Coalition preferencing One Nation in Farrer to stop ‘teal policies’, Angus Taylor says
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, says the Coalition has directed its preferences to One Nation ahead of the independent in the Farrer byelection to prevent “teal policies”.
The Liberals and Nationals have both placed One Nation before independent Michelle Milthorpe, who has received a small proportion of her funding from the “teal” independent fundraising group, Climate 200.
Polling suggests One Nation will win the New South Wales seat on Liberal and National preferences. Asked why the Coalition parties had put One Nation first, Taylor told ABC program Insiders:
If you vote teal you get Green. And so whilst preferences, beyond preferencing the National party, are picking the least worst option, and we want people to vote for the Liberal party and the National party, the truth is we don’t want to see teal policies for Farrer or for this country.
Asked about One Nation’s threat to the Coalition in regional electorates, Taylor said:
I think teal policies, Labor policies are absolute existential for the regions and the Labor government right now. If you get out into these regions, you see what it’s doing to them.
Man allegedly assaults five people at Sydney hospital
A man has been tasered and arrested after allegedly assaulting nurses, police and a member of the public at a Sydney hospital.
Police officers were alerted to reports of an assault at Prince of Wales hospital at 8:30pm on Saturday while they were there for an unrelated matter, a spokesperson said.
They said police were told a patient, a 51-year-old man, had allegedly seriously injured a nurse’s leg before assaulting two other nurses, a hospital security guard and a 26-year-old woman. The woman, a member of the public, was attacked with a garbage bin as she attempted to protect another patient.
Police arrived and attempted to speak to the man, but he allegedly assaulted one of the officers. An officer then used a Taser to subdue him before he was arrested, the spokesperson said
The man, who has not been charged, was moved to a secure facility within the hospital. Police are investigating the incident.
The seriously injured nurse was assessed at the scene and remained in hospital for further treatment, while the other nurses, security guard, officer and member of the public were treated at the scene and did not need further care.
Brisbane band leads singing of ‘like a river to the sea’ to protest contentious laws
Kelly Burke
A four-decade-old pop classic has become an unlikely anthem of protest, as Queenslanders look for creative ways to defy the state’s contentious new hate speech laws.
Since the Crisafulli Government’s ban of the phrase “from the river to the sea” last month, protesters in Brisbane have turned to John Farnham’s 1988 hit Two Strong Hearts to test the limits of the law, chanting the song’s chorus that includes the words “reaching out forever like a river to the sea”.
As of Sunday morning, no one has yet been arrested for singing the song, if only because the words “from the” are replaced with “like a” in the lyrics, written 35 years before the current conflict in Gaza flared up.
On Friday night, a packed Tivoli in Fortitude Valley saw about 1,500 fans of the Brisbane band Regurgitator join in the chorus of its version of the Farnham song.
The band’s manager, Paul Curtis, told Guardian Australia that in a healthy democracy, citizens should be capable of “considered critical adult discussion” rather than being silenced through censorship. He said:
If this is a democracy, and we have the freedom of speech that comes with that, then we should not be shut down like juveniles, as if we’re not allowed to talk at the table …
It sends a message that condones destruction. We should be capable of rising above that, being more intelligent about how we deal with this stuff.
A week earlier, a flashmob of about 300 participants converged on Brisbane’s King George Square. Sporting blond mullets and 80s-themed outfits, they performed a choreographed dance routine to the song.
The following day, 20 protesters were arrested during a weekend of mass demonstrations across Brisbane. They now face a maximum two-year prison sentence under the state’s aggressive new crackdown, which the Queensland attorney-general, Deb Frecklington, has described as a “common sense” response to the 14 December terror attack at Bondi Beach.
Follow live: Donald Trump evacuated from White House dinner as loud bangs heard
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner has been interrupted by loud bangs, and Donald Trump and Melania Trump have been evacuated immediately.
There were reports that the US Secret Service had guns drawn as they rushed the White House pool reporters out of the room and mentioned “shots fired”.
You can read the report here or follow breaking news on the incident in this live blog:
NDIS reform ‘part of the deal’ for hospital funding, Butler warns Queensland
Krishani Dhanji
The health and NDIS minister, Mark Butler, says Queensland will be “answerable to their community” if they don’t sign on to NDIS reforms, with billions of dollars of hospital funding on the line.
Every state and territory except for the sunshine state has signed a bilateral agreement with the government for the Thriving Kids program, which is designed to take children under nine with developmental delays or low to moderate autism off the NDIS.
