PoliticsNow: Peter Dutton: Why I rejected medivac asylum seeker’s dad
Father of asylum seeker presented ‘serious risk’ if he accompanied daughter to Australia, Home Affairs Minister says.
- Dutton: Why I rejected asylum seeker
- Call for drought war cabinet
- Butler doubles down on big stick
- Anti-Snowy claims ‘ludicrous’
Hello and welcome to PoliticsNow, The Australian’s live blog on the happenings at Parliament House in Canberra. Peter Dutton has explained why he rejected an asylum seeker’s plea for her dad to accompany her to Australia for medical treatment.
8.59pm: Sinodinos signs off for US ambassador post
As he prepares to become Australia’s ambassador to the United States, outgoing senator Arthur Sinodinos has signalled he’s not afraid to urge China to play by global rules.
The Liberal senator noted the challenge China’s rise has posed to the existing international rules-based order in his valedictory speech to the upper house on Wednesday.
But he stressed the need for all nations to stand by the global norms which have been “painstakingly” established over the past 70 years.
“Now is not the time to retreat from that order or for nations to practice beggar-thy-neighbour policies,” he said.
Olivia Caisley 6.17pm: Medivac bill ‘could weaken borders’
The government has raised concerns the Medivac bill in its current form could lead to weakened borders due to the “limited nature of the security and character grounds” upon which Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton can refuse a transfer.
It comes as Mr Dutton tabled documents in parliament on Wednesday, detailing his decision to stop the “violent father” of an Iranian asylum seeker from accompanying her to Australia to receive medical treatment.
Opposition immigration spokeswoman Kristina Keneally said the government’s use of legislative powers to prevent the father from entering Australia showed Medivac laws were working and did not need to be repealed by the government.
But the Department of Home Affairs’ response to a question submitted on notice by Labor in August reveals the government held concerns about six asylum seekers to be sent to Australia. Under the current provisions Mr Dutton was powerless to stop them from coming in.
“Due to the limited nature of the security and character grounds, the Minister was unable to refuse these transfers despite the Department determining that these six individuals raised character or security concerns,” the response says.
The father’s ban is the first time Mr Dutton has exercised his Medivac discretion to refuse a transfer and comes as the government tries to woo Jacqui Lambie, the crucial swing vote, to repeal the controversial legislation that passed against the Coalition’s wishes earlier this year.
While a Senate Inquiry into the laws will be handed down on Friday, the Upper House won’t vote on the repeal legislation until it sits again in November.
Greg Brown 5.30pm: GetUp chief admits election mistakes
GetUp national director Paul Oosting has admitted it was a mistake to target Coalition MPs in traditionally safe seats during the election, declaring the strategy was adopted because the lobby was expecting a Labor victory.
Read the full story here.
Dennis Shanahan 4.56pm: Albanese sharpens his attack
The IMF downgrade allows Labor to shift to a substantive campaign against Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg over the economy, writes Dennis Shanahan here.
Olivia Caisley 4.20pm: Coalition’s ‘stable approach to economy’
Anthony Albanese’s motion criticising the government over the economy fails as Labor doesn’t have the numbers in the house.
Question Time ends with a dixer, which allows Scott Morrison to launch into a strident defence of his government’s economic track record after a sustained grilling from Labor over the IMF downgrade.
The Prime Minister says the government is taking a “stable” approach to the economy to ensure Australians “keep more of what they earn through lower taxes, which we have already legislated through Parliament.”
Mr Morrison says in spite of the budget deficit the Coalition inherited from Labor, the government is on track to deliver its first surplus in 12 years “because we understand the importance of disciplined financial management.”
“Our government will not return to the reckless spending,” Mr Morrison says. “We will never engage in the reckless spending because Labor will take any excuse to spend more of your money and take more of your money.”
Olivia Caisley 3.59pm: Cryptic message re Parliament House
The Department of Parliamentary Services has released a cryptic message explaining recent outages on the Australian Parliament House website.
In an email sent to staff, the DPS said “infrastructure issues” were affecting the performance of the site, “resulting in the intermittent unavailability.”
It comes as the site experienced two outages in as many days leaving Capital Hill to speculate the cause of the error.
The DPS statement said it expects the outages to continue over the course of this week.
“The specific cause has been identified and remediation activities are in progress. Full resolution of the issue will not occur until the end of the sitting week to avoid broader disruption to the network.”
