Category Archives: Labor party

Coronavirus Australia update: Melbourne’s hotspot suburbs in lockdown as Victoria struggles to contain outbreak – live news

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Residents of 10 postcodes in Melbourne’s north and west have been ordered to stay home from midnight tonight. Follow live

Scott Morrison was asked about Annastacia Palaszczuk’s comments about singling out Queensland on the Nine network this morning:

Well, I haven’t. There’s an election in Queensland, so I’m not surprised that the political rhetoric is amping up. Look, we’re keeping all of the country together to focus on this. I made similar comments about the changes in borders in South Australia yesterday. So, look, I think you can file that under a Queensland election.

Anthony Albanese was asked about Annastacia Palaszczuk’s comments yesterday, after she hit back on the border criticism (which included Scott Morrison) and said:

Well, look, I don’t believe that it’s appropriate, and I haven’t sought to politicise a response to the medical issues with regard to borders.

I’m not surprised that Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has shown tremendous leadership in Queensland, is frustrated at the comments of the Prime Minister given he has said time and time again it’s up to the states what happens.

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Victoria’s coronavirus spike: what’s causing it, and is anyone to blame?

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We ask health experts whether what we’re seeing in Melbourne is a ‘second wave’, and why it’s happening there

Victoria is experiencing a concerning rise in Covid-19 cases, with 75 new cases announced on Monday which were identified over the preceding 24 hours, one of the largest overnight jumps for the state since the pandemic began. For almost two weeks, the state has seen a double-digit rise in cases every day.

Many are now trying to identify a source of blame for the spread. According to the Australian, overly prohibitive lockdown laws implemented by the Victorian government early on in the pandemic were seen by the public as excessive given the low number of cases at the time. The report suggested this led some people to relax, and to question government warnings that they needed to keep socially distancing.

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Labor calls for royal commission into Coalition’s robodebt scheme

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Opposition says inquiry could investigate scheme’s human cost, including reports some victims took their own life

Labor has called for a royal commission into the robodebt program, heaping pressure on the Coalition to accept some form of independent inquiry into the unlawful scheme that some families claim led victims to take their own lives.

In a statement issued on Tuesday the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, and frontbenchers Bill Shorten and Mark Dreyfus argued a royal commission was needed to probe the creation and administration of the debt recovery scheme, which saw Centrelink send at least 470,000 unlawful demands for money over four years.

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Australia coronavirus news: Victorians warned to avoid Melbourne hotspots amid fears of second wave – live updates

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Authorities ‘strongly discourage’ travel to and from six council areas that are home to most of the country’s new coronavirus cases. Follow live

Victoria has officially announced its new ministry.

Queensland has reported zero coronavirus cases overnight.

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Can Australia resolve its trade tensions with China? – Australian politics live podcast

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This week Katharine Murphy talks with the Australian trade, tourism and investment minister, Simon Birmingham. They discuss the challenges of economic recovery after the bushfires and coronavirus, and address the escalating trade actions from China. Will Birmingham appease an angered Beijing and reverse China’s tariffs? Or will the relationship see a continued decline in civility?

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Australia coronavirus update: major cyber attack under way as Victoria records 12 new Covid-19 cases – live news

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A sophisticated state-based actor is targeting all levels of government and companies in a range of sectors, PM reveals. Follow live

Also, the Five Eyes finance ministers met. Given what their operatives do, a meeting seems superfluous, but ok.

Today Australia hosted a call with the Finance Ministers of the “Five Eyes” nations – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States.

It was the first of what will be regular calls among the countries to discuss the economic issues associated with COVID-19.

I guess when you don’t have the Global Times, you have to be a little more overt in your silent diplomacy.

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Coronavirus Australia update: Northern Territory to reopen borders in July as Victoria records 18 new Covid-19 cases – question time live

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Michael Gunner declared the NT Covid-free and will prepare to allow domestic travel; person who attended Melbourne Black Lives Matter protest among new Vic cases. Follow live

That leads to this exchange:

Tony Smith: The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. The Prime Minister needs to withdraw that imputation.

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

My question is to the Prime Minister. Under this Prime Minister, Australia has entered its first recession in three decades. Australia now has an effective unemployment rate of 11.3%. How many unemployed Australians don’t have a job because the Prime Minister deliberately excluded them from JobKeeper?

No-one in this country is unemployed because of the Government’s responses.

People are unemployed in this country, people have been reduced to zero hours which is the same thing, people have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic!

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Labor senator reads out names of Indigenous deaths in custody – video

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In a powerful statement to the Senate, Malarndirri McCarthy has read out the names of First Nations people who have died in custody, citing Guardian Australia's Deaths inside project.

