Category Archives: Australian election 2022

Australia news live updates: MPs respond to Morrison criticism; 20 Covid deaths; major Optus mobile network outage

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Foreign and defence ministers label Putin a ‘war criminal’; major Optus mobile network outage; ministers respond to criticism of Scott Morrison; NSW records 12 Covid deaths and 19,183 new infections; Victoria records eight deaths and 12,007 new infections. Follow all the latest updates live

Another senior Liberal has taken aim at Scott Morrison, accusing him of “self-serving ruthless bullying” and claiming he has “ruined” the Liberal party.

Catherine Cusack, a NSW Liberal who announced two weeks ago she would resign from the Legislative Council over her anger about flood relief, adds her voice to a growing chorus of critics of Morrison from within his own party in an opinion piece for Guardian Australia.

The concerns over the prime minister’s character are now well established, and they’re well established not by the Labor party, but the people who know him best.

I mean his own deputy prime minister called him a liar and a hypocrite*. These people know him best, they’ve served in cabinet with him, in the Liberal party with him over a period of many years ...

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Aged care bodies and unions demand Coalition match Labor’s pledge to fund potential wage rises

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Federal opposition says it will pay any increase ordered by Fair Work Commission but Coalition has stopped short of such a guarantee

Aged care industry bodies and unions have criticised the Morrison government for failing to commit to fully fund any pay increases ordered as a result of the sector’s work value case.

Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) and Leading Age Services Australia (Lasa) have both warned that providers would not be able to pay the increase meaning the industrial tribunal would need to order a smaller rise – or operators could be forced to close.

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‘Absolutely due to upcoming election’: Australian government releases more refugees from detention

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Iranian refugee Hossein Latifi is one of nine people released from Melbourne’s Park hotel a fortnight after 50 others were freed

Iranian refugee Hossein Latifi has been released from Melbourne’s Park hotel, along with nine other people, after nine years in immigration detention.

Latifi was released on Friday – his 33rd birthday. It was the first time in almost a decade he had been able to celebrate outside the walls of a detention centre.

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Labor has no plans to increase taxes on Australians if elected, Jim Chalmers says

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Shadow treasurer moves to make Labor policy crystal clear after Coalition seizes on ambiguity in Anthony Albanese’s comments

Labor has no plans to increase taxes on Australians and will look to lift foreign aid if elected in May, the shadow treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has said.

The senior frontbencher said on Sunday that federal Labor’s only tax proposal was to crack down on multinational tax avoidance.

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NSW appeal court to decide fate of federal intervention in Liberal preselection stoush

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Court ruling could unwind Morrison’s ‘captain’s picks’ forcing Liberals to hold rushed votes to select candidates ahead of May election

The federal Liberal party’s ability to appoint candidates for key NSW seats including two ministers and a sitting MP hangs in the balance, with the state’s court of appeal reserving its decision in a long-running preselection dispute.

Sydney businessman Matthew Camenzuli, a member of the Liberal state executive, is seeking to overturn the preselections of the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, in Mitchell, the environment minister, Sussan Ley, in Farrer, and North Sydney MP, Trent Zimmerman.

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Australia news live updates: many Lismore buildings ‘expected to flood again’; new Russia sanctions; man’s body found in Qld flood waters

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Many buildings in Lismore are ‘expected to flood again’ as CBD ordered to evacuate; severe weather warning for large parts of NSW; foreign minister announces ‘Magnitsky-style sanctions’ targeting 39 Russians; treasurer Josh Frydenberg says election will be held ‘in a matter of weeks’; nation records 24 Covid deaths, with record high daily case numbers in Tasmania. Follow the latest updates live

The New South Wales government has approved fewer than 400 disaster relief grants for flood-ravaged northern rivers businesses, despite receiving almost 8,000 requests for help since applications opened almost a month ago.

After the state’s north was left reeling by weeks of devastating floods, the government announced grants of up to $50,000 for small businesses to help pay for cleanup costs, repairs, replace damaged stock and to lease temporary premises.

Today it’s been revealed that the unemployment rate will have a friend for the first time in 50 years. This is a remarkable achievement that belongs to 26 million Australians. We’ve avoided the scouring of the labour market so reminiscent of previous recessions in Australia in the 80s and 90s.

We now have an unemployment rate that is very, very low and we are banking that dividend, now with the cost of living.

