Category Archives: Penny Wong

Budget replies reveal Coalition ‘all over the shop’, PM says, labelling Dutton’s nuclear policy ‘shocking’ – as it happened

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Crowdfunding campaign launched for Namatjira portraits

Australian presenter and comedian Dan Ilic has launched a crowdfunding campaign to have Vincent Namatjira’s latest exhibition, Australia In Colour, projected on to a billboard in Times Square.

This is an invitation to help get as many people to know about Australia In Colour as possible by putting the highlight of the show on a huge billboard in Times Square the week of the 27th May. We need to raise about $30,000 by Thursday. Any excess money raised will be donated to a charity of the artist’s choice.

Every Victorian deserves to have a roof over their head and that’s why we’re pulling every lever we can to enable 800,000 homes to be built over the next decade.

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Greens senator applies for court case against One Nation leader to be re-opened – As it happened

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Government’s promised ‘future gas strategy’ will argue the fossil fuel is important part of transition to net zero emissions. This blog is now closed

NSW’s arts minister, John Graham, says a Sydney council has sent a “terrible message” by voting to ban same-sex parenting books, importing a “US culture war into our country”.

In case you missed it: Cumberland city council voted to place a blanket ban on same-sex parenting books from local libraries. Labor councillor Mohamad Hussein voted in favour of the motion, which passed six to five.

That’s a good thing. I think it’s a chance for the council to reconsider.

It’s a terrible message to send, to have this councillor importing this US culture war into our country and playing it out on the shelves of the local library. I think the community expectations are clear – the local councillors should be coming around to pick up their bin, not telling them what to read.

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Australian government weighs supporting Palestine to become full UN member as draft resolution revealed

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Exclusive: Penny Wong says a two-state solution is ‘the only path out’ of a cycle of violence as she meets Germany’s Annalena Baerbock

The Australian government faces a decision next week on whether to support admitting Palestine as a full member of the UN and is swapping notes with allies including South Korea and Germany.

A copy of the draft resolution, seen by Guardian Australia, expresses “deep regret and concern” that the US used its veto power to block the proposal at the UN security council last month.

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Australia news live: Tasmanian premier says ‘never appropriate’ to compare Port Arthur massacre to anything; stabbing at Bondi beach

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The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has defended his comments comparing a pro-Palestinian protest at the Sydney Opera House to the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, AAP reports.

Speaking on the Today show, Dutton stood by his remark and said the comparison was a commentary on the prime minister’s leadership:

The point I was making – which is absolutely a legitimate one – is that I thought this was a time for the prime minister to show leadership and to step up. Instead, we’ve had crickets.

You’ve got a contrast, I think, with John Howard, who stood up at a point of national importance for our country, demonstrated leadership and changed the course of history for the better.

That’s the parallel that I’m making – to the absolute absence of leadership from the prime minister at the moment, which has given rise to those in the Jewish community talking about feeling unsafe in our country.

I don’t resile from that at all.

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Australia news live: Andrew Hastie warns of ‘breakouts of strategic disorder’ across globe; high court gives government win in ‘steering wheel’ visa case

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High court rules in favour of Andrew Giles in long-running case featuring a ‘bizarre’ photo of a signed ministerial brief next to a steering wheel. Follow today’s news live

‘Aid workers are to be protected’

Penny Wong was also asked to provide an update on the work done by Mark Binskin so far, who was appointed special adviser on Israel’s response to the deaths of World Central Kitchen aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.

There are positive engagements and we appreciate that this is a very important issue for Australia. We have been saying for a very long time it is important that international humanitarian law be adhered to.

Under international humanitarian law, as you know, aid workers are to be protected. Demonstrably, there was a deadly failure of deconfliction – deconfliction being the ways in which making sure that defence forces are aware of where humanitarian workers are so they can be protected and there was a deadly failure.

We’ve made no such decision, the discussion I want to have is to look at what is happening in the international community where there is the very important debate about how it is we secure long-lasting peace in a region where which has known so much conflict.

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PM says transparency around aid worker’s death ‘in Israel’s interest’ – as it happened

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PM ‘absolutely’ confident supermarket review will reduce prices for consumers

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to ABC News Radio, also weighing in on Craig Emerson’s supermarket review.

