Clare says Dutton’s push to legislate 26 January as Australia Day ‘same fake fight we have every year’
Circling back to the education minister, Jason Clare, who had been speaking on Sunrise earlier.
He was asked about Peter Dutton’s key proposal to keep Australia Day on 26 January, and if Labor would follow suit. But Clare said “the date’s not changing” and “we have the same fake fight every year”.
This is just another distraction from Dutton to conceal this stinker of a policy. There is a smelly flower in Sydney today, [but] the real stinker here is this idea that taxpayers should pay for their boss’s lunch, and [he] still won’t tell us how much it’s going to cost.
The host said that Dutton wanted to put 26 January as Australia Day into law – would Labor? Clare said it was already in employment law:
That’s what I’m saying. It is a fake fight to distract from the mess of Peter Dutton’s crazy policies.
Key events
TWU provides more detail on why ground workers are striking
The national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, Michael Kaine, just spoke with ABC News Breakfast about the ground workers strike today – as flagged earlier.
He said ground workers are the ones who “make sure that the belly of the plane is properly packed, weighed correctly so the pilot can sign off”, as well as dealing with baggage.
They’ve been negotiating for over a year now, and still, the company is holding out on a decent arrangement …
Kaine said the jobs used to be full-time permanent directly employed by the airlines, but “Alan Joyce changed all of that.”
He outsourced all of the work, split it up amongst multiple companies. Pitted them in competition with each other and the result is that terms and conditions now are at rock bottom … So they’re asking for better terms and conditions, better job security.
Two men charged over alleged assault of off-duty police officers in Newtown
Two men have been charged with the alleged assault of two off-duty police officers in Sydney’s inner west.
Police said the officers, both 25-year-old male constables, had been walking along Enmore Road in Newtown after attending a concert when they approached three unknown men in their 20s who were arguing. A police spokesperson alleged:
The two off-duty officers were assaulted with one of them knocked to the ground and repeatedly punched and kicked to the head.
Police said they were called to the scene at about 11pm and found a “25-year-old man unconscious on the roadway”.
An off-duty nurse performed CPR on the off-duty officer until paramedics arrived and took him to Royal Prince Alfred hospital, where he remained in a serious but stable condition.
Police arrested two men, aged 18 and 20, at a home in Mascot about 3.20pm. They were taken to Mascot police station.
The 20-year-old was charged with causing grievous bodily harm, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The 18-year-old was charged with two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and larceny.
They were refused bail to appear at Downing Centre local court today. Police said inquiries to locate the third man are ongoing.
Brisbane Airport says it is ‘business as usual for vast majority’ amid industrial action
A very small number of flights could experience baggage delays at Brisbane Airport today amid industrial action.
As we flagged earlier, the Transport Workers Union said about 1,000 ground workers hired by aviation services company Dnata were walking off the job today.
A spokesperson from Brisbane airport said in a statement:
75,000 people will travel through Brisbane Airport today and it will be business as usual for the vast majority.
Australian police commissioners to meet weekly to discuss intelligence, following spate of antisemitic attacks
The NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, spoke with ABC RN this morning about the recent spate of antisemitic attacks in Sydney.
She was asked about news from the AFP it was investigating potential foreign influence in the attacks – does NSW police have any further information on this theory?
Catley said NSW police would “follow every line of inquiry that they believe is pertinent to making arrests in relation to these antisemitic attacks”.
Certainly the arrests that have been made thus far … [are] before the court [and] we don’t want to prejudice those particular cases. And if it came to light that that was the case, then the NSW police would tell us.
But in terms of intelligence, right across the country, NSW police and other jurisdictions for that matter, work hand in glove with the AFP and with our other intelligence agencies, and they share information.
She said police commissioners have agreed to week meetly to “share information that they gather in any given week”.
‘I don’t get why we’re trying to politicise the issue of opposing antisemitism’, Marles says
Peter Dutton and Richard Marles also had a back-and-forth on whether or not the government has been slow to respond to antisemitism, after a spate of attacks in Sydney.
Marles said that Dutton was “part of a government which said that Australians have a right to be bigots” and now, “it is that which underpins all form of bigotry and antisemitism in this country”.
It was Peter who was part of that government for nine years in which nothing happened. I don’t get why we’re trying to politicise the issue of opposing antisemitism.
I get that Peter is opposed to it. We are opposed to it. This is a moment, actually, where governments and oppositions need to come together and stand with the Jewish community against antisemitism, rather than try and score political points on it.
Dutton and Marles trade barbs on housing
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has signalled the Coalition may support Labor’s apprentice payment policy. Speaking on the Today Show earlier, he said:
We support a program that’s going to get more apprentices into the system. But we’ve got a housing crisis that Labor’s created, and … of the [1.2m homes], close to zero have been built.
They’ve promised 1.2m. It just hasn’t happened, and that’s why people are feeling the crunch. They can’t rent a house, they can’t buy a house, and people are right to be angry.
The deputy PM, Richard Marles, was also on the program, and said “Peter can sit on the sidelines carping, but at the end of the day, he has done nothing to support new people into the industry, nor has he supported anything to see more housing approvals, to work with the states and local government to get that.”