Would you be providing that if Australians weren’t going to the polls in a matter of weeks?

We would of course be providing cost-of-living relief given the circumstances that Australia now faces. There’s higher expected inflation, indeed, it’s a global phenomenon. There’s petrol prices rising above $2 a litre and with the other challenges on Australian companies.

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Morrison government predicts unemployment will drop to 50-year low as it spruiks pre-election budget

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Treasurer’s office says dip to last years, as Labor points to stagnant wages and vows to lift them

Josh Frydenberg’s pre-election budget will project Australia’s unemployment rate will drop to 3.75% this year, its lowest figure in 50 years, with the Coalition to talk up a “remarkable” post-pandemic recovery.

The treasurer’s fourth federal budget will also fund an extra 15,000 subsidised training courses for aged care workers, in a nearly $50m promise to boost the sector’s workforce.

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Labor finalises candidates in crucial seats ahead of election

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Jana Stewart to take Kimberly Kitching’s Senate spot amid factional in-fighting in Victoria over federal intervention

Federal Labor has finalised its candidates in a number of crucial seats ahead of this year’s election, including the controversial choice of Andrew Charlton to contest Parramatta and a consensus replacement for Kimberley Kitching in the Senate.

Nominations for vacant positions closed on Monday, with only one candidate to replace each of Kitching, retiring Victorian left senator Kim Carr, MP Julie Owens and right faction MP Andrew Byrne.

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Daniel Andrews catches Covid as nation records three deaths – as it happened

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Lismore and NSW SES issue evacuation orders; man dies in flood waters at Kingsthorpe; Victorian premier to isolate for seven days after positive Covid test; Star casino group chief steps down; nation records three Covid deaths, all in NSW. This blog is now closed

I love this series. It’s called Sorted and it’s a subjective, entirely arbitrary and fascinating ranking of things by Guardian Australia contributors. Check this out from Charmaine Manuel:

If you’re in Victoria, there are planned Extinction Rebellion blockades today. XR says “the times and locations are secret”, but this morning they are targeting the Exxon Mobil depot in Yarraville.

We are aiming to cause sustained disruption.

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Concetta Fierravanti-Wells dumped from Coalition’s NSW Senate ticket

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Liberals Marise Payne and Jim Molan take first and third spots with the Nationals’ Ross Cadell second

The foreign minister, Marise Payne, and Jim Molan have been chosen to fill the first and third spots on the Coalition’s New South Wales Senate ticket for the coming election.

The decision by the Liberals on Saturday means the veteran Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, who also contested the preselection, will not get a winnable spot on the ticket.

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Liberals select right-aligned candidate Simon Kennedy to run in Bennelong

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McKinsey partner who provided advice on jobkeeper replaces John Alexander in Sydney north shore seat

The Liberals have selected Simon Kennedy, a partner at consulting firm McKinsey, for the federal seat of Bennelong on Sydney’s north shore, in a branch plebiscite which again saw the right-aligned candidate trump the moderates’ preferred pick.

Kennedy, who is a relative newcomer to the party, won the ballot against Gisele Kapterian, a former ministerial staffer, 148 votes to 95. He replaces the former tennis star, John Alexander, who is retiring.

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Guardian Essential poll: voters mark Morrison government down on flood response

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Separate Australian National University longitudinal survey suggests Coalition primary vote slumps to 32.2% with Labor in election-winning position

Voters are underwhelmed by the Morrison government’s response to recent catastrophic flooding in New South Wales and Queensland, and a majority fear disasters will be worse in the absence of significant action to address climate risks, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.

The survey of 1,091 voters finds only 26% of respondents characterised the Coalition’s recent flood disaster response as good, while 40% thought poor and 34% said neither good nor poor.

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Coalition expands recycling, carbon credit scheme by $60m amid claims of climate ‘fraud’ by thinktank

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Recycling Modernisation Fund boost will focus on hard-to-recycle plastics as carbon credit tax cuts aim to encourage farmers to cut emissions

The Coalition will put $60m into recycling initiatives and make tax changes to encourage farmers to reduce their carbon output, in a pair of pre-budget announcements as the government seeks to beef up its environmental credentials ahead of the federal election.

It comes as the Australia Institute thinktank launches a new television campaign accusing the government of using “dodgy carbon credits” and calling the Coalition’s net zero by 2050 plan a “fraud”.