Olivia Caisley 2.52pm: Standing orders suspended?
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has interrupted Question Time and is moving to suspend standing orders to move a motion that criticises the government for the “floundering economy” following the IMF’s move to downgrade Australia’s growth forecasts.
Olivia Caisley 2.47pm: Drought funding ‘number one call’
A question from opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers, asking Josh Frydenberg to answer whether it was true drought funding was the “number one call” on the budget, sparks a heated conversation between Labor leader Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison over the table.
“That’s not true is it?” Mr Chalmers asks.
The Treasurer fires back: “It is true, thank you.”
Olivia Caisley 2.43pm: ‘Rich words indeed’
Opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers asks Scott Morrison to answer why he “isn’t honest” about the floundering Australian economy and why he takes credit for global factors when they positively assist the economy.
The Prime Minister describes the question as “rich words indeed” coming from “Wayne Swan’s protege”.
Mr Morrison says the difference between Labor and Liberal budgets is that when times are good “we don’t always assume they will be that way globally.”
“We actually factor that in with conservative forecasts, so that is why in the last three years we have seen an improvement on the original budget outcome because of the conservative estimates that have been built into the budget,” Mr Morrison says.
Olivia Caisley 2.31pm: Greens enter the fray
Greens MP Adam Bandt asks Scott Morrison to answer why the government is doing “everything in its power” to make extreme weather events worse if Australia has “always been the land of droughts and flooding rain.”
The Prime Minister says he agrees the government needs to take action on climate change, but defends Australia’s emissions reduction targets, saying it will meet its 2030 commitments.
“We agree there is a need to take action on climate change — that was not an issue of debate or division between the major parties at the last election,” Mr Morrison says. “The issue that was being contested was the scale and the level of targets that could be responsibly set to take Australia into the future, and the impact that would have on the Australian economy.”
Olivia Caisley 2.26pm: Labor continues economic attack
It appears the IMF downgrade will dominate much of question time as opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers asks Josh Frydenberg why he is pretending global factors are the primary reason behind Australia’s “floundering economy.”
“The Reserve Bank and others say Australia’s weak economic growth is homegrown,” Mr Chalmers says.
The Treasurer follows Scott Morrison’s lead and attacks Labor’s economic record. He asks the House to imagine dealing with current global economic challenges under Labor’s pre-election policies, which he says would have “slugged” retirees and home owners with higher taxes.
“Don’t look at what Labor says, look at what they do and they can’t manage the public’s money,” Mr Frydenberg says.
Olivia Caisley 2.18pm: Economic plan ‘anchored in certainty’
Labor leader Anthony Albanese launches into another question related to the economy. He asks Scott Morrison why he doesn’t have a plan to turn around the country’s finances.
“Our plan is very clear and we took it to the last election, it was endorsed by the Australian people,” Mr Morrison fires back.
He tells the House the Coalition’s economic plan is anchored in stability and certainty, and not the panicked crisis policies of the Labor Party.
“If they had had the opportunity at the last election they would be now taking a wrecking ball to the Australian economy with their higher taxes and their reckless spending.,” Mr Morrison says. “No, the Australian people chose stability and certainty of keeping more of what they earn.”
Olivia Caisley 2.11pm: Chalmers, Frydenberg go head-to-head
It’s another question from Labor as opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers asks Josh Frydenberg why the International Monetary Fund’s downgrade for Australia’s growth is “four times worse” than other advanced economies.
It comes as the IMF slashed its global growth outlook to the lowest in a decade and downgraded its forecasts for Australia, as it backed in the Reserve Bank’s move to cut interest rates to record levels.
The Treasurer seizes on the question to lash the economic policies Labor took to the May election.
“The IMF had Australia’s economic growth at 1.7% in 2019 and 2.3% in 2020 but the Australian economy continues to grow, “ Mr Frydenberg says. “As the Prime Minister said, the Leader of the Opposition’s taxes would have hurt the Australian economy.”
Olivia Caisley 2.07pm: PM defends economic management
Labor leader Anthony Albanese kicks off question time by asking Scott Morrison to answer why the IMF slashed Australia’s economic growth forecast this calendar year.
“We have been fashioning budgets for years to deal with the increasing uncertainty in the global economic climate,” the Prime Minister fires back.
