Laura Murphy-Oates
Cost of living is biting, but it’s not a new problem for a lot of people who have found finding somewhere to live increasingly impossible
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In that exchange, Stuart Robert said he had been acting as the education minister for a year. But Alan Tudge didn’t announce he was stepping down until 2 December last year.
Perhaps the last five months have just felt like a year for Robert.
Yesterday the government announced $40m to ‘raise school standards’.
Stuart Robert, the acting education minister, was sent out to sell the policy pledge, as the education minister Alan Tudge, who Scott Morrison confirmed is still in cabinet, has stepped aside from his portfolio.
On News Breakfast, Robert was pressed on why Tudge wasn’t making the announcement, considering Morrison said on Wednesday Tudge would be his education minister in a re-elected government.
Q: Why isn’t the Education Minister, Alan Tudge, making this announcement today?
Robert:
I’m the acting Education Minister, and have been for almost 12 months. So I’ve got full authority in terms of running the education portfolio, as well as skills and workplace and the other things that I do.
Q: So where is Alan Tudge?
Robert:
I suggest in his electorate. I don’t know where he is. I tend not to keep track of my colleagues’ whereabouts.
Q: Well, he is a frontbencher and the Prime Minister has said that he’s welcome back in Cabinet, but he’s sitting on an electorate with a 10% margin. So he would normally be out campaigning elsewhere, but he’s not in this, because of the allegations that have sat over him and this question about the $500,000 payment. When are taxpayers going to get the right to know what when on in his ministerial office and why this $500,000 payment has been made to one of his staffers?
Robert:
I’m not across those issues so, unfortunately, I can’t give you any degree of answer. They’re issues that are dealt with by the Department of Finance, very much at arm’s length from anyone. Certainly arm’s length from me. My responsibility as required by the Prime Minister as the acting Education Minister and the acting minister for youth, is to use all of those resourcing and requirement and continue to act in the best interests of the people of Australia, which I’ve been doing with my state and territory colleagues. That’s why just before the election, of course, we signed off on the national curriculum, which was a landmark piece of work that we did together as Education Ministers right across the country.
Q: Don’t you think, given that Alan Tudge’s [former staffer], Rachelle Miller has released the Government of any responsibility when it comes to the confidentiality over the legal claim, that it is right for taxpayers to did why that money was paid and what’s behind it?
Robert:
Again, Lisa, I’m just not across those issues in any detail at all.
Q: Minister, I’m not sure that that would swing with our viewers, suggesting that you’re not aware or not across it, given that it has filled headlines and column pages for months.
Robert:
I’m still not across what the details are. I’m not across what the legalities are.
Q: Do you think that taxpayers have a right to know. OK, but if you don’t know the details, do you think that taxpayers have a right to know? It’s $500,000. Something went on in a minister’s office and $500,000 gets paid out?
Robert:
Again, I’m not going to comment on things that I’m just not across. I don’t think that the Australian people expect the acting Education Minister to wade into every issue, especially issues that I’m simply not briefed on. My brief is to ensure that we can get the best possible curriculum and the best possible teacher education quality out of our universities, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
Daniel Hurst has this exclusive, which helps to show what direction Labor is taking for its foreign policy plans:
Labor will appoint an ambassador for human rights if it wins the federal election, pledging to restore Australia’s leadership on the world stage and draw a line under Scott Morrison’s “negative globalism”.
Weeks after it emerged the Australian Human Rights Commission risks having its global accreditation downgraded, Labor also promised to “defend” the institution with a return to merit-based appointments.
The policy to be outlined on Thursday includes the appointment of a dedicated ambassador for human rights to “advance the rights and protections for people living with a disability, ethnic and religious minorities, and LGBTIQ+ individuals”.
Scott Morrison is continuing his “I know you don’t like me, but at least I don’t lead the Labor party” pitch to voters.
Could it work? Of course.
