This blog is now closedCoalition confirms it is committed to Paris climate agreement, hours after refusing to rule out withdrawingAnywhere but Canberra: Australian voters on what matters to themInteractive guide to electorates in the Australian electionListen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaSee all our Australian election 2025 coverageGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastAustralian shares are poised to surge when the market opens, after Donald Trump’s decision to pause his oversized tariffs against most nations sent stock prices rocketing on Wall Street.Futures prices are pointing to an increase in excess of 6% for the S&P/ASX 200, taking the index above 7,850 points.We continuously advocate to the United States through the representatives of the government. It’s fair to say right now Anthony Albanese is focused on his conversation with the Australian people as we move towards the federal election on 3 May. Continue reading…This blog is now closedCoalition confirms it is committed to Paris climate agreement, hours after refusing to rule out withdrawingAnywhere but Canberra: Australian voters on what matters to themInteractive guide to electorates in the Australian electionListen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaSee all our Australian election 2025 coverageGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastAustralian shares are poised to surge when the market opens, after Donald Trump’s decision to pause his oversized tariffs against most nations sent stock prices rocketing on Wall Street.Futures prices are pointing to an increase in excess of 6% for the S&P/ASX 200, taking the index above 7,850 points.We continuously advocate to the United States through the representatives of the government. It’s fair to say right now Anthony Albanese is focused on his conversation with the Australian people as we move towards the federal election on 3 May. Continue reading…
The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, is speaking with ABC Afternoon Briefing about the Coalition’s new future fund proposals.
The two new funds being promised today – the Future Generations Fund and Regional Australia Future Fund – will be grown using 80% of any “positive windfall receipts variations each year”. You can read more details on this earlier in the blog.
Hume touted the future funds as helping Australians “benefit from the prosperity of our nation, rather than having it squandered on either recurrent spending, making the structural budget worse, or, more importantly, on sugar hits”.
Host Patricia Karvelas asked what the point of putting money aside is “when you’re still running deficits?”
Hume said this was an “opportunity to pay down debt.”
If you put money into a future fund it actually earns more money than it cost to repay the debt.
Asked about concerns this could lead to pork barrelling, Hume said “it in itself [is] a physical guardrail, it means you can’t use windfall gains for pork barrelling, or physical sugar hits or for recurrent expenditure.”
There will still be infrastructure investment that [is] done through the regular budget processes, that would be expected. The regular budget processes will not change, but what’s important here is when there are these windfall gains, that they are invested for future generations rather than squandered.
Boa constrictor on the loose in southern Sydney found and captured
Moving away from politics for a moment: A boa constrictor that had been on the loose in southern Sydney, triggering biosecurity warnings and concern for pets, has been found and captured.
Tyler Gibbons, the owner of Shire Snake Wranglers, told Guardian Australia he had caught the snake at about lunchtime after a news reporter spotted the snake emerging from rocks close to where it had last been seen.
Gibbons had alerted the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries about the exotic creature, which is native to South America, on Monday after seeing video footage of the snake on a boat ramp beside the Georges River in Sylvania on Sunday.
I got there quickly, put it straight in my snake bag and contacted the DPI.
The juvenile male measured about 5-foot and was in “good health,” he said.
They are from Brazil, it’s hot and humid there, it would have struggled to survive the Sydney winter. It would have gone into brumation, when they lower their metabolic rate, slow down and pop out during warm days.
Despite being illegal to keep as pets in Australia, boa constrictors have been found across the country and are typically escapees or deliberately released illegal pets, according to Agriculture Victoria.
The DPI said it was continuing its investigation to determine the owner of the snake.
Bennelong Liberal candidate declines to say whether Chinese celebrity endorsements complied with guidelines
Liberal candidate Scott Yung and party officials have declined to answer detailed questions about whether his use of Chinese celebrities and a public relations firm in the 2019 state election complied with official guidelines, as the Liberal party confirms an audit of campaign disclosures.
A private dinner at a “luxurious venue” in Sydney to raise campaign funds for Yung, featuring the former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott, has also been cancelled without explanation.
You can read the full story on this below:
Greenpeace calls on Dutton to commit to Paris agreement ‘in no uncertain terms’
The CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, David Ritter, says abandoning the Paris agreement would be a “terrible idea” that is “straight out of Donald Trump’s playbook,” following Ted O’Brien’s comments at today’s debate.
In a statement, Ritter said withdrawing from the agreement would harm the Australian economy, our global standing and “our relationship with our Pacific neighbours.”
Shrinking our climate targets and walking away from international cooperation on reducing emissions and climate finance will harm our economy as the world moves to decarbonise and alienate our Pacific neighbours on the frontlines of climate change. It would not be in our national interest to leave the Paris agreement.
It is shocking that the Coalition is even entertaining the possibility of abandoning this important global climate accord, which is our best chance at averting catastrophic climate change. Peter Dutton should distance his party from this Trumpian tactic and commit to keeping Australia in the Paris agreement in no uncertain terms.
Let’s take a look at everything the Coalition has said about the Paris climate agreement today.
At today’s energy debate, the shadow energy and climate change minister Ted O’Brien was asked to clarify the Coalition’s stance on the Paris agreement a number of times.
