Australia news live: Victorian government holding $115m in unclaimed Myki funds; Birmingham criticises PM’s ‘cash splash’ on student debt | Australia news

Albanese:

Peter Dutton has spent every day hoping the worst for this country. Things Australia can’t compete for good jobs, that workers don’t deserve their wages, that you don’t need help with your power bills, he thinks medicine should be more expensive and Medicare less generous. He is wrong about our country and his agenda is all wrong for Australia.

Because the challenges facing us won’t be solved by cutting. The opportunities ahead of us won’t be seized by wrecking. This is a time for building. Building better education for all, building more homes for Australians, building the cleaner and cheaper energy to cut our emissions and power our homes and industries. Building an economy defined by good jobs, fair wages and equality for women. Building an economy connected to the growth and opportunities of Asia where we make things here in Australia. Building a society defined and uplifted by better aged care, a more secure NDIS and stronger Medicare for everyone. Building a nation that is secure at home, strong in our region and respected on the world stage. Building and Australia where we care for our environment and keep it safe for our grandchildren. Building in Australia where we embrace every culture, every faith and every tradition that enriches our nation, beginning with the oldest continuous culture on earth.

My fellow Australians, next year, with respect for our people, optimism for the future and a determination to shape it. A Labor government will be asking for the opportunity to continue to serve the greatest country in the world and the chance to make it even greater still. Building on the strong foundations we have made, building together, building to last, our Labor government building Australia’s future.

And with that, Albanese leaves to great applause.

Albanese has signalled that his government has unfinished business saying these policies are the “next big step” but “won’t be the last”.

My colleague Paul Karp suggests that this means the government may look at the cost of degrees, will seek to undo parts of the Coalition’s “job ready graduates” program, or return to a demand-driven university system.

Meanwhile, the PM is building to a crescendo saying the next election will present a clear choice.

A Labor government driving to be the change our nation needs and creating the opportunities that our people deserve. Or a return to be denial, delay and the vision of the past the Liberal and National parties, the same people that spent nine years in government creating the problems and have spent every day in opposition trying to block the solutions.

Their cuts, waste and neglect left Australia wide open to global uncertainty and now they want to go further, they want to cut what is helping punish people that are struggling, to clawback back big tax cuts we delivered, close the Medicare urgent care clinics we opened to stop the housing projects we started, to take away the help with power bills you deserve, to push up the price of medicines you need, to rip away the pay rises you are and and the rights you have one, to derail the progress we made on renewables so they can burn 100 of billions of dollars on nuclear reactors, a plan that will deliver less than four percent of the energy Australia needs, and two decades too late.

Graduates have been ‘caught out’ by rising inflation: PM

Albanese is now addressing his promise to wipe $3bn of student debt if re-elected. He says Australia’s graduates have been “caught out” by rising inflation and that this change will save a person with an average debt “around $1,200”.

Part of this was about addressing a one-off but, just as importantly, we changed the system and made it fairer and better so it could never happen again.

Albanese says it was a Labor government that created the Hecs system and “chose that name because it was about students making a contribution to the cost of their education”. He says that was changed by the Liberals to make it more like a standard loan.

This generation of students graduating from three-year degrees with debt of 30, 40, $50,000. That level of debt hangs over you. You can see it when you login to myGov or do your tax return and it affects how much you can borrow for homes and impacts decisions you make about your family and career. Because of the changes in rising costs, it comes out of your take-home pay sooner. Fixing this intergenerational unfairness will require substantial investment. It will take time.

The PM says that if his party wins re-election, his government will wipe 20% of student debt “for everyone that has one”.

This measure alone means a typical university graduate will see their debt cut by $5,500.

The government will also raise the repayment threshold from $54k to $67k, lower the rate of repayment and “index both to keep them fairer into the future”.

PM pledges permanent free Tafe

Australia will have access to permanent free Tafe nationwide if the Labor government is re-elected, the PM says in the first major policy announcement.

Albanese says his government will legislate to guarantee 100,000 free Tafe places each year to give “more opportunity for Australians to train and retrain in a changing and dynamic economy”.

Tafe gives our country and our people all of this and as long as there is a labour government, free Tafe is here to stay.

The PM says his government will also double the number of university hubs in regional communities.

Education at heart of Labor’s vision for Australia: PM

The PM is using the opportunity to define the legacy of his first-term government and to lay out his vision for what Australia as “a country where you know if you put in and work hard, it adds up to something” and “no one held back and no one left behind”.

Albanese says education is at the heart of this vision, as it will help ensure the country has the “tradies and architects to build and plan the homes we need, the engineers and electricians that deliver the clean energy to take us to net zero, the scientists discover new cures and driving new breakthroughs”.

He says that his government has done this by putting Tafe back of its policy planning.

No Labor government would ever call Tafe a waste.

‘Our nation can lead the world on clean energy’: PM

Albanese is seeking to cast the challenges that Australia has faced as opportunity:

I know workers, families and small businesses have all done it hard. But while there are still challenges to meet, still problems to solve, still people under pressure that need our help, when we look at the economy today, we can see new reasons for optimism, new proof that the worst is behind us.

