Category Archives: Anthony Albanese

Medibank records profit rise despite data breach – as it happened

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Husic refuses to comment on crossbench negotiations over coal and gas

Moving on from science and industry, Ed Husic is asked if the approval for Santos to expand its Queensland gas field has killed off the government’s negotiations with the Greens over the national reconstruction fund (which Husic has carriage of) and safeguards (where there is a little crossover with Husic, because of manufacturing).

I’m very grateful for their engagement, all the engagement from the crossbenchers, and I’ve sought to make myself as available as I possibly can to work through issues some stuff we agree on some stuff we don’t I would love to go into the ins and outs of it, but I’d rather private negotiations sort themselves out because they will obviously be made public very soon and people that rightly expect that to happen.

But, you know, I am grateful that some of those points that are raised because from our point of view, and I think you heard in the PM’s speech yesterday – we take a view as a government that we’re not the holders of all knowledge, that we do accept, accept and expect people to provide their input so that we can build a better outcome.

I think what we’ve tried to do as a government is say we’re going to make decisions in the way that they’re supposed to.

We don’t want decisions to be politicised. We want them to be done a national interest and there’ll be pathways to making decisions that will be quite separate. So the big thing coming to your question, the answer I would, I would give you is they’re separate things.

I want them [the public] to answer that question.

I want them to guide us in the way in which we shape research priorities into the future. The last time that we actually updated these national science and research priorities was in 2015, back when Malcolm Turnbull took over as prime minister, a lot has happened since then.

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Australia news live: defence pursuing joint patrols with Philippines in South China Sea, Marles says

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It comes as Anthony Albanese grilled on balance of power under Aukus after press club address. Follow the day’s news live

Chalmers highlights importance of sustainability of superannuation

Treasurer Jim Chalmers isn’t ruling in or out whether there will be any changes on superannuation tax concessions in the May budget.

I’ll tell you what I think. I gave a longish speech about this on Monday, where I said the priority [of] super is and should be nailing down the objective. For too long, the lack of an agreed objective has meant that our predecessors could mess with superannuation when it came to all kinds of ideological pursuits. We want to take that out of the system.

Ideally, we’d want to get some kind of broad agreement amongst the industry in the community … about what super is for, so that we can build from that. And as part of that speech, I pointed out the fact … that the cost of superannuation tax concessions will overtake the cost of the pension. That’s a fact.

Not necessarily.

I just think as part of a broader assessment of where our superannuation system is at and how we locked down the objective of super so that we can provide more certainty and security around its purpose, as part of that I acknowledged earlier in the week, that these concessions in the superannuation system, they’re not cheap. I don’t think it’s especially controversial to acknowledge that.

Well, as I keep saying, we haven’t changed their view. We haven’t taken any decisions.

We haven’t determined that.

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MP gives first speech to parliament – as it happened

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Energy ministers to meet on Friday as regulator updates forecasts

Summer is almost done (according to the calendar) and we managed to get through it without significant electricity shortages. A heatwave building across southern Australia in coming days will add some extra demand.

I mean, yes, in nine months have we fixed every single reliability gap for the next decade? No, there’s more work to do.

Am I pleased with what we’ve done? Yes. Am I yet satisfied? No.

You know that this report normally comes out once a year or so, this is a report which has been put out in a much more rapid timeframe because Aemo has reached the view that the guidance they provided last August is out of date because we’ve seen a lot more investment coming through with renewable.

So the sorts of decisions we are making across the board are making a difference on that sort of a timeframe, I expect Aemo will provide further updates.

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Guardian Essential poll: most think RBA rate hikes an overreaction as shine comes off Albanese

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Majority believe government at least partially to blame for rises but don’t assume Coalition would manage them better

A majority of voters believe the Reserve Bank of Australia has overreacted in jacking up interest rates to tame inflation, and people worry economic conditions will get worse over the next 12 months, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.

The latest survey of 1,044 voters demonstrates cost-of-living pressure is starting to bite in the community after nine consecutive cash rate hikes.

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Voice to parliament should not be the subject of a partisan debate, Albanese says

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The PM promises to ‘reach out’ to any opposition politician who wants to discuss how the voice will work as he kicks off a national week of action on the referendum

The Indigenous voice to parliament should not be the subject of partisan debate, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said, promising to “reach out” to any opposition politician who wants to discuss how the voice will work.

He opened a national week of action on the referendum in front of an enthusiastic crowd in his home electorate in Sydney’s inner west on Saturday.

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Dozens re-detained after visa cancellation bill passes – as it happened

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Special legislation passed by the Albanese government with Coalition support. This blog is now closed

Marles says Australia able to track balloons

The defence minister, Richard Marles, says government would have capability to track a balloon if one was to appear over Australia as it did in the US a couple weeks ago.

Well, I think it’s important that this statement’s been made by the president to clarify the circumstances. There’s obviously been a particular fascination about balloons over the last month given the original spy balloon that we saw over the United States. I think from an Australian point of view, what’s important to say is that we’ve had no advice of any balloon of that kind being over Australia but we very much do have the capability to track such an object if there was one-to-and to deal with it.

