Australia news live: Albanese urges voters to show Liberals they ‘need to do better than Peter Dutton’ | Australia news

Penny Wong issues Cheng Lei statement

The minister for foreign affairs, Penny Wong, has issued a statement saying her thoughts are with detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei on the first anniversary since her closed trail in Beijing,

Today marks one year since Australian citizen, Ms Cheng Lei, faced a closed trial in Beijing on national security charges.

Twelve months on, she is still waiting to learn the outcome of the trial.

We share the deep concerns of Ms Cheng’s family and friends about the ongoing delays in her case.

Our thoughts today are with Ms Cheng and her loved ones, particularly her two children.

The Australian government has advocated at every opportunity for Ms Cheng to be reunited with her family.

Australia has consistently called for Ms Cheng to be afforded basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment in accordance with international norms.

We will continue to provide consular support to Ms Cheng and her family, and to advocate for her interests and wellbeing.

Albanese urges voters to send ‘disappearing’ opposition a message

Labor winning Aston would be a one-in-a-century event, says PM

Albanese is not talking up Labor’s chances of winning the byelection in Aston this weekend, saying if it does, it “will be a more than one-in-a-century event.”

Aston is a byelection in a seat that’s held by the opposition. A government has not won a seat off the opposition in a byelection for more than 100 years. History tells you what the chances are of success. If it happens, it will be a more than one-in-a-century event.

This is a seat that has been a very safe Liberal party seat. The former member, Mr Tudge, received 54.7% of the primary vote – the primary vote – in 2019, just four years ago. How it is that the Liberal party aren’t expecting a two party preferred vote with a six in front? … The average swing away from governments when Labor has been in government in byelections is around about between 5% and 6% away from the government.

That having been said, though, Mary Doyle is a great candidate. She hasn’t shopped around for seats. She stood in Aston last time in the election less than a year ago. She is a single mum who knows what it is like to do it tough. She is a cancer survivor, who has come through all of that to raise her family in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, where she has lived for 35 years.

Labor inherited decline in public housing investment, Albanese says

Albanese is coming under heat from the press pack on Queensland’s housing crisis and says:

I am very conscious of the fact that, on housing issues, we need to do more to work across different levels of government.

That is what we’re doing with the commonwealth state housing agreement. That is what we do with private rental assistance, that is what we are doing with the housing Australia future fund, with the national housing affordability scheme also.

We will continue to work with different levels of government, as well as with the private sector to make sure that we address issues, such as supply. We inherited a system of a decline in housing investment from the commonwealth in public housing going forward.

Albanese swipes at Coalition over minimum wage rises

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking in Brisbane. Taking questions from the media, Albanese says his government supports increasing the minimum wage:

In a difference with the Coalition, who talk about the cost of living but never, ever stand up for or support increases in the minimum wage, ever.

Dutton’s leadership not at stake in Aston byelection, Birmingham says

Birmingham says he does not think Peter Dutton’s leadership is at stake on the basis of the Aston byelection.

He indicated he was confident the Liberals will hold the seat this weekend. While no election in the modern age can be taken for granted, he says “there shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone” that the Liberals do retain Aston.

Especially because I think at the last election there was a clear message that people want to see the Liberal party do better and better reflecting modern Australia. And in Roshena Campbell, our candidate in Aston, there is an outstanding professional woman of diverse background who will better reflect modern Australia in the Liberal party ranks. And this is a wonderful opportunity to take one step, a very important one, to secure that type of improvement that I think the electorate was looking for from us at the last election and that she will be a genuine asset in the party room and in the parliament if she’s elected.

Birmingham defends absence of Liberals when voice bill was intorduced

Birmingham also spoke on the voice, saying he doesn’t want to see the referendum on the voice to parliament fail and that the Liberal party will continue to “engage in the process”.

Karvelas asked Birmingham about what signal it sent that when the government introduced thereferendum bill yesterday, only a handful of Liberal MPs were in the chamber with leader Peter Dutton not present.

I’m not sure it’s intended to send any particular signal. For the introduction of virtually any bill, there are very few members of parliament there. The debate comes at a significantly later stage, and for this one, the debate will come after an important joint select committee process … and I look forward to that process being undertaken.

On the likelihood that the Liberal party can land on a yes position supporting the referendum, Birmingham said he does not want to see the referendum fail and that “we will continue to engage in this process carefully.”

Birmingham hopes that the Senate representative select committee all come with an open mind:

I hope that everyone comes to that with an open mind in terms of testing those propositions and the government comes with an open mind to still change the wording of the proposed constitutional amendment, if the evidence is there that changing it would provide a safer more stable outcome for our constitution.

Birmingham said the inclusion of the word “executive” had been one of the most contested elements of the wording. However, he said:

I’m not going into this joint Senate select committee process drawing red lines, and I would urge others not to as well.

Birmingham says raising tax on gas could be bad for climate

Circling back to the interview with Simon Birmingham, who was asked about that report in the AFR and whether he believed a tax on gas was a good reform to pursue.

He told ABC Radio he believed raising the petroleum resource rent tax could ultimately be counterproductive, pointing the government to heed the warnings from a speech given the CEO of Inpex corporation, one of the biggest foreign investors in Australian gas:

It needs to be weighed against the context of a very impactful speech given by one of the biggest investors in Australia yesterday, the global CEO of Inpex corporation who are responsible for the largest liquid natural gas project foreign investment of any sort from Japan in our nation’s history.