Wayne Swan says part of Australia Day is ‘tolerance and recognising Indigenous history’
ALP national president Wayne Swan has also weighed in on Australia Day, while speaking on the Today Show.
He said Australia Day citizenship ceremonies are one of the things he misses most about being an MP, and the day was about “celebrating what makes our country great and the values that underpin that”.
There’s always going to be a debate about the day, and some people will want to call it Invasion Day. I don’t think that’s the road we should go down, but we should recognise there is a debate.
We’ve only honoured Australia Day on this day since 1994. [In] 1994 it became [an] official holiday, so there’s not some long tradition about this. The most important thing to do is to come together and celebrate what makes the country great. And that includes tolerance [and] that includes recognising Indigenous history.
Marles says public opinion on 26 January as Australia Day would ‘wax and wane from year to year’
Richard Marles was asked about polling in the Nine newspapers showing rising support for Australia Day – why does he think that is?
The deputy PM said poll numbers would “come and go”.
Obviously, we need to be sensitive to the history of Australia Day, but this is the day on which we celebrate our nation and our nation is very much worth celebrating, and I look forward to Australia Day …
You’ll see the numbers wax and wane from year-to-year. At the end of the day, ours is a country worth celebrating. This is the day that we do it and that’s what I’m going to do on Monday.
Marles says American leadership ‘so important’ to ensure ‘global rules-based order’
Richard Marles was also asked how Australia would respond if the US moved to acquire Greenland through force – would that put substantial strain on our military ties?
Marles said he didn’t want to get into hypotheticals, and responded:
What we want to see, and what I’m sure we will see, is ongoing American leadership in the world. American leadership has been so important in terms of ensuring that the global rules-based order, which has been built up in large part with American leadership since the end of the second world war, that the global rules-based order is maintained, and that matters to Australia because as an island trading nation, we are deeply engaged … it matters very much to our national interest.
And so, seeing an ongoing American leadership in respect of this is really important. And I’m sure that that is what we’re going to see under the Trump administration.
Marles weighs in on US defence lead pick
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, spoke with ABC News Breakfast earlier where he discussed the latest on the Aukus deal.
Specifically, the US president Donald Trump’s pick to appoint former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defence lead. Is he is the right person for the job, and to work with Australia on the Aukus deal?
Marles said he looks forward to meeting Hegseth and “obviously, we’re waiting for the processes in America to play out”:
But I fully expect that Pete Hegseth will be endorsed and nominated as the secretary of defence. And when that occurs, we will look forward to having an early engagement with Pete Hegseth.
We are very keen to be working with the Trump administration on all the issues that occur within the alliance. Defence is a key part of that. And as you said, Aukus is very central to all of that …
I look forward to being able to talk that over at the earliest opportunity with Pete Hegseth.
Airline disruptions flagged as 1,000 ground workers walk off the job
The Transport Workers Union is flagging airport disruptions as ground workers hired by aviation services company Dnata prepare to walk off the job.
The national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, Michael Kaine, told the Today Show “there will be disruptions”.
Industrial action is always a last resort. You don’t get 1,000 workers taking industrial action unless something is seriously wrong, and there’s something seriously wrong at Dnata.
It’s a year now since these workers have been negotiating for their agreement. They are owed improvements in their pay and conditions from June last year, and they’ve said enough is enough …
There’ll be disruptions at Sydney airport, at Melbourne airport, at Brisbane airport and there’ll be flight delays.
We’ll keep an eye on this throughout the day and bring you the latest updates here on the blog.
People queue to see corpse flower ‘Putricia’ from 5am
As we mentioned earlier, Sydney Botanic Garden’s will reopen from 8am this morning for people to catch a glimpse of corpse flower “Putricia”, who began blooming yesterday afternoon.
But it seems her fans began lining up much (much) earlier this morning. The Today Show spoke with two women, Caitlin and Paige, who had been turned away last night and decided to line up again this morning at 5am:
We got here around 8.30[pm] and we were turned away. So that’s why we’re here bright and early to try and see this flower.
The two girls first met as they were being turned away from last night’s queue, and coincidentally ran into each other in line this morning. Paige said:
For me it was actually my birthday yesterday, and for it to bloom on my birthday just feels like it’s a bit special. And it’s meant to be symbolic of rebirth. So I thought I’d just come and soak up some of the flower’s energy, I guess.
Clare says Dutton’s push to legislate 26 January as Australia Day ‘same fake fight we have every year’
Circling back to the education minister, Jason Clare, who had been speaking on Sunrise earlier.
He was asked about Peter Dutton’s key proposal to keep Australia Day on 26 January, and if Labor would follow suit. But Clare said “the date’s not changing” and “we have the same fake fight every year”.
This is just another distraction from Dutton to conceal this stinker of a policy. There is a smelly flower in Sydney today, [but] the real stinker here is this idea that taxpayers should pay for their boss’s lunch, and [he] still won’t tell us how much it’s going to cost.
The host said that Dutton wanted to put 26 January as Australia Day into law – would Labor? Clare said it was already in employment law:
That’s what I’m saying. It is a fake fight to distract from the mess of Peter Dutton’s crazy policies.