The program will be critical to federal Labor’s widespread reforms announced this week, which will see up to 160,000 participants removed from the NDIS and put on to other state-based supports, such as Thriving Kids or foundational supports.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, Butler said the state’s Liberal government, led by David Crisafulli, needed to come to the table.
Now every state and territory has signed a bilateral agreement with us that details the broad details of the Thriving Kids program … The only state that hasn’t signed yet is Queensland.
I tried to make clear again last week that is part of the deal that sees them get additional hospital funding and, frankly, they are answerable to their community if they don’t put the additional supports.
Liberal leader pushes tax cuts on housing: ‘If you want more of something, take taxes off’
Labor is readying to reform taxes on property investors, and the Coalition still hasn’t taken a firm stand.
Angus Taylor said he believed the focus should be on building more homes, and that higher housing taxes would lead to less housing supply.
Asked whether he was open to winding back tax breaks offered to property investors, Taylor told Insiders:
What I want to see is more homes built in this country, more investment, successful housing completions, in this country. … If you want more houses, don’t impose additional taxes on housing.
Taylor did not directly answer when asked whether he would vote against any changes to capital gains tax or negative gearing. He said:
I just want more houses built. … At the moment we’ve got about a thought bubble about what they’re going to be. … You get the government to give a specific policy, which lasts more than about 24 hours, and I’ll consider comment. …
The principle is we need more homes built, and if you want more homes built, don’t whack another tax on it. If you want less of something, tax it. If you want more of something, take taxes off.
Taylor says it’s ‘reasonable to call out’ Iran as he refuses to label Trump’s war a mistake
Angus Taylor has steered clear of endorsing his colleague, frontbencher Andrew Hastie’s condemnation of the US president, Donald Trump, and his war on Iran.
He told the ABC’s Insiders:
I’m not going to get into commentary on major leaders like Donald Trump. What I will say is, what we want to see is an opening of the strait of Hormuz.
Taylor refused to say Trump’s war was a mistake when repeatedly asked.
I’m not going to get into commentary on this. What I do know is: Iran is a bad country. It is. It kills its own people. That is a bad country. And I think it is reasonable for freedom-loving countries like ours to call out the bad behaviour of those countries.
But I tell you what I want to see most of all: an opening up of the strait of Hormuz, because, if we don’t get that, we are going to continue to see high petrol and diesel prices at the bowser, high jet fuel costs for when you fly around this country, and we need that brought down.
Taylor says government should not give Syrian camp detainees passports
Angus Taylor has claimed the Albanese government could choose to avoid giving passports to Australians detained in Syria or block them from re-entering Australia.
Four Australian women and nine of their children and grandchildren left the al-Roj camp in north-east Syria, seeking to return to Australia, earlier this week.
The wives, widows and children of jailed or dead Islamic State fighters held at the camp have not been charged with a crime. One woman has been issued a temporary exclusion order seeking to prevent her return to Australia.
Taylor this morning suggested the government should not be issuing passports to the Australians citizens, as it typically would be required to do. He told Insiders:
The government should be making every possible effort to not accept these people back into the country. That includes both the issuing and distribution of passports, where that’s possible. … There’s a lot of discretion or some discretion with the minister, as there is with temporary exclusion orders.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) advised the government to block one of the people from entering Australia. Asked whether he trusted Asio to advise on the others, Taylor said:
I don’t trust the government. … All I’m saying is (what) we need to know is when the last security assessments were done, what we know from that and why only one temporary exclusion order has been issued.
Taylor also claimed, without evidence, that the government is supporting Jamal Rifi, a Sydney doctor and community advocate, to help repatriate the women and children. The government and Rifi have repeatedly denied this.
Read about the development this weekend here:
Angus Taylor says welcome to country should be used less
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has called for welcome to country remarks to be used less often, saying he is frustrated they have been “devalued” by “overuse”.
Taylor said a welcome to country should be “special when it happens” and condemned those who booed during Anzac Day events on Saturday. He told Insiders:
Can I say, booing, whatever the cause, on Anzac Day, (at) Anzac Day ceremonies, is absolutely inappropriate and un-Australian. It shouldn’t happen. It simply shouldn’t happen.
I can understand the frustration Australians feel about over use of welcomes to country. I feel that at times. Often actually. I think it is overused and as a result they are devalued.
I would like to see them used less and therefore not devalued, as I think they have been over time.
It’s up to individual organising committees to decide whether they want to do it or not. But the general principle should be: let’s do this less and make it more special when it happens.
To which, the Insiders host, David Speers, said: “And don’t boo?” Taylor responded:
Absolutely not boo, absolutely.
Taylor says ‘higher risk’ of ‘bad people’ coming from ‘bad countries’
Angus Taylor has said “bad people” could migrate to Australia from “bad countries” without detailing which countries would be considered “bad” under a government he leads.