Together we have faced a global storm and have navigated it in the Australian way, the Labor way, not by cutting services Australians count on, not by denying families the help they need in hard times, but by looking after people and look to the future. For all the challenges we have faced, this remains a time of profound opportunity for Australia.

He then pivots into a discussion about South Australia’s embrace of renewable energy as an example of how “our nation can lead the world on clean energy”.

We can power a new generation of manufacturing. We can make things here in Australia. We can build Australia’s future stronger and fairer than ever before. And we can make sure the people who have carried the weight of today’s challenges share the reward of tomorrow’s opportunities. Reform that holds no one back, progress that leaves no one behind. That is what drives and defines our government.

PM outlines new reforms since Labor came to office

Albanese is running through the list of reforms and interventions his government has introduced since coming to office. According to the PM, this includes:

• Making medicine cheaper;

• Opening 75 new Medicare urgent care clinics;

• Boosting bulk billing;

• “Rebuilding the health system so that your Medicare card that matters, not the balance on your credit card”;

• Energy bill relief for households and business

• A crackdown on dodgy pricing and unfair practices;

• Industrial relations reforms;

• Boosting wages in aged care, childcare and low-paid industries;

• Expanding paid parental leave to six months and adding superannuation to it;

• Tax cuts “for every single Australian taxpayer”.

Albanese also points to falling inflation, a narrowing gender pay gap, a stabilised relationship with China and “back-to-back budget surpluses for the first time in nearly two decades.’

When you look at all of these facts, this is an economic record we are so proud of.

PM outlines ‘serious and urgent challenges’ government has faced

With Marles having set the scene, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is called to the stage with applause.

Albanese opens by using the moment to set the scene for the challenges faced by his newly elected government.

We came to office knowing this is a time of serious and urgent challenges for the global economic uncertainty. A worldwide surge in inflation and energy prices. And Australia’s relationships with our own region under strain.

Under home, aged care was in crisis. Medicare under threat. Bulk billing in freefall. Real wages going backwards not by accident but as a deliberate design feature of the economic architecture. Our energy grid had been run down by years of ideology and neglect. And skills and manufacturing hollowed out to the point that in the midst of a global pandemic we nearly ran out of masks and could not make any more here. These are the challenges we have had to face. This is the mess we have worked to clean up.

‘Can we afford the cost of Peter Dutton?’: Marles

The defence minister, Richard Marles, is speaking now at a campaign event in Adelaide as federal Labor gears up for the next election.

Marles is attempting to flip the script on the Coalition leader, Peter Dutton, presenting his as reckless, arrange and selfish, and committed to austerity saying he “is prepared to send the country backwards if it will propel him forwards”.

Marles has attacked Dutton’s record on healthcare from his time when he served as Tony Abbott’s health minister, joking that “he was so bad as health minister that even Tony Abbott had to sack him”.

If we give Medicare back to Dutton it will be gone for ever.

He has also landed attacks on the Coalition’s nuclear pitch, pointing out that Dutton has so far refused to answer basic questions and provide basic numbers.

Even if you ignore all of that, you cannot ignore that Peter Dutton’s reckless and risky plan to build nuclear power plants will send energy bills through the roof.

The theme, which will probably be developed going into the next federal election, appears to be a simple one:

Can we afford the cost of Peter Dutton?

Female killer who wore clown costume released from US prison

An American woman who pleaded guilty to dressing as a clown and in 1990 murdering the wife of a man she later married has been released from prison, ending a case that has been strange even by Florida standards, AAP reports.

Sheila Keen-Warren, 61, was released 18 months after she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the shooting of Marlene Warren, Florida Department of Corrections records show.

The plea deal came shortly before her trial would have started.

Keen-Warren, who has maintained her innocence even after her plea, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

But she had been in custody for seven years since her arrest in 2017, and Florida’s law in 1990 allowed significant credit for good behaviour.

It had been expected she would be released in about two years.

Palm Beach county state attorney Dave Aronberg said in a statement Saturday that the release does not undo her conviction.

Sheila Keen-Warren will always be an admitted convicted murderer and will wear that stain for every day for the rest of her life.

Aronberg last year conceded that there were holes in the case, saying they were caused by the three decades it took to get it to trial, including the death of key witnesses.

Greg Rosenfeld, Keen-Warren’s attorney, has said she only took the plea deal because she would be released in less than two years and had been facing a life sentence if convicted at trial.

We are absolutely thrilled that Ms Keen-Warren has been released from prison and is returning to her family. As we’ve stated from the beginning, she did not commit this crime.

Marlene Warren’s son, Joseph Ahrens, and his friends were at home when they said a person dressed as a clown rang the door bell.

He said that when his mother answered, the clown handed her some balloons.

After she responded, “How nice,” the clown pulled a gun and shot her in the face before fleeing.

