Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Allies of Scott Morrison have been dumped from the shadow cabinet and senior conservatives promoted in a reshuffle stamping Peter Dutton’s mark on the Liberal party.
Dutton and the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, announced the shadow ministry in Brisbane on Sunday, revealing it will include 10 women, with six Nationals in cabinet.
Nationals MP Darren Chester has confirmed he will run for the party’s leadership in a ballot next week, setting up an explosive showdown with his rival Barnaby Joyce - a man Chester once described as “incoherent”.
The Nine newspapers reported Chester saying it was “time for a change” in the party, and that the Nationals needed to “take some responsibility for the Liberal losses in the city”.
Exclusive: regional movie events in 2019, attended by just 137 people, were set to feature then deputy prime minister spruiking infrastructure spending
They’re the “problematic” videos that the finance department didn’t want to see the light of day.
Created for an “objective” infrastructure campaign, the videos featured a cheery Michael McCormack spruiking federal government spending. They were to be played before free movies in a taxpayer-funded roadshow through regional cities to promote the Building our Future package in 2019, ahead of the May election.
Former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack has contradicted Barnaby Joyce’s claim the Nationals did not sign off on the final communique of the Glasgow climate summit.
McCormack, the former Nationals leader, said any agreement the Australian government signs also covers the National party, and left open the option of the Morrison government proposing a higher emissions reduction target for 2035.
AstraZeneca vaccine now recommended for over-60s;Sydney’s eastern suburbs cluster grows; Victoria records no new local cases. Follow the latest updates live
Does the acting Prime Minister agree that no adult worker should be paid less than the minimum wage?
Well, Mr Speaker, as I said in my previous answer, we’re operating under the same conditions for wages, for industrial relations, and was established by the then Labor government. And the government’s record and I appreciate that whilst he didn’t mention this in his question, but it’s talking about worker exploitation and wage underpayment, and we have zero tolerance for any exploitation of workers.
And that includes the underpayment of wages and entitlements by any employer. We have zero tolerance. And the government has taken unprecedented action to protect vulnerable workers. Since 2016...
We have committed more funding to the Fair Work Ombudsman, strengthened their investigative powers to compel witnesses to provide evidence, and increased penalties up to 10 fold for worker exploitation.
People who work should be paid a fair and decent wage.
Tony Burke asks Michael McCormack about a woman named Kate, who took a job picking fruit, on ‘piece rates’ (a common way fruit pickers are paid) and was forced to find food in supermarket garbage bins, as she couldn’t afford food, despite working seven days a week.
McCormack starts talking about the minimum wage. Which this woman doesn’t receive (something Burke points out)
I take the member for Watson’s point. But we are operating under the same system of wages and industrial relations that we did when Labor were in government. And indeed, and indeed - there was a wage decision case made this week, this week.
As he said, we have had - we’ve got an industrial relations framework which reflects what was introduced by the previous government.
And Mr Speaker, I make it very clear our government has zero tolerance for any exploitation of workers. And is committed to ensuring that workers have the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the Australian economy, without the fear of exploitation. We have the highest minimum wage in the world, and we have extensive safeguards in place.
The immigration minister, Alex Hawke, is set to announce on Tuesday that the Murugappan family will be released from detention on Christmas Island and allowed to reunite on the Australian mainland.
Hawke will use his ministerial discretion to allow the family to return but the government is not expected to make any substantive changes to their visa status which is still being argued in the courts.
Deputy PM says he’s focusing on now, not 2050, as Coalition’s climate skirmishes go on
The Coalition is facing an increasingly testy party room as it struggles to land on a climate policy, with the Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, declaring he is “not worried about what might happen in 30 years’ time”.
The deputy prime minister said excluding agriculture from Australia’s attempts to reach net zero emissions by 2050 may be one option.
Jacinda Ardern says her country will not open up until Australia records a month without community transmission of Covid-19
New Zealand will not reciprocate quarantine-free trips across the Tasman as the Australian Capital Territory joins Australia’s travel bubble with the country.
On Friday, Australia’s deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, announced New South Wales and the Northern Territory would allow Kiwis to bypass the compulsory fortnight of quarantine on arrival from 16 October.
A man who had been deported to New Zealand, and who was in isolation at a government-run quarantine hotel, is under investigation by the police after he tied bed sheets together to escape the facility from a fourth floor window.
All travellers returning to the country – only New Zealanders and their families, plus others with special exemptions are allowed to pass through its borders – must spend two weeks in mandatory isolation, during which they are tested twice for Covid-19.
I am going to leave you in the very capable hands of Naaman Zhou for the rest of the afternoon shift.
There have been quite a few messages today – I am slowly working my way through them – but if you have anything else to say, or I missed you, you can contact me here and here.
Brisbane watches hotspots after youth detention centre outbreak, Victoria’s hotel inquiry continues and politicians gather in Canberra for the first time in 10 weeks. Follow today’s latest updates
Labor leader says deputy PM’s comment about activism is ‘entirely inappropriate’ after recent bushfires
Anthony Albanese has demanded the deputy prime minister and Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, apologise for observing that a lot of people “set their hair on fire” about climate change, given the recent experience of the catastrophic summer of bushfires.
The Labor leader said McCormack’s comment on Friday was “entirely inappropriate” given the government had conceded that climate change was one of the factors in the fires “that saw thousands of homes lost, that saw millions of hectares burnt, and that had a devastating impact on the communities of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia”.
Michael McCormack says trade minister and diplomats are trying to fix the issue
Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack is concerned coal exporters could face a tougher time selling the commodity into China.
There are reports the Chinese government is warning state-owned power plants not to buy new shipments of Australian thermal coal and instead favour domestic products.
Premier Daniel Andrews says state of emergency will be extended for a further four weeks as Australians trapped on Antarctic cruise ship arrive in Melbourne. Follow updates live
McGowan says he took his kids camping ... in his backyard ... over Easter because obviously other locations were unavailable.
And that’s the end of the press conference.
“We’ve successfully flattened the curve, but now we’ve got to figure out how to keep it there but also find out a long-term solution to the problem we face,” McGowan says.
He says he is working on getting commercial tenancy legislation in parliament this week. He’s not sure whether residential tenancy legislation will be ready this week but it will be brought in when it is.
The former will be brought into WA parliament for debate on Wednesday.
The fallout from last week’s leadership spill continues, with rebel MPs refusing to fall into line. All the day’s events, live
There is a real pattern emerging of Nationals MPs wearing green ties with dark blue suits, and really I can see why the party room is in revolt.
Josh Frydenberg is yelling again, and I can’t transcribe it, because GUESSWHOTHATFINANCIALGENIUSWASSIRTAXALOT is doing my head in, and really, you only get one life.
Joyce says he will challenge Nationals leader Michael McCormack for the top job when a party room spill is called on Tuesday
Barnaby Joyce will challenge Michael McCormack for the leadership of the Nationals when a party room spill is called on Tuesday, saying he has learned from his past mistakes and is the best person to lead the party to the next election.
The former leader’s tilt at a comeback won support from the cabinet minister Matt Canavan on Monday night, with the Queensland senator resigning his position to back Joyce in the leadership ballot.