Category Archives: Labor party

Election 2022 live updates: RBA chief warns interest rates could hit 2.5% as Labor seizes on ‘cost of living crisis’

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Scott Morrison defends economic ‘shield’ after RBA lifts cash rate target from historic low; Philip Lowe says more interest rate rises to come; Jim Chalmers says central bank decision ‘a very serious development’; nation records 41 Covid deaths. Follow the latest updates live

Scott Morrison doesn’t get sick of the “silly” photo ops [silly photo opportunities being how the question was framed], he tells Melbourne radio’s Neil Mitchell, because he “doesn’t see them that way”.

He then gives a hero-gram to tradies.

I don’t fit in those ways, what I see is [being] out and about and doing what Australians do every day.

... What I enjoy doing is standing there with an apprentice who shows me what they’re learning, and then I’d have a go at it.

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Victoria’s treasurer delivers health-focused budget and promises return to surplus

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Tim Pallas announces new hospitals, clearing of a surgery backlog and hiring of thousands of healthcare workers

The Victorian government will spend $12bn to repair its Covid-battered health system with the treasurer, Tim Pallas, confident that the worst of the pandemic is behind the state and a return to surplus will happen in the near future.

Pallas’s eighth budget, handed down on Tuesday, includes $2.9bn worth of new health infrastructure. This includes $900m to build a hospital in Melton, in Melbourne’s west, which will include a 24-hour emergency department and an intensive care unit, along with maternity and mental health services.

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ABC misses out on final leaders’ debate; key independents back call for robodebt inquiry – as it happened

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Channel Seven to host final debate of election campaign; crossbenchers back call for royal commission into robodebt scandal; Scott Morrison focuses on cost of living concerns; Anthony Albanese marches for May Day in Brisbane; Sally McManus would support wage increase for public sector workers; 13 Covid deaths recorded across the nation. This blog is now closed

Labor is still on the campaign sell for its first homeowner policy.

Jason Clare faced questions ranging from, “Is this too small to have an impact?” to, “Won’t it drive up house prices?”

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Labor’s election pitch: five key policies unveiled at party’s campaign launch

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Anthony Albanese outlines vision for medicines, manufacturing jobs, gender pay equity, electric vehicles and housing affordability

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, made a pitch for a “better future” at his official campaign launch in Perth, outlining new policies to try to capture voter attention.

The party has veered away from the big-spending and revenue-raising promises of the last election campaign. But Albanese pledged on Sunday that if he wins the 21 May election “the work of building that better future will start the very next day”.

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Albanese rallies against ‘fear and division’ at Labor campaign launch – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese and senior Labor members speak at ALP campaign launch in Perth; Scott Morrison speaks at Sydney rally; Coalition outlines e-safety plan; Greens announce LGBTQ+ equality plan; Victoria reports seven Covid deaths; NSW reports five; South Australia reports two. This blog is now closed

Simon Birmingham is pushed on what the Coalition will actually do on the cost of living but there isn’t a clear answer. See this exchange with Insiders host David Speers:

Q: So essentially to get wages going is to keep doing what you’ve been doing for the last nine years?

David, our plan is a comprehensive economic plan and in contrast to the Labor party. We have outlined clearly plans for … that jobs growth. Jobs growth fuelled by lower taxes and tax relief for Australians that continue to be implemented in terms of lower income taxes, support for more businesses.

David, it is a plan that we’ve outlined in quite a lot of detail, compared to ...

If you look at this year’s budget, small business, a particular focus in relation to investment in technology …

The approach we’ve taken is to fix a particular problem in the housing market and that was the fact that you had to save, of course, for your deposit, takes months and months, years and years, to get that 20% deposit to avoid having to pay mortgage insurance, that was meaning that people were having to pay rent at the same time as saving.

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Anthony Albanese pledges to lower cost of PBS medicines and boost EVs at Labor campaign launch

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Opposition leader also vows to make gender equity an objective of the Fair Work Act if ALP wins federal election on 21 May

Labor has promised to reduce the cost of medicines on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, roll out new charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and focus on improving pay equity for women if Anthony Albanese defeats Scott Morrison on 21 May.

The Labor leader used the party’s official election campaign launch in Perth on Sunday to unveil a promise to reduce the cost of drugs on the PBS by $12.50. Albanese told the party faithful gathered at Optus Stadium that meant the maximum price for medicines for millions of Australians would be $30.

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Coalition criticises Labor’s housing policy because government could profit from price rises

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Scott Morrison argues Labor is ‘looking to make money out of this’ as Anthony Albanese pledges to cut cost of some mortgages by up to $380,000

The finance minister, Simon Birmingham, says Australians don’t want Anthony Albanese at the table with them sharing equity in their homes after Labor announced a policy to make homeownership more affordable for low and middle income earners.

