Category Archives: Anthony Albanese

NSW Health warns of rise in invasive bacterial infections – as it happened

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Warning as cases of meningococcal disease and invasive group A streptococcus rise. This blog is now closed

Albanese government and Business Council agree to disability employment pilot

The Albanese government has announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Business Council of Australia to create and implement a “new disability employment pilot”.

There are 2.1 million Australians with disability of working age, but only 53.4% are in the labour workforce. We also know 93% of working-age people with disability face difficulties finding work due to the lack of suitable employment and perceived limitations of their disability.

This new employment pilot seeks to address this and provide significant benefits to people with disability, employers and businesses, the economy and the broader community.

There has been a big increase as a consequence of the indexation made necessary by this higher inflation. And so that indexation is flowing through I think in welcome ways to people who are on payments. There will always be an appetite to do more and to do better when it comes to these payments. And we will always do what we responsibly can to support people, particularly people on low and fixed incomes.

It’s not something I’m contemplating because ... our position on those tax cuts hasn’t changed. And it’s not the only factor frankly in the budget which people are talking about right now, in welcome ways. As we get towards the budget, that I’ll hand down in May, there’s a lot of pressure on the budget when it comes to aged care, health care defense, spending the NDIS, the cost of servicing the trillion dollars of debt that we inherited from our predecessors.

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Lifesavers rescue 1,200 over holiday period in Australia – as it happened

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‘Challenging night’ for WA fire crews in south-west

Earlier today, Western Australian Department of Fire and Emergency Services incident controller Peter Thomas said it had been a “challenging night” for fire crews in the south-west, as bushfires threaten the region.

So our volunteers from the Donnybrook area across the south-west [who have] come to deal with this incident.

We’ve had some strong winds that have been coming consistently from the east, but been fairly strong and making it challenging for our crews.

When we allow sportspeople from Russia to participate in the Australian Open, we do exactly what Putin wants.

It doesn’t matter what flag Russian Federation players compete under. It has Ukrainian blood on it.

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Covid testing for China travellers ‘not an especially onerous requirement’, Chalmers says – as it happened

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Opposition calls on government to explain decision to implement restrictions on travellers arriving from China. This blog is now closed

China travel situation the ‘first test of the Albanese government’, Liberal MP says

The shadow assistant minister for mental health, Melissa McIntosh, is among those from the Coalition criticising Labor’s decision not to follow health advice on imposing conditions on travel from China.

The Coalition always supports the best interests of Australians and the safety of Australians ... Now I think this is really the first test of the Albanese government when it comes to pandemic management.

And it’s quite perplexing that on New Year’s Eve, the chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, sent a letter to the health minister, Mark Butler, stating he did not feel these restrictions on Chinese travellers were really required. And then a day later, the health minister has gone against the health advice, of the chief medical officer of this country, and imposed those restrictions. I think Australians very much deserve answers when it comes to the government’s decision, why did the government go against the chief medical officer’s advice and what’s the plan now they’ve implemented these restrictions?

One of the reasons why Australia got through the pandemic as one of the best countries in the world to do so was because we followed Australia’s medical advice. Australia’s medical advice. Not following other countries.

I think it’s really important we’re consistent in what we do as a nation ... when it comes to following the advice. And as I said, this is really a first test of the Albanese government. It’s leading people to be confused. Why would you have the chief medical officer say one thing, and the government ignore that, and do another?

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The Albanese government has had a solid start. Now comes the hard part

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Labor has grown in popularity since its election in May, and ticked off a number of campaign promises. But harder decisions await in 2023

The year ended on a high for the Anthony Albanese, with opinion polls showing the Labor government and its leader are only growing in popularity, across all states.

The new government spent its first seven months ticking off election promises and recalibrating Australia’s standing on the world stage. Albanese aimed to keep politics off the front page as much as possible. In that, it has been somewhat successful, with the biggest headlines featuring his predecessor, Scott Morrison. But every honeymoon must come to an end and as we head into 2023, the domestic political challenges for the Albanese government will soon loom large.

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PM’s China dialogue comments ‘sneaky’, opposition says – as it happened

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Authorities to crack down on taxi and rideshare rip-offs

The Point to Point Commissioner is expecting a busy New Year’s period, after a “landslide of complaints” to the taxi industry hotline in the lead-up to the holiday period.

Businesses in the hospitality, tourism and retail industries heavily rely on a transport system that is safe, reliable and cost-effective to get Sydneysiders around our city.

