The shadow defence minister, who previously served in the ADF, said in 2018 that the ‘fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it’s exclusively male’. Follow today’s news liveAnywhere but Canberra: Australian voters on what matters to themInteractive guide to electorates in the Australian electionListen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaSee all our Australian election 2025 coverageGet our afternoon election email,free app ordaily news podcastO’Neil and Hume in Sunrise spatLabor frontbencher Clare O’Neil and Liberal frontbencher Jane Hume have clashed this morning on their regular Wednesday Sunrise panel.Hume: You’re seriously suggesting you haven’t thrown any mud?O’Neil: Sorry, do you mind if I speak, Jane? Continue reading…The shadow defence minister, who previously served in the ADF, said in 2018 that the ‘fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it’s exclusively male’. Follow today’s news liveAnywhere but Canberra: Australian voters on what matters to themInteractive guide to electorates in the Australian electionListen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaSee all our Australian election 2025 coverageGet our afternoon election email,free app ordaily news podcastO’Neil and Hume in Sunrise spatLabor frontbencher Clare O’Neil and Liberal frontbencher Jane Hume have clashed this morning on their regular Wednesday Sunrise panel.Hume: You’re seriously suggesting you haven’t thrown any mud?O’Neil: Sorry, do you mind if I speak, Jane? Continue reading…
Hastie is challenged again on his views on whether women should serve in the defence force.
The shadow defence minister, who has previously served in the ADF, said back in 2018 that the “fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it’s exclusively male”.
This morning he said that he did support women in combat roles, and just said it again:
The Coalition policy is that all combat roles are open to women. It’s been our longstanding position.
The one thing that we’ll, one thing that we will insist on is high standards because, in combat, there’s no points for second place.
Pushed on whether those “high standards” mean that there are currently lower standards for women, Hastie says “hardly”, and has accused the government of using the issue as a “political prop”.
I’m saying we have one standard, all Australians, regardless of your background, your race, your sexuality, your gender, your religion, every single role in the ADF is open to you, and we want more Australians to join … He [Marles] uses women in the ADF as a political prop.
Hastie says he won’t “resile” from his past comments but confirms “nothing is changing”.
I am not going to resile from what I have said in the past … I said what I said but the thing that the Australian people need to know, under a Dutton-led Coalition government, we will have a policy that is open to all Australians for combat roles. Nothing is changing.
Good afternoon! Emily Wind here, I’ll be with you for the next few hours here on the blog.
Thank you for joining me on the blog today. I’ll leave you with the fabulous Emily Wind who will bring you the prime minister’s press conference in WA, and the rest of the afternoon news.
I’ll be back with you bright and early tomorrow!
Albanese to speak at proposed Coalition WA nuclear site
While Peter Dutton has been criticised for not visiting the sites and consulting with communities where the Coalition has proposed seven nuclear plants, Anthony Albanese has decided to go to one instead.
He’s landed in Collie, which means both leaders are in the west this afternoon. Collie sits around 200km south of Perth. It’s in the seat of O’Connor, which has been held by the Liberals for decades on a pretty safe margin.
He’ll be up speaking shortly.
Peter Dutton visits Perth defence manufacturing facility – in pictures
The opposition leader made the announcement to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in five years and 3% of GDP in 10 years at the facility.
But he was also plagued by questions on how the Coalition was going to pay for it.
Nursing body ‘disappointed’ after health ministers’ debate
The Australian College of Nursing says it is “disappointed” the leaders in the health debate were silent on the role nurses can play in addressing the primary health care crisis and did not articulate a vision for genuine reform.
Their national director of professional practice, Karen Grace, said:
The health minister and shadow health minister spoke a lot about the primary health care crisis and workforce shortages, but failed to grasp the opportunities presented by the scope of practice review.
There was no mention of the necessary primary health care reform that would unleash the potential of nurses and multidisciplinary team members to improve access to healthcare.”
ACN calls on all leaders to stop perpetuating the outdated notion that healthcare can only be provided by doctors – it’s time to recognise the value of other healthcare professionals and the even greater contribution they could be making to delivering patient care.”
Taylor says Coalition would reverse casual employment changes and deregister CFMEU
Taylor says the Coalition won’t change multi-employer bargaining and intractable bargaining laws that were made by Labor during this term.
When asked by the moderator, Laura Jayes, what the Coalition will do on industrial relations laws, Taylor says a Dutton government would deregister the CFMEU construction union, reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission, and establish racketeering laws to prevent criminal activities by organisations.