“You don’t get every call right and I’ve been pretty open and honest about that”
Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP says the election “is not a popularity contest, it’s about who can best lead Australia” over the next three years. pic.twitter.com/Vsdvc7rKev
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) May 4, 2022
Lambie says voters giving PM ‘no other choice’ on federal Icac
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie says Scott Morrison needs to “get his boots on” and hear what people on the ground are saying about a federal integrity commission – they want one:
They want accountability and they want politicians held accountable and so they should – the amount of money that we’re on and the job that we’re supposed to be doing is the highest office in the nation. So we should be on watching if the Australian people out there have no trust in us.
We’ve got to do something and he’s got no other choice and it’s about time we were looked at under the same situation as anybody else that’s in a normal workplace and it needs to be done. I want that trust installed back around this country. And the only way to do it is by an Icac and having political police on the beat. And that’s what we need.
We need to be held accountable, not just by the newspapers and journalists, but we need to be accountable. If you’ve got nothing to hide, just like any other normal person would have to go to a court and you go and explain yourself in front of a judge or a jury. That’s what we do.
That’s normal behaviour. But it seems politicians don’t have to, don’t have to raise themselves to that standard. Well, guess what? It’s about bloody time they did. And they’ve got no choice because there’s no trust left. And they have to, it’s as simple as that.
Hung parliament ‘probably better for democracy’: Jacqui Lambie says
Jacqui Lambie says she also believes a hung parliament would deliver better outcomes for Australia:
I think having a hung parliament is probably better for democracy when you’ve got to try and push things through, especially bills and legislation from my experience in the Senate, and you’ve got that balance of power, you try and make them better. That’s what you do. You don’t worry about sort of doing the deals. What you do is make those bills and legislation better. That doesn’t just suit your own state but suits the whole nation without any conflicts of interest.
Jacqui Lambie is now speaking to the same program and is asked about how voters in Tasmania are feeling:
So what I will say is this, three years ago when we were six or eight weeks out when we thought Bill Shorten might win, and then he started to wean off in the end – I can tell you now, that is not happening this time to Anthony Albanese. As a matter of fact, I think he’s actually picked up on a whole new level ahead of Morrison down here on Tassie and I think that has got a lot to do with the cost of living.
Simon Birmingham is asked about the “scare” campaign surrounding voting for independents, after John Howard said electing even one teal independent candidate would “destroy” the Liberal government.
Birmingham is more measured (but not by much):
We want voters in those electorates as we do in every electorate to think carefully about the choice … people should think about the fact that the so-called teal independents, often have a history of involvement in the Labor party, are refusing to say who they would support to form government and, if they got elected, would likely be part of a very unstable and risky Labor-Greens independent alliance that would see higher rates of spending, higher pressure on interest rates and higher taxes.
Simon Birmingham is on ABC radio RN, speaking about the government’s pledge to help create 400,000 small businesses over the next five years.
He says that’s a net figure but can’t say how many will close.
Patricia Karvelas says she has some numbers:
Nearly 365,000 small businesses were launched in 2020 2021 alone – 277,000 were closed though.
So is 400,000 over five years that ambitious?
Birmingham says it’s the net figure. So how many will close in those five years?
I don’t have on the top of my head the ins and outs on a year-by-year basis.
Good morning
We have made it to day 25.
With today, there are about 17 days left.
If you break it down into coffees, that’s about 12,457. It would be irresponsible to break that down into alcoholic drinks.
Penny Wong has been back in front of the cameras making sure everyone remembered the handling of the Solomon Islands and the Pacific under Scott Morrison’s watch. She told ABC TV:
Quite a lot of the way in which prime minister – Mr Morrison – has dealt with this issue has surprised me. I think Australians have been surprised.
We know that we were warned about this. Australia was warned about this in August last year and, despite that and a number of other warning signs, I don’t see – I don’t think Australians see at a political level, actions being taken that reflects the imperative for Australia to continue to work to be the partner of choice. This is not an optional extra, this is fundamental to our security.
Labor is not planning on letting that drop but it’s cost of living that remains the main focus. Morrison has started the morning with the commercial TV breakfast shows because that’s who he needs to win. He’s focused on the “international pressures” message as well as the “economic shield” he says the government provided, rounding it off with a “who do you trust?” message.
We’re going to be hearing this for 17 more days. Make it about 14,345 coffees.
We’ll bring you all the day’s events as they happen. It looks as though it will be a busy morning so let’s jump straight in.
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