And they sent some pretty clear messages and warning signals about the government’s gas market interventions that occurred late last year, the risk that that is going to deter foreign investment in the future. The risk that it will actually regionally drive an increased use of coal as against gas, and it will drive negative climate change consequences. And the risk that it opens up new opportunities for countries like Russia or Iran or China.

So I think there are a lot of messages that were provided quite directly by the Inpex CEO yesterday and the government really does need to heed those messages and if it’s looking at tinkering with, with taxes on that sector, it wants to be pretty careful that it doesn’t act in a way that deters investment in the future, and ultimately is entirely counterproductive to any measures to either control prices and support exports or raise revenue is if you just end up driving investment away.

Report of new gas tax for Australia

The Australian Financial Review is this morning reporting that a new gas tax looms as the government tries to raise revenue to begin budget repair.

The Fin’s economics editor, Jon Kehoe, writes that the Albanese government is seeking to raise billions of extra dollars from the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT).

Major companies such as Woodside Energy, Santos and Shell and their tax advisers have signed confidentiality agreements with Treasury on the PRRT consultation.

Since Treasury resumed the stalled work for Labor late last year, it has cast the net wider to probe other PRRT areas, such as deductions, in an attempt to raise revenue sooner for the government from the profits-based tax.

“They’re trying to find a way to bring the PRRT receipts forward,” a source familiar with the discussions said.

The timing of any changes remains unclear, but the May 9 budget is shaping as a likely trigger point.

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Government submission on minimum wage rise due

The government will today makes its submission to the industrial umpire’s yearly update to the minimum wage. My colleague Paul Karp has the story:

Employers have warned that an “excessive” 7% minimum wage rise in line with inflation advocated by unions could tip Australia into recession.

It comes as the Albanese government has argued the Fair Work Commission should “ensure the real wages of Australia’s low-paid workers do not go backwards”.

The workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, noted the government submission to the commission’s annual minimum wage review “does not suggest that across-the-board wages should automatically increase in line with inflation”, implicitly leaving room for those on higher award wages to receive a lower increase.

Greenwich: “I don’t need or want Senator Hanson’s support”

Greenwich is doing the rounds of breakfast news shows responding to Latham’s homophobic tweets – a time he says he’d normally be walking his dog, Max, with husband Victor – but is now speaking with ABC News Breakfast.

Pauline Hanson has called on Latham to apologise to Greenwich, but the independent MP says he has not heard from the NSW One Nation leader.

When it comes to Senator Hanson those are really empty words. I don’t need or want Senator Hanson’s support.

She is someone who will target the LGBT community when she wants to. She just did it last week with a motion in the Senate.

What I’d like to see is more work being done to call out people like Pauline Hanson and Mark Latham.

Look, obviously, she’s embarrassed by the content of what Mark Latham tweeted, but the work she has done in our Senate to target the trans community in particular, is pretty cruel.

Greenwich says he will not seek Latham censure motion

Greenwich says he does not expect any action from his workplace (the NSW parliament) but does hope his colleagues will support reforms removing discrimination from the state.

Patricia Karvelas:

Now, Mr Latham has been reelected to the New South Wales upper house following last week’s election. What’s the recourse? I mean, if someone had said this to you in any other workplace, it would pretty much be a sackable offence. And yet, in your workplace, what is the recourse? What happens?

Greenwich:

I’m not expecting anything to happen in our workplace.

What I can hope for in our workplace is to pass reforms that make it clear to the rest of the community that the majority of parliamentarians support and celebrate the LGBT community and want to see discrimination removed.

We’re talking about state laws, where you can currently fire someone from a school for being gay or expel a student when they come out.

Just as horrific as Mr Latham’s comments are, the impact of current legislation in New South Wales is more horrific, and I’m more focused on dealing with that, rather than dealing with some sort of censure or condemnation, motion against Mark Latham which will only give him to spray his vile homophobia on the floor of the parliament.

Alex Greenwich responds to Mark Latham tweet

Birmingham denies Greens have effectively become the federal opposition

The opposition leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, is speaking with ABC Radio after the final sitting week has wrapped up before the May budget.

In a sitting period in which the Greens have taken the lead in negotiations with the government, Birmingham denies Greens leader Adam Bandt has effectively replaced Peter Dutton as the opposition leader.

No, that’s a ridiculous proposition.

Asked why the Coalition dealt itself out of negotiations, Birmingham said:

If I look back to the week before this one, most of that week was spent on the Referendum Machineries Act, a bill that was passed with the opposition’s support after plenty of negotiation.

We will choose on what is effectively responsible to negotiate on, what is keeping with our values and policies to negotiate on and make decisions on a case-by-case basis.

“Players are getting sick of it,” Ugle-Hagan says of racism in AFL

Western Bulldogs forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan last night recreated Nicky Winmar’s famous anti-racism gesture as he led the team to victory over Brisbane.

Scoring the first goal of the game, Ugle-Hagan lifted his jumper and pointed to his skin five days after he was racially abused during and after the club’s round-two loss to St Kilda.

Here’s what Ugle-Hagan had to say about the gesture at last night’s post match press conference:

I was thinking back in the day, [Winmar] would have had it a lot worse. Now, players are getting sick of it and we’re making a stance and we’re pointing them out and sorting it out, and everyone is getting behind us.

Those comments hurt you as an individual. You can hear a thousand compliments and then one bad comment, you will remember the bad comment more than the other thousand compliments.

We’re making a stance and making an impact and hopefully we change and educate the people that have no idea that that is racism and it shouldn’t be a thing or allowed.

Good morning!