Australia politics live: Peter Dutton ‘wearing the legacy’ of female voters who turned away from Scott Morrison, Littleproud says
Dutton ‘wearing the legacy’ of female voters who turned away from Scott Morrison, Littleproud says
As the election looms closer, the parties are looking at exactly which demographics they need to appeal to.
A big one is women.
The Coalition lost a significant amount of female support at the 2022 election, something they highlighted in their postmortem. But it seems that vote isn’t bouncing back.
David Littleproud was asked on Sky News earlier why women still aren’t returning to the party:
I don’t think we can run away from it. I think we lost a lot of female voters at the last election. They weren’t happy with how Scott Morrison handled it … I mean, I don’t think that there was a great love of Scott Morrison, particularly the way he handled some of the incidents that happened here in Parliament House … So Peter is wearing that legacy.
You’ll see as we get close to the election, is greater policies around women. And Peter [Dutton] has a very, very strong record in his support of women in this country.
Key events
Caitlin Cassidy
Six University of Melbourne staff dismissed over sexual misconduct in 2024, report finds
Six staff members were dismissed from the University of Melbourne (UoM) following a finding of sexual misconduct last year and one student was expelled, a new report has found.
The UoM is one of the few universities that post annual, public sexual misconduct reports. This year’s report, released today found 21 complaints were made against staff in 2024, up from seven in 2023. Six people were dismissed.
A total of 23 complaints were made against students, down from 25 in 2023. Of those, one student was expelled, three were suspended with conditions places on re-enrolment and a range of penalties applied for three others.
University of Melbourne provost, Prof Nicola Phillips, said the university had made significant progress since the first report was published four years ago, but there was more work to be done.
No individual in our community should be subjected to sexual harassment or sexual assault as they go about their studies or work, and everyone should expect – and insist on – an environment which is characterised by professionalism and respect.
But it is not just about responding when these things happen. It is also about creating a positive culture right across our university in which these forms of abuse are not accepted, are not accommodated or enabled or trivialised, and are always taken seriously – regardless of who the perpetrator may be.
Universities Australia is due to release another national student safety survey this year. The last survey was conducted in 2021.
Amanda Meade
TV networks announce budget night programming
TV networks are gearing up to cover the budget tomorrow night but only the ABC will carry Jim Chalmers’ speech live.
On the ABC, Jeremy Fernandez will present a budget preview nationally from 7pm on the ABC News channel. After the treasurer’s speech, Sarah Ferguson hosts a special budget edition of 7.30 featuring interviews with Chalmers and the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, and analysis from Laura Tingle. At 8.30pm David Speers anchors a special budget edition of Insiders live from Parliament House.
On Channel Seven, dedicated budget coverage starts at 9.30pm when host Michael Usher, chief political editor, Mark Riley, and national business editor, Ameila Brace, analyse the numbers and the impact they will have on households.
Nine’s budget special is at 10pm and will be hosted by Peter Overton, with analysis from Charles Croucher, Andrew Probyn, Effie Zahos and Chris Kohler. The special will include interviews with Chalmers and Taylor.
Caitlin Cassidy
School funding agreement ‘too little too late’, Greens say
The Greens are not impressed with the education deal inked between Queensland and the federal government today.
Spokesperson on primary and secondary education, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, said it was too little, too late.
The agreement, now reached with all jurisdictions in Australia, will ensure all government schools will be fully funded for the first time by 2034.
Allman-Payne said:
Labor’s plan ensures that it will be a quarter of a century before Gonski is delivered and every Australian public school receives its bare minimum funding.
That means kids currently in school are going to finish year 12 never having experienced the fully resourced education they deserve. That means not enough teachers, not enough in-class supports, inadequate facilities, and parents and teachers dipping into their own pockets to make up the shortfall.
Budgets are about priorities, and if public schools were a priority for this government they would fully fund public schools this year.
Dutton ‘wearing the legacy’ of female voters who turned away from Scott Morrison, Littleproud says
As the election looms closer, the parties are looking at exactly which demographics they need to appeal to.
A big one is women.
The Coalition lost a significant amount of female support at the 2022 election, something they highlighted in their postmortem. But it seems that vote isn’t bouncing back.
David Littleproud was asked on Sky News earlier why women still aren’t returning to the party:
I don’t think we can run away from it. I think we lost a lot of female voters at the last election. They weren’t happy with how Scott Morrison handled it … I mean, I don’t think that there was a great love of Scott Morrison, particularly the way he handled some of the incidents that happened here in Parliament House … So Peter is wearing that legacy.
