Dutton defends cost of referendum proposal
Continuing from our last post:
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was up on Sunrise earlier this morning to defend his referendum proposal – despite his ongoing criticism of the voice referendum as being too expensive.
Dutton said his argument is “if you betray your allegiance to our country in that way you should expect to lose your citizenship”.
The voice … was the wrong issue for the government to put to the people. It could have been dealt with by legislation. The prime minister wouldn’t explain the logic, rationale and impact of the voice. That’s why it went down. What we’re proposing here is a discussion about whether we have adequate laws … whether the constitution is restrictive …
The Sunrise host noted that Australians’ top concern right now is cost-of-living pressures – can the nation afford another referendum? Dutton responded, “absolutely.”
The first issue is to try to keep people safe … In terms of cost of living, of course, that’s our priority economically … If we believe that we want to keep people safe, if you want to keep your kids safe and we want to keep kids safe in our community, I don’t think you can put a price on that.
Key events
Monarchists argue King’s image should have been included on $5 note
The Australian Monarchist League (AML) argues that as long as Australia is a constitutional monarchy under the Crown, the monarch should appear on paper currency and coinage.
As Sarah Collard reports, Australia’s $5 note – which has borne the face of Queen Elizabeth II since 1992 – will be redesigned to reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s connection to country and the overturning of terra nullius – a foundational moment in the fight for land rights.
The AML has responded to the move in a statement this morning:
The decision to remove the King’s image from Australia’s five-dollar note was a part of the Albanese government’s plan for a republic thwarted only by their devastating defeat over the Voice referendum which we always knew was a precursor to a referendum on a republic.
The continuation of the Albanese government’s republicanism by stealth is an indication that we could well face a move towards a republic if the public allows Albanese a second term, especially in partnership with the Greens.
Mystery foam washes ashore South Australian beach: pictures
Here are some photos of the mystery foam that has washed ashore South Australia’s Waitpinga beach, with surfers becoming ill and an investigation into fish deaths underway.
The photos were taken by local surfer Anthony Rowland:
Man charged with murder after body found in Sydney
A man will face court today, charged after the body of a man was found in Sydney’s southwest last weekend.
Police found the body of a 34-year-old man inside a home at Belmore on Saturday night, following reports of a concern for welfare.
Initial inquiries revealed the body allegedly sustained a number of stab wounds.
Detectives commenced an investigation, assisted by the State Crime Commands homicide squad. A crime scene was established, and a number of items seized.
Yesterday, detectives arrested a 21-year-old man at Bankstown police station. He was charged with murder and refused bail to appear before Bankstown local court today.
Benita Kolovos
Liberal leader denies misleading reporters by saying he was visiting cyclone-hit family before taking cruise
Brad Battin denied he misled reporters with his comments on Saturday, as he did see his parents during the trip:
I wasn’t asked what I did up there. I did say that I would visit my family as well. But no, as I said, I wasn’t trying to be evasive but I should have been more upfront with what I did. I’ll take that as a lesson moving forward. What I need to focus on now is what I’m doing back here in parliament.
He said it was “ridiculous” to compare his trip to the infamous Hawaii holiday former prime minister Scott Morrison took during the black summer bushfires:
That’s a ridiculous comparison. As said, I went away for the four days. The only comparison here is, as I said, I wasn’t trying to be evasive, wasn’t upfront, but my focus right now is getting back to the job that I have to do and ensuring that I can hold the government to account.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian Liberal leader says he ‘should have been more upfront’ about missing parliament on cruise
The Victorian opposition leader, Brad Battin, was grilled at parliament this morning over his decision to tell media he was visiting cyclone-affected family in Queensland, when he actually took a four-night cruise.
Battin was noticeably absent last Wednesday as the government announced its planned changes to the Bail Act – action he had been calling for for months.
His office later told reporters he was on four days of planned leave, postponed from January. Then on Saturday, Battin said he was in Queensland to visit his parents who had been affected by Cyclone Alfred.
But the Herald Sun this morning revealed he spent several days on a cruise from Brisbane.
Speaking to reporters outside parliament this morning, Battin said he should have been more upfront about the trip:
I took four nights away up in Queensland. I did take a cruise. I wasn’t trying to be evasive. [Had I] been more upfront with it, it wouldn’t have been a bigger story as it is today. I have to take a lesson from that.
But was it poor judgment? I wasn’t aware that the Allan Labor government were going to be introducing laws last week, or introducing a bill last week, or any policy last week. This is a government that’s had 12 months to do this and have failed to do so, and now, all of a sudden, it announced it in a week I was away – I couldn’t help that.
More details on Coalition’s proposed referendum
AAP has more details on the Coalition’s proposed referendum to decide whether ministers should have the power to strip dual nationals of their citizenship if they have committed a serious crime.
Laws that Peter Dutton put in place when he was immigration minister under Tony Abbott were struck out after the court ruled it was unconstitutional that politicians could impose criminal punishment rather than the judiciary.
The commonwealth can already apply to a court to strip a dual national of citizenship if they have committed a serious offence and been sentenced to more than three years in prison.
The conduct has to be so serious it demonstrates they “repudiated their allegiance to Australia”, according to the Home Affairs Department’s explanation of citizenship cessation laws.
While the specifics of any referendum policy haven’t been revealed, a constitutional change giving the minister the power to strip citizenships would centralise power in the hands of the minister, effectively bypassing the courts.
The Coalition has been critical of Labor spending $450m on the voice referendum, saying it divided the country when the money would have been better spent helping struggling Australians.
But, as we flagged earlier, Dutton defended potentially spending hundreds of millions more during a cost-of-living crisis. You can also read the treasurer, Jim Chalmers’, response earlier in the blog here.
Authorities investigating potential mass fish kill at Waitpinga beach
Earlier, we reported that mysterious foam had washed up on South Australia’s Waitpinga beach, with surfers becoming ill and apparent fish deaths.
The SA Department of Primary Industries and Regions (Pirsa) said in a statement it is investigating reports of a fish mortality event, along with the EPA and SA Health.
PIRSA’s role in this type of incident is to investigate the cause of the fish kill [and] to rule out infectious and notifiable animal diseases, establish the cause and coordinate a response where necessary.
Fish kill events can be brought on by a variety of causes including environmental factors such as temperature, rainfall (or lack of) and water quality including salinity or oxygen levels, or by disease or pollutants.
McKenzie floats constitutional convention alongside dual-citizen referendum proposal
Just circling back to Bridget McKenzie’s earlier comments, about the Coalition’s proposed referendum to change the constitution to allow the government to deport dual citizens convicted of serious crimes.
Speaking on Sunrise, the shadow minister not only backed a referendum, but suggested Australia should have a constitutional convention as well, to debate the issue ahead of the national vote. This was her quote in full:
I think it’s one of the great institutions of our constitution, that we hold a referendum if you want to change our founding document, that we ask every single Australian their opinion on the change. I think that’s very, very democratic. Ideally and usually, that takes place with a constitutional convention where both sides get to publicly debate each other, and Australians get to hear the detail of the yes case on the question, and the no case.
And I think that that would be an absolutely appropriate thing to amend our constitution so that we can keep Australians safe. And I think our country is mature enough to have that debate.
There have only been three constitutional conventions in the past 100 years – the last one taking place in 1998 in the lead-up to the republic referendum.
Doubling housing supply incentive could help renters
Renters could save $90 a week if Australia meets its housing targets, AAP reports, but more incentives are needed to address shortfalls.
The federal government has vowed to build 1.2m well located homes by 2029, but is expected to fall short by 462,000 homes, a Mandala Partners report commissioned by the Property Council of Australia has found. Its chief executive Mike Zorbas said:
Missing the target … would set off a housing affordability timebomb.
NSW is 185,000 homes short, Queensland needs another 96,000, Victoria 71,000 and SA and WA tens of thousands.
But if Australia doubles and improves its New Home Bonus program, housing targets could be met and renters could save between $50 and $130 a week, the report says.
States and territories could undertake longer-term reforms if the scheme’s duration was extended to seven years and payments were brought forward.
The Property Council of Australia recommended increasing the fund to $6bn to meet the scale of the housing challenge and allocating any unspent money to future housing supply initiatives.
McKenzie backs Dutton’s referendum proposal
Bridget McKenzie was also up on ABC RN this morning, asked about the Coalition’s proposed referendum to change the constitution to allow the government to deport dual citizens convicted of serious crimes.
Asked if Australia can actually afford this, both politically and financially, she argued that “our country is mature enough to have that debate”.
I think it’s one of the great institutions of our constitution, that we hold a referendum if you want to change our founding document … I think that that would be an absolutely appropriate thing to amend our constitution so that we can keep Australians safe, and I think our country is mature enough to have that debate.
McKenzie touts ‘pay on delay’ airline compensation legislation
The shadow transport minister, Bridget McKenzie, was also on Sunrise this morning to discuss the Coalition’s “pay on delay” bill currently being looked at by a Senate inquiry, which would make carriers pay delayed customers compensation.
She claimed nearly 50,000 flights had been cancelled at airports across the country under Labor and “the level of frustration is high”.
That’s why we have a bill before the Senate which actually will put in place consumer protection that is available to travellers in Europe, in North America, in Canada, the UK and the like.
Minimum standards … would see you not have to be a lawyer to get a refund – which is actually what so many people are experiencing as they try and get their own money back from Qantas, from Virgin here in Australia.
She also argued that “flights are cheaper in the countries that have this type of arrangement”.
