Teal crossbench will ‘never come our way’: Coalition leader Peter Dutton
On the prospect of minority government and negotiations with the teal independents, Dutton ruled out a deal with the Greens “particularly given now that we know they’re a racist, antisemitic party” and suggested that the “teals will only ever support a Labor government”.
In the same breath, Dutton says he will “talk with the crossbench” but suggested “they will never come our way”.
Despite this, Dutton added he expected independents to support a Coalition government if it managed to secure 72 seats.
It would be unusual that if we were able to achieve 72 and we were a number of seats ahead of the Labor party, that there wouldn’t be a guarantee of supply and confidence from the crossbench, but some of them will only ever support the Labor party.
Key events
Schools to get new anti-bullying standard
The government wants to tackle bullying in schools with a new national standard on best practice response for teachers.
The education minister, Jason Clare, announced the initiative on Sunday, appointed Dr Charlotte Keating and Dr Jo Robinson as co-chairs of the an anti-bullying rapid review to look at how schools could better address bullying.
Clare said:
Bullying is not just something that happens in schools, but schools are places where we can intervene and provide support for students. All students and staff should be safe at school, and free from bullying and violence.
That’s why we’re taking action to develop a national standard to address bullying in schools.
Dutton pledges to ‘engage very quickly with Trump’ on deals
Asked about comments Dutton made during a Sky News interview that aired earlier on Sunday where he said people shouldn’t take everything the US president, Donald Trump, says “literally”, Dutton said:
I just think we’ve got a different president with a different style from most of his predecessors, and he wants to do deals. I think there’s a great deal for Australia to do with the United States.
Dutton pledged to “engage very quickly with the Trump administration”, saying the Coalition “we’ve already got obviously a number of contacts within the Trump administration”.
Some of those friendships, longstanding, and we will be the best party to have a productive, constructive relationship with the United States that will serve Australia’s interests.
Coalition are ‘underdogs’ in election: Dutton
Dutton says the Coalition are the underdogs going into the next federal election despite a YouGov poll suggesting his party is currently the favourite to win the next election.
We’re the underdogs going to this campaign because a first term government hasn’t lost since 1931. But to counter that, in the Albanese government, we’ve got the worst government since 1931. So people are ready for a change.
Dutton says Middle Arm in NT a ‘very significant project’
Dutton has waved off concerns about a proposed petrochemical hub, Middle Arm, planned for Darwin Harbour in the Northern Territory saying that environmental regulations will be followed.
Dutton said Middle Arm “is a very significant project”.
We obviously have been sympathetic to it in the past, and we will in government.
Asked whether Dutton would commit $1.5bn to get the project off the ground, Dutton says “we’ll have a chat to the Territory government about the latest figures and what’s happened to costs”.
Dutton appears to have declared a pre-emptive victory at the upcoming federal election, saying “there is no prospect of Anthony Albanese forming a majority government after the election”.
So if you vote for Labor, you’re voting for a Labor-Greens government, and we don’t need three more years of Anthony Albanese, let alone three more years of an Albanese government, which would be a disaster for families and small businesses.
Dutton hints at Indigenous spending cuts
A future Coalition government would expect to see cuts to Indigenous spending if elected after an audit, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, says.
Dutton is speaking to reporters in Palmerston in the Northern Territory where he says the government has been “putting more and more public servants, more and more bureaucracy, and more layers making it harder for decisions to be made” at a time when “Australians have had to trim back every dollar of expenditure and discretionary spend and waste in their own budgets”.
Asked about the announcement that three men will be deported to Nauru under an arrangement with the Pacific nation, Dutton instead boosted the Coalition’s record on “stopping the boats”, saying that Labor has allowed “the boats to restart”.
On the deal with Nauru, Burke says:
The government of Nauru, is aware of their background. The government of Nauru is a sovereign government, and they’ve made a decision as a sovereign government to issue these visas. Under our character test they are not eligible for a visa in Australia, given that visa has been issued. They should leave.
