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Lidia Thorpe has ripped up a paper copy of the Senate motion censuring her protest against King Charles, promising “I’ll do it again” and saying she is not concerned about the parliamentary rebuke.
The independent senator was censured by the Labor and Coalition on Monday, as was the United Australia party senator Ralph Babet after he posted a tweet containing several offensive slurs.
“I’m reasonably good with different fonts,” the failed United Australia Party candidate, Craig Kelly, told the federal court on Monday.
“But that had a special name I can’t recall,” he said, when asked to name the typeface used on the unmissable black and yellow advertisements his party used at the 2022 election.
Despite this pushback, most crossbench MPs remain open to debate, and several independent senators have spoken in favour of curbing some super tax concessions to help budget repair
Independent MPs including Kylea Tink, Zoe Daniel and Zali Steggall have said that capping superannuation balances at $3m may undermine the confidence of people saving for retirement.
The teals have joined the Coalition in warning against capping, which appears to be the most likely measure to implement Labor’s objective for super to be “sustainable and equitable”, saying the government should look to raise revenue elsewhere, including company profits and tax evasion.
Clive Palmer has been ordered to pay part of Mark McGowan’s legal costs while the Western Australian premier will pay none of the billionaire’s, despite the federal court finding they both defamed each other.
On Thursday, Justice Michael Lee found there was an “asymmetry of responsibility” for the “long and costly” hearing of the case, because Palmer launched proceedings but only McGowan “was willing to draw back” by offering to drop the case in December 2021.
Clive Palmer’s mammoth campaign spend of close to $100m has failed to deliver his party results, with its primary vote failing to reach 5% across the country.
In both regional and metropolitan areas, the United Australia vote increased slightly to about 4.7%, and was strongest in Queensland where it polled close to 6%.
Clive Palmer’s United Australia party is burning through its projected $70m election advertising spend, including hour-long television commercials, as a data analyst warns the fringe party could have more backing than polls predict, with some voters embarrassed to voice their support.
At 9.45pm on Wednesday – hours before the blackout for election ads on broadcast media came into effect – Channel 10 ran an hour-long UAP ad which marketing analysts believe cost up to $600k but would have been discounted due to the mammoth ad spend by the party.
Take a wrong turn on the back roads through central Queensland, about 40km from Banana (population 354), and the road turns to gravel. A few clicks further on, over a couple of cattle grids, there’s a bright yellow United Australia party sign – but not another driver to see it for miles.
This particular spot is close to smack bang in the middle of the 133,000 sq km electorate of Flynn.
Clive Palmer’s centrepiece campaign pledge to cap homeowners’ interest rates for five years has been dismissed by economists as “radical”, “crazy” and “utterly irresponsible” even though it will probably appeal to some gullible voters.
According to the United Australia party’s website, the mining billionaire’s “economic plan for freedom and prosperity” pledges to set a maximum 3% interest rate for all home loans to head off a looming mass default as lending rates start to rise.
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.
Zaki’s renunciation of her Afghan citizenship may be incomplete and Morrow faces claims she posted anti-asylum seeker posts online
The Liberal candidate for Canberra, Mina Zaki, may be ineligible to sit in parliament because the renunciation of her Afghan citizenship appears to be incomplete.
And the Labor party is facing some pressure to disendorse its candidate for the Western Australia seat of Durack, Sharyn Morrow, over alleged anti-asylum seeker posts on social media.
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.
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.
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.
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.