You’ll see as we get close to the election, is greater policies around women. And Peter [Dutton] has a very, very strong record in his support of women in this country.
Would more gas decrease prices, or is this all hot air?
Analysts last year warned that gas was a “far more expensive power source” in the national grid compared with renewable energy or coal when the Coalition announced their nuclear plan.
They also said opening more gas basins would be unlikely to be cheaper, because Australia’s cheap gas has “already been extracted”.
You can read more about that here:
Henry Belot
Littleproud says increasing gas supply is key to lowering energy prices
Circling back to the opposition’s gas position, they’ve said they would work to increase the supply of gas to the domestic market, and claim that it will bring prices down.
David Littleproud was asked on ABC Radio National earlier whether the Coalition could ensure energy prices would go down during the first term of a Coalition government. He said gas was key:
If you increase supply, yes. That’s what we intend to do by bringing in gas and quickly. You’ve got the gas here. This is a thing in Australia. We have sovereignty of all our resources. So why wouldn’t we use them? We have a spread in our energy mix, not putting all our energy into one basket.
We will have renewables as well, make no mistake. There will be renewables as part of our grid. But you’ve got to have baseload power. To get [prices] down in the short term, the only way is to increase supply. That’s an economic principle that no one can run away from.
Just a reminder, independent senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock have also been up this morning talking about gas, but they say there isn’t a shortage of it, the problem is that we export too much of it.
Why do we keep talking about fish in Tassie?
The Maugean skate, an endangered fish species found in Tasmania’s west coast has been the subject of a tug-of-war between environmentalists and the salmon farming sector.
Why? Because of scientific advice telling the government that salmon farms in Macquarie Harbour are having a “catastrophic” impact on the species.
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has been considering the fate of the aquaculture business in Macquarie Harbour since November 2023, when three conservation groups requested she reconsider whether the industry had the approvals it needed.
But the PM has promised to introduce legislation into parliament this week, to allow sustainable salmon farming to continue, and to protect jobs. He was asked about that in his press conference earlier.
My government makes no apologies for supporting jobs. That’s what the Labor party does we support jobs, but we also support sustainability, which is why we’ve invested $37 million for sustainability, for oxygenation. That’s why we’re engaged as well in what has been a very successful breeding program as well.
But that legislation isn’t going down well with environmental groups, which my colleague Adam Morton has more details on.
Watch: PM announces finalised public school funding deal with Queensland
Earlier this morning, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced he had finalised a public school funding deal with Queensland.
It was the last jurisdiction holding out on the agreement between the commonwealth and each of the states and territories to fully fund public schools.
Albanese and the Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, labelled the deal as “historic” and you can see them talking more about it here:
What a $5,000 ticket will and won’t get you at one of Canberra’s budget night fundraising soirees
Budget day goes hand in hand with budget dinners, and more specifically, budget dinner fundraisers.
There’s plenty of money to be raised by the political parties this week, as the parliamentary big wigs host dinners and drinks with lobby groups and businesses.
So how much will a ticket to one of these events set you back?
My colleagues Sarah Basford-Canales and Henry Belot have all the details for you:
Tehan unable to confirm figures when asked about Coalition policy to reduce immigration
A bit earlier this morning, the shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, was challenged on Sky News on what the opposition plans to do on migration.
Peter Dutton had previously proposed a 25% cut to net migration in his 2024 budget reply, but then walked that back.
Yesterday, the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, wouldn’t confirm that 25% cut on ABC’s Insiders program, and neither would Tehan today on Sky.
Here’s a little of how that exchange went:
Peter Stefanovic: Will you cut net [migration] by 25% as you’ve claimed in the past?
Tehan: Well, we will bring it down significantly …. Now, we’ve got to wait and see …
Stefanovic: But not a figure?
Tehan: Well – we will – we will outline all that in our policy, but …
Stefanovic: So is that in your budget reply, or will that be by the election?
Tehan: Now that will be in our immigration policy. We will outline all that …
The exchange continues on, and Tehan won’t say what the immigration policy will be or when it will be announced, whether it’ll be before the budget or the election, or even after the election.
You can expect though, it’ll be an issue that keeps cropping up during the election campaign.
PM says Australia wants to see ceasefire continue in Gaza
The PM takes a final question on the situation in Gaza and the Middle East.
Israel broke the ceasefire with Gaza last Tuesday, which had held for nearly two months.
Albanese is asked what Australia is doing in response, and he says Australia isn’t a major player, but wants to see the hostilities end.
