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Australian politics live: minister says South Korea has ‘vested interest’ in keeping shipping routes open; Hume says more work from home ‘won’t touch the sides’ of fuel crisis | Australian politics
Australians are ‘aggrieved’ with Liberal party and ‘looking for a change’, Hume says
The Liberal party’s deputy leader, Jane Hume, says the South Australian election result has sent a message to her party: that the public are “looking for a change”.
The state election result over the weekend showed One Nation was able to turn some of its polling into seats in the upper and lower houses. Some within the Liberals have called the polling showing One Nation ahead of the Coalition as a “protest” or “middle finger” voting.
Hume told Sky News earlier this morning her party will “not be responding either to the left, to the right of one party or another”.
She says the Coalition will have to offer up a better policy platform to win back voters at the next election.
I think the biggest message for the federal Coalition is that Australia is looking for change. They are rightly aggrieved right now.
They are looking for solutions to their high energy bills, to an out of control immigration policy where they want sensible settings, and they want their standard of living improved and their way of life restored, I think that that is not an unacceptable or unreasonable request.
Hume says Ashton Hurn, the SA Liberal leader, fought valiantly, “after a scandal-ridden previous Coalition opposition in South Australia”.
Key events
Labor minister says regional partners have a ‘vested interest’ in sending fuel to Australia
Matt Thistlethwaite says the prime minister has been directly negotiating with regional partners to secure fuel supplies, adding that he doesn’t believe nations will withhold fuel supplies from Australia.
Speaking to Sky News earlier, the assistant minister for foreign affairs says Australia gets much of its fuel from South Korea and Singapore, who both rely on Australia’s coal and gas exports.
Government ministers have this morning alluded to Australia’s bargaining position as a key coal and gas exporter in the region, but Thistlethwaite has gone a little further:
The beauty of Australia, Pete [Stefanovic], is that we are one of the largest distributors of LNG anywhere in the world. And South Korea gets almost all of its LNG, it’s liquefied natural gas through Australia. So, they’ve got a vested interest in ensuring that. It’s a two-way street.
I don’t think it will [be withheld]. Both nations need supplies of LNG and fuel. Australia is a very reliable distributor of LNG … So, we’ve got that advantage in that we can work with our neighbours in Asia Pacific to ensure that they have access to their energy needs and we get access to ours.
Labor ‘doing everything we can’ to secure fuel supply, Mark Butler says
Mark Butler says the government is working with regional partners to secure fuel supplies, and reiterated that of the six oil shipments to Australia that have been cancelled or deferred, in most cases, replacements are “being organised”.
Speaking to Nine earlier this morning, the health minister said it looked likely that the conflict was going to continue “for a little longer”.
He said the government was working to get supplies from “wherever possible”, including from the US where there has been an increase in shipments that “we haven’t seen for many, many years.”
We are working very hard with our regional partners. They receive energy from us, we receive liquid fuels from them. We’re doing everything we can to get supply back into Australia and at the moment those supplies are holding up pretty well.
Hume says more working from home ‘wouldn’t touch the sides’ of fuel issues
The pollies have been asked this morning whether people should consider working from home to save fuel, as conflict escalates in the Middle East.
Tehran has said it will “irreversibly destroy” essential infrastructure across the Middle East, including vital water systems, if the US follows through on Donald Trump’s threat to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants unless the strait of Hormuz is fully opened within two days.
Jane Hume, speaking to ABC News Breakfast earlier, said work from home is “terrific” for those who can, but didn’t like the suggestion that more Australians should be encouraged to avoid commuting for work.
Hume was the behind the Coalition’s failed policy to restrict work from home options for public servants at the last election.
She said this morning a few extra people working from home “wouldn’t touch the sides” of fuel supply issues.
This is like Covid style restrictions I think that are potentially being floated. I would not support that in any way, and I don’t think businesses would do so either …
If people can work from home and they want to and it works for their employers, fine, I think that’s terrific, but it doesn’t help small businesses. It certainly doesn’t help the truckers and the fishers and the farmers and the manufacturers and the miners that are relying on fuel supply.