“He will also be familiar with the real impact on the economy of the terrible drought that is now impacting on the Australian economy and this is why over successive budgets now we have been putting in place the types of resilience measures that support our economy.”
12.45pm: Peris portrait unveiled
The official portrait of former Labor senator Nova Peris has been unveiled at Parliament House. Ms Peris posed with the portrait and its painter, Aboriginal artist Dr Jandamarra Cadd.
Olivia Caisley 11.35am: Another day, another outage
The Australian Parliament House website has gone down for the second time in 24 hours.
The outage happened around 11am on Wednesday, nearly 24 hours after the site, which records all the action from Capital Hill, went out of action for about 50 minutes around the same time on Tuesday.
Another day, another outage. The Australian Parliament House website appears to be down again. It was out of action for about 50 minutes yesterday. What's going on? 🕵ï¸â€â™€ï¸ @australian #auspol pic.twitter.com/Svy1pGyBGw
— Olivia Caisley (@livcaisley) October 16, 2019
Olivia Caisley 11.15am: Dutton; why I rejected asylum seeker
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has tabled documents in parliament detailing his decision to stop the “violent father” of an Iranian asylum seeker from accompanying her to Australia to receive medical treatment.
It is the first time Mr Dutton has exercised his Medivac discretion to refuse a transfer and comes as the government tries to woo Jacqui Lambie, the crucial swing vote, to repeal the controversial legislation that passed against the Coalition’s wishes earlier this year.
“I made this decision because I reasonably believe the accompanying family member would expose the Australian community to a serious risk of criminal conduct and should not be transferred to Australia,” Mr Dutton said.
It is understood the 21-year-old is preparing to travel to Australia from Nauru for psychological assessment, but has refused to come unless her father can accompany her.
Mr Dutton has approved the Iranian woman to travel with her brother.
The man has a history of violent and manipulative behaviour, including allegations of physical assault against his children, The Courier Mail reports.
While a Senate Inquiry into the laws will be handed down on Friday, the Upper House won’t vote on the repeal legislation until it sits again in November.
Opposition immigration spokeswoman Kristina Keneally said the government’s use of legislative powers showed Medivac laws were working and did not need to be repealed by the government.
“These reports are proof Medivac is working as intended but they beg the question – why is Scott Morrison and his Government so loose with the truth?” Kristina Keneally said. “Why did Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton claim people of bad character could be transferred to Australia under Medivac when it’s clear they have the powers to deny such transfers?”
Jacqui Lambie on Tuesday refused to be drawn on whether she would support the medivac repeal legislation, declaring her decision will be a “conscience vote from Tasmania.” Senator Lambie is likely to cast the deciding vote when the repeal bill to scrap legislation that speeds up the transfer of sick refugees in offshore detention to Australia for medical treatment. She had said the situation in Syria may see her support the repeal.
Joe Kelly 10.45am: Albanese: government drifting
Anthony Albanese has strengthened his push for Scott Morrison to do more to stimulate the economy following the IMF’s downgraded growth outlook for Australia, drawing a parallel with the Rudd government’s response to the global financial crisis.
Speaking on Sky News, Mr Albanese invoked the advice of former treasury secretary Ken Henry who advised the then Labor government to “go early, go hard, go households” to help insulate the economy from the full impact of the GFC.
He argued that the government was “in a state of drift” and responding too slowly to economic warnings signs.
“Monetary policy can’t do all the heavy lifting,” he said. “The government has to bring forward economic stimulus.”
“Underemployment is at record levels. People are saying they want more hours ... We have productivity going backwards. We have interest rates at 0.75 per cent -- under one per cent. And the Reserve Bank minutes show that they are looking at another decrease very soon.
“We have consumption that is through the floor. We have household debt at record levels. We have wages that aren’t increasing. We have energy prices putting pressure on households.”
Mr Albanese argued it was like the government was “an opposition in exile sitting on the government benches, still talking about Labor.”
Olivia Caisley 9.55am: Dutton rejects ‘violent' medivac dad
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will use his powers for the first time under the Medivac legislation to prevent the father of an asylum seeker from accompanying her to Australia from Nauru for medical treatment.
Mr Dutton will on Wednesday table documents in parliament detailing his decision regarding the father, whom he alleges would expose the Australian community to a serious risk of criminal conduct due to his history of violence, The Courier Mail reports.
