Australia news live: Barnaby Joyce dogged by Tommy Robinson questions – and by a dog – in spiky ABC interview

One Nation MP grilled in 7.30 interview about Pauline Hanson’s podcast interview by far-right activist. Follow today’s news live

Anthony Albanese has congratulated the new UK Prime Minister Anthony Burnham after the latter took over the job yesterday. The Australian PM posted a note to X, emphasising the strategic allyship:

Congratulations Prime Minister Burnham on your appointment as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Australia and the United Kingdom are longstanding friends, allies and partners, united by shared values and deep ties between our peoples.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Derryn Hinch mourned at state funeral; Mark Dreyfus tells antisemitism inquiry of ‘deeply wounding’ attack

Follow today’s news live

The use of AI in automated decision-making by government departments and agencies will be subject to tough rules under a new national plan, expected to extend to consumer protections, workplace safety and privacy.

As the Albanese government grapples with the rapid growth in the use of artificial intelligence and a boom in datacentre construction, senior ministers have begun work to draw up new rules to ensure safety is built into AI processes inside government, prioritising fairness, accuracy and transparency.

I know who Pauline is, Mum is, and I know that’s not what her intention was in any way. I do think snippets of it was misinterpreted. Under no way, shape, or form did she say she wished the White Australia policy hadn’t have been changed. She does not support it and she does not want it back. So I do believe it’s been taken out of context.

We know that media grabbed their snippets and their grabs, and it’s all about clickbait, and then Labor’s obviously jumped on it, and so are the Liberals, right? That’s how they try to better themselves, by picking out a little slogan when she was talking about the history of immigration and the change that has occurred.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Barnaby Joyce defends Pauline Hanson’s meeting with Tommy Robinson; police make arrest after man dies in Sydney house fire

One Nation MP says the media should be prepared to interview far-right activist. Follow today’s news live

Michelle Rowland says mandatory minimum standards for datacentres don’t apply to existing developments

The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, told ABC News that mandatory minimum standards for datacentres would apply to new developments, not existing ones.

The scope and the timing of those is something that I think will be properly determined by national cabinet.

This is an issue that not only state governments but local councils have been dealing with as well.

It goes from being this hunched-over ball of fluff at the top of a tree looking down at you, to suddenly spreading out its limbs and flying over your head like a magical flying carpet, or this weird stingray-UFO thing in the sky.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: NT police still seek answers over 25 year-old murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio

Bradley John Murdoch was convicted of 28-year-old’s murder but remains were never found

Northern Territory Police have opened evidence boxes to uncover several previously unseen photographs from the investigation of the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio and attempted abduction of his girlfriend Joanne Lees.

Tuesday is the 25th anniversary of the infamous outback disappearance.

Continue reading...

Taylor defends Sarah Henderson’s triple-zero calls amid questions about claimed Telstra-outage death in SA

South Australian police say they’re unaware of death despite claim by Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle

Angus Taylor says his shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson was “doing her job” when she “tested” the triple-zero system by making unnecessary calls to it during Telstra’s nationwide outage.

The opposition leader has also dismissed concerns about Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle’s claim that an elderly person died as a result of the outage, after South Australian police said they were unaware of any such death.

Continue reading...

Guardian Essential poll: voters reject key One Nation policies as support slips

Survey shows two-point fall in vote amid concern about Pauline Hanson’s links to Gina Rinehart and ability to run country

Australians have emphatically rejected some of One Nation’s key policies, including shutting down SBS and ending multiculturalism, with voters raising concerns about Pauline Hanson’s closeness to the billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart and whether the party has the skills needed to run the country, according to a new poll.

But even as the latest Guardian Essential poll finds voters have major reservations about Hanson and her party, more than half of respondents said they were either definitely or at least considering voting for One Nation at the next election.

Continue reading...

Liberal frontbencher calls for party ‘rebrand’ after drop in polls, prompting ridicule from Labor

Melissa McIntosh’s comment comes after Angus Taylor’s claim Morrison government ‘breached trust’

Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh has said the party might need a “rebrand” to win back voters who continue to desert the opposition, with the Coalition hitting a new historic polling low.

Her comments came after the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, claimed the Morrison government – of which he was a senior minister – had “breached trust” with the electorate during the Covid pandemic by supporting “big government”.