Look, human rights matter and need to be central in the way we engage with the world. For this government, we will always call out human rights concerns where we have them and we’ve done that in respect of Xinjiang and the Uyghur population. I’ve done it publicly in China.

It forms part of the way in which we speak with China in our relationship. I think it’s also important, though, that in doing that, you know, be we raise those issues in a respectful way with China and in the context of the broader relationship and in the context of seeking to take steps which actually make a difference and it is important that we are stabilising our relationship with China.

There is no room for any harmful practices in NSW, particularly if they affect our young and vulnerable.

When the parliament returns, my government will provide in principle support for legislation that brings an end to any harmful practices. This is a complex matter and in working through it with parliamentary colleagues we will carefully consider the legal expression and effect of such laws.

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Bodies of missing men found – as it happened

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Where the parties stand

So the Greens are pushing hard against new coal and gas but have not indicated they are willing to kill off the legislation.

We’re willing to negotiate on everything that we consider will be in keeping with our government’s approach and our election mandate. Nothing more, nothing less. We went to the people seeking a mandate. That’s what we will implement.

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Government receives strategic defence review – as it happened

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NZ government: worst of Cyclone Gabrielle is over but more rain still to be expected

Back to New Zealand for a moment:

Well … he could be but you know, look, during the republican referendum, he accused all sorts of people who oppose the republican movement of being on the wrong side of history … they seem to be able to survive that experience [of] being on the wrong side of history and go on to be prime minister and all sorts of things.

… You know, when Julia Gillard was prime minister, she was very publicly opposed to legalising same-sex marriage. And I used to say she and Tony Abbott [were] both wrong on this issue, but at least [Abbott] was sincerely wrong, because I never believed Julia believed what she was saying. But she did say it.

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Fines against WA climate protester ‘absurdly excessive’, Human Rights Watch says; refund for Myki charges during outage – As it happened

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Productivity commission report will be released in March

Chalmers says he has received a five-year review from the productivity commission about how Australia can respond to flagging productivity across the Australian economy.

I’d like to do that sooner, ideally in May, so that we can have this national debate about our productivity performance and some of the recommendations in there. Now, inevitably, a government won’t pick up and run with every single one of the recommendations from the Productivity Commission, but there may be some that we can run with. There will be some that align with the government’s economic plan and our policy objectives.

No doubt people will want to ask him about that and he can explain it. I think there’s a broader issue here about how the bank communicates the context for its decisions. This is one of the things that I have been discussing with the RBA Review Panel. I actually discussed it with them on Friday in one of the regular meetings that I have with the review panel, how they communicate their decisions and the context behind their decisions is one of the key focuses of that review.

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Anthony Albanese to become first sitting Australian PM to march in Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras

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Prime minister likens upcoming Indigenous voice referendum to the successful 2017 marriage equality vote

Anthony Albanese will be the first sitting Australian prime minister to march in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras when he joins the parade for the WorldPride festival.

The prime minister said he will be joined by the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, the first openly gay woman in parliament, when he takes part in the event later in February.

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Albanese’s stance against public funding for yes and no voice campaigns backed by Birmingham

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Coalition frontbencher breaks ranks with Peter Dutton saying taxpayer funds should not be used for referendum campaigns

The Labor government is standing firm against calls for public funding for the yes and no campaigns for the voice to parliament referendum, even drawing backing from a Coalition frontbencher who appeared to break ranks with the Liberal leader’s stance.

Simon Birmingham said taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill for campaign advertising, despite it being being a condition of opposition leader Peter Dutton’s support for the referendum bill.

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Chinese-made security cameras to be removed from Australian government buildings

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More than 900 products made by Hikvision and Dahua discovered at 250 federal premises

The federal government has committed to removing Chinese-made security cameras at government buildings across Australia, admitting there is a potential security problem that needs to be addressed.

An audit of surveillance equipment, conducted by the shadow cybersecurity minister, James Paterson, has confirmed that more than 900 products built by Chinese companies Hikvision and Dahua are installed at government locations.

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Guardian Essential poll: majority of Australians continue to support Indigenous voice

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With 65% of respondents supporting the change, survey suggests Peter Dutton’s soft no campaign is failing to shift sentiment

A majority of Australians continue to support a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll, including an overwhelming majority of young Australians.

The latest fortnightly survey of 1,000 respondents suggests a soft no campaign by the Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, unleashed over the summer break has, thus far, failed to shift voter sentiment, with 65% of respondents supporting the change, a two-point increase from the percentage recorded last December.

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Push to refer Scott Morrison to privileges committee fails – as it happened

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At the same time, Tony Burke was speaking to Patricia Karvelas on ABC radio RN about the referendum machineries legislation which, has to go through the parliament to enable the voice vote.

Burke:

So the machinery, there’s two different bits that have to go through the parliament. The first is updating the referendum laws themselves. That’s been introduced to the parliament. There’s a committee that’s looking at it now. And so it’s sort of sitting in the House of Representatives issued report in the next couple of weeks and, and then the mission that part of it will go through, then you deal with the second bill a bit later in the year. So in the probably the second quarter of the year. And that’s the bill that has the question, and the specific word for word changes that would go into the constitution, that one has to be passed by an absolute majority of each house of the parliament. And once that’s happened, then the deadlines as to when the vote will happen are all locked in.

