Drug imported for Covid-19 trials won’t be given to Australians who need it for other conditions

Clive Palmer bought millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine but those who rely on it for autoimmune conditions will not have access, government says

The federal government has no plans to make millions of doses of an experimental drug being used in clinical trials on Covid-19 patients available to people who rely on the medicine to treat severe autoimmune conditions, despite Australia’s low number of Covid-19 cases.

The former politician Clive Palmer was granted permission by Australia’s drugs regulator to import the drug, hydroxychloroquine, and the materials required to produce it, so that doses could be added to the national medical stockpile. The drug is used overseas to prevent and treat malaria, and is mostly prescribed in Australia to treat painful symptoms of autoimmune conditions including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

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Clive Palmer charged with criminal offences by corporate regulator

Asic boss confirms mining magnate and former politician charged with four offences by the regulator for conduct dating back to 2013

Mining magnate and former politician Clive Palmer has been charged with criminal offences that could see him jailed by Australia’s corporate regulator.

The head of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, John Price, revealed on Friday that the Queensland businessman had been charged with four offences by the regulator for conduct dating back to 2013.

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Clive Palmer company reapplies for mine four times size of Adani’s Carmichael

Exclusive: public notice on proposal was placed in classifieds of paper in Queensland town of Emerald

A Clive Palmer-controlled company has applied for a mining lease and environmental authority to build a massive coalmine four times the size of Adani’s in the Queensland Galilee Basin.

The Galilee Coal project – formerly called China First – has not progressed since it gained federal environmental approval in late 2013.

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Electoral system review must look at trust in democracy, Labor frontbencher says

Andrew Giles says a well developed policy agenda means little if it has to contend with ‘resigned cynicism’

The Labor frontbencher Andrew Giles says the inevitable postmortem from the 2019 election needs to be broader than examining whether the electoral system is delivering for voters. It also needs to consider questions of accountability and trust.

Giles, the opposition spokesman on cities and urban infrastructure and a former deputy chair of the joint standing committee on electoral matters, told a seminar at the University of Melbourne that policy agendas meant little to voters in 2019 “if no one believes it could ever be delivered”.

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Asic to decide on possible case against Clive Palmer over Queensland Nickel

Corporate watchdog says criminal investigation is nearly complete and it is in discussions about way forward

A criminal investigation into Clive Palmer and the collapse of Queensland Nickel is nearly finished and the corporate regulator is in discussions with other government agencies about what to do next, federal parliament has been told.

“We are at the point where we are in discussions with other government agencies about the appropriate way forward,” the Australian Securities and Investments Commission commissioner, John Price, told a parliamentary committee on Friday.

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Liberal candidate Gurpal Singh dumped after comments about rape emerge

Clive Palmer also sacks United Australia party hopeful Tony Pecora who peddled conspiracy theories about 9/11

A Liberal candidate in Melbourne’s northern suburbs has finally been dumped after new posts emerged where he dismissed a woman’s rape allegations, while Clive Palmer has jettisoned a United Australia party (UAP) hopeful who peddled conspiracy theories about the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The two candidates, the Liberals’ Gurpal Singh in the safe Labor seat of Scullin and Tony Pecora of the UAP, who was standing in the Greens’ seat of Melbourne, became the latest in a long line of fallen candidates this election when both were disendorsed late on Thursday night.

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Federal election 2019: Liberals ‘riddled with rightwing extremists’, Shorten says – politics live

Opposition leader stresses Labor unity as Victorian Libs dump candidate over anti-Islam comments. All the day’s events, live

Not politics, but because we all need some light relief from time to time – Chris Kenny has quit twitter for about the third time.

It really, really is just the day for it.

The Sydney Morning Herald has a breaking story on another Victorian Liberal candidate facing the sack – this time for comments he made about his would-be party room colleague Tim Wilson because he had the temerity to be born gay.

The candidate’s comments came in response to a post by another commentator, Michael Taouk, who said he was not in the Liberal party, calling for the “Liberal grassroots” to “remove preselection from that notorious homosexual Tim Wilson”.

Mr Taouk wrote: “No true Christian can fight on the same side of that man.”

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Federal election 2019: Clive Palmer rounds on Labor as he defends Coalition preference deal – politics live

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.

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Question mark over eligibility of at least 19 Clive Palmer candidates

Submissions to Australian Electoral Commission by a some United Australia party candidates fail to provide birth details of parents or grandparents

At least 19 United Australia party candidates have submitted incomplete or inconsistent information to the Australian Electoral Commission, failing to provide evidence they are eligible to run for parliament.

The candidates for Clive Palmer’s party have asserted they are not dual citizens disqualified by section 44 of the constitution, but have mostly failed to provide birth details of their parents or grandparents, even in cases where candidates admit parents or grandparents were born overseas.

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‘You will get up with fleas’: Bill Shorten attacks Liberals’ deal with Clive Palmer

Scott Morrison says Labor and the Greens present far bigger threat to the economy and jobs than the United Australia party

Bill Shorten has criticised the Liberal party deal to exchange preferences with Clive Palmer’s United Australia party.

Speaking in Hobart on Saturday where he announced that a future Labor government would invest $120m into Tasmanian tourism projects, the opposition leader did not deny that Labor officials had held discussions with Palmer over the course of the campaign, but said they would not risk preference swaps with the potential kingmaker in Queensland.

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Federal election 2019: senior Liberal warns Morrison against Palmer preference deal – politics live

Former WA premier Colin Barnett cites businessman’s ‘appalling’ record while Shorten rebuffs the Greens on climate policy. Follow the day’s news live

Mikey Slezak, of the ABC (oh how we miss him), has a story overnight regarding the last minute sign off by the Morrison government on a controversial uranium mine one day before calling the federal election.

Then there was a sneaky “public announcement” by the environment department when it uploaded the approval document the day before Anzac Day.

I want to find out what on earth has happened. The minister made no comment, no announcement beforehand. It looks like it might have been rushed. We don’t know....The reason I can’t tell you I’m on this side or the other side, we need to know what on earth she has done and what her reasons for it and the minister has gone missing.

Tony Burke was also asked about Labor’s very specific, siloed commission of inquiry that only looks a the one water buyback conducted under Barnaby Joyce as minister from Eastern Australia Agriculture.

What we have announced is there is a specific transaction from Barnaby Joyce that is different to anything that Simon Birmingham, David Littleproud, Bob Baldwin, different to anything that any other minister has engaged with. And anything else … can be dealt with properly by the Australian national National Audit Office. This one, there was no tender. There [are] arguments about conflict of interest. And it has links all the way back to the Cayman Islands, where there is complete secrecy about who is involved. Everything else you don’t need coercive powers.

In terms of making sure that we’ve got probity, we will establish a national integrity commission and there will be an ongoing watchdog on probity. In terms of the purchases by Penny that you referred to, they went fully through the National Audit Office, a report in 2011 [and were] given a complete bill of health. If I was arguing that things should apply to every other member of the government who has been involved, then the government’s characterisation would be fair. The point is no other purchase is like this.

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