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ABC News
an hour ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Sussan Ley finds her feet as Albanese reaches for the Medicare card again
Welcome back to your weekly federal politics update, where Brett Worthington gets you up to speed on the happenings from Parliament House. To the casual observer, Question Time is little more than an insult to intelligence. Sit in there for five minutes and it's clear why it was never called Answer Time. When they get a question from the opposition or crossbench, ministers filibuster their three minutes to prevent having to give an actual answer. When they get a question their side of politics has scripted, ministers find themselves talking about opposition policies. In one of the more ridiculous moments this week, Labor tasked new MP Ali France, who has arrived in parliament with one of the most compelling life stories, to ask the prime minister how Labor's pursuit of its agenda compared to others in the parliament. It's as if Labor forgets the nation just made very clear what it thought of the policies the Coalition took to the last election. It won the battle, now its job is to get on with governing, rather than looking in the rear vision mirror. The Coalition finds itself in the political wilderness, numbers diminished and at sea over which policies it will retain. Sussan Ley is fledgling in her leadership and yet to assert her control of the opposition. Ley and her office have taken steps to open up the party, making it a more professional operation and moving it away from the closed shop Peter Dutton led. At an optics level, you can see just how timid her early steps are, including quite literally when she arrives at Question Time. When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives (or even when Dutton used to arrive), the frontbencher sitting in their seat immediately vacates it. Ley instead enters and takes her old seat on the frontbench, patiently waiting for the person sitting in her seat to vacate it. More telling of her uncertainty at the top was her handling of the scenes of starvation emanating from Gaza. Ley found herself unwilling to say if starvation was occurring in Gaza, something even Benjamin Netanyahu's biggest backer, Donald Trump, was willing to concede this week. The opposition leader said she was "incredibly distressed by the images" but declined to say if starvation was occurring. She wasn't alone. Fellow frontbencher Dan Tehan laid the blame solely at the feet of Hamas. Liberal Dave Sharma, a former Australian ambassador to Israel, struck a different tone, arguing there was overwhelming evidence of malnutrition and food shortages and argued the way to counter Hamas would be for Israel to allow for aid to flow freely into Gaza. Detractors of Ley will say partyroom changes since she became leader have seen her support in the room go backwards — a point her supporters flatly reject. But if she's having to spend her days looking over her shoulder, it makes it hard to navigate a path forward. She's also not alone in finding herself in a bind over Gaza. As nations by the day offer their support for Palestinian statehood, Albanese has repeatedly insisted it was a matter of when, not if. To date, his line has been to accuse those calling for recognition of seeking to win political points. It's a criticism he's intending to level at the Greens. But as France, then Britain, then Canada all moved to recognise Palestine, Albanese has unintentionally found himself offering a rebuke of the leaders he otherwise says he respects. A House of Representatives attendant walked into the chamber on Tuesday about 30 minutes into Question Time. They handed Albanese a yellow envelope, which he discreetly opened. A flash of green could be seen between his fingers as he slipped the item into his suit jacket. It wouldn't remain hidden for long. Four minutes after its arrival, Albanese was brandishing his Medicare card, repeating in parliament a stunt he became renowned for during the campaign. A day earlier, Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh showcased her digital dexterity as she sought to cover the numbers on the Medicare and credit cards she was holding up, accusing Albanese of misleading voters over their prospects of a bulk-billed visit to the GP. Speaker Milton Dick, who on Monday was quick to remind McIntosh to "not use props", was more muted in his rebuke of the prime minister. "The member for Lindsay used a similar tactic yesterday," he said. "I'm sure the prime minister will look after that card carefully and will continue with his answer." By Wednesday, Albanese was again brandishing his Medicare card, in another clear rebuke of the Speaker's earlier rulings. Dick was again elected to parliament as a Labor MP at May's election. But like in the last term, he resigned from the parliamentary party and doesn't attend caucus meetings, in a bid to bolster his impartiality credentials overseeing the chamber. A clearly respected figure, the Coalition broke with convention and supported his return to the prestigious position last week. His ability to retain respect in the chamber rests on politicians seeing him as an impartial figure, something the prime minister has repeatedly tested this week. Where there has been no shortage of respect is between an unlikely duo on the outer fringes of Labor's back bench. First-term man-mountain Matt Smith finds himself squeezed into a two seater alongside fellow giant Dan Repacholi for Question Time. Across the aisle sits Labor's Tracey Roberts, the second term WA MP who the Queenslander physically towers over. Earlier this year, Roberts announced she'd been diagnosed with multiple systems atrophy, a rare progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects her mobility and speech. Despite the diagnosis, she vowed to serve a full term if the voters of Pearce again backed her in, which they did in spades. On paper, there's little the former professional basketballer from Far North Queensland and a former mayor from Perth's northern suburbs would have in common. But their seating arrangements has led to gentle moments of quiet kindness. After Roberts stood to ask a question in Question Time, Smith reached out his lengthy arm to assist her. When Roberts leaves the chamber, he's often nearby, offering a stabilising guide. They say if you want a friend in politics get a dog. But every so often you see signs that alternatives to a dog still exist.
CTV News
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Noah Wachter
Field producer, CTV National News Noah joined the CTV News team as a producer for The Vassy Kapelos Show in November 2023. He is now a field producer for CTV's Ottawa Bureau with a focus on federal politics. He spent two years post graduation playing as a jazz guitarist with multiple organizations and still holds a passion for music. He produced an animated short, as well as various other online segments such as 'Pinty's Pub Chats' as part of coverage for 'The Grand Slam of Curling'. Previously a content producer with SportsNet in Toronto, Noah moved to Ottawa in 2021 to become a producer at CityNews Ottawa to cover the municipal election. He also produced two podcasts in collaboration with Vassy Kapelos – Digging Deeper: Canada's Toxic Drug Crisis and That Just Happened with Vassy Kapelos – Canada Decides 2025 Noah holds a B.A in Political Science from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of Algonquin Colleges Media/Film program. In his downtime, you can find him playing pickleball, rehearsing guitar, or rock climbing. He speaks English and German.
ABC News
17-07-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese concludes trip in China's good books
Welcome back to your weekly federal politics update, where Brett Worthington gets you up to speed on the happenings from Parliament House. Going to an aged care home can be a fraught outing for a prime minster. That is of course unless you are visiting a retirement village for pandas, which is where Anthony Albanese found himself at the end of his six-day trip to China. Having dispensed with the Rabbitohs hat he'd worn to the Great Wall of China a day earlier, the PM donned a Hawthorn Football Club shirt as he paid a visit to former Adelaide VIP Fu Ni. The giant panda, one of two Australia rented for more than a decade, chomped on bamboo as the prime minister called her "a great ambassador for China and a great friend of Australia". For a while there, Fu Ni and Wang Wang were some of the only Australian residents that could have got China's top-tier officials on the blower, such was the diplomatic chill that was being cast Down Under. If you needed a reminder of just how much a distant memory those days were for the Chinese government, consider what Albanese again found himself having to sit through this week. Suddenly a bastion of international trade, China's second-most-senior leader, without a drop of irony, told Albanese about the importance of open markets and predictability. He said it was crucial for the two nations to respond together in the face of "growing instability and uncertainty in the global economy." (He was all but screaming: "Looking at you, Donald Trump!") The subtle art of shady diplomacy also saw Albanese find the opportunity to remind China's leaders that their citizens could enjoy the Year of the Snake with some of the world's (he said world's but let's be clear he meant Australia's) finest red meat and wine. Theatrics and symbolism aside, the trip served as a reminder of the extent to which Australia has returned to China's good books, something that has only been reinforced since Trump's return to the presidency. The trip was always going to be closely watched by the United States but what was more surprising was the extent to which it appears American officials sought to influence Albanese's meetings. High-ranking Americans were falling over themselves to comment on reports the US was pressuring Australia and Japan to say what it would do in the event of China invading Taiwan. Almost as soon as Albanese touched down in Shanghai he was being pressed about the reports, forcing him to wade into one of the most sensitive issues a leader could contend with while in China. Albanese's insistence that Australia supported the status quo and that he wouldn't be drawn into hypotheticals was quickly backed by senior Coalition figures Andrew Hastie and James Paterson. Yet new defence spokesman Angus Taylor found himself venturing into terrain no former Liberal leader had previously advanced, in saying Australia should be willing to make a principled stance on Taiwan. It remains unclear if this is new policy or a new case of "well done, Angus". In case you didn't catch it the first time, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was so keen to reinforce it, he made sure to make multiple references to just how "relaxed" he was about the release of a government briefing that cast doubt over Labor's ability to deliver its signature housing pledge. Nothing quite says relaxed like repeatedly saying just how relaxed you are. His department, meanwhile, seemed anything but, desperately seeking to claw back a document released under Freedom of Information (FOI), which broke with long-held traditions in that it actually contained news, just not intentionally. Like most FOIs, the document was redacted up the wazoo (further reinforcing why in the world of FOIs, the expression "free from information" is more apt), except for a series of subheadings in a table of contents that the department forgot to redact. Whoops. The briefing document warned Labor's pledge to build 1.2 million homes over five years to address the housing crisis "will not be met" and that the treasurer would need to find "additional revenue and spending reductions" to meet his objective of a "sustainable" budget. The ABC also revealed that the Housing Minister Clare O'Neil received a series of departmental ideas after the election to reset Labor's housing agenda, including rental assistance for low-income earners, ways to address concerns with the Housing Australia Future Fund and the possibility of scaling back the 1.2 million new homes pledge. Chalmers conceded Labor's plan was "ambitious" but insisted it could be achieved. Few other parties in the parliament see it as a credible proposal, with the Coalition dubbing Labor "delusional" and the Greens calling the plans pie in the sky. To achieve the 1.2 million new homes over five years, Labor will need to average 240,000 new homes a year, something that's only been done twice before. It's led to forecasts that suggest Labor would need a 50 per cent increase on 2024 construction levels, which in part relies on overcoming labour shortages and planning delays, if it's to get close to meeting the mark. Sometimes you get stark reminders of just how low the bar is for blokes in federal politics. Having fronted up for an interview about how the government was responding to the horrific reports emerging from the Victorian child care sector, federal education minister Jason Clare received quite the praise from Sunrise presenter Matt Shirvington. "Keep fighting. I'm not going to, with respect, call you minister today," Shirvington said at the end of the interview. "I'm going to call you Jason. You're a dad. Appreciate you coming on." In fairness, Clare has been working with his Coalition counterpart Jonno Duniam to ensure new laws can be rushed through the parliament to allow the government (the keeper of the purse strings) to cut off funding to centres that fail to keep children safe. Both men have been candid in recent days on how both sides of politics have to carry the can for why there are inconsistencies in reporting of incidents, the lack of a national database to track employees in the sector and why there still isn't nationally consistent working with children checks despite a royal commission calling for it more than a decade ago. None of these are issues Jason Clare, the father, can tackle. But not only are they issues Jason Clare, federal minister, can address, but they're issues that, as a minister of the crown, he bares a responsibility to tackle. Next's week first meeting of the 48th parliament will bring with it the first day of school energy for the new MPs and senators elected in May. First speeches are being written, shirts are being pressed and politicians are likely looking in the mirror to practice not looking like dears in the headlights. The new MPs and senators have spent recent weeks attending new MP school, which one candidly said felt like trying to drink water from a fire hydrant. One MP who will be among those being sworn in will be independent Nicolette Boele from the once safe Liberal seat of Bradfield. Having already been allocated an office, she will take her seat alongside 149 other MPs. But unlike her colleagues, she will face months of lingering doubts about how long she'll get to keep the seat, with her Liberal opponent Gisele Kapterian taking the matter to court. The last time the Court of Disputed Returns considered a House of Representatives challenge, the case was much like this one. The initial victor (in this case Kapterian) went on to lose the seat in the full recount. The 2007 matter not only upheld the recount result, it saw a slight increase in the victor's margin. Should the court hear the matter, it will rest on around 800 so-called "line-ball ballots" which a judge will likely reassess to ensure they were correctly adjudicated during the recount but it could be months before there is an outcome (in 2007 it took eight months). Kapterian's electoral plight sums up the state the party finds itself in, something that will be stark when the opposition takes its seats next week. If Labor's 50 female MPs opted to sit in their own party in the House of Representatives, they'd have seven more MPs than the entirely of the 43-member Coalition opposition, of which just nine are women.
