As it happened: Minimum wage boosted by 3.75 per cent; Frydenberg shuts down comeback rumours

That’s where we will leave today’s live coverage. Thanks so much for reading.

To wrap up the blog, here’s a look back at what we covered.

• Australia’s lowest-paid workers will receive $33.10 more a week after the Fair Work Commission decided to lift the minimum wage by 3.75 per cent this morning.
• Immigration Minister Andrew Giles was again on the receiving end of a barrage of Coalition question time attacks, as he had to admit he mistakenly claimed drones were being used to monitor former immigration detainees released by the NZYQ high court decision.
• NDIS Minister Bill Shorten and the Services Australia department are under fire after it was revealed in Senate estimates that they employ a speechwriter who will be paid $620,000 over two years.
• After speculation ran wild for 24 hours, former treasurer Josh Frydenberg confirmed he would not launch a bid to re-contest his former seat of Kooyong. The Liberals have already preselected Amelia Hamer as their candidate.
• Antoinette Lattouf landed a major win in her unlawful dismissal case against the ABC today when the Fair Work Commission ruled she was sacked by the national broadcaster.
• In NSW, the body of a woman was found early this morning at the site of a unit block explosion in Sydney’s west after a two-night search operation.
• In Victoria, The Age has revealed Victoria’s Treasury quietly sought advice from investment banks this year for a review of all government agencies to find out how much money could be raised from the privatisation of public assets.
• In international news, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has urged the Israeli government and listed terror group Hamas to agree to a ceasefire deal outlined by US President Joe Biden.

Labor MP Josh Burns, an outspoken figure in discussion on the war in Gaza, has taken to social media to share his support for the government’s calls for the adoption of the US’ proposed ceasefire deal.

In a post to X, Burns said “the deal presented by President Biden will see the hostages returned home and an end to the immediate suffering in Gaza”.

“The futures of Israelis and Palestinians are intertwined, and I want to see an end to this conflict for good.”

Burns was one of the Australian MPs who visited Israel last year following the October 7 attack.

Here’s Burns’ full statement:

Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become Mexico’s first female president, inheriting the project of her mentor and outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph.

Mexican president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum.Credit: Getty Images

Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with between 58.3 per cent and 60.7 per cent of the vote, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority. That is set to be the highest vote tally percentage in Mexico’s democratic history.

Read more about Sheinbaum’s election victory here.

Reuters

The two respective ends of Australia’s political spectrum were represented on the panel portion of ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today, with the disparity never clearer than in the responses the two senators, the Green’s Barbara Pocock and the Nationals’ Matt Canavan, gave to former US president Donald Trump’s felony convictions.

First up, this is what Pocock had to say:

It is an extremely alarming situation in the US, [34] convictions, and clear corruption in those convictions. There are appeals possible, but the people I spoke to in the US are extremely worried about Trump, about the implications of his possible election for the planet, for peace around the world and certainly, there are big implications for us, a major ally, being led by someone who has clearly broken the law multiple times in his own country.”

Then Canavan had this reaction:

It seems most likely Trump will be president, that is what the markets are saying at the moment, not just myself, and I think every time his opponents overreach, they make him into a martyr. These are ridiculous charges, the most stupid thing you’ve ever seen. I got no faith in the American justice system for these sorts of things.”

More from opposition immigration spokesperson Dan Tehan’s interview on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, where he’s shed a bit more light on why the Coalition has been pursuing the argument that the ill-fated direction 99 was instituted at the behest of then-NZ prime minister Jacinda Ardern.

The opposition’s Peter Dutton (left), Angus Taylor and Dan Tehan in question time today.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Tehan says the Coalition obtained documents that suggest as much:

Documents we have through freedom of information clearly point to the fact that Andrew Giles, and these are documents that Andrew Giles signed, which clearly point to the fact that he was acting as a result of undertakings that the prime minister made at the Australia-New Zealand leaders’ meeting.

Clearly, that is why Minister Giles was acting and why he did what he did.

What we want from the prime minister is for him to say, ‘Yes, I did ask Minister Giles to do this as a result of the undertakings I gave Jacinda Ardern at that Australia-New Zealand leaders’ meeting’, and we cannot understand why the prime minister wants to hide from that because what it is leading to is his ministers hiding from things as we have seen with Minister Giles.”

Opposition immigration spokesperson Dan Tehan has continued his calls for Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to release the ministerial briefing that Giles claims told him drones were being used to monitor former immigration detainees.

Appearing on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Tehan said Giles needs to “come out and clear the record once and for all”.

