PoliticsNow: Paul Keating slams AUKUS, US ties

Paul Keating has offered a stinging rebuke of the defence pact, claiming the US is taking 'military control of Australia'.

Former prime minister Paul Keating. Picture: Getty Images

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8:08 pm August 8, 2024 Highlight

‘51st US state’: Keating slams AUKUS

Staff writers

Paul Keating has warned the Albanese government “is likely to turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States” in a fierce rebuke of the AUKUS deal.

The former prime minister fears strengthening military ties with the US will only lead to Australia being dragged into conflicts started by its “aggressive” ally.

The comments come just hours after the AUKUS agreement was revamped, allowing the transfer of nuclear reactors and radioactive material to Australia’s shores.

Mr Keating told ABC’s 7.30: “If we didn't have an aggressive ally like the United States — aggressive to others in the region — there'd be nobody attacking Australia. We are better left alone than we are being ‘protected’ by an aggressive power like the United States.

“I mean, what this report today tells you — they're going to have American bases all around Australia. American bases, not Australian bases, all around Australia.

“So AUKUS is really about, in American terms, the military control of Australia… the Albanese government, and our policy, is likely to turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States.

“Australia is quite capable of defending itself. We don't need to be basically a pair of shoes hanging out of the Americans' backside.”

— Jack Newman

5:34 pm August 8, 2024

'Vested interests, corporations and politicians' blamed for UK riots

Staff writers

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has blamed “vested interests, corporations and politicians” for the riots spreading across the UK.

The violence erupted last month after three girls were killed at a Taylor Swift dance class in Stockport, with anti-immigration protests spreading across the country sparked by misinformation over the killer’s identity.

Last night, counter-protesters rallied in response to the week of disorder which has seen migrant hotels and mosques targeted.

Writing on Twitter/X, Mr Bandt said: “We have more in common with an asylum seeker than a billionaire.

“Remember that when the political establishment try to blame the marginalised for the problems you're facing, they’re protecting the real culprits: vested interests, corporations and the politicians that enable them.

“My strength and solidarity to diverse communities here, in the UK, and around the world, and everyone pushing back against the forces of hate that seek to divide us. We are the many. They are the few.”

My strength and solidarity to diverse communities here, in the UK, and around the world, and everyone pushing back against the forces of hate that seek to divide us.

We are the many. They are the few.

— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) August 8, 2024

– Jack Newman

5:20 pm August 8, 2024

Outcry over death sentence of Iranian women's rights activist

Staff writers

Greens Senate Leader Larissa Waters has called on the government to demand the release of an Iranian women’s rights campaigner on death row.

Sharifeh Mohammad was arrested in December 2023 and sentenced to death last month on charges of “rebellion” for her membership of an opposition group.

She has been allegedly subjected to “physical and mental torture and months of solitary confinement”, Ms Waters said.

“The Australian Greens will always fight to protect human rights and denounce abuses of those rights wherever they occur," the senator wrote in a letter to Iranian ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi.

“We will not be silent in the face of unfair prosecutions, or wherever the death penalty is applied.

“It is critical that she is granted an unbiased trial and that the death sentence is overturned immediately.”

– Jack Newman

4:24 pm August 8, 2024 Highlight

AUKUS pact reached with US, UK on transfer of nuclear material

Staff writers

Australia has reached a new AUKUS agreement with the US and UK on the transfer of nuclear material.

Joe Biden submitted a letter to Congress and the governments of the UK and Australia outlining the new terms which supersede the existing pact.

The agreement expands on the “transfer of naval nuclear propulsion plants of conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines”.

The letter states: “The Agreement also enables the sale of special nuclear material contained in complete, welded power units, and other material as needed for such naval nuclear propulsion plants.

“Equipment transferred in accordance with the Agreement could include equipment needed for the research, development, or design of naval nuclear propulsion plants, including their manufacture, operation, maintenance, regulation, and disposal, and could also include training, services, and program support associated with such equipment.”

The latest agreement was expected as part of the next phase of the nuclear pact.

– Jack Newman

4:19 pm August 8, 2024

ACCC can appeal CFMEU/Hutchinson court decision

Lilly Vitorovich

The High Court has granted the ACCC special leave to appeal a Full Federal Court decision, which upheld appeals by the CFMEU and construction company J Hutchinson against an earlier finding that they had reached an anti-competitive boycott arrangement or understanding.

The ACCC had alleged, and the Federal Court trial judge in an earlier judgment had found, that the CFMEU and Hutchinson made an arrangement or understanding to boycott a waterproofing subcontractor at the Brisbane Southpoint A apartments construction site in 2016, meaning the subcontractor could no longer perform the work.

The ACCC’s appeal seeks the High Court’s ruling on what is required to demonstrate that parties have reached an anti-competitive arrangement or understanding.

“The issue of what is required to prove parties have reached an anti-competitive arrangement or understanding is an important one for the enforcement of our competition laws,” ACCC commissioner Liza Carver says.

The appeal will be heard on a date to be set by the High Court.

