1m agoMon 30 Jun 2025 at 2:07am
PM to ‘do what is necessary’ to keep community safe
Circling back to the prime minister’s press conference earlier, where he was also asked about the difficulty of putting non-citizens in preventative detention.
The so-called NZYQ cohort of about 250 non-citizens was released from detention in 2023, as part of a High Court decision.
As a result, the government rewrote preventative detention laws, but yesterday the home affairs minister conceded they’ve effectively failed. My colleague, Tom Crowley, covered this yesterday.
Anthony Albanese was asked about it today and whether he was open to re-visiting the laws.
He says the government is balancing community safety and the law.
“We do what we need to do to keep people safe, but we also have to obviously acknowledge the law,” he said.
“We need to act within the law and my government does that.
“We’ll continue to do what is necessary to keep people safe.”
53m agoMon 30 Jun 2025 at 1:14am
Pacific Island nations likely to pursue climate visa with Australia, academic says
An international development academic says he expects other Pacific Island nations to seek a climate visa deal with Australia given the success of a similar visa with Tuvalu.
Nearly a third of Tuvalu’s citizens have entered a ballot for the first tranche of 280 Australian climate visas, that will give citizens of the island nation the right to live in Australia as rising sea levels threaten its future.
Tuvalu, home to about 10,000 people, is at risk of becoming uninhabitable within the next 80 years because of climate change.
Director of Development Policy at the Australian National University Stephen Howes says the visa is unique because there are no age, work, health, disability requirements required to be granted a visa.
He says he expects other Pacific Island nations to seek a similar deal with Australia.
“Tuvalu really hasn’t had to give up that much to get this concession and it’s incredibly popular as you can tell from the fact that so many Tuvaluans have applied for this visa,” he says.
1h agoMon 30 Jun 2025 at 12:24am
Analysis: Ley’s job is fraught with danger
As the Liberal Party grapples with its spectacular election loss and works out how to rebuild, Patricia Karvelas writes Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is approaching it as if there’s a giant sign above her head that screams, “I’m not Peter Dutton“.
Her speech at the National Press Club last week was loaded with hints that fit this thesis. Even the decision to address the NPC itself — a forum Dutton viewed as a space of the Canberra journalistic elite and snubbed consistently — was a signal. She has also flooded the youth and women’s podcast space to send the same point.
And from the moment she was on her feet at the press club she acknowledged the traditional owners of the land — a sentence that had not only become absent from the Liberal leadership lexicon — it was by the end of the election campaign a full-blown culture war that put even more nails in the Liberal Party’s already bolted-in coffin.
Ley’s job over the next year is fraught with danger. She might be given a period of brief peace but most Liberals you speak to privately concede that it will be difficult to keep that peace for the entire term.
Continue reading PK’s full analysis at the link below.
2h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 11:40pm
Pitch to ‘save’ NDIS as foundational supports rollout stalls
A new report has recommended four policy changes to “save” the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), as federal and state governments continue to negotiate a funding deal for a new tier of services to be set up outside the scheme.
That new system — called foundational supports — was agreed to in 2023 and initially slated to begin by July 2025, but those services are still a long way off and yet to be properly defined.
The Grattan Institute’s report, released on Sunday evening, posited that a “rebalancing” of current NDIS spending could help save tens of billions of dollars while also making sure more people outside the scheme could get support.
Read more from the specialist reporting team’s Evan Young and national disability affairs reporter Nas Campanella at the link below.
3h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 11:05pm
Australia making ‘representations’ to AUKUS review
The Trump administration’s review of the AUKUS agreement has been a hot topic in Canberra since the Elbridge Colby-led inquiry was first announced.
So will Australia be making a submission as part of the review? Of course, Anthony Albanese said.
“We make representations and our defence minister directly with Defense Minister [Pete Hegseth] but also at every opportunity Australia raises our points,” he said.
The PM was repeatedly asked if that also meant the government had appealed directly to Colby.
“We engage with everyone in the United States,” he said.
3h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 10:47pm
PM reiterates Trump tariffs ‘should be zero’
Anthony Albanese says the government will continue to advocate for Donald Trump’s tariffs to be removed.
The US president imposed a 10 per cent tariff on imported goods from Australia earlier this year. An initial 25 per cent tariff was also slapped on metal exports. Trump has since boosted this to 50 per cent.
Speaking to reporters in Canberra, the PM repeated many of the same lines we’ve been hearing since Trump first announced the tariffs.
“We’ll continue to put our case forward that it shouldn’t be 10 [per cent]. It should be zero. That is what a reciprocal tariff will be,” he said.
“We have a US free trade agreement … and we’re put forward, very clearly, our arguments will continue to do so.”
Asked if he had any plans to make an imminent trip the US, Albanese said he was there a little over a week ago and “looks forward to returning”.
3h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 10:30pm
PM spruiks cash bonuses for apprentices
Anthony Albanese and co have put on their big winter coats and toured around the Canberra Institute of Technology this morning spruiking the government’s $10,000 cash bonus for apprentices.
The scheme pays apprentices in five $2,000 instalments over the duration of their apprenticeship, additional to any pay from their employers.
