Labor commits to extra healthcare benefits for seniors
Labor has officially announced it will match the Coalition’s senior card health announcement:
Labor will widen eligibility for the commonwealth seniors health card, in line with the government’s announcement today.
We’re not interested in playing politics when we see a good idea.
Unlike the Morrison government, we can be trusted to deliver on our announcements for older Australians and pensioners.
The Liberals have a habit of making promises to pensioners at election time but cutting support at budget time.
Australia still ‘partner of choice’ for Solomon Islands
Kate Lyons
Robert Sisilo, Solomon Islands’ high commissioner to Australia, said the countries had endured “testing times” since the draft security deal between Solomon Islands and China was leaked in March, but affirmed that Australia remained the “partner of choice” for the Pacific country.
In an interview with ABC Breakfast, a conciliatory Sisilo also dismissed fears that Solomon Islands was turning away from Australia.
“China is also a rising power,” said Sisilo.
“We are not seeking to move away from Australia, but seeking more cooperation with China.”
“Maybe we just want to diversify our sources of assistance [rather than] relying on Australia every time. We don’t also want to put the burden on Australia, because Australia has been doing a lot of assistance for us, so maybe we are starting to think of looking for other sources of assistance.”
Australia has raised concerns that the security deal signed last month could allow China to build a military base on Solomon Islands, something the prime minister of Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, has said will not happen, with Scott Morrison warning that for China to have a permanent military presence on the islands would be a “red line”.
Last week, Sogavare accused the Australian government of hypocrisy over his country’s security deal with China in light of the Aukus pact signed by Australia. Sogavare said Pacific island countries should have been consulted before the Aukus deal “allowing nuclear submarines in Pacific waters” was signed and that while the Aukus pact was far from transparent he “did not become theatrical and hysterical”.
Despite these tensions, Sisilo said the two countries were “still close friends” and he was confident the relationship would be rebuilt.
“Now we are in testing times, but through proper dialogue and mutual trust, I am confident our relations will be back on track,” said Sisilo.
Sisilo also confirmed that the text of the highly secretive security deal would be made public “in due course”, though he said Solomon Islands’ government was still discussing that with China.
Asked what it would take for Australia to restore a relationship with Solomon Islands, Sisilo said: “Climate change is of course the biggest threat to our security and our position on that is well known.”
He also said that a high unemployment rate among young people in the country was a pressing problem and urged the Australian government to expand the Pacific Labour Mobility Scheme, so that more young Solomon Islanders could have opportunities to work in Australia.
If you aren’t following this account, I recommend you do.
So many moments you would have forgotten about.
This photo op was set up after the PM couldn’t pronounce barre when naming restrictions.
The time Scott decided the nation needed photos of him doing barre during the pandemic pic.twitter.com/uEHudvfuHv
— Batshit moments in Australian Politics (@batshit_auspol) May 2, 2022
We are expecting to hear from Scott Morrison (who is campaigning in western Sydney) soon.
Barnaby Joyce launched his New England election campaign in safe territory – Armidale – on Sunday.
He’s still there, where he’s being questioned by reporters about government appointments and choices:
Barnaby Joyce defends Greg Hunt’s character, following @4corners investigation that found Hunt wrote Apsen Medical glowing letter of recommendation while his Dept was in the middle of multi million dollar PPE negotiation #auspol pic.twitter.com/OrdHHtmZao
— Jamieson Murphy (@jamiesonmurph) May 2, 2022
Joyce also defends appointing Ryan Arrold, head of a Liberal Party fundraising body to plum job on taxpayer-funded board in parliament’s final days.
“I don’t ask people what their political views are.. I look at their resumes to see if they can do a job” #auspol— Jamieson Murphy (@jamiesonmurph) May 2, 2022
Gina Liano, who I think is the queen of Melbourne, features in Labor’s latest social media ad.
WA records 5,847 new Covid cases but no deaths
Western Australia appears to be reporting no Covid deaths:
WA Health is reporting a total of 5,847 new cases to 8pm last night. There are currently 43,524 active cases in Western Australia.
To 8pm last night, there were 240 people with COVID-19 in hospital, 6 in ICU.
Total case breakdown:
Region Active (new to 8pm last night)
Metropolitan 35,141 (4,640)
Goldfields 712 (84)
Great Southern 647 (88)
Kimberley 599 (82)
Midwest 673 (114)
Pilbara 696 (87)
South West 3,046 (452)
Wheatbelt 597 (72)
Very envious of Murph and Mike Bowers who are in the Greatest Nation on Earth today as they follow Anthony Albanese around for a little bit:
Sarah Martin also saw quite a bit of the Greatest Nation on Earth while following Scott Morrison – her profile of his campaign is very revealing:
Adam Morton
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, is in Hobart, promising to push for a ban on offshore drilling in Bass Strait if the minor party is in a balance of power position after 21 May.
Bandt released a parliamentary budget office assessment that suggests extracting and burning all gas in a proposed development off the coast of King Island, between Tasmania and Victoria, could release 545m tonnes of carbon dioxide – more than Australia emits in a year.
The parliamentary office calculation of the scale of the proposal by US energy giant ConocoPhillips and Australian company 3D Oil includes several caveats but is based on data released by the companies.
Bandt said it showed the development was a “potential carbon bomb”.
He said polling showed King Islanders opposed the development and he has called on all parties to commit to blocking it. He compared it to the Pep11 gas exploration proposal off Sydney’s northern beaches that was blocked by the Morrison government. Labor supported the decision:
Australia is proudly girt by sea, but our oceans are being treated like tips and quarries as well as being heated by the burning of coal and gas.
Labor and Liberal need to commit to stopping this dangerous project and, like with Pep11, they need to pledge this prior to the election so Tasmanians know where they stand.
Josh Frydenberg has also faced this.
There is no excuse for these sorts of attacks.
Last night I was alerted to some of my signs being defaced with anti-Semitic slurs.
This was hurtful to see, of course. For those unaware, ‘Shoah’ is the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, and Jews were forced to wear yellow stars in Germany under the Nazis. pic.twitter.com/Utk39joBnS
— Kim Rubenstein (@Rubenstein_Kim1) May 1, 2022
In a statement, Kim Rubenstein said:
I’ve got a pretty thick skin and was warned this could happen. But I’m writing this as a reminder that we must be vigilant against any behaviour that seeks to vilify people for their religion, race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality.
I will always defend freedom of speech and people’s right to their own opinion. But free speech can’t be a free pass for hatred. And with that freedom comes a responsibility to do so peacefully and respectfully.
We can disagree without harming or belittling each other, and we can have our say without racist, bigoted attacks.
We should also be able to make our points without resorting to misinformation and misleading political advertising – something we’ve seen far too much of already this election campaign.
Our multicultural democracy is only as strong as its defenders – its citizens. It is precious, but it is also fragile – and we should never take it for granted.
Offsets are working out just wonderfully.
As Lisa Cox reports:
An area of heritage-listed bushland that formed part of the environmental offset for the western Sydney airport has been bulldozed for a car park at a new defence facility.
The clearing was revealed in an independent audit of the federal government’s progress in delivering the offsets required to compensate for the destruction of endangered habitat for the new travel hub in Badgerys Creek.
The main offset for the clearing of critically endangered Cumberland plain woodland is about 900ha of bushland at a defence site in the suburb of Orchard Hills.
