PM to hold first cabinet meeting of the year
Anthony Albanese and senior ministers will get together for the government’s first cabinet meeting of 2025 today.
As AAP reports, more cost-of-living relief is likely to be discussed in Canberra as Labor prepares to call an election, which must be held by 17 May.
The prime minister last week embarked on a three-state blitz of key battlegrounds across Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, where he announced billions in funding for infrastructure.
Meanwhile the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, launched his pre-election pitch yesterday in Melbourne, saying the nation had a “last chance to reverse the decline”.
Parliament is due to resume for the year on 4 February for the year.
Key events
‘No new ideas and no solutions’: Rishworth criticises Dutton’s pre-election pitch
The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, spoke with the Today Show earlier this morning about Peter Dutton’s pre-election pitch yesterday.
She accused him of coming “back from leave with no real new ideas and no solutions.”
And when he talks about cutting government spending, what he’s talking about is cutting things like the pension, cutting energy bill relief, cutting Medicare.
And it doesn’t matter how many weasel words he uses when he says that he disagrees with the government investing in Medicare, that’s what he will cut. So there was not much new from Peter Dutton, in fact, nothing new from Peter Dutton. Most of it was borrowed from others. So [it was] pretty uninspiring from my perspective.
Counterterrorism police take over investigation of swastika vandalism
As AAP reports, Jewish leaders have condemned the latest antisemitic attack at a Sydney in which red swastikas were allegedly spraypainted across the front wall of Newtown synagogue in Sydney’s inner west by a male and female about 4.30am on Saturday.
They are also alleged to have ignited a clear liquid that burned out within minutes, but the fire could have had deadly consequences if it had taken hold, NSW’s police commissioner, Karen Webb, said yesterday.
Investigation had been taken over by counter-terrorism command’s hate crime unit, Webb said.
I appeal to anyone out there who knows who has perpetrated these disgusting offences to come forward and tell police who they are.
There are other local investigations where there are graffiti on ride share bikes and skate parks and other things will continue to be dealt with locally, unless there’s a suggestion that they are linked.
Factchecking Dutton’s claim Labor is pursuing a ‘renewables-only strategy’
Just continuing from our last post, where Peter Dutton claimed the government has a “renewables-only strategy”.
The government’s own Future Gas Strategy says that “even in net zero scenarios, Australia and the world will need gas at lower levels through to 2050 and beyond.” The full quote reads:
The role of gas will change as we reach net zero in Australia by 2050. Even in net zero scenarios, Australia and the world will need gas at lower levels through to 2050 and beyond. Australian gas will play an important role in an orderly global and domestic energy transformation. However, to meet our legislated climate goals, we must find alternatives to gas and gas-related emissions must decline.
Dutton discredits renewables when asked about energy policy
Peter Dutton was also asked about the role of domestic gas production in the energy mix – will this be enough, or should there be more coal in the mix? The opposition leader pointed to state government’s decisions to extend the life of coal fired plants and said:
At the moment, the problem is that the government’s got this view of trying to please inner-city Green voters with the renewables-only policy which has driven uncertainty into the market.
So gas is going to be required, and every serious commentator from Aemo down says that gas will play a very significant role in shoring up and providing the base load power that we need to shore up the renewable energy and system.
He went on to discredit renewables, and said:
Renewable energy is great, but we can’t pretend that it operates 24/7, it doesn’t … There are very serious concerns about disruption to power and a modern, functioning economy can’t survive on part-time power.
Is Dutton correct? Read on and decide for yourself:
Will Peter Dutton promise any tax cuts to everyday Australians before the next election?
Dutton told ABC RN “we’ll do what we can afford”. He accused Labor of living “beyond their means, which is why they need to tax so much”:
They spend a lot, and they tax a lot … We will act responsibly. We’ll manage the economy effectively, and we’ll make the decisions that will bring inflation down, interest rates down, and make sure that we cut the government waste.
Q: And you’ll do that without providing these so-called sugar hits of cost of living relief?
Dutton said the government was “bequeathed an incredible set of economic numbers” which is how they achieved a surplus in the first two years – but have spent an extra $347bn dollars and “taxed Australians more and more and more.”
We’ve got an inflationary environment which is not under control, and if it doesn’t get under control, we’ll see interest rates sit higher for longer, or indeed go up, and we’ll see an environment where families continue to lose their small businesses and continue to struggle to pay the bills.
Dutton says spending needs to stop to curb ‘homegrown inflation problem’
Yesterday, Peter Dutton suggested Labor’s “Panadol policies” must stop, when discussing government spending. He was asked: which cost-of-living measures should Australians not have received?
The opposition leader said there was a “homegrown inflation problem”, as pointed out by the RBA, and “that is as diplomatic as the Reserve Bank governor can be to say: ‘Stop the spending’”.
And it applies not only to federal government, but to the state governments as well, who are adding to the fuel that is keeping inflation higher for longer.
And if you have a look at the sugar hits, you can provide support to people, and people appreciate some support, obviously, particularly for energy costs … but people are smarter than that. They realise that what it’s doing is keeping their mortgage rates higher for longer.
So should Australians not have received energy relief? Dutton responded “we’ll make an announcement in relation to our policies when we get closer to the election”.
In relation to what support we’ll provide, what we think is inflationary, that we won’t support. And we’ll have a look at that, particularly given that we’ve got a budget coming up in March.
Dutton on election slogan ‘let’s get Australia back on track’
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, spoke with ABC RN this morning about his pre-election pitch in Melbourne yesterday.
He was asked about his slogan – getting Australia “back on track” – and the similarity of this to New Zealand’s back on track election slogan and to Trump’s Make America Great Again. Is this lack of creativity a clue that the biggest problems we’re facing around cost of living are largely global?
Dutton responded that “Australians are feeling is that our country does need to be put back on track”.
So I know there are a lot of sort of insider comments about slogans … but what it means is that we want to help families who have really struggled under this government …
To get our country back on track, I think, reflects the reality of where we are at the moment and what most Australians, particularly those in the outer suburbs, would want from an alternative government.
PM to hold first cabinet meeting of the year
Anthony Albanese and senior ministers will get together for the government’s first cabinet meeting of 2025 today.
As AAP reports, more cost-of-living relief is likely to be discussed in Canberra as Labor prepares to call an election, which must be held by 17 May.
The prime minister last week embarked on a three-state blitz of key battlegrounds across Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, where he announced billions in funding for infrastructure.
Meanwhile the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, launched his pre-election pitch yesterday in Melbourne, saying the nation had a “last chance to reverse the decline”.
Parliament is due to resume for the year on 4 February for the year.
Welcome
Good morning, and happy Monday – welcome back to a new week on the Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage for most of today.
Anthony Albanese and senior ministers will get together for the government’s first cabinet meeting of 2025 today. As AAP reports, more cost-of-living relief is likely to be discussed in Canberra as Labor prepares to call an election, which must be held by 17 May.
For more on this, in today’s Full Story podcast Nour Haydar talks to political reporter Dan Jervis-Bardy about the events that could shape federal politics this year:
Meanwhile, Northern Territory police are investigating a light plane crash that has left one man dead. About 10.20am yesterday, police responded to the crash in Middle Point, which had two people on board.
An uninjured 29-year-old female passenger was transported by helicopter from the scene and taken to Royal Darwin hospital for assessment, while the 63-year-old male pilot was located deceased inside the aircraft.
A crime scene was declared and investigations into the crash are ongoing, NT police said.
As always, you can reach out with any tips, questions or feedback via email: emily.wind@theguardian.com. Let’s go.