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National weather forecasts
Sticking with the weather, here’s a look at the forecasts across Australia’s capital cities today:
Continue reading...The sunshine state is heading to the polls on 26 October. Can Labor cling to power or will there be an LNP landslide?
Queenslanders will go to the polls on 26 October. Here are five things you should know.
Continue reading...Some politicians welcome a fresh and bold response to address affordability, while others wary of resurrecting a debate lost at the 2019 election
Some Labor MPs say the government shouldn’t be afraid of considering reforms to negative gearing, with several caucus members saying they were “open” to fresh and bolder responses to the housing crisis.
But others are wary of reopening a debate lost at the 2019 election, calling for caution amid concerns of an election scare campaign.
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Continue reading...Just 20% of Greens voters supported blocking the government’s Build to Rent and Help to Buy legislation
More than twice as many voters support parliament passing the federal government’s two stranded housing bills as want them blocked, including a majority of Greens voters, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
The survey of 1,117 voters found that 48% believe the Greens and Coalition should pass the Labor government’s Help to Buy and Build to Rent legislation, and argue for their own policies at the next federal election. Overall support for blocking the bills was at 22%, with 30% unsure and a margin of error of about 2%.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: independent MPs and Lidia Thorpe tell PM that environment law reforms under negotiation must remove exemptions for native forest logging
Independent MPs and a crossbench senator are trying to increase the pressure on the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to remove Howard-era exemptions that allow native forest logging to operate outside national environment laws.
The government has been negotiating over reforms to the laws in the Senate, where the Greens and crossbenchers David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe have been pushing for an end to the exemptions for logging covered by regional forest agreements.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Jenny Leong, who apologised after referencing antisemitic cartoon, was subject of human rights commission complaint
New South Wales Greens MP Jenny Leong will visit the Sydney Jewish Museum and has donated $4,000 after a complaint was lodged with the Australian Human Rights Commission over comments she made about Jewish lobby groups last year.
Leong apologised and said she did not intend to reference an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as an octopus after footage emerged of comments she made at a Palestine Justice Movement forum in Sydney in December 2023.
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Australia’s ‘sex report card’ released
The latest Australian Study of Health and Relationships was revealed at a conference in Sydney this week held by the International Union Against Sexually Transmitted Infections.
Rent assistance went up by $25 and … average rents have gone up by more than $100. What might look like a big percentage increase is, frankly, fuck all, and that’s one of the reasons that this is so upsetting.
When CRA is indexed, the amount of rent that you have to pay before you get any rent assistance increases. So the proportion of your rent, where you qualify for it, reduces if you aren’t receiving the maximum payment.
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On the double-dissolution threat floated by Anthony Albanese yesterday, Sarah Hanson-Young says:
Again, why, why be so bullish about this? The Australian people don’t need a panicked prime minister who wants to press the exit button because he can’t get his own way.
They want a government that’s willing to work across the parliament. Now, a third of Australians voted for parties other than Labor or Liberal at the last election. And they did that because they want a parliament that works for them.
We want to fix it. We want to give the government the opportunity to fix it. I’m not just interested in saying no to things. I want to get outcomes. I guess that’s my concern.
This prime minister seems to have such a chip on his shoulder, doesn’t want to work with anyone. Just wants to do it all his way. I don’t think this is a very good sign for the future. Come on, come on, prime minister, you know, let’s put – put aside the politics and get on with getting some outcomes.
Continue reading...PM says Labor’s nature-positive legislation provides ‘vital certainty’ and talks up mutual respect in an address before the Business Council of Australia
Anthony Albanese has accused the Greens of “gesture-based climate amendments” to Labor’s environment legislation in a speech defending his government’s reform record and its relationship with big business.
In an address to the Business Council of Australia on Tuesday evening, Albanese said Labor is “pro-business and pro-worker” and sought to distinguish himself from Peter Dutton by arguing he respects their views even when he disagrees.
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White House marks three years since signing of Aukus agreement
Happy three-year anniversary of the signing of Aukus, to those who observe.
Three years ago, President Biden and our Australian and United Kingdom partners committed to Aukus, an enhanced security partnership that promotes a free and open Indo-Pacific that is secure and stable.
As this partnership has grown, it has strengthened the security of our allies in the region as well as our own security here at home. Over the past three years, our countries have made significant strides in supporting Australia’s acquisition of a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.
That is bad news for Australian solar homes.
To create space for inflexible nuclear power plants ramming energy into the grid, millions of household solar systems will be the first casualty.
Solar power is already being switched off in South Australia when it makes so much free power available that it exceeds electricity demand.
Continue reading...ALP faces a variety of results in what premier Chris Minns calls a ‘massive wake-up call for the major parties’, and Liverpool mayor returns amid corruption inquiry
The counting of votes has resumed to determine the makeup of New South Wales’s 128 councils for the next four years.
The main story of the local government elections was the Liberal party’s disastrous failure to lodge the paperwork to nominate more than a third of its candidates.
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Albanese says it’s a ‘good thing’ Trump is safe after apparent assassination attempt
Anthony Albanese has responded to news about an apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Everyone wants the democratic process to be peaceful and to be orderly. This incident in the United States is of concern, again. It is good that President Trump has said that he is safe and that the incident, the details of which are still coming out, so it’s not quite clear all of those details but what is clear is that President Trump is safe. That is a good thing.
