Australian Politics

‘Teal’ candidates Monique Ryan, Allegra Spender and Zoe Daniel have backed the model for a national integrity commission (NIC) that has been proposed by independent MP Helen Haines.

China is lying: Beijing’s growing co-operation with the South Pacific is not a threat to Australia’s security, China’s local ambassador says, amid regional alarm a security pact with the Solomon Islands could pave the way for a military base.

According to polls, Labor is romping to victory: Labor would win government in its own right and secure a modest majority with 80 seats in parliament if an election were held today according to the most sophisticated poll conducted across Australia measuring voter intention in every electorate in the country.

I have a working theory that overall betting odds on elections are affected by what people wish would happen as much as what people think will happen.

Last year, former NSW Planning Minister, Rob Stokes, used COVID as an excuse to turbo-charge development: NSW planning processes and development applications will be fast-tracked in a bid to support the construction sector and maintain jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here comes the election-stopper: The Morrison government is bracing for a high-level Chinese delegation to touch down in Honiara imminently to officially sign the security pact between Beijing and the Solomon Islands.

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) still holds a commanding 9% two-party preferred lead over the Coalition, according to the latest Roy Morgan polling: Primary support for the ALP was up slightly by 0.5% points to 35.5% this week and is now ahead of the L-NP on 34% (down 1% point).

The words are minimal but they are very important: The fieriest clash was over China.

Newspoll first: IPSOS the same: Labor’s primary vote has inched up 1 percentage point to 35 per cent and the Coalition’s has fallen 3 points to 29 per cent.

The futures market has truly lost its marbles, ratchetting up its Australian interest expectations even higher.

The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has presented research on negative gearing and the capital gains tax (CGT) discount, which would have been useful in 2018-19.

So say “economists“: Cost-of-living spending in the federal budget “100 per cent” helped pull forward the Reserve Bank’s decision to increase official interest rates, say economists who warn most Australians will suffer real falls in wages over the next 18 months.

The ABC is carrying the story of the latest verbal missile thrown at Australia from the Solomons: The Solomon Islands Prime Minister has launched a tirade in parliament, suggesting Australia and its allies are deliberately trying to undermine his government, criticising the Western response to Russia’s invasion and praising China’s treatment of Christians.

More Morrison corruption today: Prime Minister Scott Morrison has opened a new front in the debate over a national integrity commission, declaring Australia could become an unrecognisable “public autocracy” if such a body is given too much influence over government decision-making.

NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) commissioner Stephen Rushton, SC, appeared before state parliament’s ICAC oversight committee yesterday.

Much like Newspoll and Resolve yesterday, Roy Morgan’s latest polling on voter intentions has Labor (55.5%) widening its two-party preferred lead over the Coalition (44.5%): The ALP gained 1% point on a two-party preferred basis during the week to Sunday May 1, increasing its lead to 10% points: ALP 55.5% cf.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has attacked Labor’s proposed shared equity scheme for home buyers, which would see the federal government take a 30% to 40% share in their property.

A new report from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) claims that a 10.3% increase in workers’ productivity since the Coalition government won office in 2013 has not been reflected in wages growth.

She’ll be right.

March’s Federal Budget extended its minimum pension drawdown requirement for a further 12 months, thus enabling affluent retirees to keep their superannuation balances without needing to sell their assets.

Friday’s coordinated attacks on PM Morrison from Beijing and Honiara said it all.