Taylor earlier this month said migrants would be more likely to adopt Australian values if they were from liberal democracies than from “places ruled by fundamentalists, extremists and dictators”.
Asked whether migrants from China and Vietnam would disagree, Taylor told the ABC’s Insiders:
Some of the great Australians have come from countries that were bad countries at the time. But there is a higher risk that some bad people come from those bad countries.
Asked if China was a bad country, he said:
We have bad countries around the world. I mean, to claim that Iran is a good country right now, seriously, and the government itself has put legislation in place to make it harder for people to come from Iran.
We have seen terrible acts of atrocity coming from Gaza.
I mean, we know they’re in the Middle East and elsewhere, (places) that have committed great atrocities on their own populations. So there is real risk with people coming from those countries. It’s also true that many great Australians have come from bad countries, and this is why the discrimination shouldn’t be based on … race or religion; it must be based on Australian values.
When pressed, Taylor said Iran was at present one of those “bad countries” he was talking about, but China was not.
Coalition preferencing One Nation in Farrer to stop ‘teal policies’, Angus Taylor says
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, says the Coalition has directed its preferences to One Nation ahead of the independent in the Farrer byelection to prevent “teal policies”.
The Liberals and Nationals have both placed One Nation before independent Michelle Milthorpe, who has received a small proportion of her funding from the “teal” independent fundraising group, Climate 200.
Polling suggests One Nation will win the New South Wales seat on Liberal and National preferences. Asked why the Coalition parties had put One Nation first, Taylor told ABC program Insiders:
If you vote teal you get Green. And so whilst preferences, beyond preferencing the National party, are picking the least worst option, and we want people to vote for the Liberal party and the National party, the truth is we don’t want to see teal policies for Farrer or for this country.
Asked about One Nation’s threat to the Coalition in regional electorates, Taylor said:
I think teal policies, Labor policies are absolute existential for the regions and the Labor government right now. If you get out into these regions, you see what it’s doing to them.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog today. I’m Luca Ittimani, and I’ll be taking you through Sunday’s breaking stories. Angus Taylor, the federal opposition leader, will be up on the ABC’s Insiders soon.
Let’s get stuck in.
Victorian motorists to get rego rebate in pre-election budget sweetener
Kelly Burke
Motorists in Victoria could save almost $400 a year on driving costs under a cost-of-living rebate in the Allan Labor government’s 2026/27 budget.
In a move designed to buffer the impact of soaring fuel prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East, the state’s premier, Jacinta Allan, has announced a 20% rebate on light vehicle registration.
With annual registration fees for standard vehicles costing as much as $930.70, a single-car owner stands to receive $186, while a two-car family could see up to $372 returned to their pocket.
The scheme only applies to personal-use vehicles under 4.5 tonnes, including cars and utes. The rebate will be backdated to cover registration payments made for the 2025/26 period, but Victorians will only have a two-month window from 1 June to 31 July to apply.
Car owners can only claim the rebate for a maximum of two vehicles registered under their name
The government estimates the scheme will cost $750m, with Allan saying the state would absorb the cost while maintaining a budget surplus.
Victorians have already seen the announcement of free and half-price public transport schemes, and the announcement of the rego discount is expected to ignite fresh criticism against the NSW premier, Chris Minns, from his state’s opposition, which is calling on him to cut the fuel excise and provide free public transport over long weekends to ease the pain at NSW bowsers.
Shadow treasurer says welcome to country hecklers ‘unworthy of the Anzac legacy’
The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, has condemned the booing of welcome of country remarks at Anzac Day events on Saturday.
Wilson offered some of the strongest criticism of the hecklers from a Coalition frontbencher. In a post on X yesterday, he wrote:
Thank you to all our veterans who fought for our country. Anzac Day is a day to honour all those who fought and died for our country. Booing any Australian who served or their story is unacceptable, disrespectful and unworthy of the Anzac legacy.
The story of this land began thousands of years ago. Project Australia is a continuing story of one land, one people with one destiny. Let us be worthy of our full inheritance, and those that sacrificed for respect based on our common humanity and the equal dignity of all people.
Liberal frontbenchers James Paterson and Jonno Duniam have called the booing “inappropriate” and said those opposed to the welcome to country should express their views at places other than an Anzac service. Paterson told Sky News:
It is incredibly disappointing and completely inappropriate to boo at an Anzac Day service. Whatever your views on a welcome to country, Anzac Day is our most sacred day … If you have strong views about that, there are many other ways in a free country that you have an opportunity to express your views.
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