Lunchtime wrap
Good afternoon, thanks for reading our national blog helmed by Emily Kaine. My name is Bridie Smith, and I’ll be leading our coverage for the rest of the day.
Here’s what you need to know this afternoon.
- Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has said the Coalition will work with existing coal-fired generators to keep them operating longer, a move he said would deliver lower prices to consumers.
- Every Australian Counts, the campaign group that led to the NDIS being created, today warned Health Minister Mark Butler’s new bill to cut billions from the scheme risks breaking a central promise hard fought for by Australia’s disability community 13 years ago.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump have wrapped up day one of their summit in Beijing with Trump inviting the Chinese leader to visit the US in September.
- Pauline Hanson was cut off mid-sentence after exhausting her allotted speaking time in a fiery speech to parliament on Thursday night. The One Nation leader’s budget reply speech criticised tax hikes and Labor’s $250 income offset.
Albanese backs decision not to boycott Eurovision
Staying with the PM’s interview earlier on ABC radio, he backed Australia’s decision not to boycott Eurovision because of its inclusion of Israel following the war in Gaza.
He said Australia should be able to participate while at the same time disagreeing with the actions of the Israeli government.
“We should participate. And you know, the idea – you can have a disagreement with a policy of a government. As I’ve been critical and will continue to be critical of what has happened in Gaza. That doesn’t mean that I believe Israel doesn’t have a right to exist. It does. I want it to exist side by side with a Palestinian state,” Albanese said.
Spain, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia all withdrew from the competition this year.
PM: Contest of the ‘hard-right’ on display last night
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said today that Angus Taylor’s budget reply speech was an attempt to fight the growing influence of One Nation.
Speaking to ABC radio in Melbourne this morning, Albanese defended the contributions of migrants to Australia in response to Taylor’s plans to slash migration numbers and strip migrants of welfare benefits.
“I agree that Australians are Australians. And what I know is that people who are loyal to this country aren’t just people who were born here like myself. They were people who’ve come and helped to build this country.”
Albanese said it was “clear” Taylor was more focused on fighting One Nation than fighting for the Australian people.
“More and more, this contest on the hard right is being fought in full public view and it was on display last night.”
Pauline Hanson cut off mid-sentence after budget attack
Pauline Hanson launched a fiery crusade against tax hikes, Labor’s $250 income offset and the “Canberra bubble” before having her budget reply speech cut off mid-sentence for exhausting her allocated speaking time.
The One Nation leader delivered her official response to the federal budget last night, after Opposition Leader Angus Taylor proposed sweeping cuts to migration and Nationals leader Matt Canavan rose to his feet in the Senate to declare the Albanese government had “flown the white flag” on higher prices.
In her speech, Hanson pointed out that Labor’s latest tax relief measure would not kick in until 2027 – an election year – and argued the working Australians’ tax offset would be “completely rubbed out by bracket creep”. She also said the government had no interest in reducing immigration, and attacked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s overhaul of negative gearing and capital gains tax.
“Young people are not struggling because older generations succeed,” Hanson said. “They are falling behind because governments have chosen subsidies and wealth redistribution over allowing free enterprise to flourish.
“We don’t need Labor to protect Australians. We need to protect Australians from Labor.”
As she began reading out her closing remarks around the 15-minute mark, Hanson was cut short, with the Senate adjourned for the evening. The One Nation leader was not granted leave to finish.
Taylor doesn’t rule out public funding for new nuclear plants
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor is speaking to the media in Canberra, and is addressing the Coalition’s plan to extend the life of coal-fired power generators.
“We’ll work with existing coal-fired generators to keep them operating for longer to drive down prices,” he said.
“If we are going to make sure we have affordable, abundant energy in this country, the single fastest and easiest way to do that is to keep the existing generators running hard.”
Taylor was asked if the Coalition was considering extending public funds to new nuclear plants.
He would not address that part of the question, but did not rule out the possibility.
Listen: Does a broken promise matter in a broken system?
The federal budget was pitched as a big moment for a progressive government that wants to equalise wealth and home ownership.
One of the main attacks from the opposition is that Albanese has had to break a promise in order to get there.
So will the broken promise line resonate if the changes are broadly supported by the public?
Listen to Inside Politics host Jacqueline Maley and chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal talk about Coalition leader Angus Taylor’s plan to centre immigration in his budget reply speech, including that non-citizens should be blocked from welfare payments.
We also check in on One Nation’s Farrer byelection win and how significant a threat the party now poses to Labor.
Trump invites Xi to the US in September
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump wrapped up day one of their summit yesterday with a banquet at the Great Hall of the People.
Both leaders gave toasts with Xi weaving in a MAGA reference, while keeping to a very tight script that hit the usual talking points about co-operation rather than confrontation.
“The people of China and the United States are both great peoples, achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand,” Xi said.
Xi said he and Trump shared the view that the “China-US relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. We must make it work and never mess it up.”
CEO of migrant advocate group slams Taylor’s budget reply
The chief executive of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Kon Karapanagiotidis has slammed Angus Taylor for migration claims he made during his budget reply speech last night.
“Angus Taylor is depending on you not knowing the truth to get away with his lies about migrants last night,” Karapanagiotidis wrote on Instagram this morning.
“Seventy-one per cent of our permanent migration places are for skilled workers. Skilled migrants add more financially to the economy than people born here,” he said, citing Treasury modelling.
He also challenged Taylor’s plan to strip welfare access for migrants before they are Australian citizens.
“[Migrants] claim less welfare than people born here.”
Earlier today, deputy chief executive Jana Favero said the Coalition’s immigration approach was driven by “dog-whistles, fear and division”, and labelled Taylor’s budget reply “pure political theatre”.
Chamber of Commerce issues warning to Coalition
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has cautioned the Coalition to think carefully about its migration and bracket creep policies, delivered by Opposition Leader Angus Taylor last night.
During his budget reply speech yesterday, Taylor announced the “biggest cuts to immigration in Australian history”. The plan seeks to tie migration rates to the housing completion rate, alongside previously announced policies of establishing a values test for new migrants and vowing to “process and deport 70,000 overstayers”.
In a statement released this morning the chamber urged the Coalition to “carefully consider the impacts of announced curbs on overall migration numbers and the impacts on business-related migration.
“It’s crucial that policymakers get the design of our migration policy right, because a well-designed migration program can bring significant economic benefits to Australia,” chamber chief David Alexander said.
Russia pounds Ukraine in heaviest drone attack of the war
Russia carried out its largest aerial attack over a two-day period since the start of its war in Ukraine, pounding the capital Kyiv and other cities with hundreds of drones, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia had launched 1567 drones since the start of Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. At least 22 civilians have been killed over the two days, officials said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the war, which has killed hundreds of thousands and ravaged swathes of Ukraine over more than four years, was “coming to an end”.
But Zelensky did not sound positive. “These are definitely not the actions of those who believe the war is coming to an end,” he said.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