The first round of Labor’s Housing Australia Future Fund and National Housing Accord programs will deliver 4,220 social and 9,522 affordable homes, including 1,267 homes for women and children escaping domestic violence and older women at risk of homelessness.
In just the first round of these programs, the Albanese Government is directly supporting more social and affordable housing than the Liberals and Nationals did in their entire nine years in office.
Housing Australia has recommended contract negotiations for 185 projects, with construction on almost 40 per cent of the 13,742 dwellings forecast to get underway this financial year.
Round one of the programs’ funding will unlock $9.2 billion of investment in social and affordable housing across Commonwealth, State and Territory government, and the private and community housing sectors.
Sarah Hanson-Young says PM needs to negotiate with senators after he appeared to rule out adding a climate trigger to proposed environmental laws
Anthony Albanese has been rebuked by the Senate crossbench for all but ruling out a climate trigger in environment legislation, with his take-it-or-leave-it stance compared to Scott Morrison’s description of himself as a “bulldozer”.
On Monday the independent senator David Pocock labelled the prime minister’s position “really disappointing” while the Greens’ environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, warned the PM it is “not leadership to bulldoze your way through”.
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Continue reading...While the Greens remain hopeful of compromise, the PM has indicated he wants a deal struck with the Coalition
Anthony Albanese is rejecting demands from the Greens and some Senate crossbenchers to subject development projects to climate-impact assessments and remove forestry’s effective exemption from environmental protection law, as the government negotiates on stalled legislation with parties to the left and right.
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, is in talks with the Greens, crossbenchers and the Coalition over legislation to establish an environment protection authority.
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Continue reading...Legislation before Australian parliament covers the way the country’s nuclear-powered submarine program will be regulated
The Albanese government has bowed to pressure to close an Aukus loophole, insisting newly revealed changes will ensure Australia will not become a dumping ground for nuclear waste from US and UK submarines.
The Greens argued the government’s latest amendments did not go far enough and it was becoming increasingly clear the Aukus security pact was “sinking”.
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Continue reading...Support for government’s environmental legislation offered in exchange for protections that deliver ‘immediate, tangible impacts’
Greens and crossbench senators have told the government not to “hide behind” Peter Dutton and Gina Rinehart and instead work with them on a better deal for the environment.
The Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, and independent senators David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe offered to support legislation to establish a new environment protection authority (EPA) and a separate new agency to manage environmental information, if the government agreed to a series of proposals to strengthen environmental protections.
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Continue reading...Julie Collins describes avian flu situation as ‘dynamic’ as she highlights concerns about the impact to wildlife and agriculture
Census to include questions on gender and sexuality
Speers finishes up by asking Chalmers about the ongoing census questions palaver.
We have listened to the community. We worked very closely with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. LGBTIQ+ Australians matter. They have been heard and they will count in the 2026 census.
Really the message that we want to ensure that Australians hear from us today is that we understand the feedback that we got, we listened to that, we took it very seriously, we listened very genuinely.
We said we would find the best way to do this and I believe that we have and we will and the ABS will continue to refine the actual wording of the questions now that this additional topic has been add.
We want to make sure that we are maximising this really important economic relationship with our key trading partner. It’s a relationship which is full of complexity, but also full of opportunity and I want to help the government maximise that opportunity for the Australian people, workers, businesses, employers, investors.
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Michele O’Neil said this isn’t about “expecting everyone to have the same opinion all of the time” but continued:
We’re a diverse movement, and people have strong opinions, but it is at its core about who we are and what we stand for. And we don’t walk away when things get tough, we face up to them. And angry individuals lashing out and blaming everyone except themselves doesn’t get us through this.
We need to stay steady on what is in the interest of working people and what’s in the interest of working people is good, clean, strong, effective unions with leaders who see their job as representing workers and their members, not acting in their own self-interest.
No … I think that it’s important that we realise that the union movement – the vast bulk of unions – want to stay part of the united union movement, and have made that really clear.
What I’m saying, Patricia, is we’re talking to all of our unions all of the time … I haven’t had any other unions threaten to quit.
Continue reading...The opposition is yet to announce a policy that would create more housing supply, while the Greens put Airbnb in their sights
The Greens and the Coalition are opening up new fronts in the battle over housing policy, as the government continues to struggle to get its agenda through the Senate.
The shadow assistant spokesperson for home ownership, Andrew Bragg, opened the door for a future Coalition government to withhold funding to states and local governments unless house building was accelerated.
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Continue reading...Matt Comyn tells parliamentary inquiry that criticism of business profits ‘erodes trust in institutions’
The Commonwealth Bank chief executive, Matt Comyn, has described a proposed excessive profits tax as “insidious populism” and labelled criticism of profitable businesses as “fact-free rhetoric” that is damaging trust in public institutions.
Appearing before a parliamentary inquiry on Thursday, the head of Australia’s biggest bank appeared frustrated by questions about payment surcharges and corporate relationships and abruptly turned his attention to address criticism of big business.
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