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Australian politics live: consular officials talk to Karm Gilespie, Australian man facing death penalty in China – latest updates

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Foreign affairs minister Marise Payne says Australian authorities visited the detention centre where the 53-year-old is being held. Follow live

Julian Hill is looking at the government’s spend on consultants (an evergreen sentence, no matter what political party is in government)

New analysis by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has found that the big four consultancy firms – Deloitte, Ernest&Young, KPMG and PwC – now collectively reap $800m a year in government contracts.

But only 20% of that figure is spent on actual consultancy contracts, meaning the Morrison government is paying top dollar to large consultancy firms to work as contractors doing the day-to-day work of public servants.

The Australia Institute has begun a new campaign to have truth in advertising part of Australia’s political advertising.

An open letter coordinated by the Australia Institute and signed by 29 prominent Australians calls for parliament to pass truth-in-political advertising laws that are nationally consistent, constitutional and uphold freedom of speech.

Signatories to the open letter include former political party leaders and politicians, Dr John Hewson, Cheryl Kernot and Michael Beahan; former supreme court judges, the Hon Anthony Whealy QC, the Hon Paul Stein AM QC and the Hon David Harper AM QC, as well as barristers, community leaders, business people and other prominent Australians.

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Coronavirus Australia update: PM apologises for ‘no slavery’ comments as Queensland sticks with 10 July border open date – politics live

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Qld deputy premier and health minister says situation will be reviewed at the end of June ‘as we’ve said consistently’. Follow live

Speaking of awkward, Angus Taylor just took a dixer.

So that is a bit awkward, then.

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Coronavirus Australia update: warning of severe Covid-19 economic shock as ‘double-hit scenario’ looms – politics live

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Australia’s GDP could fall by 6.3% this year if hit by a second wave of infections, the OECD says in a new report. Follow live updates

Scott Morrison is now calling on all the closed states to nominate the date they will re-open in July.

Because he is getting “frustrated” at the interstate border closures.

“People who rallied this [past] weekend, showed great disrespect for their neighbours,” Scott Morrison says.

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Morrison government announces return to mutual obligation for jobseekers

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Michaelia Cash says there will be a three-phase restart of welfare requirements

The federal government has announced a “limited capacity” return to mutual obligation requirements for Australia’s welfare recipients from next week.

The employment minister, Michaelia Cash, announced mid-May that mutual obligations for jobseekers, which had been put on pause at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, would be further suspended until 1 June, after which a three-phase reintroduction would commence.

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Palace letters: high court rules Queen’s secret correspondence in lead-up to Whitlam dismissal are commonwealth records

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Historian Jenny Hocking wins landmark case after campaigning for release of secret letters between monarch and then Australian governor general Sir John Kerr

The historian Jenny Hocking has won a landmark high court case in her bid to secure sensitive correspondence between the Queen and former Australian governor general Sir John Kerr about the dismissal of Gough Whitlam.

The high court on Friday ruled that the commonwealth was wrong to withhold the so-called “palace letters”, a series of more than 200 exchanges between the Queen, her private secretary and Kerr, the then-governor general, in the lead-up to the 1975 dismissal of Whitlam, the then-Australian prime minister.

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Labor calls on Josh Frydenberg to front Covid-19 inquiry to explain jobkeeper ‘$60bn black hole’

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Penny Wong says treasurer should have ‘the courage’ to take responsibility for error as Coalition faces calls to expand wage subsidy

Labor will attempt to pressure the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, to appear before the Senate’s Covid-19 inquiry to explain the “$60bn black hole” in the jobkeeper program.

The move comes as the Morrison government faces growing calls to expand the wage subsidy to cover a wider group of workers, after revelations on Friday that the six-month program is now expected to cost the budget $70bn rather than $130bn.

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Albanese demands Michael McCormack apology for ‘hair on fire’ climate change quip

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Labor leader says deputy PM’s comment about activism is ‘entirely inappropriate’ after recent bushfires

Anthony Albanese has demanded the deputy prime minister and Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, apologise for observing that a lot of people “set their hair on fire” about climate change, given the recent experience of the catastrophic summer of bushfires.

The Labor leader said McCormack’s comment on Friday was “entirely inappropriate” given the government had conceded that climate change was one of the factors in the fires “that saw thousands of homes lost, that saw millions of hectares burnt, and that had a devastating impact on the communities of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia”.

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Australia coronavirus news: pressure mounts on Queensland to open borders – latest updates

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Tourism operators and politicians are calling for Annastacia Palaszczuk to open the state’s border to domestic travellers. Follow live

Angus Taylor also spoke on the border closure issue while on the ABC:

Well, I think ultimately it’s a decision for Queensland but the advice coming in is very clear from the Chief Medical Officer and it’s clear what the New South Wales Premier has put her view as well.