If the system fails on delivering this service then people will not come into the city, which in turn will have an adverse knock-on effect on other businesses as a result.

Yes we have to continue to pursue them but the easiest way they could be resolved is by the Chinese government ending the sanctions on barley and wine. If they did that, then obviously, those disputes we no longer need to continue to take them – that would be the best thing that could occur, although I see no sign of that at the moment.

I see we’re dangling carrots out in front of the Chinese ... accession to CPTPP [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership], which was something we never talked about, I see the new government is talking about it. This is very concerning – that they would offer access to that incredibly important trade arrangement to try and get the Chinese [government] to move.

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Anthony Albanese urges Australians not to travel to Ukraine but to donate to support war effort

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Ukrainian embassy in Australia says the number of enquiries about volunteering in the country has dropped off

The number of Australians enquiring about volunteering in Ukraine to fight against Russian forces has fallen, as the federal government warns citizens against travelling to the war-torn country.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Thursday urged Australians not to travel to Ukraine – in line with the federal travel advice – after the death of Victorian man Sage O’Donnell who was fighting in the conflict. Albanese said people often did not notify the government before travelling to Ukraine, meaning the number of Australians fighting there is unknown.

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Police say stabbing murder investigation could take weeks – as it happened

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Two teenagers are dead and a man has been hospitalised after a crash in South Australia’s mid-north.

Emergency services were called to the Augusta Highway at Lochiel at 7.30pm on Tuesday after a northbound car left the road and crashed into a tree.

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Claims Labor lacks detail on Indigenous voice are ‘rubbish’, Linda Burney tells Woodford folk festival

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‘We’re going to succeed with the referendum,’ Noel Pearson tells crowd ahead of 2023 vote

Linda Burney has rejected as “rubbish” suggestions that Labor has not released enough detail about the Indigenous voice to parliament, as the Liberals continue to call for a free vote in the referendum.

The Indigenous Australians minister and Anthony Albanese both gave major speeches at the Woodford folk festival on Wednesday, countering claims from the Liberal National Coalition that the body would not help improve outcomes for First Nations people.

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‘It can be a difficult time’: Albanese helps to serve Christmas meal for Australians in need

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PM spends Christmas morning at Ashfield Uniting Church in Sydney’s inner west along with NSW Labor leader Chris Minns

Anthony Albanese has joined volunteers to serve a Christmas meal to vulnerable Sydneysiders and has acknowledged Australians who are doing it tough at what should be a joyful time of year.

Albanese spent the morning the same way he does every year, at the Ashfield Uniting Church in his inner-western Sydney electorate with the Rev Bill Crews.

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Peter Dutton lets Christmas take a back seat to bad news in Yuletide address as Anthony Albanese expresses ‘gratitude’

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The PM, an election winner in 2022, starts his festive address noting Christmas is ‘such a special time of year’

When George V decided to broadcast a Christmas message to his British subjects in 1932 he started a tradition that leaders across the world continue to embrace. Some more successfully than others.

The recipe for the Christmas message is fairly simple – one part reflection on challenges from the past year, one part acknowledgment of current events and one part hopeful throw forward (with a dash of unity).

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Qantas sends back up plane to Azerbaijan after passengers fume – As it happened

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Qantas has apologised to passengers and thanked them for their patience after a Singapore to London flight was forced to land at Baku airport – This blog is now closed

Job agencies join calls to scrap elements of ParentsNext program

Job agencies running the contentious ParentsNext program have called on the Albanese government to scrap compliance from the scheme, with one suggesting the current system is “morally questionable”.

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Liberals hit back at election review ‘whitewash’ that attempts to blame incumbents for losing seats

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Former Liberal MP says problem was party ran a presidential campaign around ‘one of most unpopular leaders in Australian history’

Liberals have hit back at their party’s election review, calling it a “whitewash” designed to shift blame on to defeated MPs in order to downplay the unpopularity of Scott Morrison.

Despite the review acknowledging that the choice between Morrison and Anthony Albanese was “the most influential driver of voting intention”, critics have taken aim at a controversial finding that “some (not all) local members did not maximise the advantages of incumbency”.

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Wong says ‘the ice thaws, but slowly’ ahead of talks – as it happened

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Long delays on M7 at Prestons in Sydney

Traffic is banked up on the M7 in Sydney. Chanel 7 is reporting that a truck crash has caused the long delays.

They’re sharing their emotions and their grief because they believe this should never have happened.

