Australian news and politics live: PM slammed over ‘shambolic’ China response, Qatar-Virgin deal greenlit
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Key Events
Albo has explaining to do over live fire drill: Dutton
Peter Dutton says Anthony Albanese must explain why his version of the Chinese live fire incident differs from the chief of the Defence Force.
Mr Dutton said the PM was “either making up” his version of events, or “shooting from the hip, or completely out of his depth, or maybe all three”
“Is he misleading, or is he mixed up?”
Mr Albanese on Friday said that a Chinese naval task group gave “notice” of the live fire drill. And, on Wednesday suggested a warning from a New Zealand ship was received at the same time as one from a Virign Australia pilot - but it was actually an hour later.
ADF boss David Johnston had a different story yesterday, though, confirming that the Virgin pilot had alerted Air Services Australia at 9.58am last Friday after they picked up a radio broadcast from the Chinese naval task group of their plans to conduct a live firing exercise between 9.30am and 3pm.
The agency alerted Defence’s Joint Operations Command around 10 minutes later, about 10.10am.
“I’ve never seen a prime minister floundering like this...on the issue of national security, the first charge of the Prime Minister is to keep our country safe and to make sure that we have in place the settings which protect us against any acts of aggression,” Mr Dutton said on 2GB.
“What we do know is that he is at odds with the chief of the Defence Force, and he needs to explain why, on such a totemic issue, he either wasn’t briefed, that he’s made up the facts, that he’s got it wrong.”
Wong grilled on why she didn’t meet with Israelis at UN
The Coalition has pressed Foreign Minister Penny Wong on why she did not meet with her Israeli counterpart at the UN General Assembly last year where she held talks with the Iranian and Palestinian envoys.
Senator Wong confirmed she did not meet with then Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz because he was not present at the New York Assembly. DFAT officials confirmed that a request for a meeting had been sent to the Israeli foreign ministry.
“Obviously we have a number of engagements. Had the foreign minister attended, I would have that opportunity. My counterpart didn’t attend,” she told Liberal Party Senator Dave Sharma during a senate estimates hearing.
Asked by Mr Sharma if she had been in talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the Israeli UN ambassador, Senator Wong responded, “I will usually engage with counterparts.”
ABC accused of being ‘hostile and partisan’
The ABC was hostile and partisan by viewing a fill-in radio host as an activist and a threat to its reputation due to her public support for the Palestinian cause, a court has been told.
Antoinette Lattouf was let go after three days of a week-long fill-in stint on ABC Radio Sydney’s Mornings program when she shared a Human Rights Watch post that said Israel used starvation as a “weapon of war” in Gaza.
She went after the ABC in the Fair Work Commission and escalated the case to the Federal Court, where she has sued for penalties and damages.
In closing submissions on Thursday, Lattouf’s barrister Oshie Fagir said despite claiming to act impartially, the ABC showed its partisan stance by the way it treated his client.
Fatima Payman ‘sorry’ for controversial Iran comments
WA Senator Fatima Payman has apologised for controversial comments she made about Iran after they sparked calls for an investigation into whether she has been influenced by foreign actors.
Footage emerged of her saying the authoritarian regime was an “incredible place” for women.
After The Nightly’s Katina Curtis earlier today broke the story of the Australian Iranian Community Organisation calling for an investigation, Senator Payman apologised.
She issued a statement saying she had heard Australian-Iranian women speaking at the event describe life in Iran in positive terms.
“When a journalist from Press TV later asked about the conversations I had at the event, I made comments that reflected what women had shared with me, not my own personal opinion,” she said, adding that she did not know of the broadcaster’s “political affiliations”.
“I acknowledge that the Iranian community is not homogeneous, and individuals have different lived experiences.
“However, I recognise that my comments did not reflect the realities of women who have suffered violence, brutality and severe human rights abuses. My intention was never to downplay or minimise their pain. If my words caused hurt, I sincerely apologise.”
Read the full story
Ukraine calls on Australia’s mining companies to invest
Ukraine is calling on Australian companies to boost investment alongside the US after President Donald Trump pushed for a mineral extraction deal to recoup aid.
