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MPs don casual wear for late-night sitting
Given the late sitting (the house has been doing “family friendly” hours for most of the year, which has made sittings past 8pm or 8.30pm rare) there were a few more casual looks on the benches than we are used to.
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Chalmers: ‘We are making some welcome progress in the fight against inflation’
Is Jim Chalmers confident that interest rates could fall from next year?
My job is to focus on this fight against inflation. And we saw overnight from the OECD, we saw from Deloitte Access Economics, we saw in the Bureau of Statistics data which came out yesterday, that we are making some welcome progress in the fight against inflation and that will determine the future directory trajectory of interest rates
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‘We have been very clear from day one that we oppose antisemitism’: Bandt
Adam Bandt is asked about a photo the Greens senator and deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi put on her social media, and then took down. In the photo, Faruqi is posing with pro-Palestinian protesters, one of whom is holding a poster which showed an image of Israel being put in a rubbish bin. Faruqi took down the image and issued an apology over the poster appearing on her social media.
I just need to clarify – we have been very clear from day one that we oppose antisemitism.
We’ve been concerned about the rise of antisemitism in Australia for some time. It’s been ongoing for a number of years now. We’ve thrown our weight behind … pushes to tackle antisemitism as well as Islamophobia in this country.
From the beginning, since the attacks on October 7 … we condemned or spoke very, very clearly in parliament, condemning – not only condemning antisemitism, as well as Islamophobia.
But we’ve taken a principled position to this invasion, and we do not believe that the people of Gaza should be collectively punished and we’re seeing a humanitarian catastrophe unfold in front of our eyes. And the there has to be not only a temporary ceasefire, but there needs to [be] a permanent ceasefire and we have called for that.
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‘The biggest transformation in our country’s history’
Chris Bowen has been talking about Labor’s plans for reducing emissions, but he’s pressed on the fact that the government has been approving new coalmines and gas projects, which add to global emissions.
The way I see this, David, you can enter into a discussion with your international counterparts which we are doing which is us saying to them, “We will continue to be a reliable energy supplier but we want to work with you on your decarbonisation because we have advantages that you don’t have. We can provide renewable energy.” That is an important conversation to have.
Frankly the approach of others is more a slogan than a policy. We are making the biggest transformation in our country’s history and that involves both domestic policies and strong international engagements, as I will be doing over the next couple of weeks and we have been doing all the way through.
It will be treated in the budget statement of risks and liabilities in the normal fashion. But this is the right policy for the right times to ensure emissions come down and reliability goes up.
Continue reading...Writing from prison, Alexander Csergo says investigators have found ‘no evidence’ and fallout from case will embarrass Australia
A Sydney businessman accused of selling secrets to China has claimed from prison that the case against him is a false police narrative based on no evidence and the prosecution “will fail”, embarrassing Australia.
In his first public words written from prison, where he has been remanded for more than six months ahead of an expected trial, Alexander Csergo claimed that despite months of investigation prosecutors had found “no evidence of espionage, or classified or confidential information” being handed over.
Continue reading...Former Liberal staffer is seeking ‘substantial’ damages over The Project broadcast, lawyer says. Follow today’s news live
More than 20 people have been arrested and charged following an unauthorised pro-Palestine protest at Port Botany overnight.
According to a statement from NSW police, about 400 people gathered at the protest. Police issued a move-on direction, which they say was not complied with.
The group continued to occupy Foreshore Road, blocking vehicle movement.
That just gives a really clear line drawn that if it’s labour hire, it’s covered, if it’s service contractors, it’s not.
In terms of the conversations with the crossbench, I continue to reach out to the crossbench [and] there’s a series of meetings that continue to happen.
They’ve made a decision that they don’t want to deal with this bill until next year. I would rather we were dealing with it over the next fortnight. We certainly will be dealing with it next week in the House of Representatives.
Continue reading...Bill authorises previous uses of coercive powers, removing legal question mark that had dogged Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission
Labor and the Coalition teamed up to pass a bill retrospectively authorising potentially “unlawful” use of material gathered in special investigations by Australia’s most secretive law enforcement agency.
The bill is the third attempt to cure a long-running legal defect in the powers of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to conduct special investigations and operations.
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Labor MPs furious over ‘one political party’ pitting Jewish community against another
Labor MPs are still furious over the motion Peter Dutton moved in question time on Wednesday, where he linked anti-semitism with the release of detainees, including some criminals, after the high court decision which deemed indefinite detention to be unconstitutional.
As a leader of the Jewish community and someone who represents a large Jewish community, I’ve always thought it was extremely important to act in the interests of the community.
And that means working across the political aisle. It means working with people like Allegra Spender, who represents the largest Jewish community in Australia, and of course with my friend Julian Leeser, who I will always stand with members regardless of what political persuasion they have, in order to act in the interests of the Jewish community.
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And here is the standard of some of the “debate” among senior parliamentarians.
Meanwhile, Australia’s sense of social cohesion is at its lowest recorded ebb.
Continue reading...Signals Directorate says infrastructure of interest to malicious actors because of its broad attack surface and connected systems
Just days after a major ports company was forced to shut down operations due to a cyber-attack, the Australian Signals Directorate has issued a strong warning that Australia’s critical infrastructure is under regular targeted and opportunistic cyber attack.
DP World Australia, the country’s biggest ports operator, closed its Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle port operations after detecting unauthorised access on its network on Friday.