It is understood the 21-year-old is preparing to travel to Australia for psychological assessment, but has refused to come unless her father can accompany her. Mr Dutton has approved the Iranian woman to travel with her brother.
Mr Dutton will tell parliament the man has a history of violent and manipulative behaviour, including allegations of physical assault against his children.
Jacqui Lambie on Tuesday refused to be drawn on whether she would support the medivac repeal legislation, declaring her decision will be a “conscience vote from Tasmania.”
Senator Lambie is likely to cast the deciding vote when the repeal bill to scrap legislation that speeds up the transfer of sick refugees in offshore detention to Australia for medical treatment, comes up for debate in November.
Senator Lambie has said the situation in Syria may see her support the repeal.
Iranian’s rap sheet:
•A history of violent and manipulative behaviour, including assault, threats, damage to property
•Allegedly been involved in drug importation into Nauru and distribution of drugs in his home country
• Been involved in running a prostitution ring
• A record of military service in the Middle East
• Been involved in more than 200 incidents in Nauru
• Allegedly physically assaulted his own children
• Been treated for heroin addiction
• Evaded identification by Australia’s security agencies
Olivia Caisley 8.50am: Fitzgibbon calls for drought war cabinet
Opposition resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon has appealed to Scott Morrison to “stop the spin” and form a war cabinet with Anthony Albanese to tackle the drought, declaring the “national emergency” was starting to become a food security issue.
Speaking on Sky News on Wednesday Mr Fitzgibbon called on the Prime Minister to “stop exaggerating” about the government response and calling for a bipartisan approach to better manage worsening drought conditions.
“I appeal to Scott Morrison to stop being loose with the truth, put the spin aside... let’s have a war cabinet,” Mr Fitzgibbon said. “Let’s have Anthony Albanese, Scott Morrison, the key people sitting around the table, taking the politics right out of it and say ‘what are we doing about this national emergency?’”
MORE: Jones breaks down over drought
Mr Fitzgibbon said he feared Mr Morrison had become “obsessed” with producing a budget surplus, so much so, it had come at the expense of farmers and rural farmers. “It makes no sense to me,” he said.
The Labor frontbencher continued his party’s attack on Mr Morrison being “loose with the truth”, taking aim at the prime minister’s response in question time where he said the fund wasn’t there to support water resilience projects rather than farmers specifically.
“All this spin about $7 billion and a $5 billion Future Fund - he’s really been loose with the truth and now under all this pressure he has been found out,” Mr Fitzgibbon said. “We now know from his admission yesterday not one cent of the $5 billion Future Fund drought will go to farmers in the drought. Not now, not ever.”
Mr Fitzgibbon called on the government to urgently release General Steven Day’s report into the drought, which the government has been sitting on for six months, saying he was sure it would reveal important information about how to best tackle the issue.
It comes as 2GB Broadcaster Alan Jones was brought to tears when delivering an on-air tribute to farmers on Sky News on Tuesday night, as he called on the government to heed the calls of desperate farmers.
It followed a fiery interview between Jones and Mr Morrison on Tuesday, where the Prime Minister insisted he was doing everything he could to help the nation’s drought-affected regions.
Joe Kelly 8.25am: Butler doubles down on big stick
Opposition energy spokesman Mark Butler has defended Labor’s decision to reverse its opposition to the government’s controversial big stick laws which the party had previously described as a bizarre Venezuelan-style intervention in the economy.
Mr Butler said that Labor had now decided to support the big stick powers -- which will make it easier to break-up the assets of energy companies that abuse their market power -- because it had conducted better soundings of business and industry sentiment.
Mr Butler told ABC radio that the legislation was “a very different bill to the one that was initially presented by the government” because the ministerial discretion over the exercise of divestiture powers had been removed.
He said the courts would have the final say over whether to break up energy companies.
Labor was also concerned that the original bill contained a “very substantial backdoor to privatising” electricity assets, with Mr Butler saying that Labor would move an amendment to prevent the new regime being used to advance privatisations.
“If those amendments are not supported by the government then we will vote against the bill,” he said.
He claimed that business had changed its attitude towards the big stick legislation. “A responsible alternative government does listen to -- not just industry -- but a range of stakeholders about the view that we should take about legislation before the parliament,” he said.
Joe Kelly 8.15am: Butler schtum on 2030 ERT
Opposition spokesman on climate change, Mark Butler, has declined to name Labor’s 2030 emission reduction targets in an extended interview on ABC radio, arguing the proposition is “absurd” so far out form the next election.