Including the Senate review … we’ve already announced our funding of Choice, the consumer organisation, to do quarterly price monitoring, ensuring that consumers know where the best deal is available and using that use of information to drive that competition through the system.

We’ve only got a few supermarkets in Australia and it does concentrate a lot of market power in the hands of the retailers, [so] heavy fines might be the way to go. I certainly wouldn’t stand in the way of that.

And I know many people, particularly in one of the richest cities in the world in Sydney, are doing it incredibly tough when you’ve got the dual hits of both interest rate rises and high inflation.

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‘Deadly failure’: Australia demands Israel take ‘appropriate action’ against those responsible for killing aid workers

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Foreign minister Penny Wong says IDF’s killing of the seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, ‘cannot be swept aside’

The Australian government has demanded Israel take “appropriate action” over its military’s “deadly failure” that killed seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, said she and the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, wrote to their counterparts in Israel overnight on Friday after a verbal briefing on the initial findings of Israel Defense Forces’ investigation, which Wong said had not yet satisfied the government’s expectations.

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Penny Wong blames ‘Peter Dutton-Adam Bandt alliance’ for failure to pass Labor’s deportation laws

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But Greens’ David Shoebridge says Labor has ‘jumped the shark’ with the legislation and it requires more scrutiny

Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong has blamed a “Peter Dutton-Adam Bandt alliance” for the government’s failure to rush through “draconian” deportation legislation in the parliament last week.

But Greens senator David Shoebridge, who has described the laws as “draconian”, said the Labor government was alone in supporting the laws without scrutiny, arguing it was “everybody in the parliament except for Labor” who wanted further examination of legislation “that looked like it had been drawn in crayon without any rational basis behind it”.

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Australian officials scrambled to understand allegations before Unrwa funding suspended, documents show

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Exclusive: Dfat official said there was ‘precious nothing in the public domain’ on claims against aid agency hours before pause announced

Australian officials scrambled to “understand what the allegations are” against Unrwa staff and complained of “precious nothing in the public domain” hours before the government suspended funding to the “vital” aid agency.

New documents obtained by Guardian Australia show how the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade rushed to gather information after Israel alleged 12 Unrwa staffers were involved in the 7 October Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel.

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Australia politics live: Peter Dutton claims PM ‘misrepresented’ earlier comments about Kevin Rudd’s performance as US ambassador

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The Republican candidate for the US presidency, former president Donald Trump, has had a few things to say about former Australian prime minister and current US ambassador Kevin Rudd.

Trump spoke to UK conservative Nigel Farage on GB News, saying if Rudd is hostile “he will not be there long”:

The Aukus deal that is in place, America, you know, the UK, Australia, very, very important deal, it is there to try and combat that huge growth in China. But now of course things have changed in Australia, we have a Labor government in Australia. The previous ambassador, Joe Hockey, I think was quite a good friend of yours, you got on pretty well with him. Now they have appointed Kevin Rudd. Former Labor MP, an he has said the most horrible things, you were a destructive president, a traitor to the west, and he is now Australia’s ambassador in Washington. Would you [take a phone call from him?]”

Yeah, well don’t know. He won’t there be long if that is the case. I don’t know much about him. I heard he was a little nasty. I heard he’s not the brightest bulb. I don’t know much about him, but he won’t be there long if he is at all hostile.

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Australians ‘shocked’ at death sentence imposed on Yang Hengjun, Penny Wong tells Chinese counterpart

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Foreign affairs minister says she raised concerns about China’s human rights record during meeting with Wang Yi, including in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong

The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has told her visiting Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, that Australians are “shocked” at the suspended death sentence imposed on the writer Dr Yang Hengjun.

Wong raised the Australian citizen’s case – along with human rights more broadly – during a meeting that was largely aimed at stabilising the previously turbulent relationship with Australia’s largest trading partner.

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Appeal for information after death of man found injured on Sydney road – as it happened

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Paterson blasts government’s immigration detention policy

Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson is now asked about immigration detention, given the government has been briefing that the high court is unlikely to allow indefinite detention to continue.

