Category Archives: Kevin Rudd

Marles announces closer military ties with Japan and US

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Warning for heavy rainfall, damaging winds and potential flash flooding in north-east Victoria

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for the north-east of Victoria, with forecasts of heavy rainfall and “damaging to locally destructive wind gusts”:

Heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding is forecast with areas of rain and thunderstorms for the northeast of Victoria from Sunday morning.

Six-hourly rainfall totals of 30 to 60mm are likely, with isolated totals up to 80mm possible. 24-hourly rainfall totals of 60 to 80mm are likely, with isolated falls of 100mm possible.

He’s Australia’s appointment. It says something about the importance of the United States that we have appointed a former prime minister.

That’s a sign of how seriously we take this relationship, which is a relationship between our peoples, based upon our common values.

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Senior Trump adviser suggests Rudd’s time as US ambassador could be up with hourglass gif

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Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott defend suitability of former PM after Dan Scavino social media post, despite Rudd’s past criticism of president-elect

A senior adviser to US president-elect Donald Trump has fuelled speculation about the future of Australia’s ambassador to Washington, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, by reposting Rudd’s congratulatory statement to Trump on social media with a gif of an hourglass.

The provocative time-is-running-out post by former Trump deputy chief of staff for communications Dan Scavino reignited suggestions that the incoming president may prefer another Australian representative in Washington when he takes office in January.

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Australia ‘not immune from trade tensions’, Chalmers says of incoming Trump presidency

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Treasurer says he spoke about tariffs to a ‘key member’ of Republican’s economic team before the US election

Australia’s economy will not be immune from escalating trade tensions, Jim Chalmers has warned, as the Albanese government prepares itself for an incoming Donald Trump administration.

In a speech to be delivered on Monday , the treasurer will outline the risks of an “uncertain world characterised by economic vulnerability and volatility” but will say the Australian government is “well-placed and well-prepared”.

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Albanese says Trump call ‘very constructive’ as Dutton calls US president-elect ‘not somebody to be scared of’

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PM fully briefed on ‘potential outcomes’ of US election and says Australia is prepared for Trump’s policies on security, economic and other issues

Australia will advocate for free trade and climate action – despite Donald Trump’s agenda against both – and persist with the Aukus alliance including nuclear submarine acquisition, the Albanese government has indicated.

Under fire from conservative media about his comments in 2017 that Trump “scares the shit” out of him, the prime minster, Anthony Albanese, was asked if he owed an apology to the president-elect.

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Sliding doors: cabinet papers reveal how close Coalition came to endorsing emissions trading in 2003

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The Howard government drafted a statement declaring its support for an emissions trading scheme before abruptly changing course

The Howard government drafted a statement declaring its support for an emissions trading scheme 20 years ago, only for the idea to be scuttled by business lobbying, newly released documents show.

Cabinet papers from 2003, released by the National Archives on Monday, show the then Coalition government was in possession of clear advice from Treasury that a broad-based market mechanism would be the cheapest way to reduce emissions.

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Former PMs pour cold water on claims Anthony Pratt told them Trump’s US submarine secrets

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A US news report claimed Donald Trump discussed secret US naval capabilities with the billionaire Australian businessman

It was a revelation that could have had explosive ramifications.

US news outlet ABC News reported that an “excited” Donald Trump allegedly discussed top-secret details of US nuclear submarines with the Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, who later allegedly shared the information with at least 45 people, including “three former Australian prime ministers”.

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Trump’s potential return to White House up to American people, says Kevin Rudd

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Australian ambassador to US takes more diplomatic angle after previously saying Trump re-election could ‘fray’ support for US-Australia alliance

The Australian ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, says it is up to the American people whether Donald Trump returns to the White House – an outcome he previously said would “fray” support for the US alliance in Australia.

The former Australian prime minister said on Wednesday that US politics was “a complex beast” and he was focused on keeping on good terms with both sides of the aisle, including former Trump officials.

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Queensland mother whose son took his life calls for change at robodebt royal commission – As it happened

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Inquiry into the unlawful scheme, which ran from 2015 to 2019, is ongoing. This blog is now closed

Final robodebt hearing shines light on people affected

A Centrelink employee and a customer impacted by the illegal robodebt scheme will be the final two witnesses appearing at the royal commission’s public hearings, AAP reports.

The international standard now in the OECD area is beyond 52 weeks. It’s great we’re moving to 26 but we are not going fast enough, doing what other countries are doing. We have slipped down the international rankings on paid parental leave.

It’s very important that we give the support to parents when a new baby arrives so they can share the leave, they can begin life with a new child, give that child the best shot and alongside that, of course, we need quality, early childhood education and care which we in the Greens think should be free, just like primary school.

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Kevin Rudd: Australia’s incoming ambassador to US says balloon saga threatens push to ease tensions with China

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Former Labor prime minister says incident has created ‘diplomatic clouds’ that may overshadow efforts to stabilise relationship

The incoming Australian ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, has warned the Chinese balloon saga has created new “diplomatic clouds” that put at risk recent efforts to ease tensions between Beijing and Washington.

In a speech in Brisbane on Wednesday, Rudd also warned against expecting any “softening in China’s ideological cleavage with the west”.

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Kevin Rudd to shed media disclosure obligations as ambassador to US

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Former prime minister’s 84 disclosed public speaking activities to soon be marked ‘ceased’ on foreign influence register when he takes up position in US

For years, the former prime minister Kevin Rudd has disclosed details of state-linked media interviews – including with the BBC and Radio NZ – and other public speaking commitments on the Australian government’s foreign influence register.

