As it happened: Labor senator suspended after vowing to cross the floor again on Palestine; Tax reform needed to stop climb

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Foreign Minister Penny Wong has labelled the abduction of Australian children in Japan “heartbreaking” as Tokyo begins reforms to a century-old sole custody system that allowed parents to legally kidnap their kids.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong expresses concern about child abductions in Japan.Credit: James Brickwood

In her first interview on the issue since The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes revealed last year that more than 80 Australian children had been abducted by their Japanese parent since 2004, Wong said the situation was “incredibly distressing”.

Read here for the full story.

National Australia Bank customers across the country have been locked out of their accounts and are unable to access internet banking after the bank’s online services were hit by an unknown technical issue.

More than 1000 NAB customers have reported issues with their internet banking since 1pm AEST on Monday, and the problems have occurred across the country, according to outage website DownDetector.

Major tech outage at NABCredit: Dominic Lorrimer

“We’re aware of an issue currently impacting some of our services including internet banking, mobile and desktop,” a NAB spokeswoman told this masthead.

“We’re sorry for any inconvenience this is causing. Our tech team is investigating and working to fix this as soon as possible. We are continuing to keep our customers updated via banners in our digital banking channels and across social media.”

Labor senator Fatima Payman says she has been “exiled” from Labor after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese suspended her for siding with the Greens on a key motion about the Gaza war.

Senator Fatima Payman arrives for question time today.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Payman said she would abstain from voting in the Senate this week, meaning the government would need to find an extra vote on key bills. She said in a statement: “I have lost all contact with my caucus colleagues. I have been removed from caucus meetings, committees, internal group chats, and whips bulletins. I have been exiled.

“I have been told to avoid all chamber duties that require a vote including divisions, motions and matters of public interest.

“I will use this time to reflect on my future and the best way to represent the people of Western Australia. These actions lead me to believe that some members are attempting to intimidate me into resigning from the Senate.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has batted away a question about embattled Labor senator Fatima Payman crossing the floor last week to support a Greens motion recognising the state of Palestine.

Taking a question in Parliament during question time after back and forth on whether it follows the standing orders, Albanese said the phrase “from the river to the sea” has been condemned by himself and his party.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was questioned about Fatima Payman crossing the floor on a pro-Palestine motion.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“ ‘From the river to the sea’ is a statement that has been used by both supporters of Israel and supporters of Palestine, who support a single state,” he said.

“It is important that we take [the] temperature down in this debate, not seek … to inflame it.

“I condemn unequivocally the use of the phrase ‘from the river to sea’ because it speaks about a single state … the fact is that the government’s position is very clear.

“We support a two-state solution and last week in the Senate we moved an amendment which said this: the need for the Senate to recognise the state of Palestine as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution.

“By her own actions, Senator Payman has placed herself outside the privilege that comes with participating in the federal parliamentary Labor Party caucus and I informed her of that.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt has lent his support to embattled senator Fatima Payman, accusing the government of putting “more sanctions on Senator Payman for speaking out about the invasion of Palestine than they have on Benjamin Netanyahu for carrying out a genocidal invasion of Palestine”.

“Labor needs to stop sanctioning those within its party who are speaking out and doing the right thing and instead start putting pressure on Netanyahu to stop this invasion,” Bandt said.

Greens leader Adam Bandt supports embattled Labor senator Fatima Payman.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Every time there is a hand-wringing claim from the prime minister or the foreign affairs minister for Netanyahu not to cross another red line, he ignores it, and then goes and crosses that red line. Then he looks around the rest of the world to see what consequences there will be.

“The Greens will continue to push for Labor to act to stop backing the invasion and to start putting pressure on this extremist Netanyahu government.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has backed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s condemnation of pro-Palestine graffiti on war memorials. Dutton said the perpetrators had been rightly condemned for these actions, and he hoped they were not repeated.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton backs PM’s denouncement of pro-Palestinian graffiti on war memorials.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“As the prime minister rightly point out, unfortunately there has not been arrests that have taken place so far,” Dutton said in Parliament during question time.

“I hope that the police can double down on their efforts to identify these people and to allow a very clear message to be sent to those of a similar mind that these acts are not to be condoned in our society.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has condemned pro-Palestine graffiti on the Australian War Memorial and other war memorials as “criminal acts” and he hopes the perpetrators face the full force of the law and get “the book thrown at them”.

Taking a question from Barnaby Joyce, the Coalition’s spokesman for veterans’ affairs, in Parliament during question time, Albanese said with a shaking voice that those who defaced the war memorials – who are yet to be found by police – are undeserving of “any respect and any leniency” as a result of their actions.

“I certainly condemn the criminal acts that have occurred at the Australian War Memorial and also on the Vietnam War Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and other war memorials as well,” he said.

“I don’t know what goes through someone’s head in thinking that a cause, any cause, is advanced by the desecration of our sacred sites here in Australia.”

Albanese said there had been a range of “idiotic criminal actions” while the Middle East conflict has been ongoing.

“It is one thing and there should be full prosecution about the denigration of offices and the denigration of other public buildings, but nothing, nothing is as bad as the desecration of those memorials,” Albanese said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended the government for not responding to an inquiry recommending a complete ban on gambling advertisements.

The late Labor MP Peta Murphy last year tabled a report that gambling ads should be completely banned. The government is yet to provide a response.

In Parliament during question time, Albanese disputed a question by independent MP Kate Chaney on why the government had not banned ads.

“The member for Curtin, however, is wrong when she says we have not done anything because we have. We have stepped up our support when it comes to things like banning credit cards to gamble online, to make a difference and save lives. We have done more in two years to tackle gambling harm than those opposite did in their almost a decade in office,” he said.

“The minister for communications [Michelle Rowland] is working through all 31 recommendations that are in the report, making sure that relevant consultation occur with stakeholders, including harm reduction advocates and industry and we will continue to work through each of the recommendations which are there.”

The Democratic Party has spent much of the 2024 campaign burying its head in the sand over Americans’ concerns about President Joe Biden’s age and mental sharpness. Rather than reckon with the problem, its most influential voices have cast it as an overblown media construct.

Possible replacements for Joe Biden include (clockwise from top left) Andy Beshear, Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

But the party abruptly jerked its head out of that sand after a meandering, occasionally incoherent and almost universally panned first-debate performance from Biden. At its most pronounced, this has led to calls for Biden to step aside, including from those loyal to him.

Read here for some of the names of possible replacements that have been floated – along with their attributes and drawbacks.

The Washington Post