Joyce defends One Nation’s vetting, saying candidates ‘lie’
Barnaby Joyce tells RN Breakfast that “every party has issues with vetting”, after One Nation had to dump its Adelaide candidate Aoi Baxter a day before the election, amid reports in the ABC that claimed there was a warrant for his arrest in the UK.
Host Sally Sara asks whether One Nation needs to improve its vetting, but Joyce hits back and pins the blame on candidates, saying that they “lie”.
On why the ABC was able to uncover this story instead of One Nation, Joyce says “journalists do a really good job of looking for the problem”.
They [candidates] lie, see? They lie, they don’t tell the truth. If people are suggesting that we deliberately select someone with a warrant, well, that is absurd.
Every party has issues with vetting. You give me a party and just give me 10 minutes, and I’ll give you some problems that they’ve had in the selection of candidates.
One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce says ‘the move is on’ after SA election
The One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce says the South Australian election results show a “corroboration of where the polling is”.
Speaking to ABC’s RN Breakfast, Joyce says there is a global movement which has now reached Australia, claiming the public is rejecting mainstream policies on climate change and migration – two key areas One Nation has attacked.
But Labor – both in South Australia and nationally – has claimed landslide victories while campaigning for stronger climate action and supporting multiculturalism.
While One Nation is the biggest threat to the Liberal party, Joyce says his party is coming for Labor too.
I think the move is on. I think it’s been a move that’s happened globally and it’s arrived in Australia. And it’s premised on the fact that people have been tolerant or accepting of basically sort of a word salad of ideas that never really eventuate into cold hard policies. And when they do, they don’t work on behalf of the Australian people.
The Coalition’s fading. Liberal party’s fading. You’re seeing that. But you’re seeing a peel-off of blue-collar votes. I can assure you [of] that.
SA election result ‘very grim’ but ‘better than we were expecting’: Liberal senator
It’s very grim, but could have been worse, is the message from South Australian federal Liberal senator Leah Blyth, who tells RN Breakfast this morning that when leader Ashton Hurn was elected 100 days ago, “we were projected to win zero to three seats”.
Blyth says the previous drug conviction against former state leader, David Spiers, “doesn’t help”. She describes the leadership situation as a bit of a “rolling door” – after Spiers, Vincent Tarzia assumed the role for less than four months before Hurn was chosen and took the party to the election.
Blyth, like Hume, is very complimentary of Hurn but quotes former Liberal prime minister John Howard who once said “you can’t fatten the pig on market day. And 100 days was just not enough to get the policy offering out there.”
It’s not the election result we were hoping for, obviously, but I think it is much better than we were expecting.
It’s very grim but we’re sort of looking at it. It could have been worse. So we’ve got to rebuild.
On what the results mean for the federal party, Blyth says:
Discipline and unity. That’s the message that I’m taking. And that we’ve got to make sure that we are putting up policies that are in the interests of Australians at a federal level and that we’ve got to stop talking about ourselves. That is death politically.
Australians are ‘aggrieved’ with Liberal party and ‘looking for a change’, Hume says
The Liberal party’s deputy leader, Jane Hume, says the South Australian election result has sent a message to her party: that the public are “looking for a change”.
The state election result over the weekend showed One Nation was able to turn some of its polling into seats in the upper and lower houses. Some within the Liberals have called the polling showing One Nation ahead of the Coalition as a “protest” or “middle finger” voting.
Hume told Sky News earlier this morning her party will “not be responding either to the left, to the right of one party or another”.
She says the Coalition will have to offer up a better policy platform to win back voters at the next election.
I think the biggest message for the federal Coalition is that Australia is looking for change. They are rightly aggrieved right now.
They are looking for solutions to their high energy bills, to an out of control immigration policy where they want sensible settings, and they want their standard of living improved and their way of life restored, I think that that is not an unacceptable or unreasonable request.
Hume says Ashton Hurn, the SA Liberal leader, fought valiantly, “after a scandal-ridden previous Coalition opposition in South Australia”.
Government announces new green energy rules for datacentres
The government is today announcing some ground rules for companies wanting to build datacentres in Australia – including ensuring they add to clean energy supplies and minimise their water usage.