Unclaimed Myki credit sits at $115m

What a week of riding Uber Pool reveals about Sydney

As kids we’re warned not to accept rides with strangers. But when my editors told me to take Uber Pools around Sydney and write about the characters I meet, I had little idea I’d be in for fashion critiques, tales of backseat romances, plenty of awkward silences – and mostly solo rides.

When it first launched before Covid, Uber Pool was perhaps the truest form of ride sharing.

Not only would passengers literally share rides, it offered seriously cheap fares – lower than even the artificially low rates Uber initially charged in early years to capture market share.

The novelty of riding with a stranger, and the more circuitous routes at prices not much higher than a bus ticket, proved popular. It was also like playing Russian roulette – passengers still got the significantly cheaper fare even if the algorithm failed to match them with a co-rider.

Uber’s pool option disappeared at the outbreak of the pandemic, and while it has since been reintroduced, its savings are now less pronounced, and marginal if the algorithm doesn’t find you a co-rider.

I was curious if passengers had re-embraced sharing confined spaces with randoms. Post-pandemic data shows Australians are driving private cars more than ever. Have Sydneysiders become a special breed of overly precious recluses?

For more on this story, read the full feature by Guardian Australia’s Elias Visontay:

Leading women’s rights advocate dies

Fay Marles, a leading feminist in Victoria and an advocate for the rights of women in the workplace, has died.

Marles was appointed Victoria’s first Equal Opportunity Commissioner, a position she held until 1986. Her work in that role changed helped open up the workplace to women in the state.

In a statement on Saturday, the University of Melbourne issued a statement detailing her career and the long association with the institution that began when she began as an undergraduate in 1944.

Fay will be deeply missed by the University community and the very many people whose lives she touched.

Fay passed away on Friday, surrounded by her children who spent the day beside her. She is survived by, Victoria, Jennifer, Elizabeth and Richard. Her husband, Don Marles, passed away in 2017 after 66 years of marriage.

Tasmanian government eyes TasPorts and TT-Line merger

A proposed merger between besieged TasPorts and TT-Line has been flagged by the Tasmanian government, AAP reports.

The premier, Jeremy Rockliff, confirmed on Sunday the government would explore the merger and combine it with TasRail to make it a “unified government entity”.

Describing the proposal as a “landmark move”, Mr Rockliff said it would enhance the efficiency and sustainability of Tasmania’s transport and logistics services.

We have seen growing concerns around the performance, accountability, and coordination of some of our government businesses.

Recent issues have highlighted the need for a more strategic, long-term approach to managing Tasmania’s critical infrastructure.

We also require a greater customer focus and better service delivery.

TasPorts is a state-owned company responsible for eleven Tasmanian ports and the Devonport Airport.

TasRail is a state operated company that manages mailine trainlines across the state since 2009, it only operates freight services.

Rockliff said the possible merger could ensure a more integrated, cost-effective, and responsive system for the people of Tasmania.

The Tasmanian government will undertake a detailed restructuring analysis to assess the proposal and ensure a smooth transition.

The analysis will also identify any potential regulatory, legal and competition issues.

It’s unknown how long the analysis will take or when the proposed merger could take place.

Rockliff is expected to hold a press conference on Sunday.

Why wait?: Greens welcome PM pledge on student debt

The deputy Greens leader, Senator Mehreen Faruqi has responded to the government’s announcement that it will wipe a fifth of the country’s student debt if re-elected by asking: why wait?

In a statement on Sunday, Faruqi said the announcement was “a big win for the Greens and all those in the community who have pleaded and pushed for action to tackle skyrocketing student debt”.

This is a start, but if Labor can wipe 20% of student debt, surely they can wipe all of it.

There’s no reason to wait till July to deliver much needed student debt relief. Labor should bring on the legislation now and we’ll work with them to pass it.

Instead of promising to wipe some student debt if they get re-elected, Labor should start wiping student debt now. Student debt relief shouldn’t be dangled like a carrot on a stick and held hostage to the next election results. We have the numbers in parliament to do it right now.

Coalition criticises PM’s ‘cash splash’ pledge on student debt

South Australian senator Simon Birmingham has expressed frustration at the publication of photos identifying the new home of the Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong.

In a post to social media on Saturday he asked media to take down and avoid publishing photos over security concerns.

High profile politicians face genuine security considerations for themselves and their families.

Responsible media should respect those safety considerations in any reporting of the issues.

‘It’s certainly not pretty, but this democracy is working’: Hockey

Hockey says he does not have concerns that Donald Trump, should he lose the US election, will not accept the result leading to possible civil unrest.

I’m not so concerned about it at all. I think the moment that was most risky for civil unrest in the United States was the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.

Thank God – Democrats say that to me as well as Republicans, ‘Thank God that didn’t happen’ because it’s going to be a moment like that that will ignite the flame of American politics and we all hope and pray that doesn’t happen.

So I think Americans recognise this is democracy. It’s certainly not pretty, but this democracy is working.

Re-election of Trump would be good for Australia: Hockey