We cannot have another pointless, rudderless, parliament like the one that has just limped to an end
There was a moment or two on Wednesday, during Josh Frydenberg’s traditional post-budget address to the National Press Club, where the room felt so depressurised it seemed like oxygen masks could tumble from the ceiling.
This bit of whimsy gripped me so profoundly, at one point I caught myself looking up at the ceiling, before shaking myself and looking back at the podium.
Continue reading...Coalition’s about face on one-off payment prompts Labor to declare the budget is already ‘falling apart’
The Morrison government’s big post-budget sell has been disrupted by its own late-night decision to backflip on providing a one-off payment to recipients of Newstart.
The government used Tuesday night’s budget to provide supplements to welfare recipients, with $75 for singles and $125 for couples going to 2.4 million pensioners, 744,000 disability pensioners, 280,000 carers, 242,000 single parents and 225,000 veterans and their dependents – but not to people on unemployment benefits.
Continue reading...Australia’s treasurer says the budget is ‘back in the black’. This blog is now closed
And that is where we are going to end tonight, before we all turn into pumpkins.
But don’t worry, we’ll be back early tomorrow morning for all the fallout. Plus, you know, parliament.
Mike Bowers has been out and about:
Continue reading...Labor abandons Kyoto credits and highlights vehicle emissions in climate policy, as budget and election loom. All the day’s events, live
Scott Morrison finishes his press conference with an attack on the Greens, which in this political climate is an attack on Labor:
Now, the Labor party have got to apply their own rule to their own decisions. If they want to have this rule, which says minor parties should be considered separate to the mainstream parties, well it seems that the Labor party doesn’t think the Greens have these extreme views.
They’ve got to apply the same ruler to themselves. We’ve made our decisions on this. The challenge is on Labor now. Are you for national security? Are you for the US alliance? Are you for border protection? Are you against death taxes? If that’s your view, if you’re for all of those things, then by all means put the Greens ahead of the Liberal party. But if you’re not, then you shouldn’t do that.
We now need to change the national anthem. We are no longer girt by sea, apparently, because – Labor.
Scott Morrison:
The only difference, when it comes to the National Energy Guarantee in terms of what Labor are proposing, is this: the reliability energy guarantee, which was part of the Neg we brought forward at the time, that’s now happening.
That’s the important part. The bit Labor are applying to that is legislating a 45% emissions reduction target. That’s what Labor are doing. They are going to legislate that. That’s not going to reduce power prices. Labor’s Neg actually put prices not down, because they are going to legislate a reckless target that will hit wages, that will hit jobs, that will hit production.
Continue reading...The refugee advocate sets up a four-way contest with the treasurer, Liberal-turned-independent Oliver Yates and Labor
The human rights lawyer and refugee advocate Julian Burnside will run as the Greens candidate for Kooyong at the next election.
In a statement that appeared in Nine newspapers and the Australian on Tuesday the prominent barrister said he would take on the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, in the blue-ribbon Liberal seat because he believes the “political system is broken”.
Continue reading...Treasurer says climate change is real and Scott Morrison’s government takes emissions reduction ‘very seriously’
Josh Frydenberg has defended the Coalition’s record on climate change and says he will work hard to earn the trust of his constituents in the face of a challenge from long-time Liberal and now independent Oliver Yates.
Yates, a former Macquarie banker and head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, confirmed on Wednesday he would run in Kooyong at the coming federal election, declaring Frydenberg deserved to be challenged because of a lack of action on the environment.
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