Australia news live: Victorian energy prices to jump almost a third as Bowen calls on Coalition to ‘look in the mirror’

From 1h ago Chris Bowen throws back to Coalition on energy price rises The energy minister is borrowing a turn of phrase out of Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech when asked about the Coalition’s suggestion that capping coal and gas prices will, in the longer run, increase prices. Chris Bowen: I invite the Coalition to have a look in the mirror. I mean, he had the independent energy regulator this morning pointing out that without the intervention, the price rises would have been closer to 50%. An intervention that Mr Dutton…

Australia news live: Wong urges China not to arm Russia; Clare O’Neil slams ‘politicisation of national security’

<gu-island name="KeyEventsCarousel" deferuntil="visible" props="{"keyEvents":[{"id":"64009b5b8f08aa11751d2978","elements":[{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has urged China not to supply weapons to Russia, after she met with her Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in India yesterday. She said she also raised trade issues, human rights and consular cases. ","elementId":"0f6779ff-29dd-440a-8332-cc87b5fea360"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":" Wong’s meeting was with Qin Gang, who has been serving as China’s foreign minister since late 2022. Wong previously held talks with then-minister Wang Yi in Beijing in December, following earlier meetings on the sidelines of last year’s G20 and UN…

Scott Morrison says he ran out of time to impose sanctions on China over human rights

The former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has defended his failure to introduce sanctions against Chinese officials over human rights abuses, saying he ran out of time before his election loss. His comments to a conference in Tokyo on Friday prompted the Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, to declare: “I’m not sure how much advice it would be sensible to take from Mr Morrison on foreign policy.” Wong was responding to Morrison’s suggestion that Australia should “demand and expect” an end to China’s tariffs and bans against a range…

Australia news live: Albanese says he has confidence in Philip Lowe, Perrottet backs ban on gay conversion practices

From 48m ago Perrottet backs ban on gay conversion practices Tamsin Rose New South Wales is a step closer to banning so-called gay conversion therapy after the premier, Dominic Perrottet, said he would support legislation to end the damaging practices. He said: There is no room for any harmful practices in NSW, particularly if they affect our young and vulnerable. When the parliament returns, my government will provide in principle support for legislation that brings an end to any harmful practices. This is a complex matter and in working through…

Former Australian PM Scott Morrison accuses west of appeasing China

The former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has accused the west of “appeasing” Beijing and has claimed credit for rallying other countries to “call out the bullying of the Chinese ­government”. In a speech to be delivered at a conference in Tokyo on Friday, Morrison is also expected to urge the Albanese government to consider using Magnitsky-style targeted human rights sanctions laws to hold Chinese government officials accountable. But Morrison did not introduce sanctions against any Chinese officials prior to leading the Coalition to its May 2022 election loss. In…

Smiles and unity at the Pacific Islands Forum mask tough questions shelved for another day

At the close of the Pacific Islands Forum the leaders emerged from their retreat smiling, cut a giant cake with a sword and then, in an impromptu moment of diplomatic bonhomie, posed for a selfie after Anthony Albanese whipped out his phone, Ellen DeGeneres style. It was, quite literally, a picture of harmony. “It’s been a very successful meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum,” said Albanese at his post-leaders’ retreat press conference. “We are family when it comes to the Pacific and there was a good spirit of cooperation and…

‘Considerable strain’: how Australian officials saw the China rift

Australian officials stayed in “regular contact” with the Chinese embassy in Canberra to “explain our decisions” even when Australian ministers were subjected to a two-year diplomatic freeze, newly released documents show. The former Morrison government had been “willing to engage with China in dialogue at any time”, according to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade briefing notes, which also described the relationship as being under “considerable strain”. Australian government ministers were blocked from meetings or calls with their direct Chinese counterparts for more than two years, although lower-level diplomats and…

Cabinet committee blocked plan to double Australia’s support to Pacific, election-eve leak reveals

The Morrison government has been hit by an election-eve leak that cabinet’s national security committee blocked a proposal by the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, to double Australia’s support to the Pacific. Labor said the “extraordinary” pre-election leak, first reported by the Australian newspaper, showed the government was “falling apart”, while Scott Morrison insisted the committee was “extremely tight”. The revelation was expected to trigger renewed debate about the government’s Pacific policy in the wake of China signing a security deal with Solomon Islands. Guardian Australia has confirmed that the…

Chinese-speaking voters critical of Coalition’s ‘militaristic’ stance on China in lead-up to 2022 election, WeChat study shows

The Coalition’s muscular position toward China is not going down well with Chinese-speaking voters, while Labor is facing criticism over its more generous approach to humanitarian immigration, an analysis of WeChat audience comments reveals. The study of more than 3,000 political news stories and associated comments appearing on the Chinese social media platform, WeChat, has been undertaken by researchers at Monash and Deakin Universities over the past 11 months, including during the election campaign. It provides an insight into the Australian political news reaching Chinese speakers and how they are…

Factcheck: the Coalition says Labor always ‘takes China’s side’, but are the parties’ positions so different?

As the Coalition campaign seeks to revive the talking point that Labor always “takes China’s side”, Scott Morrison implored reporters to “just look at the record”. So we did just that and found the claims by the prime minister and his senior ministers are either factually inaccurate, misleading, or lack context. Claim What I don’t understand is that when something of this significance takes place, why would you take China’s side? – Scott Morrison in response to Labor criticism over the security agreement between China and Solomon Islands, leaders’ debate,…