He also says the government anticipates the decision will face legal challenge, as the immigrations laws passed were intended to serve as a workaround to the NZYQ decision by the high court.
Bourke says he anticipates the reforms will withstand legal challenge.
Fun fact there are more legal cases against the Immigration minister than any other minister in the Australian government. Always has been, always will be. Lawyers haven’t launched anything yet. I simply, whenever I make any decision, I presume that there’ll be a contest in the courts.
And you know, we will go in there with in a very strong position as a Commonwealth dealing exactly with the legislation that the Parliament passed to be able to send people to third countries.
Burke said that it is the view of the government the three people “are not being indefinitely detained”.
They’re being detained pending pending removal. We know exactly where they’re going. And there is a visa. We are the there are final pieces of logistics that now get now get organised. But they had to be taken into detention the moment Nauru had issued the visas, because at that moment the visas they were on were cancelled. And under the Immigration Act they became unlawful non-citizens in Australia.
Three men in immigration detention to be resettled in Nauru: Tony Burke
The Australian government is moving to remove three people from Australia to Nauru under migration laws it passed.
The three people were part of the NZYQ cohort who the government says have “failed the character test”. All three are violent offenders and one has been convicted of murder.
Speaking to reports, the minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, says all three men “are now in immigration detention”.
They will be put on a plane and sent to Nauru as soon as arrangements are able to be made. That will not be within the next seven days, but it will be as soon as possible.
Burke said he was “very grateful to the government of Nauru that we are in a situation now where three people, where previously the situation had seemed intractable, are now on a pathway to leave Australia”.
Slide in Labor poll numbers a cost-of-living issue: David Littleproud
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, is riding high after a negative poll showing the Coalition leading Labor 52 to 48 on a two-party preferred basis.
Speaking to Weekend Today on Sunday morning, Littleproud said the slide in poll numbers for Labor came down to cost-of-living issues and that a future government had to “get back to basics”.
One of the most telling factors in this poll is that 55% of Australians think that the country is heading in the wrong direction. They’ve asked themselves, ‘Do they feel better off and do they feel safer after three years of Anthony Albanese?’ And what we’ve got to do is continue to articulate the commonsense solutions to address that cost of living.
That’s a sensible energy grid that drives down, not just your power bill, but your food bill and a sensible migration bill, a migration policy that actually helps to build some homes, brings the right people in, and banning foreigners from competing with you.
Election poll places Coalition in pole position
Labor has a mountain to climb to prevent Peter Dutton from forming government at the next election, with polling predicting a coalition wave in outer suburbs, AAP reports.
The coalition will be just two seats short of forming government in its own right at the next federal election, polling has found, but the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has cast doubt on his party securing the support of independents.
Latest modelling by YouGov released on Sunday projected the coalition to win 73 seats in the 150-member House of Representatives, well ahead of Labor on 66.
The result, if replicated at the election, which is due to take place by 17 May, would leave Dutton to become Australia’s next prime minister, said YouGov director of public data Paul Smith.
It would also make Labor the first single-term federal government since 1931.
Haemorrhaging votes in working class outer suburbs, Labor was on track to lose 15 seats but gain three from the Greens in Brisbane and one from independent Dai Le in western Sydney.
Two government ministers were set to lose their seats – Pat Conroy in Shortland and Kristy McBain in Eden-Monaro.
Labor’s primary vote share was projected to slip below 30% while the coalition’s would lift to 37.4%.
But that was only the model’s central result out of a range of possible outcomes, with the Coalition on course to secure between 65 and 80 seats, Labour taking 59-72, the Greens 1-3, and independents 7-10.
Dutton pledges to reappoint sacked home affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo
Dutton also signalled that he would re-appoint former home affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo if re-elected, saying he was “unfairly vilified” by the Labor government.
I think he was vilified unfairly by the government, and I would make a decision in relation to appointments, if we’re fortunate enough to win government.
Pezzullo was sacked after an independent inquiry found he had breached the government’s code of conduct 14 times, including using his power for personal benefit.
You can read more about what happened here:
