
Australia's youngest senator, 21, launches a furious attack on Pauline Hanson: 'All I can say is, are you kidding?'
Ms Hanson, 71, introduced a motion on Monday to scrap Australia's net zero emissions target, claiming the goal continues to 'destroy jobs and the Australian economy.'
'Power bills are out of control. Manufacturing is being wiped out. And ordinary Australians are paying the price, while out-of-touch politicians and inner-city idealists push fantasy policies they'll never have to live under,' Ms Hanson said.
'We are being led by fools. Shame on every politician who continues to push this madness. I will not stand by while Australia is driven into the ground.'
But before the vote, new Labor senator for South Australia Charlotte Walker, 21, slammed Ms Hanson — and suggested that Ms Hanson struggled to grasp the concept.
'All I can say is, are you kidding?' she said.
'The motion put forward on net zero indicates a severe lack of knowledge and a complete disregard for the future of our generation, the future of our country.
'Without a net zero target, there will be no Australian farmers, businesses or industries to support us.
'Net zero is waking up to a reality that Senator Hanson has not been able to grasp. In fact, Senator Hanson seems to be hellbent on exacerbating all of the consequences of climate change.'
In the end the motion from Ms Hanson ultimately failed with only he four One Nation senators, United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet and Coalition senators Matt Canavan and Alex Antic voting in its favour.
'Labor, the Greens and the crossbench voted it down. And the Liberals? Cowards. They had the notice. They had the time. And they still ran for the exits. Not one of them had the guts to stand and be counted,' Ms Hanson said.
Meanwhile, Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce on Monday launched a seperate bid to repeal the net-zero emissions by 2050 reduction target.
But his private member's bill is guaranteed to fail, because it lacks the support of the government which has a majority in the House of Representatives.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley maintains the coalition will wait until after a review of its disastrous May election loss before making formal policy decisions.
Despite a growing number of Liberal politicians speaking out against stronger climate change action, she doubled down on waiting for the review.
'We're going to bring all of those views together ... to flesh out the different perspectives, the expert advice and, of course, focus on this government's miserable failure when it comes to energy policy,' she told Sky News.
Asked about the political impact of dumping the climate target, Ms Ley said she would not foreshadow the review's outcome.
Many Liberal moderates want the net-zero target retained so the party is seen to be taking climate action seriously.
But Mr Joyce said there was no reason why abandoning the targets should be off the table.
'This is not about leadership. This is not about trying to create some sort of discordant note,' he told reporters ahead of the bill's introduction.
'There's not anything in this bill that the coalition didn't have the same position we voted for.'
Mr Joyce has the backing of his former leadership rival Michael McCormack.
The two ex-deputy prime ministers are critical of Nationals leader David Littleproud's handling of the aftermath of the election defeat.
The coalition reunited at the end of May following a messy week-long split driven by divisions which included energy policy.
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The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Morning Mail: killings hidden in coded diaries of WA settler, huge Gaza protest on Sydney Harbour Bridge, Piastri second in Hungary
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Child rescued | A New Zealand woman was arrested after travelling on a bus with a two-year-old girl trapped in her luggage, after the bus driver became concerned about a bag moving during a stop. The coded diary entries of Major Logue, an early settler of the Geraldton region of Western Australia, flash up on the microfilm archives of the Battye Library in Perth. On 4 April 1852, he wrote in scrawling longhand that he and a group of other men had set out after breakfast in search of 'the natives who had taken the cattle', eventually finding and crawling up to a campsite. Then, in a modified version of the Freemason's code, he wrote: 'fired both barrels of my gun and wounded one fellow in the rump. Thomson and Dicky shot one dead.' The diary entries tell a bloody story of Australia's frontier, and one which colonial families in the Geraldton region have only just begun to come to terms with. Guardian Australia is exploring these stories in a new series called The Descendants. The Descendants episode 1: decoding a massacre Colonial pastoralist Major Logue is a figure of note in the city of Geraldton, Western Australia. But his diaries, written partly in code, reveal a dark and confronting chapter of Australia's past – a history that Yamatji people already know all too well. In this two-part special Full Story, Sarah Collard speaks to Lorena Allam about decoding the truth behind Logue's diaries – and how descendants of colonial violence are coming together to heal from the horrors of the past. Sorry your browser does not support audio - but you can download here and listen $ Brandon Jack's Pissants are a group of Australian rules players relegated to the fringe of an unnamed footy team. They cushion themselves against humiliation and ego death by getting wasted, obsessing about their dicks, and treating women like disposable props. So, is the former AFL player's debut novel a critique or a celebration of toxic masculinity? 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You can follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland. And finally, here are the Guardian's crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword


The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Australian defence force fails to meet recruitment targets but numbers improving
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The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
The horror of Gaza called and an army of rain-soaked Sydney Harbour Bridge marchers, young and old, came in full force
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But this was the first time it had taken its rally to Sydney's world-famous landmark, last closed for public assembly in 2023 for World Pride. To regulars of those weekly gatherings, Sunday felt like a tidal wave. Ali, marching with his wife and young daughter, described it as 'history in the making'. 'This is a big moment,' Ali said, as his eight-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, sat on his shoulders calling out 'Free Palestine', her cheeks painted in black, red, white and green. 'The people shut down the Harbour Bridge – the people did it.' But eventually, as scores of mobile phones buzzed on the bridge, the people were turned back. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Police orders were delivered to the masses via periodic text messages as helicopters circled overhead. The first read: 'The march needs to stop due to public safety.' Later, protesters were told to stop walking north and return back to the central business district. The marchers took it all in their stride: everyone was already drenched. As the crowd began to turn around (organisers estimated 300,000 walked on Sunday), a child stood on a pillar, leading a chant: 'In our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.' The boy was among hundreds of infants and children in attendance. Many brandished homemade signs and banged empty pots and pans. The clanging of metal was meant to signify the ongoing starvation in Gaza. Maila, a year five student, said she would describe Sunday's crowd to her own children one day. 'I'm speaking out for the Palestinian kids like me, and for all of Palestine because of the war that's been going on right now,' she said, her hair adorned with a keffiyeh. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Despite the torrential rain and significant transport delays, spirits remained high. Volunteers in fluorescent hi-vis vests directed protesters away from puddles that had amassed on the concrete. Each time a train whistled past, marchers on the bridge, which links the north and south sides of the city, erupted into cheers and whistles, singing 'Free, free Palestine' to passengers going past. Tourists summiting the bridge's 1,332 steps waved down from its steel arched peak, witnesses to an unfolding moment in history that the state's premier, Chris Minns, had tried to stop. The NSW police acting deputy commissioner Peter McKenna described the protest as the largest he'd seen in his time in the force in Sydney. 'Gee whiz, I wouldn't like to try and do this every Sunday,' he said. 'We're very lucky today that the crowd was well behaved.' At the front of the march,several high-profile Australians, including Julian Assange, held a sign that read 'March for Humanity Save Gaza'. Five NSW Labor MPs were alongside Assange, defying their premier. Two of Minns' ministers were there too: Penny Sharpe and Jihad Dib. The federal Labor MP Ed Husic – dumped from the Albanese cabinet in May – was in the crowd. Husic reiterated calls for the Albanese government to sanction Israel and recognise Palestinian statehood. 'People power has come out, I think, largely because they just cannot abide the treatment that has been seen of little kids,' he said. Abib, in the crowd, agreed. She marched across the bridge carrying a Palestinian flag alongside her daughter. She said it was 'humanity' that had brought marchers out in what was truly atrocious weather. 'I think a lot of people are starting to wake up,' she said. 'We're going on two years [of war]. People that were quiet in the beginning have started to speak.' Abib, whose husband is Palestinian, was struck by the diversity of people. Middle-aged women carried a banner crocheted by volunteers. Elderly couples completed the 4km journey on walking sticks. A group of British men held a sign reading 'Gay Jews 4 Gaza'. As the day began to wind down, Josh Lees, one the main organisers of a march that will be long remembered, told Guardian Australia: 'It's even bigger than my wildest dreams. 'It's a mass march for humanity to stop a genocide, our politicians have to now listen to the will of the people and sanction Israel.'