Birmingham told the ABC on Sunday the Morrison government’s affordable housing initiative was the preferred model.

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Labor and the Liberals are waging an election meme war – but what is the point?

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The major parties have turned to internet jokes as they fight for attention, but some experts think it’s a big waste of time

You wouldn’t normally expect political parties to prioritise messages about The Simpsons, SpongeBob SquarePants and Judge Judy in the midst of an election campaign. But as Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese duke it out on debate stages with their competing visions for Australia, there’s a battle of a different kind happening online; a battle for attention, eyeballs and shares.

A fascinating meme war is being waged, and it might be more important than you think.

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Labor to help low and middle income earners buy home with shared ownership scheme

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Anthony Albanese will unveil $329m Help to Buy housing initiative as the centrepiece of Labor’s campaign launch in Perth

Anthony Albanese will provide help for Australians on low and middle incomes to buy houses by giving eligible applicants a commonwealth equity contribution of up to 40% of the purchase price of a new home, and up to 30% for an existing home.

The Labor leader will unveil the new $329m housing initiative as the centrepiece of Labor’s official campaign launch in Perth on Sunday. If Albanese wins on 21 May, Labor’s new shared equity housing policy will be implemented in addition to the Morrison government’s First Home Guarantee scheme.

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Albanese and Morrison to face off in second leaders’ debate of federal election, Nine says

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News of debate which will employ a panel of three journalists comes as Labor pledges robodebt royal commission and Coalition promises cheaper medicines

Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison will go head to head in a second leaders’ debate less than a fortnight out from the federal election, the Nine network has announced.

It follows days of backroom negotiations between the two major parties while the opposition leader recovered from his recent bout of Covid-19.

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Labor pledges royal commission into ‘human tragedy’ of robodebt if elected

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Anthony Albanese vows to find those responsible for the scheme as Morrison says ‘the problem has been addressed’

Labor has promised to launch a royal commission into the discredited robodebt scheme if it wins government.

The automated matching of tax and Centrelink data to raise debts against welfare recipients for money the Coalition government claimed to have overpaid ran between 2015 and November 2019, and saw the government unlawfully raise $1.76bn in debts against 443,000 people.

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Coalition pledges to cut medication costs; 53 Covid deaths – as it happened

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Prime minister announces a $10 cut to PBS scripts from next year in an attempt to tackle cost-of-living pressure, while Labor vows to hold a royal commission into the robodebt scandal. This blog is now closed

Now some questions on China’s security deal with the Solomon Islands.

Morrison, asked about the timing of the announcement, says:

We’re very aware of the influence that the Chinese government seeks to have in this country. We, in fact, introduced laws to prevent it. So any suggestion that the Chinese government doesn’t seek to interfere in Australia – well, we didn’t put that legislation in for no reason. We put it in there to ensure that Australian security could be safeguarded from foreign influence in our own country.

The Chinese government would say that, wouldn’t they?

There are temporary measures that we put on the budget, longer term measures in the mid-year statement. It is a fairly common way that we do budgets …

This is a longer term measure and it will start next calendar year. So the reason that we’re talking about it now, normally we would make an announcement like that later in the year.

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Scott Morrison suggests ‘remarkable similarity’ between China and Solomon Islands rhetoric – as it happened

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Prime minister responds after Solomon Islands PM says he heard about Aukus pact through media; Labor leader heads to Perth after week in Covid isolation as deputy Richard Marles tests positive; at least 26 coronavirus deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

I’m not sure if voters care about all this debate about debates, but it goes on:

Anthony Albanese agreed to debate Scott Morrison anytime. Morrison wants a debate on Seven and on Nine. The ABC has been cut out, as has the National Press Club.

Well, I think the national broadcaster can have a role here as well and the prime minister thinks that he is the only person who has a say in this.

The national secretaries of the Liberal party and Labor party should sit down, work these issues through, like adults.

I’m up for more debates.

... But I’m not up for the prime minister deciding when, who, how that all occurs. We both need to be involved in this process and the Labor party needs to be engaged so I’m certainly up for more debates.

Well, it’s all relative, I guess, in in terms of what I have to do. So today, this morning, I’ve got a round of interviews. Just the doctor’s advice that when I’m feeling tired – which he advises, and others [are] telling me is the case, that I’ll continue to feel tired and a bit fatigued, particularly over the next week – that I need to be conscious about that, I need to rest when I can and just be a bit sensible.

It’s no use not looking after your health. There’s still three and a bit weeks to go in this campaign. He’s advised that each and every day, if I get that rest, I’ll feel better, and I certainly feel much better today than I did yesterday.