4:16 pm August 8, 2024

Australia's lack of public housing a 'national shame'

Staff writers

Greens spokesman Max Chandler-Mather. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Greens spokesman Max Chandler-Mather has branded Australia’s lack of public housing a “national shame”.

The MP said construction figures have reached a “historic low” under the current government, which has instead incentivised private developers to build “penthouse apartments that they keep empty”.

He posted on Twitter/X: “Australia has reached a historic low on public housing construction. Literally more public homes were built under Tony Abbott than this Labor government.

“Don't mean to sound like a big radical but maybe the government should just start building a lot of public housing? Rather than, say, creating stupidly complex incentive schemes for private developers to build penthouse apartments that they keep empty.

“At the peak of Australia's public housing construction in the 1960s, 19% of dwelling approvals were public sector. If we achieved the same proportions today [we] would have built 60,000 public homes over the last 2 years. Instead [we] built just 6,000. A national shame.”

At the peak of Australia's public housing construction in the 1960s 19% of dwelling approvals were public sector. If we achieved the same proportions today Aus would have built 60,000 public homes over the last 2 years. Instead Aus built just 6,000. A national shame.

— Max Chandler-Mather (@MChandlerMather) August 8, 2024

– By Jack Newman

3:16 pm August 8, 2024

South Australian Liberal leader David Speirs steps down

David Penberthy

SA Liberal Party Leader David Speirs. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

The embattled South Australian Liberals are searching for a new leader after the ineffectual David Speirs fell on his sword this afternoon amid continuing questions about whether his heart was in the job.

Faced with the unenviable task of leading the party in the wake of their dismal 2022 one-term defeat, and pitted against a popular Premier in Labor’s Peter Malinauskas, Mr Speirs was the subject of growing internal disquiet and faced damaging leaks about his holidays.

Key party figures were stunned when he chose not to attend this year’s state budget so he could head to a family wedding in his native Scotland.

Last month there were rumours he was planning to visit Scotland again during a parliamentary sitting week for another family wedding, a trip he hotly denied, despite it later emerging that he had also gone to Queensland for a holiday while the rumours were running hot.

Mr Speirs had privately admitted that the job of leading the party right now was a poisoned chalice but said in a statement yesterday that he simply felt it was time to give someone else a chance.

“Today I have advised my parliamentary colleagues that I have decided to step down as the leader of the South Australian Liberal Party. This has not been an easy decision, however I believe it is in my best interests and that of my family,” Mr Speirs said in the statement.

Read the full story here.

2:51 pm August 8, 2024

PM accused of 'walking away from Makarrata'

Staff writers

A keynote speaker at Australia’s first National Allyship Day Summit has accused the government of “walking away from Makarrata”.

Dr Summer May Finlay, a senior lecturer in Aboriginal health at the University of Wollongong, said she needs to see “action” after Anthony Albanese appeared to abandon his pledge to deliver a truth-telling commission.

“I think it is really clear that this government is walking away from Makarrata, in the spirit of it as outlined in the Uluru Statement and that was what was raised today" Dr Finlay told ABC TV.

“I think that this government needs to really think about its commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and put action behind that, which would be a genuine, national truth-telling summit approach.

“I think the referendum demonstrated there is a need for truth-telling.”

– By Jack Newman

2:00 pm August 8, 2024

Government spending 'fuelling stubborn homegrown inflation'

Staff writers

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie says government spending is fuelling inflation and that the Prime Minister "should have studied a little harder" in his economics degree.

"We know inflation's stubborn, it's homegrown and it's impacting every single household across the country, and that it's higher than it needs to be for longer," Senator McKenzie said on Sky News.

"The fact that the Prime Minister is now trying to suggest that his government's decisions over the last three budgets have not actually had any impact on inflation, shows that he should have studied a little harder in his economics degree at Sydney University, because the Reserve Bank governor and senior economists all have made it very, very clear that both federal government spending and state government spending across the mainland is actually impacting and fuelling this stubborn homegrown inflation".

– Lily McCaffrey

12:50 pm August 8, 2024 Highlight

Road toll giant a big winner from Premier's Work From Home call

Eric Johnston

The boss of toll road operator Transurban says NSW’s directive for the state’s public servants to return to the office could see a lift in traffic running across its road networks. Transurban controls nearly all of Sydney’s toll roads, including key motorway arteries the M4, M5 and M2.

“We don't know exactly how it'll be implemented, because that's the government not us, but potentially,” Transurban chief executive Michelle Jablko has told The Australian. She says traffic across her roads around Australia was being boosted by big construction projects underway, although a softening in housing construction was impacting travel in other parts.

Traffic trends show people returning to the office was still below pre-Covid numbers in Melbourne and Sydney.

“Brisbane is pretty much back where it was before Covid changed behavior. Sydney is now probably three quarters of the way back to where it was and Victoria is still probably a bit slower it's two-thirds of the way back to where it was,” Jablko says.

Transurban posted a 7.5 per cent jump in full year earnings to $2.6bn. This was helped 6.7 per cent lift in revenue on toll hikes and traffic growth. Shortly after lunch shares in Transurban were down 1.4 per cent to $12.70.