<gu-island name="KeyEventsCarousel" deferuntil="visible" props="{"keyEvents":[{"id":"63a336f98f085ce9739c315a","elements":[{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" The Liberal party brand is no longer “fit for purpose” and has lost its volunteer base on the ground, according to an internal review seen by the Australian. The report says membership numbers have dwindled amid factional battles and it is also expected to conclude that the unpopularity of former prime minister Scott Morrison was a key factor in May election defeat. ","elementId":"d8304b16-2cd3-4a73-9401-c7769f9baf03"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" The Australian reports: ","elementId":"aa27c65f-ac5f-4092-80f8-3d6132b791d8"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.BlockquoteBlockElement","html":" \n A key recommendation, which the report says was fundamental to the party being competitive at the next election,…
Tag: Australian security and counter-terrorism
Australia news live: body found in search for missing teen; 26 January citizenship ceremonies no longer mandated for local councils
From 2h ago Immigration minister scraps rule forcing local councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day Local councils will no longer be forced to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day, after Labor has reversed a Morrison government ruling. SBS’s Finn McHugh reports: Rules introduced in 2019 under then-prime minister Scott Morrison forced local governments to hold citizenship ceremonies on 26 January or be stripped of their right to conduct them. Mr Morrison at the time said compelling local councils to do so would stop them from “playing politics with…
Energy makes the headlines, but reset on diplomacy is Albanese’s real power play
For weeks, all eyes have been on soaring energy prices, and what the governments of Australia will do to give households and businesses relief. Governments answered part of the national water cooler question on Friday, agreeing to new price caps for coal and gas, and to rebates for people on low and middle incomes. The impact of the proposed price caps seems clear. Power bills will increase, but they will be lower than they otherwise would be in the absence of government intervention. Consumer rebates are still a bit of…
Caroline Kennedy praises Australia’s bipartisan foreign policy despite PM’s claims on Labor and China
Caroline Kennedy, the nominee for US ambassador to Australia, has said the Aukus security deal will provide “a lot of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific even before the nuclear-powered submarines are ready. With Australia set to enter a federal election campaign within days, Kennedy praised the country for standing firm with “a bipartisan foreign policy” in the face of “Chinese economic coercion”. But she also said the prospect of a security agreement between China and Solomon Islands showed the US needed to be “more visible” in the Pacific. Kennedy said the…
Labor warns China it should not ‘take comfort’ from Russian invasion of Ukraine
Labor’s shadow foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should not embolden China’s regional ambitions as she called for the “strongest possible sanctions” against Moscow by the Australian government. While declining to comment specifically on whether events in Europe increased the likelihood of China moving on Taiwan, Wong said no country should see Russia’s invasion as “any justification” for challenging the status quo in the region. “It is the case that what is occurring is relevant to our region, is relevant to the whole world, where…
Essential poll analysis: Coalition’s national security scare campaign may have backfired
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Scott Morrison’s China gambit is a Hail Mary from a flailing leader trying to galvanise fear | Peter Lewis
Scott Morrison’s efforts to politicise Australia’s complex relationship with China seems to be further soiling his own flagging reputation. Like a bull in the proverbial, he has spent the past fortnight bombarding the airwaves with hastily googled dossiers and cold war-era panics to suggest an Albanese government would become an antipodean branch office of the Beijing Politburo. Large sections of the national gallery have embraced his China pivot, breathlessly reporting the attacks on Labor, amplifying intelligence community blowback and catastrophising operational incidents that would normally demand sober assessment rather than…
Former Asio boss accuses Liberal senator of ‘grubby’ attack over Huawei comments
One of Australia’s most respected former public servants, Dennis Richardson, has accused Liberal senator James Paterson of engaging in a “grubby” and “despicable” attempt to blacken his name over comments Paterson made in an interview on Sky News. Paterson, the chair of federal parliament’s powerful committee on intelligence and security, argued in the interview on Thursday that Richardson, the former head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, had publicly advocated in 2018 that the Chinese telco Huawei should be involved in the Australian 5G rollout. Paterson described Richardson as a…
Morrison and Dutton are imperilling Australia’s national security to hang on to power | Katharine Murphy
Too often, political journalism is the art of asking the wrong question. We can preoccupy ourselves wondering whether or not a particular tactic will work. These are valid enough deductions, but the whole exercise can read like theatre criticism. At the moment, there is only one question to ask, and it’s this. Is it right for Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton to weaponise national security in the run-up to an election they evidently fear they could lose? If you ask the correct question, the answer is simple and clear. The…