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Trent Zimmerman says moderate MPs ‘prevailed’ over Barnaby Joyce on net zero emissions

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Liberal MP tells North Sydney candidates debate that moderates won commitment despite opposition from Nationals

Liberal party MP Trent Zimmerman says he and fellow moderate MPs “prevailed” over the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, in securing a net zero climate target, saying the Nationals leader was opposed to the policy.

Zimmerman, a key Liberal party moderate facing a serious challenge to hang on to the North Sydney electorate from the independent Kylea Tink, told a Sky News debate on Thursday that he would push for “stronger” emissions targets if the Coalition was re-elected.

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Australia’s foreign minister denounces China’s ‘secret’ security deal with Solomon Islands

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Marise Payne says other members of the ‘Pacific family’ share concerns but she rejects claims her government ‘dropped the ball’ in the region

Marise Payne has denounced the “secret” terms of China’s security deal with Solomon Islands, while insisting “no document signed and kept away from public view” would change Australia’s commitment to answering Pacific countries’ needs.

The foreign affairs minister said the agreement was “not transparent” – unlike Australia’s existing security treaty with Solomon Islands – and was also being hidden from other Pacific countries.

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In 2019 inequality was a big federal election issue. Now it’s off the radar

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How does your area compare for housing stress, socioeconomic disadvantage and income? In the first of a series about Australian electorates, we look at inequality and wealth

In the 2019 election, inequality was a major campaign theme. In the run up to polling day, the then Labor leader Bill Shorten declared inequality killed hope and created a fault line in politics by fostering a “sense of powerlessness that drives people away from the political mainstream, and down the low road of blaming minorities, and promising to turn back the clock”.

Back then, Labor promised to pursue measures like the abolition of franking credits – characterised by Shorten as “unsustainable largesse for high-income earners” – and curbs to negative gearing. These policies raised the revenue underpinning Labor’s then antidote – projected increases in social spending in areas like health and education.

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Labor ‘gravely concerned’ by Karen Andrews’ claim about potential China election interference

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Kristina Keneally says home affairs minister must clarify comments or brief Labor on intelligence reporting of foreign interference

Labor has raised grave concerns about the home affairs minister’s use of “privileged access to intelligence reporting”, after Karen Andrews publicly alluded to a potential attempt by China at interference in the federal election.

The shadow minister, Kristina Keneally, has written to Andrews to remind her of “the vital convention that opposition is briefed on any developing matters of national security” during the election caretaker mode.

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Coalition climate policy forced big polluters to pay $15m for carbon credits in past year

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Scott Morrison says Labor wants to use government safeguard mechanism as a ‘sneaky carbon tax’ but it is already making big business pay for offsets

The Coalition last year required polluting businesses to buy 419,000 carbon credits at an estimated cost of $15m using a policy that Scott Morrison now falsely describes as “Labor’s sneaky carbon tax”.

Government data released last month shows that, under the Coalition’s so-called safeguard mechanism, major polluting companies had to buy 70% more carbon credits last financial year than in 2019-20.

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Australia politics live updates: inflation figure highlights cost of living ‘triple whammy’, says Labor; Frydenberg takes aim at ‘fake independents’

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Labor launches economic plan after CPI increases to 5.1%; Frydenberg says ‘teal’ independents ‘a slogan and a billboard’; home affairs minister implies timing of China security pact is ‘political interference’; Jason Clare says Coalition ‘at war with itself over climate change’; Australia sending extra military assistance to Ukraine; at least 43 Covid deaths recorded – follow all the day’s news

Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie will address the press club today.

Paul Kelly, Daryl Braithwaite, Lime Cordiale and Grinspoon will be playing a major free concert in Lismore next month, in an attempt to boost morale in the wake of recent flood devastation in the region.

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Payne says China military base in Solomons would be a ‘red line’ – as it happened

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Queensland senator Matt Canavan adds to uncertainty about Coalition climate commitments; foreign minister accuses Labor of ‘playing politics’ on national security after Penny Wong criticises Scott Morrison for ‘refusing to take responsibility in Pacific’; at least 50 Covid deaths as WA to ease mask mandate in some settings. This blog is now closed

Scott Morrison is in Townsville (north Queensland) today where he will be making announcements on energy.

Given what we just heard from Scott Morrison there, it’s worth your time having a listen to climate and environment editor Adam Morton on today’s Full Story podcast examining if the policy differences between the Coalition and Labor and ultimately asking: is either party preparing enough for the transformational change ahead?

Economic modelling should be used as a guide. Both sides of politics lean on it more as a forecast that will be fact ... I don’t think anybody can tell us exactly what our power bills will be in 2025, 2030, 2050 but no one disagrees that more solar and wind is good in terms of lowering prices because it is much, much cheaper to generate what’s in place.

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