Mr Myroshnychenko said Ukraine had to be pragmatic and respond to the world as it was, inviting Australian companies to invest in mining and mineral extraction after Mr Trump pushed for a mineral deal to recoup US money spent on aid.
“There is a moral argument in terms of security, democracy and helping Ukraine, helping the underdog who’s been bullied; it’s all valid but I think we have to talk about money,” he said.
“This is an opportunity for Australian companies, for mining companies, to come and invest in Ukraine together with American companies.”
Uni bans men from applying for plum $186,000 job
An Australian university has raised eybrows after banning men from applying for a plum position.
Aaron Patrick has exclusively revealed the University of the Sunshine Coast has reserved the $186,045-a-year position for women, including transgender women.
The move is allowed under Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act, which allows discrimination if the intention is to reverse an existing bias to one group.
“We see it as our responsibility to increase the number of visible role models for women, and this role was created to promote equal opportunity for women in mechanical engineering,” a university spokeswoman said.
Call for ‘foreign influence’ probe into Fatima Payman
Australia’s largest Iranian community organisation has called for the government to investigate whether Fatima Payman was influenced by foreign agents after footage emerged of her saying the authoritarian regime was an “incredible place” for women.
Australian Iranian Community Organisation president Siamak Ghahreman has told Katina Curtis that the comments went against decades of evidence from Iranian people and international bodies about human rights abuses.
The community was puzzled about the flip in position given Senator Payman had promoted her attendance two years earlier at Woman-Life-Freedom rallies, including one at Parliament House.
“Senator Payman stood in solidarity with Iranian women against the Iranian government and against its politics and violation of human rights,” Mr Ghahreman said.
“And now we’re wondering why all this suddenly has changed so dramatically. What has happened? Is she under pressure to say this? Is she being encouraged to do this? All this needs to be investigated.
“Being a senator should not give her immunity to be able to spread lies, especially when there is so much evidence all against what she said.”
Facebook suffering worldwide outage
Social media platform Facebook appears to be down worldwide.
Users have reported receiving an error message when trying to access the platform on desktops.
Mobile appears to be unaffected.
Trump and Musk step up mass lay-offs
Donald Trump’s administration has ordered federal agencies to undertake more large-scale layoffs of workers.
Reuters reports a new memo instructs agencies to submit plans by March 13 for a “significant reduction” in staffing to a federal workforce already reeling from waves of layoffs and program cuts by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
It did not specify the number of new layoffs.
The memo represents a major escalation in Trump and Musk’s campaign to slash the size of the US government.
Thus far, the layoffs have focused on probationary workers, who have less tenure in their current roles and enjoy fewer job protections. The next round would target the vastly bigger pool of veteran civil servants.
At the cabinet meeting, Trump said Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, plans to cut up to 65 per cent of his more than 15,000 employees.
Elon Musk plays starring role at Trump’s first Cabinet meeting
He’s not a cabinet-level official, has faced no approval by the US Senate, and the White House claims he’s not actually in charge of its Department of Government Efficiency, but that didn’t stop Elon Musk from addressing Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting.
Reuters reports Trump offered Musk an extraordinary sign of support by inviting the billionaire to tout his work to the presidential cabinet, some of whom had pushed back on his recent demand that all of their employees justify their work or face termination.
No rate cut would have seen inflation ‘undershoot’ target: RBA
Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser has told Senate estimates, Australian inflation would have come down sooner if the RBA keep the cash rate on hold.
Mr Hauser said the RBA assessed that a hold at 4.35 per cent would have led them to “undershoot the forecast” driving underlying inflation below the mid-point of its 2 to 3 per cent target band.
“The conclusion was holding rates where they were would cause inflation, in an underlying sense, to undershoot the forecast and therefore there was a case that was a big and important contributory factor to the board concluding there was a case to cut interest rates,” he said.
Using a driving analogy, he explained the decision to drop Australia’s inflation slower was a “deliberate” strategy.
“Part of what we’re doing is putting on a break and part of what we’re doing is pushing on the accelerator,” he said.
“We have removed a small amount of the braking that we are still applying to the economy.
“We have not yet chosen to depress the accelerator because inflation still has work to do to get back sustainably to the midpoint.”
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