The PM says it will “make a difference” and “send a message” to apprentices that the government “values your decision” to go into a trade.
Albanese also talked up the extension of fee free TAFE places.
The press conference is part of the government’s EOFY roadshow, showing off its cost of living measures due to kick in from July 1.
3h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 10:10pm
Rishworth grilled over gambling ads two years on from Murphy review
Amanda Rishworth insists the government hasn’t been “sitting on its hands” two years after an inquiry into online gambling was handed back to government.
The inquiry, which was lead by late Labor MP Peta Murphy, made 31 recommendations including a gambling advertising ban to be phased in over three years.
Rishworth, a former social services minister, pushed back at suggestion the government has failed to respond to the report, pointing to action to ban the use of credit cards in gambling and the introduction of Betstop – the self exclusion register.
“We will continue to recognise and look at how we can best support people when it comes to minimising the harm of online gambling, but there’s no silver bullet here,” she said.
Asked if there would be a response in this term, Rishworth said she wasn’t the minister responsible.
4h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 9:59pm
PM to address media shortly
Anthony Albanese and his cabinet ministers are on a bit of an end of financial year media blitz, spruiking the benefits of changes rolling out from July 1 (aka tomorrow).
We’ve received word the PM will be standing up shortly alongside Skills Minister Andrew Gilies and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher in Canberra this morning, where I’m expecting they’ll be talking up the government’s $10,000 apprentice sign-on bonuses.
Stick around.
4h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 9:56pm
Govt ‘putting best foot forward’ on tariff negotiations
Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth says the government will continue to make the case for Australian exporters as a deadline for Donald Trump’s second round of metal tariffs looms.
The US president imposed a 10 per cent tariff on imported goods from Australia earlier this year. An initial 25 per cent tariff was also slapped on metal exports. Trump has since boosted this to 50 per cent.
“We’ve been very clear that we don’t believe that you put these tariffs on a friend … we’ve also been very clear the tariffs hurt American consumers,” Rishworth told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast.
“This is a challenge that many countries are dealing with … we will keep putting our best foot forward.”
4h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 9:33pm
Gallagher brushes off China’s top diplomat’s warning on defence spending
Meanwhile, Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian has warned the government against an increase in defence spending, writing in the Australian that it would undermine economic development.
Speaking with Nine, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher pretty much dismissed it.
“Our position remains the same, we make decisions based in our national interest, based on our needs, and will continue to do so whether it be in defence, national security, a whole range of other areas,” she said.
Gallagher says she has “no doubt” defence will be a topic of conversation at the Quad Foreign Ministers meeting this week.
4h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 9:23pm
Visit to meet Trump ‘in train’
Organisation for Anthony Albanese’s much anticipated trip to the United States is “in train” with the prime minister just waiting for the “confirmation” to be given, Tanya Plibersek says.
The PM has been under pressure to make the trip to Washington to appeal directly to US President Donald Trump for an exemption to his so-called Liberation Day tariffs.
It comes as two senior US lawmakers issued a bipartisan plea for Albanese to prioritise a visit to the White House.
“I’m sure the prime minister’s very much looking forward to it,” Plibersek told Seven, adding Penny Wong was making the trip over today and ambassador Kevin Rudd was acting like an “engergiser bunny” of diplomacy.
“We’re awaiting confirmation of a suitable time … There’s a lot of communication going on both ways but it’s not sort of thing where you just pop in with a plate of scones, hoping someone’s
home. The organising of the visit is in train.”
4h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 9:20pm
Wong must secure invite for PM to visit US: Bragg
Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg has urged Penny Wong to return from her visit to the United States with an invitation for the PM to make the trip over.
“[Donald Trump] was elected last November and they haven’t had any face to face meeting. [Trump]’s met with almost every other world leader or many other world leaders. So this is getting ridiculous,” he told Nine.
“They’ve also got to have a good discussion about the trade stuff and the other economic issues, the military stuff. So there’s a lot to talk about.”
Albanese had hoped to meet with the US president on the sidelines of the G7 summit but the conflict in the Middle East prompted Trump’s early exit.
4h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 9:09pmWong heads to the United States to meet Quad counterparts
Foreign Minister Penny Wong will head to Washington this week for talks with her counterparts from the US, India and Japan.
The talks will form part of the meeting of the Quad Foreign Ministers, which is being held for the second time within six months.
In a statement, Wong said it reflected “the importance of our partnership and the strategic circumstances confronting our region and the world.”
The Quad is partnership between Australia, Japan, the US and India.
While in the United States, Wong will also hold one-on-one meetings with Marco Rubio, as the deadline looms for the end of the pause on Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.
“The United States is our closest ally and principal strategic partner. Our alliance contributes to the peace, prosperity and stability of our countries and the region we share,” she said.
“We will continue to work together to further our important economic and security partnership and advance our mutual interests.”
Wong will also hold bilateral meetings with S. Jaishankar and Takeshi Iwaya.
5h agoSun 29 Jun 2025 at 9:05pm
👋 Good morning
Hi friends. Welcome to our politics live blog.
I’m Courtney Gould, logging in from the ABC’s Parliament House bureau in (frosty) Canberra, ready to bring you all the news as it comes in.
Let’s get blogging!
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