Category Archives: Labor party

‘Apoplectic’ environment groups halt Coalition attack ads to take aim at Albanese over species’ ‘death warrant’

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Exclusive: Australia’s top green organisations suspend anti-nuclear power ads to fund campaign against Labor’s move to protect salmon industry

Australia’s leading environment organisations have abruptly suspended advertising campaigns attacking the Coalition’s plan to introduce nuclear power and are instead funding ads accusing Anthony Albanese of signing “the death warrant” of an endangered species.

The shift from criticising the Coalition to Labor on the cusp of an election campaign was agreed by the bosses of green groups – including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, the WWF Australia and the Climate Council – at what campaigners described as an emergency meeting on Saturday.

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What a $5,000 ticket will and won’t get you at one of Canberra’s budget night fundraising soirees

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As you decipher how the budget may alter your life on Tuesday night, your politicians will be raking in the cash by wining and dining donors and lobbyists

As you decipher how the federal budget may alter your life on Tuesday night, your politicians will be raking in the cash by wining and dining donors and lobbyists in Canberra.

This year’s budget night fundraisers – often concealed from the general public – could be something of a final hoorah. New laws capping campaign spending will soon make these budget night soirees less important, at least financially.

Tickets will have to be publicly disclosed as gifts, meaning there will be a record of those who sipped champagne with politicians and filled the party coffers. But these changes won’t apply until 2026. For now, the show goes on.

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Changes in Help to Buy housing scheme will make ‘most first home buyers’ eligible, Labor says

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Minister announces increase in both income and property price caps as part of 2025 budget

Labor will increase the income and price caps for its signature Help to Buy scheme as part of next week’s budget, which it has promised will deliver cost-of-living relief.

Under the shared equity scheme, the commonwealth provides first home buyers with 30% of the purchase price of an existing home, or 40% for a new home.

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Victorian Labor’s tough-on-crime turn could mark the beginning of the end for Jacinta Allan

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Victorian Labor has faced a ‘crime crisis’ before – but no matter how tough the premier talks on law and order, the Coalition is always willing to go tougher

It was meant to be the week Jacinta Allan took a firm stance on the “crime crisis”, but it could instead mark the beginning of the end for her government.

It began on Monday with the Victorian premier announcing a new police taskforce, Operation Hawk, which appeared, on the surface, a decisive move to combat corruption on government construction sites.

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Dutton calling Albanese ‘limp-wristed’ over Chinese ships ‘unsurprising’, Wong says

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Opposition leader criticised for using historical slur against gay men, with a spokesperson for Dutton saying ‘no offence was intended’

Penny Wong says it’s “unsurprising” Peter Dutton would use an historical slur to attack the prime minister’s response to China, noting the opposition leader had opposed marriage equality.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Dutton said: “It was a phrase that shouldn’t have been used, and no offence was intended from Mr Dutton.”

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PBS-listed medicine to cost no more than $25 a script if Labor re-elected

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Election pledge part of Albanese’s focus on cheaper medicines as a cost-of-living measure that will also help reduce inflation

A re-elected Labor government would reduce the price of PBS-listed medicines to no more than $25 a script, in a major new election pledge to be included in next week’s budget that builds on Anthony Albanese’s focus on cheaper medicines as a cost-of-living measure.

With the formal election campaign to start within weeks, where Labor will focus strongly on health as a key issue, Albanese will on Thursday deliver a major speech promising that four out of five medications on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme would become cheaper under the plan which would cost the government $689m.

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Pocock says politicians using encrypted messaging apps damages ‘health of our democracy’

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Kevin Rudd once lobbied the Turnbull government for a UN position using encrypted app Wickr – and the messages could not be found

Independent senator David Pocock says the use of encrypted messaging platforms by politicians to avoid scrutiny is damaging to Australian democracy, urging the government to act on recommendations from the information commissioner and the National Archives that such messages should be retained.

