Home
live

Australian news and politics live: Anthony Albanese spruiks clean energy at economic reform roundtable

Kimberley BraddishThe Nightly
CommentsComments
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese opens the Economic Reform Roundtable at Parliament House in Canberra.
Camera IconPrime Minister Anthony Albanese opens the Economic Reform Roundtable at Parliament House in Canberra. Credit: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire

Scroll down for the latest news and updates.

Reporting LIVE

Madeline Cove

Hamilton suggests $9000 payout for migrants to have ‘pathway home’

Queensland MP Garth Hamilton says Australia should consider paying jobless migrants up to $9000 to leave the country as a way of curtailing rising immigration levels.

The Liberal backbencher said the policy was not politically divisive, and said a similar approached had worked in “left-wing governments in the EU” like France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium.

Quoting figures between $6000 to $9000, he said the payment would “give people a pathway home” and labelled the move as a “reasonably compassionate and fair approach”.

“The reality is, a lot of migrants who are coming over here aren’t finding work, they aren’t finding their housing,” he told 2GB on Tuesday.

“They aren’t finding that things were as rosy as they’d hoped because of the high immigration policies that we’ve employed; things haven’t quite been working out.”

Read more.

Madeline Cove

What is the government’s productivity roundtable?

What is the Economic Reform Roundtable?

  • A three-day event aimed at lifting living standards primarily by boosting productivity, which has stagnated in Australia and other Western countries
  • Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised it will deliver long-lasting change to the government’s economic agenda

What is productivity?

  • It’s about squeezing more from less, allowing wages to grow and helping build things better and faster, such as homes and clean energy infrastructure

Why is it important?

  • Productivity has been in decline since 2016, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics
  • Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said the roundtable will make the economy more productive over time, helping to lift living standards and make people better off
  • The summit follows the Reserve Bank of Australia’s downgrading of productivity growth from one per cent to 0.7 per cent

Read more.

Madeline Cove

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas backs urgent DV reforms

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has released the findings of the state’s royal commission into domestic, family and sexual violence, which made 136 recommendations.

The government has accepted seven immediately, including creating a stand-alone ministerial portfolio, a new stewardship function, and engaging directly with victim-survivors.

Mr Malinauskas said the report contained “some pretty harrowing stories” and warned cultural change was needed in the justice system. He backed recommendations for trauma-informed training for judicial officers and safer spaces in courts so victims are not forced into the same environment as alleged perpetrators.

The premier also highlighted concerns around alcohol delivery services, calling for tighter regulation. Consumer Affairs Minister Andrea Michaels has been tasked with bringing a proposal to Cabinet, as the government works toward a full response to all recommendations by year’s end.

Amy Lee

‘Liberal-Green alliance’ as Tassie parliament resumes

Tasmania is set for an ongoing minority Liberal Government after a snap election, a hung parliament and a failed bid by Labor to seize power.

Parliament will sit on Tuesday for the first time since the July 19 poll delivered the Liberals 14 seats and Labor 10, both short of the 18 mark required for majority.

Liberal leader Jeremy Rockliff was recommissioned as Premier but his ongoing support was set to be tested by a Labor no-confidence motion in parliament.

Labor leader Dean Winter’s attempt to court the cross bench hit a fatal bump on Monday when the five-seat Greens, whose support his party needed, said they could not back the motion.

Kristie Johnston and David O’Byrne, two of five independents on the cross bench, have also declared they won’t support Labor.

Read the full story.

Amy Lee

Canavan to hold rival roundtable, slams Labor for ‘wasting time’

Senator Canavan has announced he will hold a rival productivity roundtable of business leaders and economists on Wednesay after slamming the Albanese Government for “wasting time” discussing topics such as AI instead of energy prices.

“The Government is ignoring the topic of energy price at its so-called ‘productivity’ roundtable. Labor does not even have a plan anymore to lower power prices,” he wrote on X.

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament House, Senator Canavan also raised concerns about new carbon accounting rules being imposed on the farming sector.

Senator Canavan emphasised that those rules add a $2.1 billion compliance cost to the Australian economy.

“We’ve got these rules which will make banks go to their customers and ask them to count up all their carbon emissions in their businesses and report back to them,” he said.

“Just adding more adding more heartache, more headaches, more paperwork for our nation’s farmers who already have enough to do when it comes to the weather.”

Amy Lee

One Nation senator resigns just weeks after election

One of Federal Parliament’s newest senators has resigned less than one month after being sworn in.

NSW One Nation senator Warwick Stacey on Tuesday resigned from the Senate due to health reasons.

“I don’t think a person elected to parliament should be anything less than completely dedicated to a role entrusted to them by voters, so I’m resigning to make way for someone who can do that on behalf of the people of NSW,” he said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, I will be unable to fully dedicate myself to the role as I deal with my personal health issues.”

One Nation will announce Senator Stacey’s replacement in coming weeks.

Read the full story.

Amy Lee

280,000 customer details exposed after iiNet cyber attack

iNet revealed on Tuesday that it had been compromised, with an unknown third party accessing its order management system on Saturday.

The company said that most of the data breached was of a non-identifying nature and used to authenticate and activate orders for iiNet services such as NBN.

However, it admitted that a list of email addresses and phone numbers had been extracted from its system.

The list contained about 280,000 active iiNet email addresses and about 20,000 active iiNet landline phone numbers, plus inactive email addresses and numbers.

Customers are urged to remain vigilant, especially of any communications received via email, text or phone.

Read the full story.

Sussan Ley says she ‘won’t be judged by headlines or polling numbers’

About 100 days into her new role as Opposition leader after Peter Dutton lost his seat and top job at the May 3 Federal election, Sussan Ley has been asked about polling on her performance.

The latest Newspoll, which showed she suffered some fall in support from voters comes after only two weeks of the 48th Parliament sitting and before the Liberals post-election review is completed.

“I won’t be judged by headlines or polling numbers. I know that we will deliver a credible, compelling, serious agenda for change to the Australian people,” she told reporters in Sydney.

“We’re developing that now. What’s most important for me and my team is to be out there working hard for the Australians that need us to back them.

“They need a government that understands what their life is like, gets out of their way, reduces their red tape, helps them, gives them confidence and looks to the future alongside them.”

Ley says PM asleep at the wheel on productivity as roundtable kicks off in Canberra

As the first day of the Albanese Government’s economic reform roundtable kicks off in Canberra on Tuesday morning, Opposition leader Sussan Ley has slammed the PM for being asleep at the wheel.

“This is the fourth year of a Labor Government and it is as if they’re only just discovering that they need to do something about productivity. Where were they for the last three years?,” she questioned at a press conference in Western Sydney.

“And every step they take mitigates against the most important thing here which is attracting investment, driving growth, lifting living standards, increasing the size of businesses and having confidence.”

Ley slams Albanese Government deterioration of Israel relationship

Opposition leader Sussan Ley has slammed the Albanese Government for the deterioration of their relationship with Israel after 24 hours of tit-for-tat visa cancellations.

She called for Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to publicly explain on what grounds he cancelled the visa of Israeli politician Simcha Rothman.

“That is something all Australians should be very sad about today,” she told reporters in Western Sydney.

“Israel is a Liberal democracy in the Middle East and we should be supporting them as that liberal democracy.

“The steps that the Albanese Government has taken over recent days and weeks certainly have not demonstrated that.

“This is an elected member of the Israeli Parliament and it’s a very unusual thing to refuse a visa.”

Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.

Sign up for our emails