It’s really important for us to have that public support. It inspires us to continue to do our job.

They’ve also lost two colleagues … so they are hurting incredibly.

A lot of work to be done to assist them as we move into the future because the pain will never go away.

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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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Wong urged to raise human rights concerns on Beijing trip – as it happened

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It’s officially a week before Christmas, which means the forecasters at the Bureau of Meteorology are fairly confident they can tell us what whether we can set up for an al fresco Christmas lunch or not.

For some parts of the country, there is a chance of showers:

Particularly in the south, we can get some volatile weather but all the patterns really starting to change as we move into later part of this week.

So we’ll see a weather system move through southern parts of the country, Thursday and Friday. Then a big high-pressure system behind it will quickly move into the Tasman Sea and then kind of sit there over the Christmas weekend into early the following week and normally that drives a lot of warm weather across much of southern parts of the country and our guidance is showing a similar pattern with that as well.

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Man who fired gun inside Canberra airport was on parole for attempted murder – as it happened

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Butler defends decision to cut Medicare-funded psychology sessions

The federal health minister, Mark Butler, is speaking to ABC Radio following his decision Monday to cut the number of Medicare psychologist sessions. He’s come under serious heat for the move which experts say is “appalling.”

This program has been around for a number of years, and it has for many years had a limit of 10 sessions for people to access over that long period the average person has used 4 - 5 of those sessions.

This is a good program, I’ve been familiar with it for many, many years, but its problem has always been one of equity.

The evaluation found that the lowest-income communities have more than twice the levels of mental distress as the highest-income communities, but they get the lowest level of support and, under this program, that inequality was substantially worsened by these additional 10 sessions.

People like Prof Ian Hickey said at the time that those additional sessions in a sector with a limit workforce, was going to have the effect of cutting out other people, meaning other people couldn’t get any support whatsoever.

And the evaluation I .. released on Monday showed exactly that, that it had the impact of cutting more people out of the system. Most of those people were in some of the poorest communities, where the evaluation said there is the highest need.

The recommendation of the report was we would consider additional sessions for people with complex needs, now this system was not designed to focus on people with complex needs.

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Australia news live: Queensland police pay tribute to two officers killed in ‘absolutely devastating’ shooting ambush

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Two police officers and another member of the public were shot dead at a Wieambilla property, then two men and a woman were killed by police late last night. Follow the day’s news live

Police officers who were shot and killed on a regional Queensland property were searching for a New South Wales man last seen by his family almost a year ago, Guardian Australia understands.

On Monday, four officers attended the remote property at Wieambilla in the Western Downs region in connection with the disappearance of Nathaniel Train, 46, from Dubbo in NSW.

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Essential poll: three-quarters of voters believe cost-of-living crisis will worsen but majority give Albanese thumbs up

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More than 60% also say they support the Indigenous voice to parliament, with the Liberal party at risk of alienating younger voters if it backs the Nationals’ position

Australians are bracing for increased consumer prices, expensive power bills and higher interest rates in the year ahead, but 40% of Guardian Essential poll respondents think 2023 will be better than 2022.

The nascent optimism as the summer break approaches comes ahead of a special sitting of federal parliament on Thursday to pass new legislation capping gas prices, which is the first tranche of an intervention to reduce power bills.

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Senator says plan ‘a Band-Aid on a festering wound’ – as it happened

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Severe weather warning for damaging winds in NSW and Victoria

Several children have been injured after a firework shot into a crowd during a Christmas event in Sydney’s northern beaches last night.

An 11-year-old boy was initially taken to Royal North Shore hospital, before being transferred to the Children’s hospital at Westmead for treatment of burns and a chest injury.

An eight-year-old girl was taken to Northern Beaches hospital for treatment of burns and a wrist injury. She has since been released.

Police have been told a 12-year-old boy was taken to hospital by his parents for treatment to minor burns and has since been released, and six other people were treated on scene by NSW Rural Fire Service for minor injuries, and left prior to the arrival of paramedics and police.

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Energy users and ex-ACCC boss praise government for staring down ‘bullies of the gas industry’

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Industry argues capping gas at $12 a gigajoule risks future investment but experts say price is top end of range forecast before invasion of Ukraine

Energy users and the former boss of the competition watchdog have congratulated the Albanese government for staring down the “bullies of the gas industry” in a bid to lower domestic energy bills.

The federal government last week announced an energy relief plan that would cap coal and gas prices and deliver $1.5bn in assistance to struggling lower-income Australians.

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