Australia politics live: PM labels Dutton’s call for inquiry into his knowledge of caravan discovery a ‘remarkable’ attempt to play political games

Josh Butler

Labor’s Queensland caucus calls out ‘convenient timing’ remark from Hughes

Labor’s Queensland caucus has strongly called out Liberal senator Hollie Hughes, who claimed it was “convenient timing” that Anthony Albanese had travelled to the north Queensland flood zone.

Employment minister Murray Watt – formerly the emergency management minister – called the Liberal senator’s remarks “disgusting”.

I can tell you it’s not trivial and it’s not convenient for North Queenslanders to have to evacuate their homes right now. It’s not convenient for North Queenslanders to have supply chains interrupted, and it’s certainly not convenient for them to have their homes damaged in the way that is going on right now. And that’s why the prime minister is exactly where he needs to be today in north Queensland to deliver the support that is necessary.

As Krishani brought you earlier, Hughes said in the Senate chamber this morning:

The boss [Albanese] is away. He’s on a plane up to Townsville. Doesn’t want to talk to the Australian people through the parliament today. He’s up there. Convenient timing, some might say. The boss is away.

Albanese’s office flagged to journalists last night that he was travelling to the flood region, where he conducted multiple media interviews and a press conference today.

Peter Dutton was asked about Albanese’s absence from parliament, to which he said it was “right for the prime minister to visit”.

Nita Green, Labor’s senator based in north Queensland, claimed Hughes’ words “belittle the people of north Queensland”.

The prime minister is exactly where he should be today, talking to the people of north Queensland and working out how he can best assist along with the Queensland Government. That is exactly what we are focused on today, and the people of north Queensland are hearing that directly from us. But unfortunately, Peter Dutton and Hollie Hughes were focused today on attacking the prime minister and making light of the floods in north Queensland.

Albanese: Dutton’s caravan inquiry call a ‘remarkable’ attempt to play politics

Emily Wind

The prime minister has labelled calls from Peter Dutton to establish an inquiry into what the government knew and revealed about a caravan of explosives found in NSW as “remarkable”.

As Krishani reported earlier, the Coalition used yesterday’s question time to repeatedly pressure Anthony Albanese to reveal exactly when he knew about the caravan. Dutton has called for an inquiry to determine whether a “communications failure” occurred.

Speaking to reporters in Queensland just a moment ago, Albanese said he is briefed regularly and criticised Dutton for pursuing a “political process” rather than allowing intelligence agencies to continue their work:

Peter Dutton wants resources of the Australian Federal Police and the intelligence agencies to stop doing what they’re doing – chasing down these criminals, arresting them, putting them in the clink – instead, he wants a political process. [It] says more about Peter Dutton than anything else … You don’t have to be someone who watches CSI every week to know that that’s the important process, not political games.

Albanese claimed that for Dutton, there is “no issue too big for him to show how small his approach to politics is and to attempt to play politics”.

This is an ongoing investigation. I find it remarkable that Peter Dutton says that should stop, while we do some sort of party committee process.

The PM was also asked about Gaza again and whether he’s contacted Trump for more details on his proposal. Albanese said again his position was a “bipartisan position for a two-state solution”.

Petra Stock

Woodside energy CEO expected to call for reduction of ‘red and green tape’ in response to Trump’s fossil fuel industry support

The Woodside Energy chief executive, Meg O’Neill, is expected to call on “all levels of government” to reduce “red and green tape” in response to US president Donald Trump’s support for the fossil fuel industry in an address to a mining club function in Melbourne.

The speech was due to begin at 1pm today, but excerpts from the address have already been reported in The Australian and West Australian newspapers.

“Amid rising global protectionism and greater competition for capital, Australia must sharpen its competitive edge even further,” O’Neill was expected to say.

And moves by the new administration in the US to deregulate the economy and spur new energy investments make the challenge for countries like Australia even more acute.

She was also expected to seek action against environmental activists, according to the reports.

A small group of citizens held up climate emergency posters outside the Melbourne town hall as mining executives filed into the event.