Continue reading...

Parliament has been getting frosty as winter closes in – but Labor may make one more gamble before the break

As Labor pushes on with reforms, the Coalition must decide whether to join in the parliamentary deal-making

It’s the last week of parliament before the winter break, and not a minute too soon; tensions have been running a little high lately.

The lower house speaker, Milton Dick, has been yeeting MPs mere moments into question time and accused Angus Taylor of “demeaning” the parliament by calling Anthony Albanese a liar; Andrew Hastie claimed One Nation “has declared war on me, so they shall have war”; Labor has been goading the Coalition and its media “cheer squad” for opposing the budget; the Greens hate Labor’s NDIS bill; and people in the Coalition seem to be mad at everyone, including themselves.

Continue reading...

Angus Taylor won’t say if he supports multiculturalism

Treasurer says Coalition playing ‘footsie with the monoculture language’ after Liberal leader sidesteps questions at press conference

Angus Taylor has repeatedly refused to say whether he supports multiculturalism in Australia, sidestepping five questions at a press conference about his views and claiming “there’s all these vague words running around”.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, accused the opposition leader of “playing footsie” with One Nation and Pauline Hanson’s call for a “monoculture” in Australia, as Labor ministers committed to backing multiculturalism.

Continue reading...

PM backs upping the volume at Sydney Opera House – ‘I’m a member of the fun faction’ – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australian borrowing personal loans in record amounts

Australians are borrowing record amounts in personal loans as a long-term buildup in living costs wipes out savings buffers.

Continue reading...

Pocock open to independents forming party to counter Hanson – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

Climate activists say they have blocked two coal ships from entering Newcastle port

Climate activists say they have stopped two coal ships from entering the Port of Newcastle this morning after kayakers and a small boat entered the channel.

I grew up in the best years economically in Australia’s history, and I can’t sleep at night thinking about my 5 great-grandkids trying to live on a dead planet if we keep mining coal. I want to see more people my age standing up for what’s right.

There’s plenty of conversations going on all the time.

I think there’s so many people in politics for the right reasons and, when you’re in there, you want to say, well, how do we actually ensure that people can elect people that are going to come here and really deal with the root causes of the problems that we’re facing, because we haven’t seen that.

How do you be part of changing our country for the better? For me at the moment, that is serving people in the ACT, engaging on each issue, bringing solutions, using whatever power I have in the Senate to actually work on behalf of the people that have sent me there. As to what that looks like in the future, who knows?

Continue reading...

‘Vein of racism’: race discrimination commissioner accuses One Nation and Coalition of scapegoating immigrants

Exclusive: Australia faces a ‘pronounced political fault line’, Giridharan Sivaraman tells Brisbane seminar on human rights

One Nation and the federal opposition are “dehumanising” and “scapegoating” immigrants while drawing on a “deep vein of racism”, Australia’s federal race discrimination commissioner says.

Giridharan Sivaraman made the comments as part of a panel discussion at a Brisbane seminar on human rights, hosted by the state’s human rights commission.

Continue reading...

Guardian Essential poll: more Australians approve of Hanson’s party leadership than Albanese or Taylor’s

One Nation outperforms the Coalition for the first time, while the rightwing populist party’s leader has a positive rating among all age groups

A majority of surveyed Australians approve of Pauline Hanson’s leadership of One Nation, giving her a higher job approval rating than Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor, as the Guardian Essential poll finds the rightwing populist party is outperforming the Coalition for the first time.

The results come as Australians are becoming more pessimistic about the country and the economy, with the majority of respondents saying they expected things to get worse in coming months.

Continue reading...

Albanese’s visits to key allies have borne early fruits of fuel and fertiliser but ‘resilience’ is on the budget agenda

The prime minister has weathered the crises – for now – and there is a growing recognition that Australia is too vulnerable to world events

Anthony Albanese’s fuel diplomacy tour of Asia has already started paying dividends, but the real test could still be to come.

After last week’s rush to Singapore and pulling forward a planned visit, the prime minister dashed back to Australia from Malaysia on Thursday, to survey the damage at one of the nation’s only remaining fuel refineries. The hastily arranged trips, were to show a leader on the job; to demonstrate Albanese’s attention to the fuel crisis.

