The policy discourse has shrivelled to its political core, where every soundbite becomes both an attack and a defence – and it’s just the beginning
Policy debate between the prime minister and opposition leader has become a version of “all roads lead to Rome”.
There’s a political dimension to every policy proposal, but the public discourse on ideas for change has shrivelled to its political core over the past week or so.
Continue reading...The opposition leader’s announcement that age-verification would be a Coalition government priority is a big promise that technology may not be able to fulfil
Both the federal government and opposition say they are on board with the idea to ban teens under 16 from using social media, but the prime minister set an important qualifier on Thursday when he said he would support such a ban “if it can be effective”.
Guardian Essential poll last week found two-thirds of voters were in favour of raising the age teens can access social media from the 13 that the companies have set themselves up to 16.
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Chalmers asked about findings that jobseekers unable to afford ‘basics of life’
The treasurer Jim Chalmers was up on ABC News Breakfast just earlier, asked about new Anglicare data showing Australians on income support are “structurally unable to afford the basics of life”.
This is the primary motivation for the substantial cost of living relief that we’re providing in the budget. Whether it is the tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, help with student debt and cheaper medicines, plus the increases to jobseeker – which were in the budget before last – all of these are important ways that we can not just understand and acknowledge the pressures that people are under, but actually respond to them.
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Sydney’s light rail network disrupted today amid industrial action
A reminder for Sydney commuters that the light rail network will be disrupted today amid planned industrial action.
Recent estimates have Australians consuming around 3,300,000 bags of cocaine per year, with every single one of them bought off the black market. There is no way of knowing whether any of them have been cut with deadly substances like fentanyl or nitazene.
We have to acknowledge that the majority of people who use cocaine do so recreationally and there is absolutely no chance of stopping people using the drug. We therefore need to consider all options to reduce harm, including regulating cocaine in a similar way to how we regulate alcohol.
Continue reading...Opposition leader says Coalition will ‘make our announcements in relation to our targets in due course’. Follow today’s news headlines live
Murray Watt says the opposition has “started the new climate wars” after Barnaby Joyce and Keith Pitt, two senior Nationals, called for Australia to pull out of the Paris agreement. You can read more on this from Karen Middleton below:
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Watt said:
We’re back to the same old climate wars in the Coalition. I saw overnight that [Joyce and Pitt] openly called for the Coalition to pull out of the Paris agreement. They’ve spent the last couple of days trying to paper over the cracks in the Coalition, saying that they can withdraw the target without withdrawing from the agreement. Now it’s out there in the open for everyone to see. And you can set your clock by Barnaby Joyce causing new climate wars within the Coalition. It’s seem like we’re back to the bad old days.
We’re on track to get to 42%, which is only 1% short of the 43% target.
Continue reading...Former Nationals leader says ‘aspirations have to take a secondary position to the economic reality’ after Peter Dutton said he would oppose government’s targets
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and Morrison cabinet colleague Keith Pitt have called for the Coalition to abandon the Paris global climate change agreement and related emissions reduction targets, as the prime minister accused opposition leader Peter Dutton of walking away from climate action.
Dutton has said he would oppose the government’s target of a 43% cut to 2005-level emissions by 2030, telling the Australian newspaper there was “no sense in signing up to targets you don’t have any prospect of achieving”.
Continue reading...Opposition leader reportedly told News Corp he would oppose the legislated 2030 emissions target – a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels – at the next election
Peter Dutton has been accused of planning to break Australia’s commitment to the landmark Paris climate agreement after he said he would reject the country’s 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target.
The opposition leader reportedly told the Weekend Australian that he would oppose the legislated 2030 emissions target – a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels – at the next election but remain committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
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Max-Chandler Mather weighs in on Bandt’s potential legal action against attorney-general
Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather spoke to ABC News Breakfast earlier about the ongoing stoush between his party and Labor, with Adam Bandt threatening legal action against the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, over comments on pro-Palestine protests.
Asking me to comment on the specifics of a case like that – outrageous comments by the attorney general, completely baseless and without fact … this is an attempt to distract from the fact that the Labor government is complicit in a genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza.
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Going fully electric would save households more than $600 a year for next four decades, report says
Households would save an average of $608 a year for the next 40 years if new residential buildings in New South Wales were required to be fully electric, according to a report commissioned by climate organisation 350 Australia.
It cuts energy bills for local residents and small businesses during a cost of living crisis and reduces climate pollution, at almost no cost to councils. It will be low-income people and renters who will benefit most from council-led electrification.