We want to see the ceasefire be continued. We want an end to hostilities. We want to see hostages released … We will remain focused on, but we’re not major players in the Middle East. That’s just the truth of the matter. And so we remain incredibly concerned about the innocent loss of life that we’ve seen since October 7, whether that be in Israel or whether it be in Gaza.
‘Common sense and cannoli’ the key to negotiations for Queensland Olympics
Albanese and Crisafulli are asked about the Brisbane Olympic Games, ahead of an infrastructure review expected to be handed down by the state government soon.
The question is, will the state government have to move to a plan B if Crisafulli can’t renegotiate with the commonwealth on moving federal funding away from earmarked games venues?
Crisafulli says he’s got a plan, and he and Albanese have been negotiating “well” together.
Two people of Italian descent, you’d expect that, but there’s nothing that can’t be solved over a bit of common sense and a cannoli.
Albanese adds:
And I can confirm that the premier has, on two occasions, given me cannolis, and I haven’t declared them, so I’ll declare them now, just in case I get into some trouble. We regard that as a cultural thing, rather than anything else.
‘Gas has an important role to play’ in providing energy certainty, PM says
Asked about the Coalition’s slightly rejigged gas policy (that they want more in the system, as canvassed by David Littleproud earlier), Albanese says “gas has an important role to play” in the energy transition.
He says the government has a gas strategy, and incentives like the capacity investment scheme to get more renewable energy into the grid.
We’ve announced and delivered, publicly released our future gas strategy. That’s a strategy that understands that gas has an important role to play, along with batteries in providing certainty.
The former government had this big announcement when they were there about gas, a gas led recovery. Not much happened. You don’t need rhetoric, what you need is actual investment.
David Crisafulli says he hasn’t seen Littleproud’s comments, but if he’s talking about adding more gas in the market “he’s [Littleproud’s] 100% correct”, and argues Queensland has been doing the “heavy lifting” in getting gas into the market.
PM attacks Coalition over calling energy rebate a ‘Band-Aid’ and ‘Ponzi scheme’ despite supporting it
The PM’s taken a stab at the opposition over their position on the electricity bill rebate.
Peter Dutton yesterday called it a “Ponzi scheme” and the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, has called it a “Band-Aid” fix (yep, more Band-Aids), but they’ve said they’ll support the policy.
Albanese says:
Whether it’s our Medicare tripling of the bulk bill incentive for all Australians, the 50 new urgent care clinics, the $25 for medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the freezing of the beer excise for two years, or a range of other measures, including the extension of energy bill relief …
The opposition, having opposed all of these things for almost three years, have just said yes. I guess they’ve got to have something to say about policy, and they don’t have any of their own.
Unsurprisingly, the PM gets a question on when he’ll call the election now that he’s got some momentum … in a shock to no one, he says it’ll be “in May”.
What is the commonwealth public school funding tied to?
The PM has said this funding is tied, but what exactly is it tied to?
It includes year 1 phonics and numeracy checks to help students that need more support earlier, more intensive small-group learning and catch-up tutoring, more access to health professionals and initiatives to attract and retain teachers.
The government says there are also targets on the agreements.
The first is to have the highest proportion of students finishing high school ever by 2030. Other targets include improving Naplan results and the engagement of students in classrooms. Albanese says:
The tying of this funding is for year one testing is making sure that if a young person needs that one on one help or small group help to make sure they’re not left behind, they get that really early on, they get to catch up. They don’t get to fall behind and then have issues later on.
Queensland joins other states by signing deal with commonwealth to fully fund public schools by 2034
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, is with the PM and has welcomed the agreement that gives an extra $2.8bn to the state’s public schools to 2034.
Crisafulli says this will bring generational reform, and highlights the challenges Queensland has in its schooling system.
It is a historic agreement … This means a lot to Queensland, and it means a lot because we’ve got some challenges in our schooling systems that other states don’t have. We are the most decentralized state. We’ve got a large portion of rural and regional and Indigenous schools.
He says the agreement was an opportunity “too good to miss”.
Queensland agreement is ‘biggest new investment in public schools by an Australian government ever’: PM
The negotiations have been a gradual process between the commonwealth, states and territories.
Albanese got Tasmania and NSW over the line earlier this month, South Australia and Victoria in January, and Queensland was the last state to sign on.
You can read more about that here:
The PM says the agreement signed today with the sunshine state is the biggest investment in public schools in Queensland by the commonwealth ever.
This money is tied to real reforms like evidence based teaching practices, phonics and numeracy, tutoring and more mental health support.
Today’s announcement contributes to an estimated $16.5bn in additional commonwealth funding to public schools across the nation, from 2025-2026 ahead to 2034. It represents the biggest new investment in public schools by an Australian government ever.