Retired science teacher Lesley Walker was among those raising their concerns about oil and gas activities fuelling climate change. “We are sleepwalking into a catastrophe,” she said.

Quoting Professor Stephen Humphreys from the London School of Economics, Walker added: “The only thing that can stop this now is civil disobedience.”

Anthony Albanese has announced $8m for a co-funded community relief fund, which will provide up to $1m for eight local government associations affected by the floods.

Albanese says:

This will provide councils with financial assurance that they need to get on with the business of cleaning up and making their communities safe.

He’s also going through the disaster relief funding that the government’s activated, which provides $1000 for eligible adults and $400 for children affected in designated areas.

The press conference turns to climate and the Coalition’s emissions targets. Dutton won’t say whether the Coalition will sign up to a 2035 target – only that the party supports net zero by 2050.

He says the Coalition “doesn’t have the capacity to model in opposition”.

We’ll sign up to targets that we believe are in our country’s best interests. I do believe that as we get toward 2050, particularly with nuclear coming in in 2035.

The point that I’ve made in relation to 2035 to your question is that we don’t have the capacity to model in opposition. The government has a lot of modelling – and you would have expected them to have released the detail of their 2035 target by February.

A note here – Labor modelled its 2030 target announcement from opposition in 2021. They announced their policy to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030, and said it was backed by modelling by market analysts Reputex.

Dutton is asked whether the AFP has questions to answer on when the prime minister was told about the incident.

Dutton says he “doesn’t think there is a breakdown in the process”:

To be honest, the prime minister has the questions to answer here. I don’t think there is any breakdown in the process. The NSW police have either made a deliberate decision not to advise the commonwealth so that the prime minister wasn’t advised because they are worried he would leak the information … Beyond that there is no other reasonable explanation.

Dutton goes further to say there are “reasonable questions” for the prime minister to answer, and says the “first step” should be an inquiry.

He’s also asked if he thinks there’s been an “ill outcome” over this communication. He says that’s a “hard question to answer”:

As I said before, when I was home affairs minister – and I’m sure it’s the case for Tony Burke now – we carried secure communications with us 24/7, wherever we were in the world.

Labor education bill keeping Tafe free has passed the House

Caitlin Cassidy

Labor’s “Free Tafe” bill has passed the House of Representatives, paving the way for it to become legislated with the backing of the Senate.

The Australian Education Union’s federal president, Correna Haythorpe, urged the federal parliament to prioritise the bill prior to the election being called.

We are calling on the federal parliament to pass this legislation so that Tafe students and teachers can have certainty into the future. We know that the Coalition have been vocally opposed to Free Tafe. This puts Free Tafe at significant risk of being scrapped should a Dutton government be elected.

“Free Tafe has changed lives, and we have seen rapid invigoration of the Tafe sector under the Albanese government, but now all that progress is at risk.

The minister for skills and training, Andrew Giles, confirmed the Liberal party was blocking the bill but said with “Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor party, Free Tafe is here to stay”.

Read more about the bill here:

Caitlin Cassidy

Education minister proposes new laws to prevent gender-based violence at universities

The education minister, Jason Clare, has introduced legislation that would enshrine a national code to prevent and respond to gender-based violence at universities.

It comes the same week the newly established national student ombudsman began taking complaints from students with the powers of a royal commission.

Addressing parliament this morning, Clare said for “too long” students had been “let down by their universities and inaction by previous governments”.

Advocates have been ignored and they shouldn’t have been.

The code will require higher education institutions to take evidence-based steps to prevent gender-based violence on campuses and at third-party student accommodation providers. It will be backed by mandatory reporting to governing bodies, which could enact financial penalties if universities fail to meet their expectations.

National gender equity campaigning group Fair Agenda’s Renee Carr said the code was the product of “years of research and collective advocacy”.

For too long, student victim-survivors have faced harmful actions from their universities, compounding the harm of their assault. Too many have been left without support for their safety on campus or in exam spaces, and have been left to drop out or fail as a result.