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Former Solomon Islands excessive commissioner tries to confront Scott Morrison
Daniel Hurst
Trevor Sofield, who was Australia’s excessive commissioner to Solomon Islands from 1981 to 1985, spoke to reporters after he tried to confront Scott Morrison within the marginal Tasmanian seat of Bass right this moment.
Sofield mentioned he was a constituent of Bass, and mentioned Morrison’s occasion had misplaced his vote:
We’ve misplaced the plot within the South Pacific. And provided that I’ve bought a level of expertise I believe I do know what I’m speaking about … the prime minister’s occasion has misplaced my vote … due to the best way wherein they’ve completely mishandled our nationwide strategic pursuits, I’m now not voting for the Liberal occasion.
Sofield mentioned he discovered it “incomprehensible that we didn’t know prematurely what was occurring within the Solomon Islands this time – it simply couldn’t have occurred beforehand”. (Morrison has repeatedly mentioned Australia was not blindsided and was working via the problems fastidiously based mostly on recommendation.)
Requested whether or not the overseas minister, Marise Payne, ought to have travelled to Honiara final month as an alternative of the junior minister Zed Seselja, Sofield mentioned:
After all. However she ought to have been there earlier than. She hasn’t been there since 2019. She needs to be going there each single yr. That was the character of the connection that we used to have.
A reporter put it to Sofield that the prime minister had mentioned Australia wanted to make sure it was not seen as a giant brother. Sofield replied:
What’s he doing however rationalising the place he finds himself in? We don’t must be massive brothers, we’ve to work with them, we’ve to grasp their sensitivities, and we’d like certainly to ensure that nonetheless we work with them we’re working in conjunction, we’re not bullying, we’re not making an attempt to drive one thing on them from above downwards. It’s actually a matter of working at that equal partnership stage.
The Labor MP Stephen Jones (who wrote this piece earlier this yr) says feedback by the Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves, and the prime minister’s function within the trans debate is “despicable”. He’s speaking to the ABC, simply after they’d a section on youth psychological well being.
He says:
After we know that there’s a 5 occasions better incidence of suicide ideation and self-harm and extreme psychological well being points with younger youngsters who’re going via gender dysphoria, younger youngsters from homosexual, lesbian backgrounds … the candidate for Warringah, backed by the prime minister, doubling all the way down to reignite a debate for pure political functions, it isn’t solely despicable, it’s reckless.
It’s completed with the prime minister’s license, that’s apparent to all people, and admittedly the hole between what the prime minister says and what he does is rising day-to-day.
One of the simplest ways that we are able to do one thing to assist younger individuals with psychological well being points is be sure that we don’t add to the [burden for] individuals which can be already struggling, and on daily basis Scott Morrison provides her a license to go on the market and do her agenda baiting garbage.
What the world (particularly Australia) wants now – Adam Morton factchecks the local weather change claims of either side, within the newest Temperature Examine:
Peter Hannam
Earlier right this moment, we revealed this text noting that pupil loans have been amongst these prices that the federal authorities indexes to shopper value inflation.
The top of the Nationwide Union of College students, Georgie Beatty, known as out what she noticed as “simply plain hypocrisy” within the reality the Morrison authorities was against minimal wages maintaining with the CPI but it surely was superb for pupil mortgage repayments to rise at that fee.
(We’ve requested Labor, which has been extra supportive of wages maintaining with inflation, for its opinion on the loans.)
Many college students, after all, work within the one-in-four jobs paying the $20.33 an hour minimal, equivalent to retail and hospo. (Youth wages are even much less, after all, and never all employers do the suitable factor, both.)
Anyway, as if on cue, the Australian Taxation Workplace – which manages pupil loans – has chimed in and lifted the annual reimbursement fee to three.9% a yr.
And whereas 3.9% appears a bit decrease than the 5.1% CPI reported for the March quarter, the formulation the ATO makes use of is a lagging one. It takes the entire previous yr of quarterly CPI charges and divides them towards the earlier 12 months’ charges.
In different phrases, the reimbursement charges will preserve rising somewhat after CPI peaks but additionally take some time to come back down the opposite aspect. Both means, pupil debt holders will face greater repayments however their incomes is probably not maintaining.
The Honest Work Fee will launch its verdict on how a lot the minimal wage will rise by the top of Might or early June.
On childcare, Jennett says Scott Morrison claimed Labor’s coverage would value $18bn. The place is that determine from?
Birmingham runs via some figures on the fly, however doesn’t say the place the $18bn determine comes from. The spending, although, “doesn’t make sense”, he says.
In 2013, the Coalition launched its costings the Thursday earlier than the election, Jennett says. So isn’t it OK if Labor does the identical subsequent week? Birmingham says:
It’s a matter for the Labor occasion as to once they launch their costings. What we’ve highlighted right this moment, of the insurance policies they’ve dedicated via the course of this marketing campaign, and earlier than this, they don’t seem to be being clear concerning the whole value of these insurance policies, [they] should not partaking correctly on the costings course of in any respect, earlier than you even get to aggregating out and releasing the full costing.
Coalition claims Labor chief ‘making it up as he goes alongside’ on wage rises
The Liberal marketing campaign spokesman, Simon Birmingham, is speaking to the ABC’s Greg Jennett now. He repeats the purpose he made (under) that the Labor chief, Anthony Albanese, is “making it up as he goes alongside”.
Jennett places it to Birmingham that limiting the pay rise to staff on the minimal wage would limit any probability of it having inflationary stress.
Birmingham says he received’t “hypothesise” about what the Honest Work Fee would possibly do.
Some extra from Morrison’s marketing campaign path, the place Trevor Sofield advised the media he was a former ambassador to Solomon Islands:
There have been 7,670 Covid deaths in Australia:
The perils of the marketing campaign path:
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is within the marginal Labor seat of Lyons. Tasmania’s Ashgrove Cheese Dairy Door specialises in crunch cheese snacks known as Amazeballs (blessed are the cheesemakers):
In the meantime, in Queensland, a lady has died and a person is lacking because the state braces for extra flooding. And the LNP is speaking about trans points:
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