Here is our article from last year, when the bill was first put forward:
Dutton defends cost of referendum proposal
Continuing from our last post:
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was up on Sunrise earlier this morning to defend his referendum proposal – despite his ongoing criticism of the voice referendum as being too expensive.
Dutton said his argument is “if you betray your allegiance to our country in that way you should expect to lose your citizenship”.
The voice … was the wrong issue for the government to put to the people. It could have been dealt with by legislation. The prime minister wouldn’t explain the logic, rationale and impact of the voice. That’s why it went down. What we’re proposing here is a discussion about whether we have adequate laws … whether the constitution is restrictive …
The Sunrise host noted that Australians’ top concern right now is cost-of-living pressures – can the nation afford another referendum? Dutton responded, “absolutely.”
The first issue is to try to keep people safe … In terms of cost of living, of course, that’s our priority economically … If we believe that we want to keep people safe, if you want to keep your kids safe and we want to keep kids safe in our community, I don’t think you can put a price on that.
Chalmers on Dutton’s referendum proposal to deport dual citizens convicted of serious crimes
Wrapping up the interview, Jim Chalmers was asked about reports the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was considering proposing a referendum to change the constitution to allow the government to deport dual citizens convicted of serious crimes.
The treasurer said these were “important issues”, but argued Dutton would do “absolutely anything to avoid coming clean on his cuts or on any economic policies, and that’s what we see from an almost daily basis”.
Last time he tried to impose these laws, the high court threw them out. Now [he wants a] referendum to fix his mistakes.
We’ve taken a different approach. We rewrote his broken laws to create a more robust system to keep our community safe …
He’s quite bizarre. He wants another referendum. I don’t think this idea will last long, just like a lot of the other things that he said in an effort to try and avoid talking about the economy and his cuts.
Chalmers responds to latest OECD outlook
As flagged earlier, the OECD’s economists have slashed their estimates for Australian real GDP growth from 2.5% in 2026 to 1.8% and well below the Reserve Bank’s forecast of 2.3%.
Responding to this, Jim Chalmers said Treasury would provide its own forecasts in the budget this time next week for growth and inflation:
But we’ve had some very heartening news on both of those fronts. In recent times, growth has rebounded solidly in the Australian economy. The private sector has started to take its rightful place as the key driver of growth in our economy, at the same time as we’ve got inflation down from higher than 6% and rising when we came to office, to now in the bottom half of the Reserve Bank’s target band.
The treasurer said Australia had made “a lot of progress” and amid global economic uncertainty “we don’t want to put that progress at risk”.
And that’s why this will be a responsible budget. It will be all about making our economy more resilient in uncertain times. It will be about cost-of-living help, and building Australia’s future, and continuing to clean up the mess that we inherited a few years ago.
Chalmers says Australia ‘deserves better as long-term partner and ally’ from US
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is speaking with ABC RN ahead of a major economic address in Brisbane later today.
He will outline that Treasury estimates show the indirect impact of US steel and aluminium tariffs would be 0.1% of GDP by the end of the decade. But how much worse could it be if the US imposes its next round of tariffs?
Chalmers responded that the “direct impacts are concerning, but manageable”.
It’s the broader, indirect impacts that come from this serious escalation of trade tensions around the world which is much more concerning to us.
This is a new world of uncertainty and the pace of change in the world, when it comes to rewriting the rules of global economic engagement, has quickened since the new administration took office in the US. And so some of these developments, they’re not surprising, but they are seismic.
The treasurer said the budget strategy was “not to go for retaliation, but … to make our economy more resilient at a time of very serious global economic uncertainty.”
He added that the imposition of additional tariffs would be “very concerning”.
We’re not uniquely disadvantaged by the sorts of tariffs coming out of DC, but we deserve better as a long-term partner and ally. These sorts of tariffs are self-defeating, they’re self-sabotaging, they’re a recipe for less growth and higher inflation – not just in the US, but around the world.
Reports of sick surfers after mysterious foam washes up on South Australian beach
Reports have emerged of mysterious foam washing up on a South Australian beach, with surfers becoming ill and apparent fish deaths.
Local surfer Anthony Rowland wrote on the Victor Harbor Facebook community group that on Saturday, more than 100 surfers were infected at Waitpinga beach.
We all experienced a sore throat, dry cough and irritated eyes. Some even reported blurred vision. It lasted 24 hours or so.
He said that in the following hours and days, there was “visible evidence” that “something weird is in the water.”
[There was a] lot of yellow foam and dark green tidelines on the beach and then on Sunday, while collecting water samples, I noticed a lot of different species of fish dead on the beach including a handful of leafy sea dragons.
It has been reported that the Department of Primary Industries and Regions is investigating whether a fish mortality event occurred – we have contacted them for a statement, and will bring you the latest when we can.