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South Australia election: Labor win should have Morrison government ‘trembling’, ALP says

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Scott Morrison dismissed state and federal comparisons, saying ‘Anthony Albanese is not Peter Malinauskas’

The South Australian election result should have Scott Morrison’s Coalition “trembling” ahead of the federal poll, Labor says, after Peter Malinauskas became the first opposition leader to defeat an incumbent government since the start of the pandemic.

The outgoing premier, Steven Marshall, announced on Sunday he would step down as Liberal leader after the landslide loss to Labor, saying he “takes full responsibility for the result” and accepts “the will of the people”.

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Against the foil of the Morrison government, Dominic Perrottet’s flood response has been pragmatic

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The NSW government knows the more it is held up against the Coalition in Canberra, the better it looks despite its own shortcomings

It’s hard to imagine many inside the New South Wales government were particularly upset with veteran Nationals backbencher Geoff Provest when he aimed both barrels at the prime minister over his response to the state’s flood disaster this week.

Hardly the state government’s most prominent attack dog, Provest did not miss in his assessment of Scott Morrison after his north coast electorate of Tweed was inexplicably excluded from extra disaster funding announced by the prime minister last week.

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Fresh court challenge filed in Liberal party’s NSW preselection stoush

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Infighting over preselecting candidates for the federal election previously led to a special committee briefly taking over the NSW branch

The Liberal party’s infighting over preselecting federal candidates is heading back to the supreme court after a member of the NSW state executive began fresh legal action on Tuesday, challenging the federal party’s intervention to save two ministers and a sitting MP.

A member of the NSW state executive, Matthew Camenzuli, has filed in the NSW supreme court a challenge to the endorsement of the sitting MPs, which was achieved last week by a brief takeover of the troubled NSW branch by a special committee appointed by the federal party.

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‘I’ve always been on the blue spectrum’: Dave Sharma denies mimicking independent rival’s colour scheme

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Climate 200-backed challenger says ‘copying our campaign colours is a great start … now he needs to copy our policies’

Wentworth MP Dave Sharma has denied he is trying to distance himself from the Liberal party following accusations his campaign material mimics the teal colour scheme of the independent candidate Allegra Spender.

Locals in the Sydney eastern suburbs electorate have taken to Twitter to point out the striking similarities between flyers distributed by Sharma and Spender.

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Scott Morrison’s China gambit is a Hail Mary from a flailing leader trying to galvanise fear | Peter Lewis

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The majority of Australians support a position which is the polar opposite to the government’s current tub-thumping on national security

Scott Morrison’s efforts to politicise Australia’s complex relationship with China seems to be further soiling his own flagging reputation.

Like a bull in the proverbial, he has spent the past fortnight bombarding the airwaves with hastily googled dossiers and cold war-era panics to suggest an Albanese government would become an antipodean branch office of the Beijing Politburo.

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Australia politics news live updates: parliament marks anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations; at least 22 Covid deaths recorded

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Parliament marks anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations; Acoss calls for next budget to address climate crisis; at least 22 Covid deaths recorded; treasurer asked about possible axing of low-income tax offset; politicians back in Canberra for final sitting week before federal budget. Follow all the day’s news

NSW treasurer Matt Kean is talking about the weekend’s byelection results. He says:

This wasn’t a referendum on the government ... these were four byelections that had unique issues in each of the seats.

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Albanese demands Colbeck ‘resign today’ as nation records 82 Covid deaths – as it happened

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Albanese says aged care services minister ‘must resign today’; CMO says ‘we are past the peak’ of Omicron as nation records at least 82 Covid-19 deaths, with dozens of cases in ICU; bushfire emergency warning issued for East Rockingham. This blog is now closed

Speaking of the ongoing Covid aged care crisis, health and aged care minister Greg Hunt is defending the government’s handling of the situation, telling ABC radio that 99% of aged care workers are now double-vaccinated:

We have over 99% vaccination rate amongst aged care workers, one of the highest rates in the world; 91% vaccination rate for residents. We’ve been able to have one of the lowest rates of loss of life in aged care in the world ...

But it is immensely hard for so many. The mental health impacts of people being locked down in aged care, which is a protective mechanism for them, but at the same time it has a huge impact on their quality of life.

If they can’t endorse [federal environment minister Sussan Ley] they should get out of the way and let the federal executive ensure we can get things done.

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