In a report on Wednesday from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and the National Archives, a survey of 22 government agencies found 16 allowed use of messaging apps, three did not allow their use, and three did not have a policy.

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Guardian Essential poll: Albanese scores highest approval rating in almost 18 months as support for Dutton slips

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PM’s approval rating increases to 46%, up four percentage points since the last poll, as Labor and Coalition run neck-and-neck on a two-party preferred basis

More Australians approve of Anthony Albanese as the country’s leader than disapprove of him for the first time in almost 18 months since the referendum on the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament.

Albanese’s approval rating has increased to 46%, up four percentage points from earlier in March, the latest Guardian Essential poll shows, while his disapproval rating fell to 45%.

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NSW Labor divided over Chris Minns’ plan to extend controversial youth bail laws

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Exclusive: MLC Stephen Lawrence tells party room government is putting state on ‘slippery slope’ to more punitive approach

The New South Wales premier is facing growing internal dissent over his plan to extend controversial youth bail laws, with one MP telling caucus the laws had put the government on a “slippery slope”.

Sources say Labor MLC Stephen Lawrence – a former barrister and one-time mayor of Dubbo – argued during a February meeting that the government was on a path whereby it could adopt further punitive approaches because the laws introduced a year ago weren’t working.

If crime wasn’t going down there could be calls for even tougher measures, leading to a dangerous downward spiral, Lawrence suggested.

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Australia will not revise critical minerals-for-tariffs exemption deal rejected by Trump administration

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Resources minister says she is ‘sad’ the US did not embrace a more reliable supply of minerals for renewable energy and battery technologies

The Australian resources minister was saddened the US did not accept an offer of guaranteed supply to critical minerals in return for steel and aluminium tariff exemptions, and has warned the package will not be improved.

Australian diplomats proposed a more reliable supply of critical minerals – which are essential for renewable energy, computer and battery technologies – as they sought exemptions from a 25% tax on steel and aluminium imports.

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Western Australia election: Liberals fail to attract swing required as Labor secures third-term victory

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WA Labor will hold a third term in office, with the early vote count showing the Liberals failing to gain traction with any significant swing

• Western Australia has one story about the gas industry. It won’t accept dissent from ‘over east’

Labor will govern for a third term in Western Australia, with the Liberal Party failing to attract the swing required to threaten Roger Cook’s majority.

Polls predicted a 12-13% swing could put up to 11 seats in reach of the Liberal party.

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Mark Butler calls Australia’s private hospitals and insurers to urgent meeting amid Healthscope financial crisis

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Health minister convenes meeting after reports second-largest private hospital operator risks voluntary administration

The health minister, Mark Butler, has convened an urgent meeting with the chief executives of Australia’s private hospitals and health insurers amid warnings the second-largest private hospital operator, Healthscope, is facing a financial crisis.

The Australian Financial Review reported this week that Healthscope had retained insolvency experts KordaMentha to prepare a contingency plan in case it is placed into voluntary administration.

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Communities warned to prepare as weather system takes right turn – as it happened

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Why should Australia trust president Donald Trump, given how he’s treated Ukraine’s president at the Oval Office? Richard Marles said the government’s focus was on supporting Ukraine:

That’s where Australia lies. That’s the decision that we have to make. And Ukraine can absolutely rely on Australia’s ongoing support in their defence, and we will work with international partners.

We’ve obviously worked with the United States over the last three years, and we’ll continue to do that, but we’ve worked with the United Kingdom, and we’ll continue to do that as well, and with European partners, and look at the best way in which we can provide support.

We have established a timeline with [the] Ukrainian government about the delivery of those tanks to Ukraine. Now, for operational reasons, won’t go into the detail of that timeline.