We have a risk now, that is that offenders, foreign offenders, are in the community reoffending against Australians. People are victims, who should haven’t been, because these people should not have been released. Once they were, they should have been taken off the streets.

All Australian politicians are active on the platform. I think that is OK as long as they follow the government’s national security advice about mitigating the risks. For example, it shouldn’t be on the same device they have their work or personal information on, on a stand alone.

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Penny Wong wedding: Australian foreign minister weds long-time partner Sophie Allouache

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Couple married in Adelaide after nearly two decades together, with prime minister Anthony Albanese in attendance

Australia’s foreign affairs minister Penny Wong and Sophie Allouache have tied the knot after nearly two decades together.

The couple were married in Adelaide on Saturday in a ceremony attended by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and senior ministers.

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Chinese foreign minister’s visit to Australia locked in hours after Beijing signals wine tariff lift

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Canberra expected to push for removal of remaining trade impediments after Wang Yi arrives next week

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, will visit Australia for the first time in seven years, with next week’s trip being locked in just hours after Beijing offered a reprieve to Australian winemakers.

China imposed tariffs of up to 200% on Australian wine at the height of the diplomatic dispute in 2020, alongside measures affecting a range of products including barley, red meat, seafood and coal.

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MH370: Australia offers Malaysia support for new search on 10-year anniversary

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Australia co-ordinated the largest search to date, which failed to yield answers despite surveying more than 120,000 square kilometres under the ocean

• MH370: one of aviation’s biggest mysteries remains unsolved 10 years on
• Timeline of the search for MH370 – a visual guide

Australia has offered the Malaysian government support for a renewed search for the wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, on the 10-year anniversary of the aircraft’s disappearance.

On Friday, Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, and transport minister, Catherine King, said the government’s “sincere sympathies” remained with the loved ones of those who were onboard.

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Malaysian PM calls on Albanese to reinstate UNRWA funding to aid ‘besieged civilians’ of Gaza

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Difference between the west’s responses to human suffering in Ukraine and Palestine defies reasoning, Anwar Ibrahim says

The Malaysian prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, says he has appealed directly to his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, to reinstate funding to UNRWA, arguing the aid agency was the most effective channel to “help the besieged civilians” of Gaza.

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Anthony Albanese says Alexei Navalny’s treatment ‘unforgivable’ and Putin responsible for his death

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Peter Dutton says Russian president a ‘murderous dictator’ while foreign affairs minister Penny Wong says Navalny an inspiring figure

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has joined western governments across the globe in holding Vladimir Putin responsible for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Navalny, 47, died while being held in a jail about 65km north of the Arctic Circle, where he had been sentenced to 19 years under a “special regime”.

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Australia warns Israel’s plans for Rafah ground offensive could have ‘devastating consequences’

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Failure to ensure special care for more than 1 million civilians in the area would ‘cause serious harm to Israel’s own interests’, foreign minister, Penny Wong, says

The Australian government has warned that Israel’s plans for a military offensive on the southern Gaza town of Rafah could have “devastating consequences” for Palestinian civilians sheltering there.

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, also suggested on Monday that a failure to ensure special care for more than 1 million civilians in the area, many in makeshift tents, would “cause serious harm to Israel’s own interests”.

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Penny Wong warns against ‘miscalculation and accident’ in Indian Ocean after Red Sea shipping disruptions

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Australian foreign minister says diplomacy alone will not prevent potential future conflicts in the region

Penny Wong has told her Indian and Sri Lankan counterparts of the need for transparency and reassurance to guard against “miscalculation and accident” in the Indian Ocean, warning of the potential of “costly consequences” in the wake of trade disruptions in the Red Sea.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have continued their drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea – a key global trade route. The US and UK militaries have retaliated with airstrikes on key locations within the Arabian Peninsula country, with support from Australia.

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We don’t have all the facts on UNRWA allegations, Penny Wong admits

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Minister says she didn’t have all the evidence about alleged UN staff links to 7 October attacks before she paused funding

Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, has said she did not have all the evidence about serious allegations regarding a key United Nations agency delivering aid to Gaza before she decided to halt funding.

Australia, the US and the UK were among more than 10 donors to suspend funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) after the Israeli government alleged that as many as 12 staff members were involved in the 7 October attacks.

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