Category Archives: Anthony Albanese

Election 2022 live: Dai Le dismisses eligibility concerns; doctors welcome Covid booster expansion as 41 deaths recorded

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Eligibility for fourth dose of Covid vaccine extended; ‘don’t think we’ve got a better choice’ for Liberal leader, Dave Sharma says of Peter Dutton; at least 41 coronavirus deaths recorded. Follow all the day’s developments

The SMH has some interesting lines from the Liberal candidate in Gilmore, Andrew Constance, who says his party were punished for being “too focused on themselves”.

While Gilmore remains on a knife-edge, the former state government minister said he was not surprised by the outcome of the election, warning the Liberal party that it needed to refocus on community concerns:

The party has been too introverted and too focused on itself.

It has to recognise its broad-based appeal is not sectional interest. The party exists for the community … there’s no such thing as a “heartland” in Australian politics.

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Albanese insists ‘we will determine our values’ after Chinese premier reaches out to new PM

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Prime minister in Tokyo says no ‘serious person’ had believed Coalition line that a Labor government would adopt a softer approach towards Beijing

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says his government will not bend to demands from China to reset the strained relationship despite overtures from Beijing in the wake of Labor’s election win.

Speaking after a meeting of the quadrilateral security dialogue (Quad) in Tokyo on Tuesday, Albanese confirmed the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, had sent a congratulatory letter to him following Saturday’s election win. The letter was first reported by Chinese state media Xinhua on Monday.

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PM says ‘no change’ on Taiwan – as it happened

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Prime minister confirms Australia to host Quad summit in 2023 after Tokyo meeting; 68 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Marles is also asked about petrol prices, which are rising again:

It is difficult. We’re facing a cost of living crisis. As a government, we’re willing to say that in a way the former government was not. What ultimately underpins is it we’ve had the longest period of wage stagnation since records were kept.

What underpins that is a decade of lost productivity. What that’s we need to change. It doesn’t happen overnight. We’ve been clear about that. But the job does start overnight and we’re on the pathway right now to making sure that we revitalise Australian industry, we give people the skills they need so they can get the good jobs out there.

I think China is going to continue to be a difficult relationship for us. From an Australian point of view, we understand the complexity of the relationship.

It is our largest trading partner, but China is seeking to shape the world around it in ways we have not seen before, in places like the South China sea. But [also] in increased strategic competition in our region, in the Pacific, and we’ve seen the agreement they have signed with the Solomon Islands.

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Nationals could dump Barnaby Joyce over net zero stance with Peter Dutton set to lead Liberals

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Sussan Ley or Jane Hume likely to be deputy Liberal leader as Coalition continues to grapple with election fallout

The National party will spill its leadership positions next Monday as the Liberals debate whether Peter Dutton’s deputy should be Jane Hume or Sussan Ley.

As the Coalition continues to grapple with the fallout from Saturday’s election rout amid conflicting views about how to reposition in response, Anthony Albanese was sworn in as Australia’s 31st prime minister before leaving for Tokyo and his first meeting with Joe Biden and key regional allies.

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Australia to stand with Pacific islands on climate crisis and ‘respect’ region, Penny Wong says

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New foreign affairs minister tells Pacific leaders Australia ‘will listen because we care’ after reports China may be seeking security agreement with Kiribati

Australia’s new foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, will seek to improve relations with Pacific island countries, flagging an early visit to the region and promising to be “a generous, respectful and reliable” partner.

China’s new security deal with Solomon Islands was a point of political dispute during the Australian election campaign and there are now reports that Beijing could be planning to strike a similar agreement with Kiribati.

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Mark McGowan accuses travelling press pack of ‘bullying’ Anthony Albanese and reporting ‘lies’

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In a blistering attack in Perth, the Western Australia premier also took aim at Peter Dutton, labelling him a conservative ‘extremist’

Western Australian premier Mark McGowan has launched a blistering attack on members of the federal press gallery who followed Anthony Albanese’s election campaign, accusing them of reporting “lies” as well as “bullying” the new prime minister at press conferences.

McGowan, who joined Albanese for several media events in Perth during the six-week campaign, said he was “shocked and appalled” by some in the Canberra-based media pack, who attracted ongoing criticism from Labor supporters and veteran journalists for interjections and combative questioning.

