Key posts
Wrapping up today’s headlines
By Angus Dalton
That’s where we’ll leave today’s live coverage. Thanks for your company.
Here’s what you need to know tonight.
The new Labor ministry after being sworn in at Government House on Wednesday morning.Credit:James Brickwood
- House values across the country have fallen for the first time since September 2020 with Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra leading the market down.
- The Reserve Bank is under pressure to hike interest rates further after data released on Wednesday showed economy expanded by a better-than-expected 0.8 per cent in the March quarter, broadening inflation pressures.
- Victoria and NSW will have a breather from wild winds and cold conditions from Thursday, but damaging gusts will tear through south-east Australia again on the weekend as another cold front storms through.
- US President Joe Biden has said that the US does not seek regime change in Moscow. “So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces,” he wrote in The New York Times.
Latest posts
Penny Wong returns to diplomatic battle in the Pacific
By Michelle Griffin
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong flies into diplomatic battle in the Pacific tonight for the second time since she was sworn in nine days ago. This time she is headed to Samoa, and the Tonga, following in the wake of China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
China and Australia’s foreign ministers Wang Yi and Penny Wong are competing for influence in the Pacific region.Credit:AP/Getty
“We understand that we need to work together like never before, for our peoples and for generations to come,” Wong said in a statement released by her office.
“We will increase our contribution to regional security: we understand that the security of the Pacific is the responsibility of the Pacific family, of which Australia is a part.
“We will stand shoulder to shoulder with our Pacific family in addressing the existential threat of climate change. And we will deepen cultural and sporting ties.”
Like China’s foreign minister, she will meet Samoa’s ruler Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II and Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, who on Saturday inked a diplomatic deal with Beijing’s man.
In Tonga, which hosted Wang Yi on Tuesday, Australia’s new foreign minister will meet the Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni, to talk about further repairs following the devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami in January.
Today, China’s foreign minister visited Vanuatu and will head to Papua New Guinea tomorrow, where Prime Minister James Marape will host him despite the looming national election.
Federal Police moved back to attorney-general as Labor government refreshes departments
By Rachel Clun
With a new government and a new ministry comes changes to government departments.
The full details will be published later today, but a few major moves have already been flagged by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The new Labor ministry after being sworn in at Government House on Wednesday morning.Credit:James Brickwood
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus will now have responsibility for the Australian Federal Police, moving the force out of Home Affairs. The attorney-general’s department will get responsibility for criminal law enforcement and policy more generally as well.
The Department of Home Affairs will gain responsibility for natural disaster response and mitigation, including the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.
That means Clare O’Neil, the new Home Affairs Minister, and Senator Murray Watt, the new Minister for Emergency Management, will have some shared oversight.
The Labor government is also going to create new government departments.
There will be a new Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and a new Department of Employment and Workplace Relations will administer workplace relations, jobs, skills and training programs.
The Department of Health is also being renamed the Department of Health and Aged Care, while the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications will have Arts added to its remit.
The story behind the pink Koran that made history
By Angus Thompson
Resting flat on the polished wooden table in the reception room of Government House was an item never seen before during an Australian federal minister’s swearing-in ceremony.
Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic, was gifted a pink Koran for his swearing in.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The pink Koran sat before western Sydney Labor MP Ed Husic as he placed his right hand on his heart and took an oath before Governor-General David Hurley as Australia’s first Muslim cabinet member.
The small book carried the weight of myriad symbols from the giver, who watched on in tears as it played its role in forming the most culturally inclusive ministry and parliament modern Australia has seen.
“I’ve got goosebumps now,” Muslim Women Association CEO Maha Abdo told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age after gifting the religious text to Husic, a man she hadn’t known well before packaging it with a note that reads, “I didn’t imagine this happening in my lifetime.”
“Every young girl had a pink Koran. Pink, what does it stand for? There’s so much in it. I didn’t realise it was to be gifted to this amazing person who was sworn into Parliament,” Abdo said, adding she could not divine its purpose until now.
“For me, it is very much about feminity, purity ... it is also hope in the fact that it reminds me, as well, when the sun sets, the sky goes that pinky colour. The sun has set, and now it’s about to rise.”
ASX steady despite coal supply chaos
By Colin Kruger
The ASX 200 climbed 0.3 per cent to 7,234, despite coal supply disruptions causing chaos with Origin Energy’s earnings outlook, and a rout of Australia’s high-flying lithium miners after Goldman Sachs called time on the sector’s hot run.
The utilities sector fell more than 5 per cent thanks to a 13.7 per cent share price drop by Origin. The tech sector closed 1.7 per cent lower. Australia’s gold miners also dropped heavily after bullion prices fell overnight.
The telco sector led the gains thanks to Telstra climbing more than 3 per cent. The finance sector was the next best performer with the big four banks and Macquarie all closing higher.
Wild winds now easing, but dangerous gusts to return this weekend
Victoria’s severe weather warning has been cancelled by the Bureau of Meteorology as winds begin to ease across Australia’s southeast, but warnings remain in place for much of the ACT and NSW, including Sydney, the Illawarra and the Hunter region.
