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Peter Dutton has conceded that “mistakes” were made by “individuals” involved in the unlawful robodebt scheme, while warning against a “trial by media” on the findings of the royal commission.
At the Liberal National party’s state conference in Brisbane on Saturday, the federal opposition leader accused Labor of politicising the issue and referred to the government services minister, Bill Shorten, as a “political animal”.
Bill Shorten: robodebt commission report will be a ‘vindication’ for victims and their families
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, says today “is a vindication” for victims of the robodebt scandal with the royal commission report being handed down. He told ABC’s RN this morning:
The heart of this story today is the fact that real people unlawfully had debt notices … raised against them by the most powerful institution in Australia, the commonwealth government.
Two of these people, after receiving robodebt notices, subsequently took their own lives that I’m aware of.
Today is not the day [their mothers] want. What they really want is their sons to be alive.
One of the challenges we’re seeing across the country is great teacher shortages … COVID brought that timetable forward.
Classrooms are more complex, there is a great diversity of needs across the classroom, and as society changes a lot of teachers and education ministers are testifying about the impact of technology in classrooms.
The political future of the renegade Queensland Liberal senator Gerard Rennick will be determined on Friday amid a push to remove him from a winnable spot on the party’s Senate ticket.
Rennick is vying for a third spot on the ticket in Queensland, with hundreds of state councillors to determine preselections at the Liberal National party’s state conference in Brisbane.
A Liberal National party government would take an axe to the Queensland government’s “obsession” with consultants in a wider public service overhaul if the party wins next year’s state election.
The state’s opposition leader, David Crisafulli, also used his budget reply to promise to make real-time health data available, establish a social enterprise investment fund, changes to housing funding and appoint a victims of crime commissioner.
Former Morrison government minister Stuart Robert will not return to the federal parliament after he officially resigned from politics by way of letter.
Robert announced his intention to resign on 6 May but did not give a date of when it would happen. He did not travel to Canberra for the budget week sitting, although staff were seen packing up his office.
The former Morrison government minister Stuart Robert has officially announced his retirement from federal politics, to become a “full time husband, father and son”.
Robert’s retirement announcement means a second byelection test for the opposition, this time in Liberal National party heartland, with Robert’s seat of Fadden on the Gold Coast traditionally a conservative stronghold.
Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has claimed the Labor government’s proposed Indigenous voice to parliament would “institutionalise discrimination” in a speech to a conservative political conference that focused heavily on criticisms of the Aboriginal consultation body.
The Coalition senator and Warlpiri woman Jacinta Price, who also spoke at CPAC in Sydney, described the voice as “racial separatism”, telling attendees they would be “called a name” if they opposed the change. Former Liberal senator Amanda Stoker described the concept of the voice as “terrifying”.
Queensland’s opposition has announced it will bring a net zero emissions target by 2050 to the next state election at the LNP’s annual convention in Brisbane over the weekend.
LNP leader David Crisafulli said it was “deeply troubling” that emissions had increased in Queensland over the past several years.
A few days before the 2019 federal election, a group of regional Queensland state MPs held crisis talks with the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and her then deputy, Jackie Trad.
They brought advance news of the thrashing that Labor was about to receive in the state’s regional areas. Some had copped abuse from voters at polling stations. They said delays approving the Adani Carmichael coalmine would ultimately cost them their seats.
A bastion of conservative Christian politics, the electorate of Groom has become a frontline in the battle for the soul of the Coalition.
And while religion barely rates a mention in the official campaign for Groom, there are concerns about the rising influence of pentecostalism, which could explain why the second safest seat in the country has suddenly become seen as one to watch.
Outgoing Liberal National party politician Andrew Laming says the expenses watchdog has done “nothing” since he publicly refused to pay back more than $8,000 in travel expenses he was found by it to have wrongly claimed.
The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (Ipea) audited a single month of Laming’s travel in 2020 after a Guardian Australia series on MPs’ expense claims.