What I want to see is opening up, getting things going again, jobs, investment and of course we have got to make sure all our policies are aligned with that at the federal level and we’d like to see states do the same and that includes our emissions policy which is all about strengthening the economy.

Speaking to the ABC a little earlier, Gladys Berejiklian says she did not think it was “logical at this stage to maintain those border closures for a prolonged period of time”.

She prefaced the comment with “that’s a matter for the Queensland premier and the Queensland government” before giving her opinion, so that might tell you how relations within national cabinet are starting to go.

New South Wales is in a position now where we’re really focused on jobs and the economy, and we’ll be able to get our industries up and running.

But for Australia to really move forward as a nation during this very difficult economic time as well as difficult health time, we do need our borders down, we do need to allow people to move between states, to live, to work, to see family.

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Morrison government overhauls airport fees after threat of Nationals revolt

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Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce among those who raised objections to the Peter Dutton proposal for regional airport fees

The Morrison government has overhauled cost recovery arrangements for regional airports to conduct security screening to head off a potential revolt by the Nationals in the Senate.

The Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick sought on Wednesday night to disallow regulations imposing security screening requirements that he says would have forced small airports to seek cost recovery through increases in landing charges. Patrick said the changes originally proposed by the home affairs minister Peter Dutton could see fares from Whyalla increase by $54 to $70 per passenger.

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Coronavirus Australia live update: Marise Payne not consulted before George Christensen moved to ‘summons’ Chinese ambassador – latest news

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Treasurer says in statement in lieu of the federal budget: ‘There is no money tree. What we borrow today we must repay in the future.’ Follow the latest news live

In what is becoming a common scene, there were long lines of international students waiting for donated meals today.

This footage was shot in Sydney where restaurants in Chinatown are offering free meals to students who have lost jobs and aren’t eligible for jobseeker or jobkeeper.

Quite incredible. A long line of international students in Sydney right now waiting for free food from a restaurant (line goes another 50m around the corner).

International students have been hard hit and aren't eligible for coronavirus stimulus payments. Many rely on free meals pic.twitter.com/eTDtRFU8Lw

Nathan Cleary, the Penrith Panther banned and fined by the NRL for being “untruthful” during the league’s investigation into his social distancing breach, has apologised.

“I’m obviously embarrassed with myself and I’m not happy with what I’ve done,” he told the club’s website. “I just to want to apologise for my actions. My actions were irresponsible, selfish and pretty stupid, to be honest.

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Australia coronavirus live update: Covidsafe app downloads reach 5.5m as Victoria begins easing Covid-19 restrictions – latest news

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Deputy CMO says there are ‘very serious risks’ from overcrowding as Victoria plans to lift lockdown rules and another Newmarch resident dies after testing negative. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, says Australia’s relationship with China is “not in a great place”.

Speaking to ABC TV this afternoon, Wong said the relationship would benefit from “consistency and discipline and leadership” from the prime minister and foreign minister rather than backbencher-led commentary.

Some Coalition backbenchers, including George Christensen and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, have been pushing for Australia to take a hard line in its relations with China. Wong also called on the government to provide detailed briefings to parliamentarians on how Australia is handling the China relationship:

I’ve said previously we need to think about the China relationship in 30-year terms, not in three-year terms. Unfortunately, there’s been a little too much from the Morrison government of a reflex to short-term domestic politics on this relationship and more broadly. And we would urge them to take a long-term position and a responsible position, and as much as possible a bipartisan position, when it comes to that relationship that’s in the national interests.

Cafes and restaurants in South Australia were open to sit-down customers today, for the first time in seven weeks. I say sit down, not sit-in, because customers have to dine alfresco. It’s limited to a maximum of 10 customers.

People will not be able to eat indoors at restaurants until June.

It won’t be worth it for many organisations. Some states have told us 10 indoor dining and the industry told us 10 wouldn’t be viable. Even 20 will make it very difficult, so we are trying to work through, with the industry, how we can get them back to being viable as quickly as possible. But we’ve got to do it in a safe way.

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Australian celebrity chef Pete Evans under fire for sharing views of UK conspiracy theorist David Icke

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Labor MP Josh Burns writes to the chef to warn him about Icke’s ‘long history of anti-Semitism’

The celebrity chef Pete Evans has come under fresh criticism for promoting the coronavirus views of David Icke, the British conspiracy theorist previously accused of Holocaust denial and barred from entering Australia.

On Tuesday, 11 days after the Therapeutic Goods Administration fined him $25,200 for spruiking a $15,000 light machine to fight coronavirus, Evans urged his Instagram followers to watch a three-hour-long interview in which Icke simultaneously claims Covid-19 is “a fake pandemic with no virus” and links infections to 5G antenna installations.

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