal seat of Gilmore; foreign affairs minister’s first trip to Solomon Islands since security deal with China; Victoria records 18 Covid deaths, NSW records 14. This blog is now closed

Quick note:

NSW is reporting 7,260 new Covid cases and 14 deaths this morning.

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Ryan says supporters have received ‘threatening’ letters – as it happened

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Independent MP for Kooyong says some supporters have received anonymous handwritten letters; nation records at least 11 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Standing proud in the Nadesalingams’ Biloela back yard is a rusty old Hills Hoist.

Birds squawk in the paperbark trees lining the road as mum Priya strolls in and out of the kitchen, determined to make sure we are looked after, offering us tea and water.

It was such an extraordinary time, and things were moving so quickly early ... the advice to the various governments at the time were really monumental.

It was quite terrifying ... we would do what the data was [saying], the experts together provided advice. In the end, Australians have done very well and turned up and got their vaccinations and we managed to live through some significant lockdowns and have come out of this better than many other countries.

We live in a great country with a great health system and I was confident we would be able to get our way through this, we still are not out of it, Covid is still here ... if you haven’t had that third dose vaccination, have it.

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Defence minister rubbishes Coalition claims on France compensation deal – as it happened

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Marles brushes off suggestions former Coalition government was close to signing compensation deal with France; nation records at least 24 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Interview with minister for NDIS and government services Bill Shorten now. First question is about energy policy.

Shorten says “the real issue about power, in my opinion is for 10 years we’ve had a decade of denial and delay.”

What we are suffering from this winter in the short term is floods of coal mines, outages of a plant which is more than 50 years old, but the real long-term problem is that we haven’t made a plan for transition to renewables, now the chickens have come home to roost.

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Biloela family welcomed home; Albanese announces $830m submarine penalty – as it happened

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French defence minister welcomes Australia’s payment to Naval Group over submarine cancellation; 70 Covid deaths across the country. This blog is now closed

Prime minister Anthony Albanese will hold a press conference in Sydney at 10.15am

There are reports in French media that Australia has settled with French company Naval Group over the cancellation of the submarines contract by the former government. We have not confirmed, but we shall see if that’s what the press conference is about.

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Chris Bowen warns energy generators against market manipulation amid crisis

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Minister say he’s not aware of any specific allegations but ‘would not tolerate’ inappropriate behaviour

The energy minister, Chris Bowen, has declared any power generator using the cover of the current energy crisis to engage in market manipulation will face action from regulators wielding the “full force of their powers”.

In a wide-ranging interview with Guardian Australia’s political podcast, the new federal minister said he was not aware of any specific allegations, but he acknowledged there was often speculation about inappropriate behaviour in Australia’s energy market.

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