Continue reading...Labor tactics against Coalition’s forthcoming nuclear plans are reminiscent of those used by Kevin Rudd against John Howard in 2007
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has complained the government’s scrutiny of his yet-to-be-announced nuclear power plan is “childish”, as Labor seeks to emulate a successful anti-nuclear push from Kevin Rudd’s 2007 campaign.
A social media spat is emerging over the Coalition’s nuclear policy, with Labor raising fears about mutated fish with AI-generated images and one minister posting daily reminders that the opposition is yet to outline its plan – despite first raising it two years ago.
Continue reading...In speech to ACTU conference, prime minister says opposition’s ‘gut instinct is always to gut workers’ rights’
Anthony Albanese has accused the Coalition of “secret” plans to cut wages through changes to industrial relations laws.
The prime minister said the Liberal and National parties’ “gut instinct is always to gut workers’ rights” in an address to the Australian Council of Trade Unions conference in Adelaide on Wednesday evening.
Continue reading...Council passes unanimous motion of no-confidence in its mayor Troy Thompson. Follow the day’s news live
Australia’s existing submarines won’t get Tomohawk missile upgrades
Australia’s existing Collins-class submarines will not be fitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles as part of work to extend their life before the Aukus submarines come into service.
For instance, we will consider whether tomahawk missiles can be fitted to the Collins-class submarines.”
The government has also received advice from Defence, in consultation with the United States, that adding Tomahawk cruise missile capability to the Collins class submarines is not viable and does not represent value for money.
The Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines Australia will receive in the early 2030s will come with the Tomahawk as standard equipment. Tomahawk cruise missiles will also be used by Navy’s Hobart class destroyers and the government has agreed in-principle to fit the Hunter class frigates with Tomahawks, subject to a feasibility study. [end quote]
NDS agrees with the government that managing the sustainability of the NDIS is critical — the community expects no less. We need fundamental and systemic reform, and that must be accompanied by proper resourcing for sector transformation.
The system is broken. Training, supervision and retaining highly skilled practitioners to provide quality care is essential, but not adequately covered in the current funding model.”
A continuation of previous workforce trends showing that workforce issues in the disability sector have become entrenched.
The disability sector continues to rely heavily on casual disability support workers, who have a very high turnover.
The biggest variation this year was a in proportion of permanent employees who work full time – with the number of full-time employees growing by 10%, the highest in close to a decade.
Conversely, part-time employment dropped to 70% this year. The increase may be related to the current cost-of-living crisis.
Turnover continued the upward trend growing to 24% this year, while permanent staff turnover jumped to 16%, the highest it has been since this survey began. These figures represent a churn of almost 16,500 individual employees leaving their jobs and over 19,000 new appointments over a one-year period.
Continue reading...Workplace relations minister Tony Burke has conceded role wouldn’t ordinarily be paid that much. Follow today’s news headlines live
For a bit of a change of pace, you may enjoy this essay from Malcolm Turnbull in Foreign Affairs, where he outlines how he believes world leaders can deal with a second Trump presidency.
Turnbull bases a lot of his arguments on his own dealings with Donald Trump while prime minister. He runs through the infamous refugee deal phone call (the transcript of which was leaked) and the trade back-and-forths over tariffs.
The caricature of Trump as a one-dimensional, irrational monster is so entrenched that many forget that he can be, when it suits him, intelligently transactional. Like most bullies, he will bend others to his will when he can, and when he cannot, he will try to make a deal. But to get to the deal-making stage, Trump’s counterparts have to stand up to the bullying first.
I would certainly like to see the performance lifted. I would like to see better outcomes, particularly for the more vulnerable cohorts.
We also have work going on, in response to a parliamentary inquiry into the employment services system, going on in parallel to overseeing this new system.
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Wage increase should be more than inflation so workers get real pay rise: McManus
Sally McManus says workers are still coming from behind:
I won’t be too happy if it’s 3.5%. That’s smack on inflation. I think it should be more than inflation.
People should see a real wage increase.
One of the things that, you know, some people argue is … this weird wage price spiral idea which has been well and truly debunked over the last few years.
Just because one group of workers get a pay rise, like, the lowest paid … that’s not going to automatically flow on to everyone else.
Continue reading...Legal experts say a ‘carve-out’ clause in the law relating to extraditions could let the attorney general decline to enforce arrest warrants issued under international law
In 2002, a little-known backbencher by the name of Peter Dutton rose in parliament to ask the then prime minister, John Howard, about a new mechanism for prosecuting war crimes.
The newly elected member for Dickson’s dixer to Howard was straightforward: “What is the basis of the government’s decision to ratify the statute of the International Criminal Court?”
