Jane Hume defends Peter Dutton over testy exchange with ABC journalist
Sarah Basford Canales
The opposition finance spokesperson, Jane Hume, has defended Peter Dutton’s recent clashes with ABC journalists, claiming the questions took “activist” and “ideological” approaches.
At a press conference in Western Australia on Friday, ABC journalist Bridget McArthur asked how the opposition leader could claim there was wide support for a nuclear reactor in Collie, a town in the state’s south-west.
Dutton responded: “How do you know that they don’t [support it]?”
My first tango with Peter Dutton. Sadly didn’t get a whole lot of time for questions. Costing/timeline for costing for nuclear still TBC https://t.co/e1w4wRl6F3
— Bridget McArthur (she/her) (@bridgemac1) October 18, 2024
The journalist said she had spoken to a number of people in Collie while adding she hadn’t seen Dutton speak to a “single member of the public”.
Before being cut off, Dutton accused the ABC journalist of being an advocate: “You can all be advocates and play your games …”
The reporter said:
I don’t have a bias, you might have a bias against the ABC … I ask [energy minister] Chris Bowen the kind of questions I ask you and I promise you I don’t [have a bias].
Dutton replied:
Well, you can be an advocate or be a journalist, but I think the ABC, using taxpayers’ money …
The journalist disputed the question as coming from an advocacy position, saying she wanted to know why Dutton hadn’t “met with the people”.
Dutton responded:
I think your job is to be impartial.
Key events
Some nights, when the wind blows from the east, Yvonne Johnstone goes to sleep to the hum of the Tarong power station. Occasionally, she finds ash from the coal-fired plant scattered among the vegetables and fruit trees of her five-acre block. “It forms a ring,” she says.
As if it’s gone up in a cloud and then fallen.
Johnstone doesn’t think twice about it – but what of federal opposition leader Peter Dutton’s proposal to build a nuclear reactor within cooee of her smartly painted, corrugated iron home?
Dutton and the Coalition’s proposal is to build seven nuclear power plants across Australia along with two proposed small modular reactors. The opposition wants them in Tarong and Callide in Queensland; Mount Piper and Liddell in New South Wales; Collie in Western Australia; Loy Yang in Victoria; and the former site of the Northern power station in Port Paterson, South Australia. The sites are mostly in Coalition seats.
The Queensland LNP’s leader, David Crisafulli, facing an election, has been steadfast in his defiance of Dutton’s plan for the Queensland sites. He says he would oppose them if elected at the 26 October poll and has repeatedly ruled out repealing the state’s nuclear ban under any circumstances.
But Dutton, a fellow Queenslander, has previously suggested overriding state legislation.
“When you hear nuclear, of course you start to panic,” Johnstone, a retired biscuit factory worker, says. “But I’m sure that they can’t just have something that dangerous in a suburb.
I’m a person that buries her head in the sand, I suppose, and gets on with what I want to do.
For more on this story, read the full feature story by Guardian Australia’s Joe Hinchliffe:
Independent senator David Pocock has been buoyed by the outcome of the ACT election, which rewarded independent candidates over the traditional parties.
Pocock said that the swings away from the major parties in the ACT and NSW showed the public had a desire for change.
This shows there is a growing, rather than a diminishing, appetite from Australians for people in parliament who are there to directly represent the community, not major parties or vested interests.
The finance minister (and former ACT chief minister), Katy Gallagher, meanwhile, said that while Labor had continued its reign in the territory, the outcome showed that people were looking away from the major parties, saying: “It could continue”.
We’re going to have to campaign hard to hold those (Canberra-based) seats and in the Senate as well.
There’s a rusted-on Liberal vote in this town. Senator Pocock took Green-Labor votes, he only took a very small percentage of Liberal votes.
– AAP
Analysts on the lookout for jobs comments from RBA deputy governor
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s second-in-command will have an opportunity to opine on a robust jobs readout as anxious borrowers await good news.
A fireside chat with RBA deputy governor, Andrew Hauser, is on the agenda at the Commonwealth Bank’s global markets conference on Monday, where he is likely to face questions on the labour market.
Any insights into the trajectory for interest rates will be welcomed by stretched borrowers, with hopes for cuts earlier than the February 2025 – or later – timeline pencilled in by most economists.
The 64,100 jobs added to the economy comfortably beat expectations and the unemployment rate held at 4.1% from a downwardly revised figure in August.
September’s inarguably hot labour market figures sparked questions for the inflation outlook and when easing could be expected.
– AAP
Auction activity remains stable
Auction activity has remained stable this weekend with 2,510 auctions to be held.
This is just below the 2,598 held last week and a gain on the 2,463 auctions that occurred at the same time last year.