ABC News
26-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Sussan Ley gets personal at the press club, government side-steps specifics on Iran
Welcome back to your weekly federal politics update, where Brett Worthington gets you up to speed on the happenings from Parliament House. Sussan Ley is an unlikely Liberal leader. A grandmother and a former aerial musterer from country Australia, she's hardly the kind of figure her party has turned to before. Given the state the party finds itself in — repudiated by voters at successive elections, having recorded a record low primary vote and been rejected by voters in the major cities — the fact she's not like those who came before her is an asset. But let's not suggest for a single second that she's not versed in handling old boys' clubs. "I was not taken seriously in pilot training. I was nearly always the only woman in the group," she told the National Press Club this week, speaking about her formative years after finishing school. "The privileged boys, whose parents bankrolled their lessons, attracted more street cred than me." Ley is no stranger to the Liberal Party or federal parliament, of which she's a two decade veteran. But she now faces the task of introducing herself to the broader public. Ley spoke of growing up the daughter of a British spy, of later living in a bedsit under a bridge and then later working as an air traffic controller before taking flight mustering livestock in small planes. "I was told I couldn't get a crop-dusting rating because the chemicals would damage my unborn children. I was yelled at, hit on, and then ignored," she said. As a mother raising a family, she started university at 30, obtained a masters and later worked for the Australian Tax Office. She spoke of understanding the pain that comes with coercion and control. "Because I have felt that pain too," she told the press club. "I understand what it is like when you blame yourself for the actions of others. Because I have blamed myself too." The whole point of sharing her story is to make plain the extent to which change has come to the Liberal Party. She argues her story is Australia's story. Ley discussed the former prime ministers that she'd spoken with since becoming leader. But she never mentioned Peter Dutton's name, instead only referring to him as "my predecessor". She offered a stark assessment of the party's failures in recent elections, having lost more than 40 seats across the parliament since 2019. Liberals now only hold two of 43 inner city seats and seven of 45 outer metro seats. "We didn't just lose. We got smashed. Totally smashed," she said of May's federal election. "What we as the Liberal Party presented to the Australian people was comprehensively rejected." When the parliament returns next month, the contrast will be stark. In the House of Representatives, just six of the 28 MPs in the Liberal ranks will be women. Insisting she was "agnostic" about the mechanism to boost female representation, she vowed she would be a "zealot" in seeking the outcome. "I'm the first woman in my position and I don't believe anyone in my position has had the resolve that I have right here, right now," she said. "Watch this space." The week started with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese facing criticism for his government's response to US strikes on Iran at the weekend. News broke around 10am on Sunday. Just shy of three hours later, the prime minister's office issued a statement from a government spokesperson, which did little more than note the events that had happened. By Monday morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong was blitzing breakfast TV and radio to offer a ringing endorsement of President Donald Trump's actions. Wong later appeared with Albanese after a meeting of the cabinet's National Security Committee (NSC), where the two faced questions about what Australia knew before the US dropped bombs on Iran's nuclear facilities. If you'd been taking a swig of something hard every time Albanese said it was a "unilateral action by the United States", well, you wouldn't be standing for very long. An at-times testy Albanese appeared frustrated when asked about intelligence that had been shared with his government, or what had been discussed at the NSC meeting. The press conference also highlighted the sensitivities around the perception of the prime minister's relationship with Trump. In the UK, a senior government minister confirmed his country was notified about the US strikes on Iran before they played out. Clearly, that wasn't extended to Australia — not that the prime minister was willing to admit that. It's worth noting, not even the Coalition was criticising Albanese for not knowing about the strike in advance, yet the PM seemed unwilling to concede his lack of awareness. The Coalition was quick to offer a ringing endorsement of the strikes at the weekend, and later welcomed the government offering its support. Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie also urged for greater transparency about US military operations on Australian shores. That came into focus after the government consistently brushed off questions over whether the highly sensitive military facilities at Pine Gap or North West Cape provided intelligence to the US for its bombing raids. Hastie argued that greater transparency would offer the public a better understanding of the US alliance. It's also the kind of comments parties like to make in opposition, only to completely disregard when in government. Albanese could have raised such matters directly with Trump had he decided to go to the NATO summit in The Hague. As Australia is not a NATO member, the government's plan had always been to send Defence Minister Richard Marles to the meeting. Albanese toyed with going after his planned meeting with Trump in Canada failed to eventuate. But the PM ultimately decided against it, with Marles going as originally planned. It was a classic damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. In not going, Albanese faced Coalition criticism that he was letting Australia down by not meeting with Trump. Yet if he'd gone, the words Airbus Albo would have been quick to slip off the lips of those who argue the prime minister spends too much time abroad. As for when he will meet Trump, the PM says that's still being worked out. Advocates of the AUKUS partnership want Albanese to get in a room with Trump to lock down his support of the military pact. It wasn't that long ago the Coalition was railing against what it dubbed a bloated bureaucracy. "You don't have to have a bigger team to have a better team," then-shadow treasurer Angus Taylor would often say. Having been delivered a electoral landslide, Albanese has found himself offering the Coalition a taste of its own medicine. Convention has dictated that an opposition has around 21 per cent of the staff that the government has. That meant Labor had around 500 staff in the last parliament and the opposition had around 100. But not anymore, with Albanese this week telling Ley he planned to cut back opposition staffing allocations, much like he did to the crossbench after the 2022 election. The Coalition says it was told it would be cut another 20 per cent (20 positions), with the PM also cutting 10 positions from his own side of politics. The opposition says it's a blatant attempt to limit accountability. You'll be shocked to hear there's been no mention about not needing bigger teams to have better teams.
News.com.au
05-06-2025
- General
- News.com.au
Sydney University newspaper uninvites news.com.au Political Editor Samantha Maiden from speaking at event
Thirty years after I enjoyed the honour of editing the student newspaper On Dit at Adelaide University and engaged in all of the traditional undergraduate ratbaggery, perhaps it was only a matter of time before I got cancelled. As it turns out that moment arrived this week, in the form of the politburo running the student newspaper Honi Soit. In March, a lovely person called Imogen kindly invited me to Honi Soit 's student newspaper conference at Sydney University. 'No doubt you are a very busy person, and have lots of fantastic opportunities offered to you. However, I am hoping that you would be willing to speak in an interview for an event at our conference, to talk to a room of young Australian journalists about your work in federal politics and your role as the political editor for she wrote. 'I can say on behalf of the attendees that we would be honoured to hear you speak, and that it would really be a highlight of the conference.' Given my background as a former Adelaide university newspaper editor, where I attended with Penny Wong, Natasha Stott-Despoja, Mark Butler, Adelaide Festival director Jo Dyer and the journalists Annabel Crabb and David Penberthy in their undergraduate heydays, I thought it might be fun, and I could even take my son who is 17, who might enjoy seeing Sydney University. I even dug out some old photographs of myself with my co-editor Vanessa Almeida. As an aside there is a huge missed opportunity here. Honi Soit should have waited to flash mob me at the actual event and scream obscenities at me, which my teenage son may have enjoyed quite a lot. But I digress. Although I had considered doing the conference by zoom, I had proposed to catch the train down to spend time with my son and friends. Naturally, I was doing it for free. Alas, this charming train journey to Sydney will not occur as it turns out I am, unbeknownst to myself, a sleeper radical on the issue of Israel. It all came into sharp focus following a mysterious investigation by the Honi Soit editors. This week, they wrote a solemn email cancelling my attendance at the conference that they had asked me to attend, citing unspecified thought crimes involving Palestine. 