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Guardian Essential poll: RBA rate cut too little too late for many as Albanese’s rating dips again

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As the official start of the election campaign nears, almost one in two Australians don’t know who they will vote for or might change their mind

More than half of Australians believe last month’s cash rate cut was too little too late and a sign the Labor government’s economic plan is not working, but voters think Anthony Albanese is better placed than Peter Dutton to deliver cost-of-living relief and higher wages and safeguard Medicare.

Voters have again marked down Albanese, with his net approval rating dipping to minus eight in the latest Guardian Essential poll. But Australians believe his party would be better – or at least no worse – than the Coalition on some key issues.

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Brisbane ferries suspended ‘until further notice’ – as it happened

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As we flagged earlier, this year’s Oscars will kick off in a few hours. There are a few Australian nominations to keep an eye out for, including:

Guy Pearce, The Brutalist (best supporting actor)

Adam Elliot, Memoir of a Snail (best animated feature)

Greig Fraser, Dune: Part Two (best cinematography)

Rodney Burke, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (best visual effects)

Maya Gnyp, I Am Ready, Warden (best documentary short)

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Premier claims WA a ‘renewable energy powerhouse’ but leaked document shows wind and solar projects have ‘stalled’

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Exclusive: Government document confirms electricity from large-scale renewables has flatlined, with one campaigner saying pipeline has ‘little sign of life’

Officials have warned the Western Australian Labor government that work to build wind and solar farms for the state’s main electricity grid has stalled under its leadership, a leaked document shows.

A confidential state government document reveals state bureaucrats advised the government that the “decarbonisation work program” in Perth’s electricity grid had “stalled to date”. It said there were “few new wind developments” advanced enough to be added to the grid before the promised closure of a coal power station in 2027.

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Australian politicians unworried by Trump’s ‘what does that mean?’ response to Aukus question

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US president was questioned about defence deal during meeting with UK prime minister Keir Starmer

Australian politicians have played down a slip from Donald Trump, who initially failed to understand a question about Aukus posed by a British reporter.

The US president was questioned about the Australia-UK-US defence deal during a meeting with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, in the Oval Office.

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Australia news live: Woodside doubles profits thanks to record production of oil; funnel-web spider shortage threatens antivenom program

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Australia’s largest oil and gas producer has doubled its profits to $5.6bn. Follow today’s news live

Senate estimates will be back under way today, and AAP has flagged a little of what we can expect:

Creative Australia bosses, including the chief executive, Adrian Collette, will front an estimates hearing and it’s expected they’ll be questioned about the selection body’s shock decision to ditch the Venice Biennale team.

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Dutton says Coalition will pay to match Labor’s $8.5bn Medicare boost by cutting thousands of public service jobs

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Opposition leader claims plan to reduce workforce by nearly all jobs added under Labor would save $6bn annually

Peter Dutton claims the Coalition would pay for a $8.5bn boost to Medicare by cutting thousands of public servant jobs, providing yet another different answer on the Coalition’s as-yet-undefined plans for the public service.

After weeks of contradictory statements from senior shadow ministers about how many positions the Coalition would cull if it wins government, Dutton has now stipulated his plan could save $6bn annually – potentially representing nearly all of the new positions created under Labor.

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Coalition to match ‘dollar for dollar’ Labor’s plan to make GP visits cheaper in $8.5bn Medicare boost

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Less than half of Australians were always bulk billed when they saw a GP in 2023-24, government data says

The Coalition says it will match “dollar for dollar” Labor’s landmark $8.5bn proposal to dramatically increase Medicare bulk-billing rates for GP visits, pledging to meet Anthony Albanese’s commitment to make nearly all doctors’ appointments free.

Doctor’s groups have welcomed Labor’s pledge to fund 18m extra bulk-billed GP visits annually, but have warned some patients will still miss out because government rebates are sometimes still too low to cover the cost of all appointments. The health minister, Mark Butler, says nine out of 10 GP visits will be covered by 2030 under Labor’s plan, and has accused the Coalition of “cooking the books” on bulk-billing statistics during their time in office.

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