Category Archives: Sussan Ley

Albanese promises to double tax relief for average income Australians in stage-three overhaul

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Prime minister to use National Press Club address to defend new plan as the ‘right thing to do’

Anthony Albanese has pledged to more than double tax relief for Australians on the average income in a suite of low and middle income tax cuts paid for by trimming benefits to high income earners.

At the National Press Club on Thursday the prime minister will defend Labor’s plan by arguing it will still deliver “a tax cut for every taxpayer” and that modification of the stage-three tax cuts was “the right thing to do” in changed economic circumstances.

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Albanese government accused of ‘deep division’ and ‘confusion’ over Israel-Hamas conflict stance

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Sussan Ley’s comments come after Labor MPs including Ed Husic and Anne Aly break ranks to condemn Israel’s blockade on Gaza

Sussan Ley has accused the Albanese government of “deep division” and “confusion” over its official stance toward the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The science minister, Ed Husic, said on Thursday morning he was concerned Palestinians were being “collectively punished for Hamas’s barbarism” in the besieged Gaza Strip, with the death toll rising to more than 3,000.

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Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley spared preselection challenge after opponent blocked from running

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Opposition leader Peter Dutton says he supports Ley along with other Liberals facing challenge, including Alex Hawke, Paul Fletcher and Melissa McIntosh

Deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has been spared an embarrassing preselection contest after her would-be opponent was blocked from running against her in Farrer.

Guardian Australia understands that former state executive member, Jean Haynes, has had her candidacy blocked by the NSW Liberals’ nomination review committee, effectively preventing her from contesting the preselection ballot.

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Voice backers sign off on ‘simple, hopeful’ message for referendum pamphlet

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Yes and no camps have been writing their competing essays, to be published by AEC on Tuesday

Supporters of an Indigenous voice to parliament say they are “ready to prosecute their simple, hopeful message” and will submit the official yes case to the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday.

The yes and the no camps have been drafting their competing essays, limited to 2,000 words each, with the two documents to be published online by the AEC on Tuesday.

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The PM, a nightclub mogul and a former convict walk into a wedding. Kyle Sandilands’ invitation was too good to refuse

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The shock jock’s unrivalled ratings and platform have given him the power to pull Anthony Albanese and a premier to his nuptials

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and shock jock Kyle Sandilands may have an easy banter on air and a shared love of music, but no one would have suspected they were good friends, if indeed they are.

Albanese and his partner, Jodie Haydon, will be guests at Sandilands’ Darling Point marriage to marketing executive Tegan Kynaston in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Saturday.

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‘Simply about survival’: ACTU calls for 7% pay rise for lowest-paid workers to keep pace with inflation

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Minimum hourly rate would rise to $22.88 – or $45,337 a year – if the Fair Work Commission grants the increase

Australian unions have called for a pay rise of 7% for the lowest-paid workers, a raise in the national minimum wage of $1.50 an hour to keep pace with inflation.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions made that submission to the Fair Work Commission’s annual minimum wage review, which sets the pay of more than 2.6 million employees on the national minimum or award wages.

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Australia politics live: government and opposition strike agreement over voice referendum machinery changes

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Bipartisan approach likely as Senate addresses changes to the rules governing referendums. Follow the day’s news live

Voice negotiations

The referendum machinery legislation will set up how the voice referendum will run – the machinery surruounding the vote, if you will.

We’re negotiating in good faith in the Senate that’s being led by Jane Hume who is doing an outstanding job. What we said to the government in the beginning is what we’re saying to them now and that is that we are not prepared to trash decades of referendum precedent, and not do this in a way that Australians expect us to, in their interests, for their information.

We’re asking for a pamphlet to outline the yes and no case, and we’ve talked about that. We’re asking for equal funding of the yes or no case, not the millions of dollars that may go into a public campaign on either side of this debate, but just the administration funding.

Fifty-seven per cent of the population does not want to open new coal and gas mines and I think there’s a very clear message coming through there. Secondly, no, I have got a lot of time for Jacqui Lambie, but we had an emissions trading scheme in this country and she was part of a party that voted to repeal it so let’s let’s not get too carried away with the spin here.

We’re in a climate crisis, as the UN secretary general has made clear. The decisions that we make now will reverberate for generations to come and the big decisions that we’ve got to make, do we open new coal and gas mines or not?

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Liberal party review of election loss finds 50% of candidates and new MPs should be women

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Review recommends setting a target for greater female representation but not a binding quota

The Liberal party should set a target for 50% of candidates and new MPs to be women, according to a review of the Coalition’s 2022 election loss.

Guardian Australia has confirmed the review, which is being finalised this week, will not recommend a binding quota despite highlighting the need to boost female representation as central to modernising the party.

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Coalition calls for Albanese to ‘enforce’ ministerial code as more details of frontbencher investments emerge

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Mark Dreyfus says he has complied with code of conduct but Peter Dutton says attorney general should have known he had investments linked to legal firm


Attorney general Mark Dreyfus is the latest government member to become embroiled in a widening furore over investments held by ministers, with the Coalition claiming the financial arrangements of several frontbenchers breach Anthony Albanese’s ministerial standards.

The attorney general denied any wrongdoing but said he will “examine the matter”, after the opposition raised concerns over a potential conflict of interest, with deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley calling for the prime minister’s office to investigate the financial arrangements of the government frontbench.