'We are reaching out regarding your involvement in the 2025 Student Journalism Conference,'' they wrote. 'We have received community concerns about your political coverage and reporting on the Palestinian genocide. 'As a left-wing newspaper, Honi Soit recognises that Israel is committing an ongoing genocide in Palestine and we do not feel that our values align, or that we can platform your work as a result.' The truly weird aspect of this bizarre cancelling is I don't recall writing anything about Palestine recently at all, let alone anything controversial. I have literally no idea what they are on about, and regardless, even if I had written something or said something controversial that the Honi Soit editors did not agree with, so what? As it turns out, it matters quite a good deal to the editors of Honi Soit who are determined to build themselves a Peter Dutton style echo chamber where they only talk to people who they agree with. 'It is important to us that the speakers at the Student Journalism Conference have views that we can stand by, and in light of the reception to the announcement of your event, we do not feel that we can host you as a speaker at our conference,'' they wrote. 'We apologise for the inconvenience.' At first, I regarded it as some sort of amusing joke. But the more I thought about I reflected on how troubling it is that these sensitive petals at Sydney University, a good proportion of whom come from wealthy families, private schools and the world of mummy and daddy paying for their rent, are in such a froth about people that they think may think differently to them. Another panellist, the ABC broadcaster David Marr, kindly wrote a letter in support of free speech in solidarity. He's deplatforming himself from the conference. 'Imogen, I've just learned that you've deplatformed Sam Maiden because of 'concerns' about her 'political coverage','' he wrote. 'That's not my idea of how a good newspaper – let alone a student paper – should behave. Isn't the point of Honi Soit and a conference of this kind to examine different – and perhaps uncomfortable views – about the big issues of the day? I'm out.' And I didn't have to dig far into the archives of Honi Soit to find writer Robbie Mason, a self-described 'anarchist' with a very hot take on all of this in an article titled: Cancel culture is a dumb, toxic, liberal phenomenon antithetical to leftist organising. 'Cancel culture is an evangelical headhunting mission centred on public humiliation, ostracism and guilt by association,'' he wrote. 'When I think of cancel culture in its current form, I think of micro-transgressions and microaggressions. Rumours. Fight versus flight. Tears on bedroom carpets, downward glances in corridors and Twitter warriors emboldened by the poisonous sting of a keyboard. 'This encampment – this safe space – has transformed into a towering fortress. It is built upon the smeared reputations and social corpses of the most vulnerable in society – young activists, people of colour and non-university educated workers, for instance. 'As an anarchist, I am distrustful of a technocratic elite replicating the behaviour of ruling classes. 'Academic writing leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Forcing readers to continually decode the meaning of research and jargon ensures an intellectual elite remains in control of society and dominates public discourse – albeit an intellectual elite often with their hearts in the right place. This is nonetheless a form of power and hierarchy. 'As an anarchist, I am inclined to distrust hegemonic leftist arguments and mob rule.' Me too, Robbie Mason, Me too. In fact, the whole affair reminded me of Milan Kundera's first novel, The Joke, which describes how a student's private joke derails his life. Naturally, the author was my special study in Year 12 English. The novel opens with Ludvik back in his hometown in Moravia, where he is shocked to realise he recognises the woman cutting his hair, though neither acknowledges the other. In the novel, he reflects on the joke that changed his life in the early 1950s, when he was a supporter of the Communist regime. A girl in his class wrote to him about 'optimistic young people filled through and through with the healthy spirit' of Marxism; he replied caustically, 'Optimism is the opium of mankind! A healthy spirit stinks of stupidity! Long live Trotsky!' Pressured to share the contents of the letter with others in the Communist Party at school, Ludvik is unanimously expelled from the Party and from the college. Having lost his student exemption, he is drafted into the Czech military where alleged subversives formed work brigades, and spent the next few years working in the mines at a labor camp in Ostrava. I shall report back how it goes for me in Ostrava. Wish me luck.
