Attorney general responds to crossbench calls for inquiry. All the day’s events, live
Siri: what is the definition of “a punish”?
David Gillespie saddles the despatch box, and therefore us, with Michael McCormack, which gives me the permission I needed to go make a cup of tea.
“All politics is local, as it should be,” says Sliced White.
Continue reading...Labor facing factional battle between Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen
The former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce is positioning himself for a return to cabinet following the Coalition’s shock election win, as Scott Morrison prepares to unveil his new-look frontbench as early as next week.
The jockeying within the Coalition comes as Labor’s leadership contest crystallises, with a factional battle looming between the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, and leftwinger Anthony Albanese.
Continue reading...Michael McCormack raises eyebrows saying his party is ‘aligned with One Nation’ more than Labor or Greens
The Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, has unveiled a new statutory authority for water infrastructure in an effort to contain a bush boilover at the election – and has declared his party is happy to enter preference deals with One Nation because their policies align.
McCormack used a speech to the National Press Club on Tuesday to unveil a new Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility-style body for dams, with the new body charged with using “the best available science” to examine how large-scale water diversion projects could be established to deliver reliable and cost-effective water to farmers and regional communities.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison also defends deal as Coalition attacks Labor’s childcare plan as ‘communist’. All the day’s events, live
Both campaigns are now in debate prep mode, so we are going to power down for the moment.
But it’s just a break, not goodbye. We’ll be back just before 7pm eastern time to bring you the blow-by-blow of the first leaders’ debate.
On what he would do in terms of climate policies (given his history on the subject with the Gillard government):
It was Tony Windsor and I who forced the changes. Both sides have the ability to get on with embedding climate change into the processes of government. At the time we did have world-leading legislation.
I concede we lost control of the politics and that Tony Abbott, as the alternate prime minister, came in on a wave of, you know, that carbon tax message, which even his chief of staff, you know, after the event, has admitted was more about the politics than anything to do with policy.
Continue reading...Former agriculture minister says he has ‘no problems whatsoever’ with unredacted documents about transaction being released
Barnaby Joyce has attempted to pin blame for a controversial $80m water buyback on the Queensland Labor government in a belligerent marathon interview.
Speaking to Radio National’s Patricia Karvelas on Monday evening, Joyce brushed off threats of a royal commission into the issue, arguing it would have to examine the previous federal Labor government and the state government, for recommending water buybacks from Eastern Australia Agriculture (EAA).
Continue reading...Sarah Hanson-Young demands a royal commission as Bill Shorten urges prime minister to produce all documents
The Coalition is facing calls for an inquiry into the Murray-Darling Basin plan water contracts signed off by the former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce.
As the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young called for a royal commission on Saturday, Bill Shorten also weighed in, saying there were now “question marks about the probity” of the “nation’s biggest water purchase”.
Continue reading...Nationals MPs have demanded action to underwrite new energy generation before the election
The energy minister, Angus Taylor, has signalled to restive Queensland Nationals that taxpayer backing for a dispatchable energy project is on the way as one of the rebel MPs has warned a decision is necessary before the election.
With cabinet set to consider energy among a range of issues on Tuesday, with the budget looming and the federal election now only weeks way, Taylor told journalists it was “critically important” that Queensland see more competition in power generation, and more dispatchable supply.
Continue reading...Former trade minister delivers scathing criticism of Coalition colleagues for souring relations
The former trade minister Andrew Robb, who took an $880,000 job with a Chinese company as soon as he left parliament, has blasted his former party room colleagues and Australia’s security agencies for creating a “toxic” relationship with China.
Robb confirmed he had left Landbridge, which holds the lease over the Darwin port, late last year, after a health precinct project he had been working on was rejected by Beijing.
Continue reading...