I gotta say, I can’t think of any referendum proposal where there has been more process than this.

Let’s go back to first principles. What is the Voice? The Voice is constitutional recognition of our First Nations people to ensure they have a say. I think it’s a pretty good thing for people to have a say in matters that affect them. It’s one of the ways that we can ensure we improve not only our nation, but also the aspirations and opportunities for our First Nations peoples. I was really pleased to see, while I was away, that all First Ministers, Liberal and Labor, have backed in the Voice. It shows what you can do when you take the politics out of it.

I think the Voice will have a say in matters that affect First Nations people. But I think the point here is - why are some people so concerned about that?

Well, do you think people having a say is a problem, Michael? (the host)

That’s the implication in your question. I mean, we have years of disadvantage, years of... ..so many broken hopes. And we can be so much stronger as a nation. We can become much more unified. And the First Ministers, Premiers and Chief Ministers have demonstrated that. We want to walk down this path together. It’s not about “gotcha” moments. It’s not about tricky questions and answers. It’s about the nation coming together and saying, “Yes, we will take the outstretched hand which is the Uluru Statement from the Heart.” “We will recognise our First Nations people. We will give them a say. And we will work through the detail of that together.” And that’s a good thing.

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Labor plan for nature repair market rehashes old proposal and risks failure, experts say

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The private sector is not seen to be ready to act as the main buyer and the draft is cited as nearly identical to a Morrison-era proposal

An Albanese government environment plan to encourage companies to invest in nature merely expands a Coalition proposal under Scott Morrison and is at risk of failing due to a lack of business interest, experts say.

The federal government is consulting on legislation to establish a scheme to incentivise investment in nature restoration by creating tradable certificates for projects that protect and restore biodiversity.

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Hillsong Church names married couple as leaders after Brian Houston resignation – as it happened

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Australian football player Kate Gill has spoken to the ABC this morning about the recently announced sponsorship of Fifa’s women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand by the Saudi’s.

Players have been expressing shock and frustration over the potential sponsorship deal, saying they have largely been left out over the decision to take the money.

When you look at the surface, you can see that it is a blatant disregard of their human rights treatment when you look at the country itself. LGBTI+ people are still regarded as criminals, and women over there still really face strict restrictions of their rights. And that’s notwithstanding the progressions that have been made as well. It just sat really uncomfortably when it was announced.

Those decisions then become the athletes. The athletes become the face of those decisions, and it’s really challenging when you don’t have full transparency over why these decisions are made and what has actually gone into the thought process behind this.

It’s putting a lot of pressure on the players. So I think it would be welcomed if they would sit down and have the discussions with the players so they can fully understand and ask questions as to why this needs to happen.

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Albanese declares Indigenous voice won’t impact First Nations sovereignty

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Speaking ahead of the opening of the parliamentary year, the PM dismisses the notion of having a constitutional convention before the referendum

Anthony Albanese has declared the voice to parliament will have no impact on First Nations sovereignty, and has rubbished the idea of having a constitutional convention before the referendum later this year.

With parliament set to resume for the year this week, the prime minister’s position was echoed on Sunday morning by Megan Davis, law professor, member of the expert working group and one of the leaders of the Uluru dialogues. She told the ABC deliberations around constitutional recognition had now entered a second decade.

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Port Macquarie cleans up after ‘mini-cyclone’ – as it happened

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A “mini-cyclone” has left significant damage across the coastal NSW city of Port Macquarie, with trees and powerlines downed and roofs ripped from buildings, AAP’s Phoebe Loomes reports.

Multiple emergency crews responded after the sudden sudden storm hit the coastal city just after 3pm on Friday. Some 60 calls for help were made to the State Emergency Service in the 30 minutes to 4pm, with reports of roofs blown from buildings, fallen trees and requests for flood rescues.

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Coles and Woolworths ordered to dump more than 5,200 tonnes of soft plastic into landfill – as it happened

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The government has been accused of deliberately withholding detail on its push to enshrine an Indigenous voice in the constitution for political reasons.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton and shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser were briefed by the referendum working group after calling for more information on the proposed voice’s make-up and function.

Like all Australians, we want to see a better outcome for the Indigenous people of our country.

We are willing to look at any measure to do that. There are lots of questions around the voice and lots of detail that hasn’t yet been provided.

It’s not the airlines that do the turn backs that you should be worried about. It’s the airlines that keep on going to the destination and don’t make that turn back.

This is what happens with aviation across the world. And it’s an important part of the safety management system. I would rather there be not, but again I encourage our pilots to do this. I applaud them when they do it.

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Australia news live: voice working group says Dutton committed to ‘further talks’; Alice Springs report may not be made public until next week

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Australian batter Usman Khawaja has been cleared to join his teammates in India after his visa issues were sorted, AAP reports.

Pakistan-born Khawaja will fly out of Melbourne today, more than a day later than planned, after an anxious wait for his visa to be approved.

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