He adds that they would also go back to a prior definition of casual employment.
Chalmers and Taylor facing off in second treasurers’ debate
Aren’t you lucky because we have yet another policy debate today – between the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor.
There’s not a huge amount new that’s been said so far in the debate. There’s been a big focus on the uncertain global economic environment and what either party would do about it.
Chalmers focuses on wages increasing and taxes decreasing, while Taylor repeats the “are you better off than you were three years ago” line and promises to restore household budgets and the government’s budget.
They’re in a room full of mostly business people – so unsurprisingly there’s also a focus on productivity and cutting red tape for businesses. Taylor also adds that he thinks that regulators like Apra and Asic should be focused on regulation but shouldn’t be “overreaching”.
Butler ‘talking to other operators’ to minimise possible Healthscope fallout
Circling back to the health minister’s debate, Butler was asked about the viability of one of the nation’s largest private hospital providers, Healthscope, and said he is talking to other operators in the system to ensure there are contingency plans if Healthscope’s 38 hospitals nationally were to close.
Butler said:
We’re watching very closely what is happening between Healthscope and their lenders and their landlords, because that could have a very serious impact on some parts of the private hospital market, where the health scope hospital is strategically very critical.”
I don’t want to get into a judgment about ownership. I will say, though, that … we’re talking to them and to other operators in the system to ensure that if something goes askew, that patients aren’t impacted.”
Pressed further on what he meant about talking to other operators, Butler said, by way of example, that when Healthscope withdrew its maternity services in Tasmania, because it was a very significant part of the market and private births accounted for one in three births in the state, he started a discussion with the state government and another operator, Calvary, to fill the gap by an injection of commonwealth funding.
There’s no one single discussion. Healthscope is the second largest private hospital operator. It’s got some hospitals in markets that have a large number of private hospitals, and it’s got some hospitals in markets where it’s strategically very critical. So of course, particularly in that second category, we’re watching very closely.”
Coalition promises national security strategy
Peter Dutton has promised a new national security strategy, to respond to increasingly complex strategic circumstances across the globe.
The Coalition says the strategy will help provide certainty to security agencies, government and industry.
It will provide an overarching vision for Australia’s security, core objectives, detail key risks, provide an assessment of the global threat environment and outline Australia’s national security priorities.
In a statement, Dutton said:
It has been more than a decade since Australia had a national security strategy, and the world looks very different today than it did back then.
It is past time we confronted our new strategic reality, and our strategy will serve as a roadmap to guide the difficult decisions we will need to make to protect Australia’s interests in the years ahead.
Butler and Ruston trade barbs about Coalition’s public service cuts
Unsurprisingly, the public service cuts policy has come knocking on the door at the NPC, and Ruston is asked what impact the cuts will have on the health department.
The opposition has said (and Ruston repeats) that the cuts will have no impact on frontline services.
We have a crisis in workforce. It’s the biggest crisis, I think, that is facing healthcare at the moment, because without the workforce to be able to deliver the outcomes in healthcare, we cannot possibly deliver them. So what we want to see is – we want to see an efficient investment in frontline services … We need to make sure that we are focused on delivering services to Australians – not public servants sitting behind desks in Canberra.
Butler retorts that by leaving out frontline services and national security workers, there will be just 60,000 jobs left to cut from.
That leaves on the analysis of the Public Service Commission a little over 60,000 jobs in the frame for 41,000 jobs going. That includes all of the Department of Health.
Butler rejects Coalition’s bulk-billing figures; Ruston accuses Labor of sending health system backwards
As always in these debates, the debaters next get to ask each other a question.
Anne Ruston asks Mark Butler when will he recognise that Australians are experiencing a “very, very difficult” time getting affordable access to a GP.
Butler says he’s recognised that fact from day one in government, and also takes the opportunity to push back on the Coalition’s bulk-billing figures.
I think I’ve recognised that from the first day I became health minister. The first thing I’d say is that 88% figure that the Coalition continues to use has been completely rejected by doctors’ groups. The College of GPs said it was misleading and highly skewed.
Butler then asks Ruston why Australians should trust Peter Dutton on health considering his track record.
Ruston says she’s “quite amazed” Butler wants to talk track records, and accuses Labor of sending the health system backwards.
Every single metric that’s before Australians suggests that our health system has only gone backwards under your reign.
Instead of talking about something that didn’t happen a decade ago, I think we need to be focusing on what’s happening right now … I think Australians deserve better than their politicians fighting and lying and scare campaigns.