Australia has the second largest pipeline of datacentre construction in the world – after the US. But datacentres use huge amounts of power and water, and the government anticipates that by 2030, datacentres will consume about 6% of grid supplied energy.
The new rules state that datacentres will have to bring new clean energy, cover their full share of energy connection costs, lift efficiency, and support grid stability, and not increase energy costs for households and businesses.
Companies will also have to support Australian jobs and industry.
Tim Ayres is the minister in charge, and at the end of his ABC interview finally got asked about the announcement. He says the “principles” outline what the government expects from companies and investors to get datacentres built in Australia.
It sends a message to the states and territories, we don’t want to see a race to the bottom on these standards, and it makes it very clear, if you’ve got a datacentre investment for Australia, we want to see you underpin additional electricity through power purchasing agreements that mean you’re contributing to Australian resilience, not undermining it.
Should Australians work from home to save fuel?
James Glenday then asks Tim Ayres whether he thinks Australians should consider working from home to conserve fuel. Countries like Sri Lanka have moved to a four-day working week and are encouraging public servants to WFH.
Ayres says the government won’t dictate that, and tries to remind everyone that the Coalition tried to “ban” working from home.
Australians will make their own decisions, and work from home is a viable option for many, many people, and they’ll make that call. We’re not going further than that.
Industry minister quizzed on fuel security
Industry minister Tim Ayres has done his best to avoid directly answering some sticky questions on ABC News Breakfast this morning, including whether Australia will try to leverage our coal and gas exports to secure fuel imports.
Joining the program a little earlier, Ayres said broadly the government is working with international partners to “maximise” fuel supplies, and ensure that fuel in Australia is going to regional areas where it needs to be.
Host James Glenday tries to push Ayres on whether we’re considering a quid pro quo approach, but Ayres won’t bite. He says:
We are an excellent partner on energy security for a range of our partners in the region in terms of refined fuel products and crude oil.
Glenday then asks Ayres if the government will charge a 25% export tax on gas companies if prices begin to soar (as reported last week).
Ayres dodges the question:
We have moved for the first time at the commonwealth level to impose a reservation scheme so that Australian gas is there for Australian households and Australian business. The details of that reservation scheme will be decided in the normal way and a proper cabinet process … We’ll release those details when it’s been properly decided.
Lowy Institute paper warns of drone terror threat
Governments around the world are unprepared for the growing threat of drones being used to carry out terror attacks, a report warns.
Advances in drone technology, 3D printing and AI-assisted navigation should prompt leaders, including those in Australia, to rethink anti-extremism strategies, the paper from the Lowy Institute says.
The report points to a series of incidents in recent years as “warning signs” of what may be to come if governments don’t crack down.
They include a UK student arrested for using a 3D printer to build “kamikaze” drones for Islamic State, seven people arrested in Queensland who had homemade guns and a drone-mounted improvised explosive device, and two separate US plots involving drone use.
“What was once the exclusive domain of state actors now rests within reach of nearly anyone with a credit card and data signal,” authors James Paterson (not the senator) and Lydia Khalil wrote.
The combination of easy accessibility and payload potential, and the limitations of domestic counter-drone systems, presents a growing challenge.
Drones have also been used to deadly effect in the Russia-Ukraine war and Middle East conflict, where they are loaded with explosives and flown at military personnel or sensitive sites.
The report warns a vast array of civilian and military sites could be targeted, including mass gatherings and major events.
It argues “difficult decisions” will be needed to choose which locations to defend and how to do so.
via AAP
Good morning
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji with you as the politicians gather in Canberra for another sitting week.
There is plenty on the agenda for today, the government will be under more pressure on global oil supply as the situation escalates in the Middle East.
The Liberal party will continue deal with the fallout of the South Australian election over the weekend, and European Union president Ursula von der Leyen arrives in Sydney today, before addressing the federal parliament later this week. She’ll be the first female foreign leader to do so.
And the government is introducing new rules for datacentres and AI – which will push companies building new developments to add to the clean energy supply and minimise water footprints.
I’ve got my coffee, I hope you’ve got yours – let’s get stuck in!