Mr Butler’s refusal to identify a target is a further admission that Labor’s aim to reduce emissions by 45 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 -- the policy taken to the May 18 election by Bill Shorten -- is dead in the water.
“Essentially what you’re asking us to do, or want me to do ... is to announce our 2022 election policy literally four or five months out from the 2019 election,” he said.
“It’s an absurd proposition.”
The comments come amid a heated internal debate within the ALP over its climate change policy and a call from NSW frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon for Labor to embrace the upper end of the government’s own targets to reduce emissions by up to 28 per cent by 2030.
Mr Butler has rejected the push from Mr Fitzgibbon and said Labor’s long term and medium term targets should heed the best scientific and economic advice in meeting the objective of restricting global warming to well below 2 degrees and “pursue efforts around 1.5 degrees.”
“That’s the basis on which we formed our previous policies based on advice from the Climate Change Authority delivered a little over five years ago in 2014,” he said. “I would hope that would be the way in which we form our policies in the future.”
“What we can’t battle against is the effluxion of time,” he said. “And the advice that I just referred to was delivered more than five years ago and was delivered in a context of envisaging a fifteen year implementation timeframe.
“By the time of the next election we will be about halfway through that timeframe ... The numbers in their precise form will shift around as this process goes on.
“The important thing is to restate the core principles ... We have a long term commitment to net zero emissions by the middle of the century and we will set medium term targets that are consistent with those principles and the best available advice.”
Mr Butler said that he strongly opposed the government’s 26-28 per cent climate target, arguing that it was “pulled out of thin air by Tony Abbott” and warned it was consistent with a global temperature increase of more than 3 degrees and was “fundamentally inconsistent with the Paris agreement.”
“It betrays our responsibility to future generations,” he said.
Olivia Caisley 8.00am: Berejiklian to ignore coroner on pill testing
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian plans to ignore a coroner’s recommendation to introduce pill testing at music festivals, saying the state government’s position hasn’t changed and the scheme offered revellers a “false sense of security”.
Ms Berejiklian commented after draft recommendations from a NSW coronial inquiry into the deaths of six young people were leaked, in which NSW Coroner Harriet Grahame calls for medically supervised drug checking to be introduced at NSW festivals.
Speaking on ABC Radio on Wednesday Ms Berejiklian said she would wait to read the coroner’s recommendations in full before making a decision on pill testing, but the government’s position had not changed.
“The coroner’s recommendations have not been handed down but we as a government do not support pill testing and that’s been our consistent position,” she said. “We think it gives people a false sense of security.
“I’m not saying I’m rejecting it, all I’ve said is I’m stating my position in relation to music festivals and what I’m doing today is ensuring the safety of patrons,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Ms Berejiklian said she feared young people would misinterpret the draft recommendations and see it as a “green light” to take drugs over the summer music festival period.
“To say to young people as we’re entering the festivals season without context that it’s okay to take these drugs because they might be tested in the future, it’s a recipe for giving people a false sense of security and we don’t stand by that.”
Coroner Grahame’s draft recommendations, published in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, also calls for a Dutch-style permanent drug-checking facility to be established in NSW and for high school students to be taught about the effects and risks of MDMA use.
The coroner further recommends strip searches be restricted to those revellers reasonably suspected of supplying drugs.
Olivia Caisley 7.30am: Turnbull: Vested interests oppose Snowy 2.0
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has launched a strident defence of his Snowy 2.0 project, declaring the enormous pumped water scheme is the key to “making renewables reliable.”
It comes as the National Parks Association of NSW released a scathing report into the project on Tuesday, finding it “didn’t stack up on environmental or economic grounds” and would have a “catastrophic” impact on Kosciuszko National Park.
On releasing the report, NPA’s Executive Officer Gary Dunnett said the fact the scheme had been approved before an environmental impact assessment “defies belief and the law of the land.” He said the cost of the project had ballooned.
“When announced, Snowy 2.0 was to cost $2 billion, take 4 years to construct (2021), and be fully funded by Snowy Hydro – none of which has turned out to be anywhere near correct,” Mr Dunnett said. “The cost has soared to $10 billion, the construction time has more than doubled to 2027 and the Commonwealth Government has kicked in $1.4 billion (with more likely to be needed).”