His prolific postings are based on what the former Labor leader once labelled an “absurd interpretation” of his obligations by government officials.

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Up to 1800 homes evacuated so far in SA floods – as it happened

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A fourth child in the space of two days has been airlifted to hospital from K’gari (Fraser Island) with suspected Irukandji jellyfish stings.

The RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter airlifted the young boy from the island after he was stung on the upper leg just after 2.30pm on Wednesday.

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Kevin Rudd will be ‘well received in Washington’ as Australia’s ambassador to the US, experts say

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Former PM praised as ‘the best China analyst by far’ by leading US national security council figure

Experts have predicted Kevin Rudd will be “well received by Washington and highly active in policy circles” as Australia’s ambassador to the US, though the nomination has triggered criticism from some Coalition MPs.

Andrew Wallace, a Liberal party MP said the appointment could go down in history as “a foreign policy disaster for Australia with its most important ally” if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, as Rudd called him “the most destructive president in history”.

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Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd appointed ambassador to the US

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Anthony Albanese told reporters the appointment would be seen within the US as a significant one

Anthony Albanese has appointed the former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd as the next Australian ambassador to the United States.

The prime minister made the announcement in Canberra on Tuesday, confirming months of speculation that Rudd was a frontrunner for Australia’s key diplomatic post in Washington DC.

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Australia reacts to monarch’s passing – as it happened

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The prime minister Anthony Albanese is addressing the nation about the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

He said it is a loss that is “felt deeply in Australia”. The Queen was a rare and reassuring constant in a period of massive change, he said, and was the only monarch to visit Australia, which she did 16 separate times.

There is comfort to be found in Her Majesty’s own words. “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

This is a loss we feel deeply in Australia. Queen Elizabeth II is the only reigning monarch most of us have known, and the only one to ever visit Australia. Over the course of a remarkable seven decades, Her Majesty was a rare and reassuring constant amidst rapid change. Through the noise and turbulence of the years, she embodies and exhibited a timeless decency and enduring calm. Her

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Kevin Rudd attacks ‘idiot’ Peter Dutton over ‘hairy-chested’ comments on China

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Former Labor PM says if China wanted a reset with Australia he ‘could not think of a dumber thing to do’ than the Solomon Islands deal

Kevin Rudd has launched a personal attack on Peter Dutton, labelling the defence minister an “idiot” for believing hairy-chested commentary about China would improve Australia’s strategic circumstances.

The former Australian prime minister also took aim at Beijing, saying that if Chinese officials really wanted a reset in the relationship with Australia he “could not think of a dumber thing to do than what they just did in the Solomons”.

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Malcolm Turnbull on Murdoch, lies and the climate crisis: ‘The same forces that enabled Trump are at work in Australia’

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Systematic partisan lying and misinformation from the media, both mainstream and social, has done enormous damage to liberal democracies, the former PM writes

The United States has suffered the largest number of Covid-19 deaths: about 600,000 at the time of writing. The same political and media players who deny the reality of global warming also denied and politicised the Covid-19 virus.

To his credit, Donald Trump poured billions into Operation Warp Speed, which assisted the development of vaccines in a timeframe that matched the program’s ambitious title. But he also downplayed the gravity of Covid-19, then peddled quack therapies and mocked cities that mandated social distancing and mask wearing.

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Australia Covid news live: NSW expecting more than 100 coronavirus cases; government ads spark backlash

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Sydney braces for spike in cases of Delta variant as Victoria closes border to NSW. Follow the latest updates, live

We are expecting to hear from the Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in about five minutes.

Don’t think Adelaide is safe from the soccer celebrations!

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Australian politicians ‘frightened’ of ‘Murdoch media beast’, says Kevin Rudd – video

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The former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has declared that Australian politicians are frightened of Rupert Murdoch. Speaking under parliamentary privilege at Parliament House in Canberra, Rudd said the ‘Murdoch mob’ was seeking ‘compliant politicians’.

He told an inquiry into media diversity that politicians were fearful of facing a ‘systematic campaign’

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PM apologises for erroneously stating Kevin Rudd had left and re-entered Australia during Covid

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Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the lower house correcting the record and apologising to the former Labor leader

Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the House of Representatives correcting the record and apologising to Kevin Rudd after declaring erroneously in question time that the former Labor prime minister had been allowed to leave and re-enter Australia during the pandemic.

The controversy began when Labor on Monday asked Morrison why Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer had been able to leave and re-enter the country multiple times this year “when there are thousands of vulnerable stranded Australians who haven’t been able to get home once?”

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Ex-PMs unite in Australia in bid to curb power of Murdoch empire

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Former rivals to star in Leveson-style inquiry into mogul’s near-monopoly of the country’s media

In high public office, both men lived and died at the word of the world’s most influential media mogul, Rupert Murdoch. But now two former Australian prime ministers are at the vanguard of a campaign to redress the balance of power. It is a movement that Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, the respective former Labor and Liberal leaders of Australia, hope will go on to undermine all of Murdoch’s international enterprises.

The two former PMs were once rivals but are to appear as joint star witnesses at an upcoming Australian parliamentary inquiry into Murdoch’s dominance of the Australian political debate. Both are to argue that News Corp Australia has become the propaganda arm of the rightwing Liberal government.

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