Continue reading...Meanwhile, government to rewrite visa cancellation rules after independent tribunal gave non-citizens with serious criminal convictions their visas back. Follow the day’s news live
Andrew Giles was asked why he wasn’t told about what was happening with his directive in the tribunals – why there weren’t meetings to receive updates.
He said there were meetings with his department which were taking place “pretty regularly”.
What has been unacceptable is the fact that these AAT decisions to set aside cancellations that were made under section 99 that were made by this government by my department – we were not advised, I was not told that these cancellations had been overturned by the tribunal.
That’s the issue that I’m deeply concerned about. And that’s what I’m focusing on fixing now.
There are around 30 that I’ve called up as a matter of absolute urgency and they are dealt with through the day and night.
I’m gonna get to the bottom of this – a protocol that I put in place was not adhered to, that is entirely unsatisfactory. As I said, I’m now focused on dealing with the urgent issue which is the cancellation consideration, I put in place a new protocol and I want to get to the bottom of what happened and why.
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese reminds his colleagues that government now in the final 12 months of its first term. Follow the day’s news live
‘Last 24 hours only reinforces need’ for immediate humanitarian ceasefire, return of hostages and aid access, Conroy says
Pat Conroy was also asked about Israel’s assault on a refugee camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah.
Well, we’re incredibly concerned by what we saw in Rafah. And that’s why we’ve been continuing to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. We’ve also called for an immediate return of all hostages that Hamas have taken. And the immediate opening of access so we can get massive amounts of humanitarian support into the Gaza. So immediate humanitarian ceasefire, release of hostages and immediate flow of aid is critical. That’s the Australian government’s position and you’re absolutely right, what we’ve seen overnight or over the last 24 hours only reinforces the need for those three things.
No, to be quite frank, we don’t. The Papua New Guinean government has asked the UN agencies to coordinate partner countries and those assessments are going on right now. But this is an incredibly inaccessible part of Papua New Guinea. And it’s a really challenging process for everyone.
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Malinauskas can’t ‘overstate the complexity’ of Aukus endeavour
Peter Malinauskas said his visit to the United States “unequivocally” confirmed what a massive challenge it will be to develop a workforce of 30,000 at the Osborne shipyard to build nuclear-powered submarines.
I don’t think I could possibly overstate the complexity of the task that is before us, simply because it is the most complex machine that has ever been built in human history.
And that is everything from developing the skills that are required at a vocational level but also the university level, but similarly making sure that we’re starting to upskill existing parts of the naval shipbuilding supply chain, amongst others who can participate in this process. And South Australia industry alone has got more than enough work on its hands for me to be able to say, as a premier, [it’s] time to sort of abandon the parochial nature of industrial policy we see between states around defence and instead invite everyone to lift their eyes and look what is important for the national effort in this regard.
We know that building nuclear submarines is going to take a national enterprise and a national effort, but our ambitions to be able to build these submarines domestically requires a supply chain and an industry that are capable of delivering the parts that are required.
Now, in order to be able to do that, I think as a first big step – we’ve got to see if we can’t participate in the nuclear submarine supply chain in advance of the … Aukus submarines construction commencing later this decade. So, what we’ve negotiated with [HII], that builds the Virginia class submarines, is an opportunity for South Australian suppliers to supply to the Virginia class program.
Continue reading...Not ICC practice to consult all states before making application for arrest warrants, Dfat says
The Australian government has flatly rejected Peter Dutton’s claim that it was consulted by the international criminal court regarding the pursuit of Israeli leaders over their conduct of the war in Gaza.
The opposition leader has repeatedly urged the government to publicly condemn what Dutton has called the ICC prosecutor’s “terrible decision” to apply for arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
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Bandt condemns antisemitic graffiti on school, calls for end to Gaza invasion
Adam Bandt was also asked about the threatening graffiti discovered at Mount Scopus Jewish day school in Melbourne on Saturday, where the words “Jew die” were painted on the school’s front fence.
I condemn those words. There’s of course no place for that and we’ve said from the very beginning, from the first moment this got debated in parliament, no to antisemitism, no to Islamophobia, no to the invasion.
I think what you are seeing across the country is a very strong push for peace. People are fighting not only against antisemitism, but fighting to end the invasion of Gaza as well.
It’s up to Palestinians and Israelis to equally enjoy those rights. And if that’s what they choose to self-determine, then that’s what they choose to self-determine. Our point is that the international community can no longer pretend that the slaughter and the invasion is not happening.
Well, support for Israelis as well as Palestinians, as I’ve said, both having their rights to self-determination under international law. Now, at the moment, what is happening at the moment is that we are seeing over 34,000 people killed. A region brought to the brink of starvation and this is a manmade famine.
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