The Liberal National candidate running in the ultra-marginal Queensland seat of Lilley has been referred to the Australian Federal Police amid allegations he provided a false residential address to the Australian Electoral Commission.
Labor MP Anika Wells on Friday called on the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to “disavow” Vivian Lobo after the Australian newspaper reported he had provided “false evidence” to the AEC when he claimed to live in the inner Brisbane electorate.
The Liberal National party’s decision to direct Queensland voters to place One Nation second on their Senate ballots could be “the deciding factor” that sees Pauline Hanson re-elected, experts say.
It is a strategic move which political opponents have seized on as one which could alienate moderate voters within the party and see a backlash against Liberals in marginal seats.
Scott Morrison largely had Queensland to thank for his “miracle” 2019 election, with the party now heading into the 2022 poll holding 23 of the 30 seats in the state, all but one with a margin of under 4%.
Many commentators credit the wave of blue to local objections to Bob Brown’s anti-Adani convoy, doubts over Labor’s climate change and tax policies and preference flows from minor parties, namely Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and Clive Palmer’s United Australia party.
Labor’s post-2019 election review found the party needed to “find a way to reconnect with Queenslanders” if it is to win the next election and indeed, opposition leader Anthony Albanese has spent significant time in Queensland, including visiting a coalmine.
Queensland Liberal defends ‘completely dignified’ photo of woman bending over but apologises for ‘feelings I’ve caused’
Under-seige Morrison government MP Andrew Laming says his online behaviour has been “re-invented into harassment” and that the “facts are on my side”, claiming he only ever asked “hard questions” but apologised “for how it’s made people feel”.
Exclusive: In email to fellow officials after election loss, Jenny Goodwin warns disciplinary process leads to ‘accusation of bullying’
The president of the Queensland Liberal National party women’s branch has emailed fellow officials to warn of a “culture of anger and mistrust”, amid an increasingly fraught fallout from the party’s state election loss.
Queensland Liberal National party members have begun agitating for an urgent post-election state council meeting to bring to a head internecine conflicts between the party’s membership, its office bearers and its state leader.
As counting continues in a number of close seats, the LNP’s numbers are likely to go backwards in the next parliament. In her concession speech on election night, Deb Frecklington said she intended to remain as the state leader.
Polls suggest narrow Labor win over Liberal National party but neither side willing to predict result. Follow live
The early counting is good for Labor in Townsville - a minor swing in their favour. Townsville is Labor’s most marginal seat but actually the least likely of three seats in the northern city to flip.
Labor folks are more pessimistic about the Townsville seat of Mundingburra and Barron River, on the outskirts of Cairns.
On Jackie Trad’s chances, Steven Miles says:
The one thing I know about Jackie, she won’t have left one stone unturned to try to hold South Brisbane in what will be challenging contest.
But let’s be clear, it is only challenging because the Liberals had chosen to preference her. If they had preferenced the Greens last, then Jackie wouldn’t be in trouble at all.
There is one Green member in Parliament[Michael Berkman, Maiwar] and that is because of Labor’s preferences, so he that’s crazy he talks about principles. It was amazing enough after the last election when there was a lot of discussion about what the LNP should do at the seat of South Brisbane and basically a revolt from our members with regards to the fact that we didn’t do what we’ve done this time.
Jackie Trad is very polarising, particularly amongst our supporters and they are very comfortable with the decision that has been made. In fact, in some ways you could say that they it, and now we will see what the result will be.
A controversial $1.3bn project brings together angry voters from across the political spectrum in Mark Robinson’s electorate of Oodgeroo
This week residents in Cleveland, a bayside community south of Brisbane, received a letterbox flyer from their local MP, the ultraconservative Liberal National Mark Robinson, talking up his environmental credentials.
All things being equal, the election campaign in Robinson’s safe seat of Oodgeroo would be a foregone conclusion. The born-again evangelical, who employs former Australian Christian Lobby head Lyle Shelton in his local office, won the seat with 52% of the primary vote in 2017.