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PM has ‘frank and very positive’ call with Johnson – as it happend

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Anthony Albanese has spoken to the British prime minister on his flight to the Quad meeting in Tokyo after being sworn in, along with four senior ministers; Monique Ryan says ‘work begins anew’ after Josh Frydenberg concedes; Dave Sharma concedes Wentworth; nation records at least 11 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

And lastly, Ryan is asked what her view will be if Peter Dutton wins leadership of the Liberal party:

From my point of view, I’m a sort of centrist politician and I have been elected in that way by the people of Kooyong.

Taking the Liberal party further to the right I don’t think would resonate well in Kooyong. And I think members of other electorates around Australia would have that concern as well.

I think that the population of Australia expects better from its government.

This is a government that hasn’t held women safe in its own workplace. It’s a government that has seen an increase in homelessness from women over 50.

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The election revealed a shift in climate sentiment – but what will it mean for policy?

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Labor’s climate plan is designed to limit the political risk of a scare campaign – but there are already calls for it to go beyond its headline commitments

It will take a while to untangle all the threads that led to Saturday’s extraordinary result, but there is little doubt this was the climate election Australians have long been told was coming.

A surge of Greens and Climate 200-backed teal independents turfed heartland Liberal MPs who were part of a government that claimed to be acting on emissions but wasn’t, pumped vast sums into fossil fuels and was considered a global blocker on addressing global heating.

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World leaders respond to Anthony Albanese’s Australian election victory

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Pacific leaders welcome Labor’s plan for action on climate while one French minister says defeat of Scott Morrison ‘suits me very well’

World leaders have congratulated Anthony Albanese on his election victory in Australia, while former heads of government in the Pacific have urged him to “make a radical shift towards strong and urgent climate action”.

One French minister was barely able to conceal his glee at the Coalition’s loss, while Fiji welcomed Labor’s “plan to put climate first”.

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PM-elect Albanese wants to ‘change the way politics works’ – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese to be sworn in ahead of Quad meeting; Scott Morrison praises ‘great foundation’ of church as speculation over next Liberal leader begins; Labor hopeful of forming majority government; nation records 20 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

That Paul Karp wields his words real good:

The Liberals flirted with turning the ABC coverage on blast on the big screen, but when Antony Green observed that he couldn’t see the Liberals winning more than 70 seats, suddenly the feed was cut in favour of soft aimless jazz, pervasive elevator music the soundtrack to attenuated disappointment.

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Labor victory means Murugappan family set to return home to Biloela

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After four years in immigration detention, the election would produce an all-or-nothing result for the Tamil asylum seekers

About 11pm on election night in the central Queensland town of Biloela, Angela Fredericks phoned her absent friend.

“Priya, you are coming home,” she said.

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Anthony Albanese’s election victory restores the faith of Labor’s true believers

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With many supporters still bearing the scars of the 2019 election loss, it was only when the Western Australian results streamed in that they dared to dream

It was only around the time the pyramid of Albo ale cans was built – red cylinders piled four rows high – that Labor supporters started daring to believe they’d gotten home.

Nine years in the wilderness of opposition and three crushing defeats had put up a wall of doubt among Labor faithful that they could pull this off. Three years of what many in the camp called “PTSD” from the 2019 election was taken down, brick by brick as the ABC’s Antony Green called another seat for Labor, or another loss for the Liberals.

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Australian election 2022: Anthony Albanese ‘humbled’ to be next PM as voters abandon Coalition

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Labor leader pledges to implement Uluru statement and to end climate wars, while Scott Morrison says he will stand down as Liberal leader after defeat

Anthony Albanese will be Australia’s next prime minister, leaving the Coalition in disarray after it lost more than a dozen seats to Labor and independents in an election that has transformed the country’s political landscape.

Declaring victory shortly before midnight on Saturday, Albanese thanked voters for the “extraordinary honour” of becoming the nation’s 31st prime minister, and said he would work in government to bring Australians together.

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Anthony Albanese claims election victory over Scott Morrison in 2022 federal election – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese arrives for speech; Scott Morrison to step down as leader after conceding defeat; ‘Liberal family suffered a terrible day,’ Peter Dutton says; Labor claims Reid; Zoe Daniel claims victory in Goldstein; Allegra Spender wins Wentworth from Dave Sharma. This blog is now closed

I’m a fairly big footy fan, but not sure how much all these analogies mean to the rest of voters (and I believe kicking into the wind can actually be an advantage in rugby union sometimes?)

On Weekend Today, Scott Morrison managed to turn a question about whether he has BBQ sauce on his democracy sausage into a stump speech about jobkeeper and co-funding the hospital system during the pandemic. We can’t fault him - those are more important issues than what he was asked.

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Final polls roll in as Albanese and Morrison hit campaign home stretch – as it happened

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Roy Morgan poll puts Labor ahead; Greens hopeful of picking up Senate seats; eligibility for telephone voting formally changed; health authorities give monkeypox update ; Julia Gillard says Labor would be ‘a government for women’; at least 52 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

The voting issue is gaining momentum.

Between Covid, problems for some people overseas, coronavirus impacting the available workforce and the ability to open up booths, particularly in rural and regional communities, and the impact of floods in northern NSW, voting has been a very fraught issue this time round, and the AEC has been working overtime trying to plug the gaps.

That is up to them. I have always respected the decisions of Australians, those quiet Australians as I refer to them, they are out there working hard every day and they are considering their choice very carefully.

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Dugong sees red: Pig the sea cow predicts Labor will win Australian election (sort of)

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In completely unscientific experiment the Sydney Aquarium resident sided with a tortoise and crocodile in predicting Anthony Albanese victory

Pig came out of the deep, a slow-moving mass in search of an answer to the question arresting the mind of the nation: who will emerge from the federal election victorious?

The dugong’s performance was precise and assured. A red and blue toy representing each major party were dropped into Pig’s enclosure, and after mere moments consulting his mystic powers, he disappeared below the water’s surface.

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Who will win? The seats Labor and the Coalition need for victory in Australia’s 2022 federal election

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The magic number for majority government is 76 lower house seats. Here are the possible scenarios in the Australian election

With the polls tightening in the final days of the election campaign, both major parties are preparing for a tight contest on Saturday.

Labor, after carrying the scars of the 2019 loss which it was widely expected to win, is being more cautious about predicting wins from the Liberal party this time round.

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Australian federal election 2022 live: Plibersek says Albanese has a ‘tough job’ as polls tighten

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AEC concedes some Covid-positive Australians ‘may not be able to vote’: prime minister responds after Labor announces policy costings; Covid and illness lead to drop in working hours; nation records at least 52 Covid deaths. Follow all the day’s developments live

Scott and Jenny Morrison are visiting Whitemore in the Labor-held electorate of Lyons in Tasmania this morning.

Brian Mitchell holds Lyons on a margin of 5.2%, although his buffer was inflated by the disendorsement of his Liberal opponent mid-campaign in 2019 for anti-Islamic social media posts. Morrison is still on the offence, seeking gains to offset expected losses elsewhere.

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Government claims of 7% real wage rise since in office disputed – as it happened

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Katy Gallagher disputes prime minister’s claims on real wage growth; nation records at least 53 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

National party deputy leader, David Littleproud was feeling upbeat this morning while speaking to ABC Breakfast TV:

We have achieved a lot together, in fact we have done more than any other nation in the world if you look at an economic and health front. We should be proud but we need to shift gears and make sure we look after those cost of living inflation pressures and who is best to handle that and to drive the economy and to guide the economy. I think that’s where the Australian people are looking at it when the opposition won’t tell them how much of their money they’re going to spend, they’re taking them as mugs. We got to be open and honest and transparent.

We think an upward surprise of 1% q/q growth in [today’s] WPI could be enough to get the RBA over the line for 40 basis points, though if it comes in at our forecast of 0.8% q/q that prospect will recede.

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PM dismisses need for more measures to limit Covid deaths, suggests Australians dying with, not of, the virus

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Scott Morrison says Australia is now ‘living with Covid’ as nation records one of the highest transmission rates in the world

Scott Morrison brushed off the need for further measures to curtail Australia’s ongoing high rates of Covid-19 transmission and deaths, and suggested many Australians are dying with, not of, Covid.

Morrison told reporters on Wednesday medical advice does not currently support a fourth Covid vaccine for the general population and asserted, without evidence, that Labor under Anthony Albanese may return to lockdowns to combat Covid.

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