We are making Snowy 2.0 a reality.
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) August 28, 2017
This game-changing project is already employing 350 people – and will create 5,000 new jobs in coming yrs pic.twitter.com/yNy2PeAaZd
When announcing the project in March 2017, Mr Turnbull, then prime minister, lauded the project as “game-changing”, saying it would help the roll-out of more wind and solar energy into the grid by 2021.
But in a series of tweets posted on Tuesday night, Mr Turnbull rejected the report’s claims, saying the project did in fact stack up on environmental grounds and dissidents were playing into the hands of the “coal lobby.”
“It is opposed by vested interests in the energy sector who know it will reduce volatility and deliver zero emissions and more affordable electricity,” Mr Turnbull said.
“The claim that the scheme is in the wrong place is ludicrous. Snowy Hydro sits between the two biggest centres of demand in NSW and Victoria. Of course transmission will have to be upgraded, as it will be right around the country as we move from high emission centralised generation burning coal to decentralised zero emission renewables.”
Snowy Hydro 2.0 is the key to making renewables reliable. It is opposed by vested interests in the energy sector who know it will reduce volatility and deliver zero emissions and more affordable electricity.
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) October 15, 2019
Mr Turnbull said the schemes environmental impact was overstated as one of its biggest perks was that all infrastructure would be concealed underground and “no new dams need to be built.”
Joe Kelly 7.20am: Chalmers; PM from another planet
Opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers has seized on the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, which has downgraded Australia’s growth forecast to 1.7 per cent, to accuse Scott Morrison of mismanaging the economy.
Dr Chalmers said the Australian economy was underperforming against the rest of the world, saying the prime minister could bring forward infrastructure projects, increase the rate of Newstart or bring forward phase two of its $158bn tax cut plan.
“This is why Australians think that this guy is from another planet. We’ve had weak growth - the weakest for ten years - stagnant wages, declining living standards (and) almost two million people are looking for work or more work,” Dr Chalmers told Sky News.
“The mainstream view is that it’s time for the government to get off its hands and to do something and to come up with a plan to turn around an economy which is floundering on their watch.”
Dr Chalmers warned that the IMF was “torpedoing the government’s economic credibility” and argued the Reserve Bank could not be left to do all the heavy lifting to help revive economic growth.
What’s making news:
The International Monetary Fund has slashed its global growth outlook to the lowest in a decade and downgraded its forecasts for Australia, as it backed in the Reserve Bank’s move to cut interest rates to record levels.
Anthony Albanese has accused Scott Morrison of being unaccountable, arrogant and drunk on power as he sharpens his political attack on the Prime Minister’s character.
The new voice of Australia’s conservative movement has vowed to go after radical left-wing groups in a national campaign against “climate alarmists”, after accusing members of activist group Extinction Rebellion of being criminals who pose a menace to society.
Energy companies are being warned they must “play by the rules” after Labor capitulated on the Morrison government’s “big stick” laws, in a major win for the Coalition.
Kristina Keneally admitted on Twitter that she cancelled a requested security briefing with ASIO on Tuesday at the last minute so she could launch an attack on Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in the Senate.
The University of Western Australia says Australia must do better in teaching young people about “civics and citizenship,” warning that a loss of trust in the democratic system “is a very real threat” to society.
Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says it is in the national interest for the opposition to receive classified intelligence briefings about China after an ALP split emerged over Canberra’s relationship with Beijing.
Dennis Shanahan writes: Anthony Albanese has upgraded his attack on Scott Morrison’s truthfulness and integrity, but the Labor leader is going to have to upgrade his arguments if he hopes to prove the Prime Minister is loose with the truth, arrogant, unaccountable and drunk on power.
Alice Workman’s Sketch: It shall go down in history as the day of the dills, after Speaker Tony Smith deemed the term acceptable parliamentary language. You can find Strewth here.
More Coverage
Burke mulls cancelling visa of academic who called Oct 7 ‘a celebration’
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke is considering the visa status of a US-based academic who attended Monday’s Hizb ut-Tahrir-associated rally in Sydney, praising the Houthi rebels and saying Hamas's attacks were a day of 'growth' for Palestinians.
Israel a ‘miracle’, says Labor senator
Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill has condemned the rise of anti-Semitism, as politicians from both sides of politics paused to commemorate October 7 in Canberra.