Bradfield independent candidate apologies for allegedly making sexual joke at Sydney hairdressing salon
Independent candidate, Nicolette Boele has apologised for allegedly making a sexual joke at a hairdressing salon in Sydney.
Boele, who is standing for the Sydney seat of Bradfield against the Liberals, and is backed by Climate 200, allegedly told the 19-year-old female hairdresser that her hair wash “was so good and I didn’t even have sex with you”.
2GB radio initially reported the story and said the candidate has been banned from the salon.
Boele hasapologised, saying in a statement:
It was a poor attempt at humour and I’ve apologised. Everyone deserves to feel respected in their workplace and I’ll do better.
Key events
There’s some more reaction to Dutton’s remarks on Sky last night, that conditions should be put on on education funding for the states, that students not be taught a “woke agenda”.
He also questioned why the department has thousands of staff when the commonwealth doesn’t run a school:
People ask, well why, I’ve got a department of thousands and thousands of people in Canberra called the education department, if we don’t have a school and don’t employ a teacher.
As Josh Butler said earlier, the lines have a tinge of the US Trump administration’s DOGE agenda, which has cut hundreds of millions of dollars from their federal education department.
Education Minister Jason Clare says the idea has been copied over from the US.
Peter Dutton has no ideas of his own, no plan for Australia, just half baked ideas imported from the US.
Greens education spokesperson Penny Allman-Payne had some similar criticisms.
He’s [Dutton’s] seen what Trump is doing to public education in America and would love nothing more than to import that ideology into Australia. This is seriously dangerous and weird stuff.
The Liberals are fundamentally opposed to public schools – they’d prefer all schools to be fee-charging private schools. They don’t get that education is a right.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers backs Albanese’s comments about US trade demands
Labor’s compulsory food and grocery code of conduct begins today, and Jim Chalmers is talking about what else the party has done to stem rising food costs (he mentions legislation on mergers, and the commitment for the ACCC and Treasury to look at potential supermarket price gouging).
The code was voluntary, and relates to how supermarkets deal with their suppliers, and that it should be in good faith.
Chalmers is also asked about the three areas of concern Albanese mentioned during his earlier press conference – and that the US administration has singled out in its trade report.
He reiterates Albanese’s line that those sectors and products are not up for negotiation.
The PBS is not up for negotiation. The news media bargaining code is about implementing an existing law that was implemented some years ago by our predecessors. And so we know there’s been a piece of work come out overnight from the US; obviously there will be further developments … I want to make it very clear to every Australian, we will continue to stand up for and speak up for Australia’s interests.
Josh Butler
Dutton lands in Melbourne, expect more about Coalition’s Victoria infrastructure funding plans
The Dutton campaign has landed in Melbourne, and we are heading north from the airport, to the electorate of Calwell – held by retiring Labor member Maria Vamvakinou.
The morning will include a press conference and a photo op, which we assume may be related to the Coalition policy on the airport rail link.
More to come.
Bradfield independent candidate apologies for allegedly making sexual joke at Sydney hairdressing salon
Independent candidate, Nicolette Boele has apologised for allegedly making a sexual joke at a hairdressing salon in Sydney.
Boele, who is standing for the Sydney seat of Bradfield against the Liberals, and is backed by Climate 200, allegedly told the 19-year-old female hairdresser that her hair wash “was so good and I didn’t even have sex with you”.
2GB radio initially reported the story and said the candidate has been banned from the salon.
Boele hasapologised, saying in a statement:
It was a poor attempt at humour and I’ve apologised. Everyone deserves to feel respected in their workplace and I’ll do better.
Josh Butler
Just a hint of Musk: Dutton ponders role of federal education department
Peter Dutton had briefly touched on this topic before, near the end of his budget reply speech last Thursday. He said the Coalition would “restore a curriculum that teaches the core fundamentals in our classrooms. A curriculum that cultivates critical thinking, responsible citizenship, and common sense”.
He spoke more broadly on Monday night, but didn’t use the word “woke”, as the audience member did. He said also the federal government could “try and influence” the state governments about what schools teach.
And I think that’s a debate that we need to hear more from parents on. I think there is a silent majority on this issue right across the community.
Dutton began his answer in saying the federal education department employs “thousands and thousands of people” but “doesn’t own or run a school”.
Which is why people ask ‘why is there is a department of thousands and thousands of people in Canberra called the education department if we don’t have a school to employ a teacher?
He didn’t specifically say he’d cut staff from that department, but questions remain about how the Liberals could meet their pledge to cut 41,000 public servants without touching “frontline” service delivery (such as welfare or support claims processing) as Dutton has pledged.
Dutton’s quote on Monday about the education department has tinges of Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, with their “Department of Government Efficiency” push, which includes the possibility of dismantling the federal education department.
Josh Butler
Dutton implies universities pushing ‘woke’ agenda into school curriculums
Peter Dutton has suggested the federal government should put conditions on education funding for the states that students not be taught a “woke agenda”.
The Liberal leader has alsohinted he could target the education department as part of his plans to remove 41,000 public servants, musing that there are “thousands” of people employed in the federal education department but that the federal government doesn’t “have a school” and doesn’t employ a teacher.
Dutton joined a Sky News “pub test” with host Paul Murray, in his electorate of Dickson in Brisbane, last night. It was his second visit to his electorate in the first three days of his campaign. A Liberal-friendly crowd of supporters asked questions about defence, housing, national security, the economy and the cost of living.
The final question, asked by a woman who described Dutton as “the future prime minister”, was: “what will the Coalition do to tackle the woke agendas that are being pushed through our education system?”.
We do provide funding to the state governments and we can condition that funding, and we should be saying to the states and we should be saying to those that are receiving that funding, that we want our kids to be taught the curriculum and we want our kids to be taught what it is they need to take on as they face the challenges of the world, and not be guided into some sort of an agenda that’s come out of universities,” he said.
Benita Kolovos
Dutton’s infrastructure funding plans create more questions than answers
We’re waiting for Peter Dutton to touch down in Melbourne but after the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, held a press conference we are left with more questions about his plans to scrap funding for the suburban rail loop and redirect the money to the Melbourne Airport train line.
The first question is a simple one: Where’s the money going? Dutton has promised that, if elected, he will withdraw $2.2bn in federal funding that was previously allocated for SRL East, the first stage of the project. Additionally, he plans to pull $2bn from a proposed $4bn upgrade to Sunshine station and its surrounding rail yards – funding that was a joint commitment between the federal and state governments and intended to support the airport rail project.
Allan today described the Sunshine works as “stage one” of Melbourne Airport Rail and vital to connecting the line to regional Victoria as well as the CBD.
So far, that adds up to $4.2bn saved from cutting funding to two projects. But Dutton has only committed an additional $1.5bn to the Melbourne Airport rail project, with the expectation that a future Coalition government in Victoria would match that amount. What happens to the remaining $2.7bn saved?
And, if the Coalition doesn’t win the Victorian state election, how will the funding plan be affected?
Finally, if the upgrade work at Sunshine station isn’t finished, how will that affect the progress of the airport rail project?
Albanese worried about social cohesion, wants Australia to be a ‘microcosm’ of world’s diversity
Anthony Albanese says he’s concerned about social cohesion, after MPs wereheckled at mosques in recent weeks.
Yesterday, Liberal MP Jason Wood was heckled by protesters at a mosque where he was announcing $6.5m for the Afghan community.
Albanese said he wants Australia to be a microcosm for the world where people of all faiths can “live next door to each other and enrich diversity by the respect that we show to each other”.
I’m concerned about social cohesion. Social cohesion is really important. Elections come and go. Do you know what stays? Our commitment to multiculturalism, our commitment to respect each other.
We live in really uncertain times, and I want us to be a microcosm for the world that can show that people of Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and no religion can live next door to each other.
Albanese says he will ‘stand up for Australia’s national interests’ in trade talks with US
Back to the tariffs, Anthony Albanese says negotiations are still taking place between the US and Australia.
He says “they have put positions to us, we have put decisions to them”.
But there appears to be no sign so far about what the outcome of those decisions could be, or whether Australia will secure a carve out on the tariffs from the last round on steel and aluminium, or the next round that will be announced in more detail this week.
Albanese reiterates that the three areas of concern are Australia’s news bargaining code, pharmaceuticals and bio security and they are non-negotiable.
There is a lot of cooperation and discussion, a lot of commonality going forward, but I have said, in the document that was released by the United States overnight, just to name three [issues] … pharmaceuticals, bargaining code, bio security, I will stand up for Australia’s national interests.
South Australian premier rules out support for Dutton’s nuclear power plan
Premier Peter Malinauskas, who has previously been open to the idea of nuclear energy, is asked whether he’d be prepared to work with the Coalition on its plan.
Nup!
Malinauskas says the Coalition’s plan would increase energy prices across the state.
Why would any premier of any jurisdiction around the country support a plan to make electricity more expensive in households, in business? When we talk about cost of living, there is little doubt that energy is top of mind for all Australians. Peter Dutton has a plan to make it more expensive.
I can’t be clearer about it. His plan would make electricity and energy prices for South Australia more expensive and there is not a month of Sundays we would support a plan to do that.
Albanese takes a dig at Dutton’s work from home policy, says Canberra is the PM’s office not Kirribilli
Responding to Peter Dutton’s announcement he will cancel $2bn in funding for Victoria’s Suburban Rail Loop and invest $1.5bn in Melbourne’s airport rail instead, Anthony Albanese said both projects fit together to help people in Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong and parts of Melbourne get to the airport.
He then takes a shot at infrastructure funding under the Coalition:
When it comes to infrastructure, as you may well recall, under the former government, at one stage, Victoria is getting between 7% and 8% of national infrastructure expenditure. They represent one in four Australians.
Melbourne was Australia’s fastest growing city and they got completely neglected by three prime ministers who saw themselves as the prime minister for Sydney.
It provides a nice segue to an attack on former Liberal prime ministers who lived at Kirribilli House in Sydney instead of at the lodge in Canberra.
I will give him [Dutton] a tip: working from home is what he says he is against. Well, the office is in Canberra. Parliament House is in Canberra. I live in Canberra.