Continue reading...

Albanese government says fuel supply ‘same, if not higher’ in coming weeks as Coalition calls for halving of excise

Latest figures from ACCC show diesel and unleaded petrol prices across the five largest cities up 10% and 8% respectively

The prime minister and energy minister moved to reassure the public about normal or even higher levels of fuel supply in the coming weeks, as the Coalition escalated calls for a cut to the fuel excise and the government downplayed the prospect of any major restrictions on petrol sales.

It comes as the latest figures from the consumer watchdog showed diesel prices across Australia’s five largest cities have risen by an average of 10% over the last week, while unleaded petrol was up 8%.

Continue reading...

Angus Taylor snaps at journalist as Liberals ramp up rhetoric against Australian children in Syrian camp

Opposition leader suggests 23 children and 11 women attempting to leave al-Roj are Islamic State ‘sympathisers’

Angus Taylor has suggested the Australian children remaining in a Syrian detention camp are “Isis sympathisers” as the Liberal party ramps up its rhetoric against the families of dead or jailed Islamic State fighters.

The opposition leader also chided a member of the press for attempting to force his response on why the group of 23 children and 11 women should be another country’s responsibility.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Erin Patterson’s daughter says her mother was a ‘very good cook’; PM’s department boss quits

Erin Patterson’s daughter’s pre-recorded video evidence is being played to the jury in Patterson’s triple murder trial. Follow today’s news live

‘I want to harness all the talent in my team’

“We do need to reflect a modern Liberal party,” Sussan Ley says. She is speaking on Sunrise before the Liberals’ party room meeting on Tuesday, when they will select a new leader:

It’s about making sure that I am listening to my colleagues and … demonstrate to them we want a strong approach that includes everyone. I want to harness all of the talent in my team, take it forward under my leadership and meet the Australian people where they are because, clearly we didn’t do that at the last election. But we do need to reflect a modern Liberal party, meeting modern Australians in every single walk of life across the country.

On the weekend, we suffered a significant election defeat and since then, I have been having many conversations with my colleagues, members of the community, with members of the party, indeed the Coalition, with everyday Australians. I have listened. We got it wrong. We need to do things differently, going forward, and we do need a fresh approach. So, on Tuesday morning when the Liberal party room meets in Canberra, I will be putting myself forward for the position of leader of the federal party.

Continue reading...

Chalmers calls Coalition’s economic plan an ‘ambush’ as Taylor plugs spending cuts in treasurers’ debate

Opposition and Labor offer opposing pitches for economy in treasurers’ debate hosted by Sky News

Jim Chalmers has laid into “Peter Dutton’s coalition of cuts and chaos” in a heated televised debate with Angus Taylor, who took aim at a Labor party he claimed had overseen the “biggest collapse in our living standards in history”.

The treasurer and his counterpart went head-to-head in a debate hosted by Sky News on Wednesday night, answering questions on US tariffs, the cost-of-living crisis, energy and housing.

Continue reading...

PM labels Coalition’s tax-free lunch plan ‘worst, sloppiest policy’ as Treasury puts cost in the billions

Costings commissioned by Jim Chalmers suggest policy at risk of being ‘rorted’ could cost up to $10bn a year


The Coalition’s policy for tax-deductible business lunches would cost between $1.6bn and $10bn a year, the Labor government claims, according to costings Jim Chalmers commissioned from his Treasury department.

The treasurer claimed the policy was at risk of being “rorted” by businesses claiming personal food expenses, adding further to confusion about the Coalition’s contentious meals and entertainment policy.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Company linked to Angus Taylor offered ‘generous’ offset calculation after illegal land clearing, FoI letters reveal

Exclusive: Experts say legislation is ‘broken’ when it’s cheaper for landholders to break the law than it is to apply for permits

A company connected to former federal energy minister Angus Taylor that was ordered to restore critically endangered grasslands was asked to do less than would have been required if it had sought approval before it poisoned them.

The federal environment department’s efforts to reach an agreement with Jam Land to compensate for the 28.5 hectares of clearing on a property in the New South Wales Monaro region are revealed in new documents released to Guardian Australia after a four-year freedom of information battle.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...