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Shorten reiterates support for two-state solution
Patricia Karvelas then raises with Bill Shorten what was said on Q+A last night, when Nasser Mashni, the president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, argued that hopes for a two-state solution “ended years ago”.
Oh, no, our policy has been to support a two-state solution.
There was a policy which we developed many, many years ago about respecting the security of Israel and the right of Palestinians to have a say in controlling their own land. I don’t think that’s a radical policy.
I think it’s unexceptional what the foreign minister said. We’re in very close step to the United States and other western nations. We’ve called for humanitarian pause, but we completely recognise that Israel’s dealing with Hamas who don’t want to negotiate, so the idea that we want an enduring peace, as Penny said, of course, is what we want.
We all know we’re a long way off that and Hamas should be prevailed upon by world opinion to hand back the hostages to say that they’re going to stop trying to kill Israelis and destroy Israel.
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Victoria’s Northern Health phone lines affected by Optus outage
Northern Health in Melbourne said all phone lines into its campuses are affected by the current Optus outage.
This includes phone lines into Northern hospital Epping, Broadmeadows hospital, Bundoora Centre, Craigieburn Centre, Kilmore district hospital, and [the] Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED).
We apologise for any inconvenience.
Continue reading...Australia’s Aukus submarine deal and Japan’s discharge of Fukushima waste makes the issue a priority as leaders gather in Cook Islands
The host of this week’s Pacific Islands Forum summit says the region must “revisit” a landmark anti-nuclear treaty, citing Australia’s Aukus submarine deal and Japan’s discharge of treated Fukushima wastewater.
Mark Brown, the prime minister of the Cook Islands and chair of the region’s most important annual political talks, raised concerns about nuclear-related issues on the eve of the arrival of the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
Continue reading...A record level of stressed households are projected as economists tip Melbourne Cup Day interest rate rise. Follow the day’s news live
The government services minister, Bill Shorten, was also asked about the Reserve Bank’s upcoming decision on interest rates later today.
He acknowledged the Reserve Bank is independent of the government but said “I hope it stays static”:
[I] just know a lot of mortgage holders are doing it tough, but the bank will make its decision independently.
For the Albanese government, we know that inflation is a cost of living issue. We have put in a whole heap of measures from childcare to parental leave and energy support. People are doing it tough at the moment, I think it’s hard out there.
Continue reading...Agency has had access to Locate X since at least 2021, documents show, amid questions about use of data that may contain people’s sensitive information
Home Affairs has paid an American intelligence company to access Locate X, a controversial tool that can track the movement of smartphones.
The agency has had access to the product since at least 2021, according to correspondence between Home Affairs and Babel Street obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information (FOI) laws.
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The NSW RFS has confirmed that just after 4am this morning one of its firefighting tanks rolled over 10km south of Jennings in the Tenterfield LGA.
A spokesperson said there were four firefighters on board. They were all taken from the truck, with three being taken to hospital for observation.
They’ve said they’ll be returning to bulk billing, or many of them who are considering a change would stick with bulk billing, for those more than 11 million Australians.
That’s about 60% or more of the throughput of the average general practice. So it’s a huge boost in confidence and funding to a sector that I think is probably in its most powerless status been in the 40 year history of Medicare.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Former foreign minister says it is ‘sheer dumb luck’ that arms have not been used in the past 78 years and urges leadership on control measures
The Labor luminary Gareth Evans has urged Australia to lobby the US to promise “no first use” of nuclear weapons, warning that global arms control agreements “are now either dead or on life support”.
The former foreign minister says that in the wake of sealing the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine deal, the Albanese government should give “some comfort to ALP members and voters that we are really serious about nuclear arms control”.
Continue reading...PM also acknowledged ‘tragic’ Queensland bushfires on Tuesday, warning pf ‘difficult summer’. Follow the day’s news live
Fire at Tara ‘remains uncontained’, QFES acting deputy commissioner says
QFES acting deputy commissioner Joanne Greenfield also spoke to Sunrise this morning, and provided an update on the bushfire at Tara:
The Tara fire is quite large now and still remains uncontained in most of its edges.
Crews have been down there working overnight trying to strengthen the control line and try to bring areas of it into containment.
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Pay deal averts six-day strike by dairy workers
A looming strike at one of Victoria’s major milk companies has been averted after the processor struck a pay deal with the union.
There is some concern around Mount Isa, and we are looking at what we can do to support that area being so remote in the western part of our state.
So looking at the weather we have today, still very extreme fire danger in the western part of Queensland. We are certainly looking at another challenging day.
Continue reading...There is ‘a lot of anxiety’ in the Western Downs where at least 16 houses have been destroyed, the mayor says. Follow the day’s news live
Civilians in the blockaded Gaza Strip will receive an extra $15m in humanitarian aid from the Australian government.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement at a joint press conference with US president Joe Biden.
The plaintiff served years in prison that he otherwise would not have. At no stage did Victoria Police take positive steps to remedy its wrongdoing by expeditiously informing the plaintiff of Gobbo’s conduct in order to quash his conviction. Victoria Police has not apologised to the plaintiff.
Starting this court case is a significant moment for me. I am anxious about the future but also cautiously optimistic about finally holding police to account for what they did to me.
In the pursuit of justice, vindication came first, and now I see compensation as a measure of accountability.
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