Based on results collected so far, CoreLogic’s summary found that the preliminary clearance rate was 67.5% across the country, which is higher than the 65.7% preliminary rate recorded last week but well above the 60.8% actual rate on final numbers.
Across the capital cities:
Sydney: 713 of 978 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 70.5%
Melbourne: 754 of 1069 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 69.2%
Brisbane: 170 0f 227 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 47.6%
Adelaide: 82 of 145 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 72%
Canberra: 45 of 71 auctions with a preliminary clearance rate of 55.6%
Tasmania: One auction to be held.
Perth: Seven of 19 auctions held.
Sarah Basford Canales Stripping Mike Pezzullo of Order of Australia honours should have been more ‘transparent’, Jane Hume says
The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, says the decision to strip an Order of Australia honour from former top bureaucrat, Mike Pezzullo, should be more transparent.
Speaking on Sky this morning, Hume said:
I feel that perhaps if we’re going to create integrity and trust in the merit system, well, perhaps these decisions should be made transparent.
Pezzullo’s appointment as an officer to the Order of Australia was stripped on 26 September 2024, according to a document signed by the official secretary to the governor general, but not publicly available until Thursday.
The former home affairs department secretary was sacked in November 2023 after an independent inquiry found he had breached the government’s code of conduct at least 14 times, including for using his power for personal benefit. The inquiry had been probing a series of text messages he had sent to a Liberal party insider in an alleged attempt to influence political processes.
On Friday, Pezzullo said the decision to remove his appointment didn’t “amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world”.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, told Sky on Sunday the decision was a matter for the Council of the Order of Australia and played no role in it.
[Pezzullo] was a long-term, career public servant in Canberra. He did many good things, but this is a matter for the council. They’ve had a look at it, they’ve considered it against their criteria and they made a recommendation to the Governor-General.
Caitlin Cassidy Royals’ tour of Sydney concludes, heads to Canberra tomorrow
King Charles’s formal itinerary has concluded for the day, after a visit with the governor-general, Sam Mostyn, and the NSW governor, Margaret Beazley.
Just one photographer and one TV camera were allowed to accompany the king on the reception at Admiralty House – the official residence of the governor-general in Kirribilli.
Locals had their first chance to spot the king outside St Thomas’ Anglican church earlier today, prior to his speech at NSW parliament house. Tomorrow, he’ll be off to Canberra, where there is a packed schedule.
The trip will start with an official greeting party with a welcome to country and smoking ceremony, after which he will lay a wreath in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial. The king and queen will then greet the public on the way to the For our Country memorial, followed by a trip to Parliament House.
Later in the afternoon, the royal couple will plant a tree each on the grounds of Government House, and head to the Botanic Gardens where they’ll hear about the impacts of climate change on flora.
Sarah Basford Canales ABC journalists’ questions to Dutton not biased but ‘activist’, Hume says
Sky host, Andrew Clennell, asked whether Jane Hume would “caution” the opposition leader over his reaction as the federal election campaign nears.
Hume responded:
I think that the questions that are being asked of Peter Dutton potentially come from a more activist position, an ideological position, and particularly from the national broadcaster, we would expect a level of balance in not just their reporting, but in the way that the questions are framed.
Hume dismissed the suggestion Dutton’s response was related to the journalists’ gender, before saying there would be no cuts to ABC funding.
Hume said she didn’t think the ABC journalists were “biased” but thought “they were activists”.
That’s very different.
Sarah Basford Canales The opposition finance spokesperson, Jane Hume, has defended Peter Dutton’s recent clashes with ABC journalists, claiming the questions took “activist” and “ideological” approaches.
At a press conference in Western Australia on Friday, ABC journalist Bridget McArthur asked how the opposition leader could claim there was wide support for a nuclear reactor in Collie, a town in the state’s south-west.
Dutton responded: “How do you know that they don’t [support it]?”
My first tango with Peter Dutton. Sadly didn’t get a whole lot of time for questions. Costing/timeline for costing for nuclear still TBC https://t.co/e1w4wRl6F3
— Bridget McArthur (she/her) (@bridgemac1) October 18, 2024 The journalist said she had spoken to a number of people in Collie while adding she hadn’t seen Dutton speak to a “single member of the public”.
Before being cut off, Dutton accused the ABC journalist of being an advocate: “You can all be advocates and play your games …”
The reporter said:
I don’t have a bias, you might have a bias against the ABC … I ask [energy minister] Chris Bowen the kind of questions I ask you and I promise you I don’t [have a bias].