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Sussan Ley backs Peter Dutton’s decision to oppose emissions legislation but signals future room for change

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Deputy opposition leader criticises government’s 43% reduction target but says Liberal party’s climate position is not fixed

The deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has backed Peter Dutton’s decision to oppose government legislation to cut emissions by 43% by 2030, but signalled the Coalition’s climate policy could shift before the next federal election.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, the new deputy Liberal leader said it was “sensible” for the opposition not to jettison policies it took to the May election.

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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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Coalition scrapped recovery plans for 176 threatened species and habitats in one of its final acts

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‘On what sort of planet does the commonwealth think they don’t need a recovery plan for a Tasmanian devil’, asks Wilderness Society

Recovery plans designed to prevent the extinction of almost 180 threatened species and habitats, including the Tasmanian devil, were scrapped by the Coalition in one of Sussan Ley’s final acts as environment minister.

Last year, the Morrison government proposed removing the requirement for a legislated plan for 185 plants, animals and habitats, including several plans that were years overdue.

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PM says ministry has more women than any other in history – as it happened

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Guide Dogs Victoria CEO Karen Hayes resigns; at least 56 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Quotas ‘might be’ something for Liberals to consider, Sussan Ley says

Deputy leader of the Liberal party Sussan Ley followed David Littleproud.

It doesn’t need to be legislated, however those policy discussions will happen through our party room and our shadow cabinet ... Demonstrating you’re serious about climate change doesn’t just include a conversation about targets.

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Peter Dutton elected unopposed as Liberal party leader with Sussan Ley as deputy

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The pair will lead a much-depleted party, with the Liberal-National Coalition likely to hold just 58 or 59 seats in the House of Representatives

Peter Dutton has vowed to lead a Liberal Party that will not be “Labor lite”, aiming to win back government by appealing to suburban voters’ aspirations and blaming Labor’s climate policies for power price rises.

After winning the Liberal leadership unopposed at a party room meeting on Monday, Dutton attempted to soften his image by conceding he “made a mistake” by boycotting the apology to the Stolen Generations.

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Election 2022 live: Dai Le dismisses eligibility concerns; doctors welcome Covid booster expansion as 41 deaths recorded

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Eligibility for fourth dose of Covid vaccine extended; ‘don’t think we’ve got a better choice’ for Liberal leader, Dave Sharma says of Peter Dutton; at least 41 coronavirus deaths recorded. Follow all the day’s developments

The SMH has some interesting lines from the Liberal candidate in Gilmore, Andrew Constance, who says his party were punished for being “too focused on themselves”.

While Gilmore remains on a knife-edge, the former state government minister said he was not surprised by the outcome of the election, warning the Liberal party that it needed to refocus on community concerns:

The party has been too introverted and too focused on itself.

It has to recognise its broad-based appeal is not sectional interest. The party exists for the community … there’s no such thing as a “heartland” in Australian politics.

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Koala IVF could help save species from extinction

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University of Newcastle scientists suggest frozen sperm could be used to impregnate females in breed-for-release programs

Freezing koala sperm could become a key part of a strategy to save koalas from extinction by 2050.

University of Newcastle scientists Lachlan Howell and Ryan Witt say koala “biobanking”, could be harnessed with IVF technology to help the endangered species reproduce.

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Coalition accused of sitting on environment report to avoid delivering ‘more bad news’

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Calls for report to be released before election so voters know ‘official state’ of environment under Morrison government

The Morrison government has been accused of sitting on a major report card on the state of Australia’s environment it received more than three months ago to avoid “more bad news”.

Labor, the Greens, the independent MP Zali Steggall, environment groups and scientists have called on the government to release the Australia State of the Environment report, which is produced by scientists and compiled every five years.

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NSW appeal court to decide fate of federal intervention in Liberal preselection stoush

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Court ruling could unwind Morrison’s ‘captain’s picks’ forcing Liberals to hold rushed votes to select candidates ahead of May election

The federal Liberal party’s ability to appoint candidates for key NSW seats including two ministers and a sitting MP hangs in the balance, with the state’s court of appeal reserving its decision in a long-running preselection dispute.

Sydney businessman Matthew Camenzuli, a member of the Liberal state executive, is seeking to overturn the preselections of the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, in Mitchell, the environment minister, Sussan Ley, in Farrer, and North Sydney MP, Trent Zimmerman.

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Coalition to allow some projects, including mining, to bypass federal environmental approvals

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Conservationists warn using workaround to speed up decisions will lead to worse outcomes

The Morrison government has announced it will remove the need for developments in some areas to receive project-specific approval under national environment laws, in a step conservationists fear will further weaken nature protection.

Guardian Australia revealed last month that the government was considering using a little known section of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to allow some developments to be given the green light as part of a regional plan without consideration of the impact of the project itself.

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Unesco to visit Great Barrier Reef as coral bleaching risk rises

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Environment groups say visiting scientists must be given true picture of the reef, ahead of world heritage committee meeting in June

A United Nations monitoring trip to the Great Barrier Reef will land in Queensland later this month just as forecasts suggest the risk of widespread coral bleaching will be at its highest.

Unesco has confirmed two scientists will carry out the mission, requested by the Morrison government, lasting for 10 days from 21 March.

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