“The best way to do that is provide that [ministerial] briefing that was given to him because he sent Senator Murray Watt out on Sunday backing in his claim, although there was attempted nuance of it, but he kept feeding to the Australian people this message that yes, drones are being used.”

Read more about the drones debacle and how we got here at this link.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten and the Services Australia department have employed a speechwriter for $620,000 over two years.

Julianne Stewart, who has been a speechwriter for former prime ministers Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, was hired under an AusTender contract from Services Australia.

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Services Australia deputy chief executive Susie Smith confirmed at estimates this afternoon that Stewart was initially hired on a 12-month contract valued at $268,000 per annum exclusive of GST, and it was extended for the second year, totalling $620,000 over two years.

The contract is set to end September 30.

“She is a contractor to Services Australia. Sorry, my point of clarification was that she does more than work just for the minister. She provides training and building of capability, she’s not exclusive to Minister Shorten,” Smith said.

“She does do work for the agency, she belongs to the agency, she has management reporting and arrangements through to the agency, through to the communications division, she participates in the weekly team meetings with the communications division for which I’m responsible ...

“While she does a lot of work in terms of speech writing for the minister, it is not exclusive, and she also helps build the capability of public service speechwriters that we have within the division.”

Amelia Hamer, the Liberal party’s pre-selected candidate for Kooyong, has spoken out after former treasurer Josh Frydenberg shut down rumours he was considering another tilt at his former seat.

Frydenberg lost the inner-Melbourne seat to Teal MP Monique Ryan at the 2022 election.

The Liberal candidate for Kooyong, Amelia Hamer.Credit: Eddie Jim

“The issues that matter to the people of Kooyong are all that matters to me. They are certainly not interested in internal politics, and neither am I,” Hamer’s statement read.

“Kooyong deserves a real voice and they want a candidate who can deliver; and I have an unwavering focus on what is important to them.”

Hamer’s statement concluded:

To date I’ve spent 10 weeks on the campaign trail and I’m just getting started.

It has been great to meet with so many constituents, community groups, businesses and hear about what is important to them and what we can do to make this community even better. That is what is driving me each and every day.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt has had to re-word his question three times, as he asks Prime Minister Anthony Albanese if he will condemn former US president Donald Trump after he was found guilty of fraud last week.

Bandt first asks Albanese: “Will you join us in condemning Donald Trump and commit to a full review of Australia’s relationship with the US if this dangerous man is elected president?”

Leader of the House Tony Burke argues against this question, saying Bandt cannot ask for an opinion under the standing orders.

Bandt again asks if Albanese will condemn Trump, which Speaker Milton Dick says he cannot ask because it is still an opinion.

For a third time, Bandt asks: “As prime minister, will you commit to a full review of Australia’s relationship with the United States if candidate Donate Trump is elected president?”

Dick says he still has an issue with that question but allows Albanese to answer because it was broad enough.

“I regard the relationships that we have as being very important,” Albanese says.

Referring to former prime minister John Curtin’s “correct and courageous” decision to put national defence of Australia first during World War II and make an “important alliance” with the United States since then, Albanese said it was more than a relationship depending on who is in power.

“It’s a relationship between people and between nations, it’s one that is very important and enduring and will continue to be into the future,” he said.

Albanese then listed relationships Australia had with countries in Europe, ASEAN countries and that he looked forward to hosting the Premier of China Li Qiang soon.

“We’ll make an announcement at appropriate times about that, that will be a positive thing given that China is our major trading partner and given the important regional relationships,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has taken a swipe at Sky News, saying the outlet “occasionally don’t get things right” when asked about a story the news channel broke about ministerial direction 99.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during question time.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley asks Albanese: “Sky News reported that following the prime minister’s meetings with Jacinda Ardern and prior to the introduction of direction 99, the prime minister’s department directly instructed the Home Affairs Department to attempt to find a way to stop the deportation of so many New Zealand citizens and to fix the problem ... is this true?”

Albanese begins his answer hitting out at Sky News, saying the channel “occasionally don’t get things right”.

“Usually it’s at night … before it becomes dark when truth sort of gets darkened as the day goes on, but the truth is that I, unlike my predecessor, have a job. I don’t have multiple jobs, I haven’t sworn myself into multiple portfolios,” he said.

“Let me be clear – section 501 [of the Migration Act] remains in place, this has not changed. We continue to refuse and cancel visas on character grounds, we continue to deport people who have no right to be here, since coming to government, we’ve deported over 4100 individuals from immigration detention.”