Dutton replied:
Well, you can be an advocate or be a journalist, but I think the ABC, using taxpayers’ money …
The journalist disputed the question as coming from an advocacy position, saying she wanted to know why Dutton hadn’t “met with the people”.
Dutton responded:
I think your job is to be impartial.
Australia reviewing all military export permits to Israel
Australia is carrying out a review of all 66 defence-related export permits for Israel that were approved prior to the Gaza conflict.
Guardian Australia understands the review is being done in a similar manner to the UK government’s recent reassessment of arms licences to Israel, with the outcome to be announced “in coming months”.
Sources said the Department of Defence was weighing up each permit on a case-by-case basis and considering how it fits with Australia’s international obligations, including with respect to human rights.
A defence spokesperson confirmed the review was progressing:
As circumstances in the Middle East evolve, Australia continues to scrutinise pre-existing export permits to Israel to ensure they align with our calibrated approach.
The federal government has repeatedly stated that Australia “has not supplied weapons or ammunition to Israel since the conflict began and for at least the past five years”, and it continues to maintain that position.
But the government has faced criticism for failing to be transparent about what each permit covers. It has also defended Australia’s supply of parts for the global supply chain for the F-35 fighter aircraft. Israel has used F-35 aircraft in Gaza.
For more this story, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Daniel Hurst:
Status quo ‘not an option’, Jacinta Allan says of taller buildings plan
Victorian premier Jacinta Allan has announced that her government will intervene in the planning process to build thousands more homes near public transport centres across Melbourne.
In a press conference today, Allan said her government would increase density in 50 inner-Melbourne areas near public transport to help them “become places where we can build more quality homes”:
This is where these homes should go, close too public transport, close to jobs and services and schools, and close to opportunity, particularly for those who might want to live in the area where they grew up, they might want to live close to mum and dad or other family, because that’s where we get our support from.
The premier also took aim at Liberal party members who attended the press conference as part of a protest citing concerns about alleged plans to build 20-storey tower blocks in the area:
The status quo is not an option. We are faced with a choice. We are faced with a choice in 2024 we can either continue to accept the status quo, we can continue to respond to the loudest voices who want to block, who want to block every single project, like the Liberal party have done for year upon year, or we can take a choice and go down a path of facing into those challenges, working with industry on their challenges, but most importantly, working with the Victorian community to build more homes, to provide more opportunities for Victorians to be able to get into a home, start a family, build their long-term wealth and have the secure future that they deserve.
Under the plan “taller buildings” of between 10 and 20 storeys near the stations will be allowed, and low-rise apartments and townhouses of between three and six storeys alongside existing homes in the “walkable catchments” surrounding them will be allowed.
The premier describe claims that the government will allow significant numbers of 20-storey high-rise apartments as “mischief” saying that the government will engage in a “street by street, community by community” consultation process about “how to build more homes in the right locations with the train services, the tram services, the local infrastructure, the schools and open space that go alongside building communities, alongside building homes:
Why would anyone want to stand in the way of addressing this most critical issue that young Victorians face week in, week out.
Fellowship program established with donation from king
The Association of Commonwealth Universities will launch a fellowship program for those looking to work on issues affecting island nations who are members of the British Commonwealth.
Known as Commonwealth small island development nations, or “Sids”, these countries are some of the most vulnerable to environmental and economic shocks.
The announcement has been timed with King Charles’ visit to Australia and will open up opportunities for mid-career professionals, undergraduates and PhD students to access support to work on issues including climate change and inequality.
The king’s Commonwealth fellowship programme has been “inspired” by the king and established with a personal donation from the monarch. Activities included in the program will take place in-country and emphasise local impact and retaining skills and talent.
King Charles said the program was an extension of his belief in “the power of education to improve lives and unite communities across the Commonwealth and beyond”:
There is so much we can learn from one another as we work together within the Commonwealth to tackle the major challenges of our age and, as these Fellowships do in Small Island Developing States, to address them where they are felt most acutely.
It is my fervent hope that these new Fellowships will play a significant role in furthering the free exchange of knowledge and advancing the spirit of mutual support that lies at the heart of our Commonwealth – today, tomorrow and towards a brighter future for all.
Prof Colin Riordan, ACU secretary general and chief executive, said the program would provide important opportunities:
Creating opportunities and facilitating knowledge exchange are at the heart of what we do, and drawing on our longstanding expertise in scholarships and the local knowledge of our member universities in Commonwealth Small Island Developing States, we are proud to work in partnership with our members in a range of Commonwealth countries to support the delivery of this important SIDS-focussed legacy programme in His Majesty’s name.
Swing to independents in ACT election shows ‘growing appetite’ for change, David Pocock says
Jane Hume defends Peter Dutton over testy exchange with ABC journalist