The bureau has issued a hazardous surf warning for much of the NSW coastline tomorrow and it expects three- to four-metre-high waves from Ulladulla to Port Macquarie.
Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino said there’d be a break in the wild wind over the next few days but that dangerous gusts would blow back in on the weekend.
“The next [cold front] is due to arrive in South Australia on Friday and move upwards past Victoria, the ACT and into NSW by Sunday, bringing another bout of damaging winds and cold air,” Domensino said.
The back-to-back cold fronts are, however, a skier’s delight.
Icy winds and rain greeted commuters on the first day of winter in Melbourne’s CBD.Credit:Jason South
Activists and INXS: Inside Labor’s swearing-in ceremony
By Angus Thompson
The weight of expectation on the new Labor government was obvious well before its senior members reached the gates of Government House, with climate activists holding out placards screaming of the fresh hope the new regime brought with it.
Linda Burney is the first Indigenous woman to be minister for Indigenous Australians.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The longest applause of this morning’s swearing-in ceremony of Anthony Albanese’s ministry was reserved for Indigenous Australians Minister and Wiradjuri woman Linda Burney.
Burney wore a kangaroo skin designed by her friend, Wiradjuri woman Lynette Riley, who sung her into Parliament following her election in 2016.
“The white cockatoo is my personal totem, which is why the white cockatoo is so prominently on the [garment],” Burney told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age after the ceremony.
“I wore it for my first speech in Parliament, and it comes out on very, very special occasions, and today was such an occasion.”
Ed Husic, the new minister for industry and science, was the first Australian of Islamic faith to be sworn into federal cabinet. The Koran he was carrying belongs to south-west Sydney community leader Maha Abdo, the chief executive of the Muslim Women Association.
During the ceremony, an audience member’s ringtone began playing the guitar chop of INXS’s Need you tonight, which Regional Development Minister Kristy McBain acknowledged was “very apt”.
Tony’s tome: Incoming employment minister explains enormous Bible
Returning to this morning’s swearing-in ceremony for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s ministry, the incoming minister for employment, workplace relations and the arts, Tony Burke, has shared the backstory behind the “really large old bible” he lugged into Government House.
Tony Burke during a swearing-in ceremony with Governor-General David Hurley.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Ministers choose to swear their oath on a religious text or take a secular oath. While Penny Wong, Bill Shorten and Jim Chalmers opted for smaller, more portable Bibles, Burke’s made an audible thud as he placed it on the governor-general’s table.
Burke said on Twitter that the Bible was purchased in 1880 by his great-grandfather, who immigrated from Ireland to Australia, and shared some internals from the ornate tome.
See Age and Herald photographers Alex Ellinghausen and James Brickwood’s photo gallery capturing the ceremony.
Tasmanian premier supports Australia Day date change
By Angus Dalton
Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff has signalled his support for shifting the date of Australia Day from January 26.
Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff took the reins after Peter Gutwein resigned earlier this year.Credit:James Brickwood
The premier told state parliament this morning that the national conversation about changing the date was becoming “increasingly divisive” and that “bringing people together, Aboriginal people in Tasmania, all Tasmanians, to unite and celebrate Australia Day [on] a day we can all unite is a clear objective of mine.”
Rockliff made the comments following a question about the date from Labor MP David O’Byrne following National Reconciliation Week celebrations this morning.
The premier said he agreed with his predecessor Peter Gutwein, who expressed support for shifting Australia Day to the last weekend in January.
“The previous premier’s view on that, I support. I was deputy when he made that statement,” Rockliff said.
A statement released by O’Byrne on Twitter said “I welcome the Premier’s support for changing the date of Australia Day. But now that he has outlined his support for changing the date, the onus is now on the Premier to take steps towards enacting this important change.”
In a statement, Rockcliff confirmed that he believes “Australia Day could be celebrated with a dedicated long weekend at the end of January, rather than it being tied to a particular date.”
The premier said he would write to the Chair of the Council for the Australian Federation “to request that the matter of Australia Day and the date be included on the National Agenda”.
Joe Biden: We’re not looking to overthrow Vladimir Putin
Three months after Russia drew international condemnation for invading Ukraine, triggering a wave of military support for Kyiv, US President Joe Biden has clarified that the US does not seek regime change in Moscow.
US President Joe Biden said the US was “not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders”.Credit:AP
In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Biden said: “As much as I disagree with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow.
“So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces.”
Biden also wrote that the US did not “seek a war between NATO and Russia”.
While announcing plans for the US to supply Ukraine with medium-range rocket launchers to push Russians back from their advances in the country’s east, Biden specified that the US was “not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders”.
Biden’s reassurance comes nearly two decades after former US president George W Bush pushed for the invasion of Iraq, resulting in the toppling of Saddam Hussein. The war unleashed a period of regional instability and drew fierce criticism from across the world.
Most Viewed in National
https://news.google.com/__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?oc=5
2022-06-01 08:07:39Z
1444579835
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "As it happened: Anthony Albanese’s Labor ministry is sworn in; Liberals blast Scott Morrison; Richard Marles says submarines vital for national defence - Sydney Morning Herald"
Post a Comment