O’Brien initially said the Coalition would commission “analysis” on the Paris agreement targets, and would “not be setting targets from opposition”.
Our own Dan Jervis-Bardy then asked O’Brien if the Coalition would walk away from the Paris agreement – and O’Brien left the door open to this:
Once we have done that analysis, then we will be making decisions along the lines of that you pose, though I won’t be pre-empting that hypothetical today with all due respect … I can commit [that] we will always act in the national interest.
Three shadow ministers have since reiterated the Coalition’s commitment to Paris, following O’Brien’s comments at the debate. This has included:
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The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, who said the Coalition was “committed to the Paris agreement, there is no doubt about that”.
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The shadow environment minister, Jonathon Duniam, who said “there is no intention to leave it”.
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And the shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, who said there were “no plans to pull out of the Paris agreement, and I don’t think that is what Ted O’Brien said”.
Cash provides further details on the Coalition’s proposed future funds
Michaelia Cash was also asked to explain the Coalition’s two proposed future funds announced today (you can read more detail earlier in the blog).
The host noted that successive governments have already been taking windfall revenue to pay off debt, so how is this different?
Cash argued the “Labor party have been reckless with the Australian people’s money” and that debt in Australia is heading towards $1.2tn.
Asked if the Coalition will be retiring debt with this money, or putting it in a fund and using the interest to retire debt, she said:
80% of that windfall gain will be placed into those funds … 80% of those windfall gains will be placed in to, under legislation – so no one can ever get out of this again – into these future funds.
How will debt be retired? Cash said there would be “parameters for this fund, one of those parameters will be that you can use it to retire debt.”
It may well be that you have a region that cannot even afford a swimming pool, something that we here in the cities take for granted. That is something that you could look at the fund actually investing in.
A future fund that pays for swimming pools? Cash answered:
When was the last time that you went to rural and regional Australia and talked to them about the type of facilities they need to be invested in? That makes huge differences.
Dutton’s petrol pit stop, in photos
Here are some of the pictures from Peter Dutton’s petrol pit stop and photo op:
Cash asked if she stands by previous comments Dutton is ‘man of action’ like Trump
Jumping back to Michaelia Cash on Sky News, who was asked if she stood my remarks she has made over Donald Trump in the past, when she said:
The American people, they expect action, and that is what they’re getting. And they’ll get the exact same attitude under a Peter Dutton government.
Asked if she stands by the statement, Cash said Dutton is “someone who will always act in Australia’s best interests.”
Is Trump hurting the Coalitions campaign, though? Cash repeated:
Peter Dutton will always act in Australia’s best interests, and he has made that clear.
So he’s not a man of action like Donald Trump? Cash responded:
Now you just want to play games with words, and that’s fine. Peter Dutton is a man who is decisive. He is a man who will make decisions in the best interests of the Australian people.
Join Matilda Boseley and Josh Butler on the ‘Tell me more’ livestream!
Guardian Australia’s Tell Me More live streams are your chance to ask your burning election news questions to the people who wrote that news in the first place.
This evening host Matilda Boseley is joined by political reporter Josh Butler to untangle the chock-a-block second week of the federal election campaign. From flip-flops to photo ops, what have the party leaders been up to, and who’s come out on top?
If you have a question you want answered, simply pop it in the comments on YouTube or TikTok or email australia.tellmemore@theguardian.com.
Cash faces questions on Paris agreement
The shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, was up on Sky News earlier to weigh in on today’s energy debate between Chris Bowen and Ted O’Brien.
She was asked if the Coalition is considering pulling out of the Paris agreement if elected, “because Ted O’Brien left a bit of room for that?”
Cash didn’t answer the question directly and said:
I think Ted O’Brien set out a very clear and consistent plan for cleaner, cheaper and consistent energy in Australia. He also showed the Australian people exactly what our plan was going to do by way of price reductions for them going forward.
Brought back to the original question, Cash answered that there are “no plans to pull out of the Paris agreement, and I don’t think that is what Ted O’Brien said.”
Peter Dutton dropped into a petrol station in Caulfield for another of the opposition campaign’s media stunts.
Sitting shotgun while Goldstein candidate, Tim Wilson, drove in his extremely blue Liberal-branded van, Dutton exited to put 35 litres in the tank.
Dutton was joined by Wilson, the Victorian opposition leader, Brad Battin, and Macnamara candidate, Benson Saulo.
The four men stood at the bowser – a completely unnatural petrol tank fill-up – talking about how the opposition’s proposal to slash the fuel excise by 25.4 cents a litre for 12 months would help drivers save money on petrol bills.
It was a swift stop, as most stunts for the TV cameras are, but it was delayed ever so slightly by a 12-year-old kid who walked up to ask the alternative prime minister a few questions.
Then Dutton was off and the press pack left behind waiting for the next stop.
Labor minister lashes Coalition’s mixed messaging over Paris agreement
Labor MP Anne Aly, also speaking on Afternoon Briefing, took aim at the Coalition’s mixed messaging over the Paris agreement. Here was what she had to say, in full:
I just want to get everything right here, because you’ve got Ted O’Brien leaving the door open to Paris, Jane Hume just came on recently and said no we’ll stick with it, [Jonathon Duniam] is saying something different now. This pretty much sums up what the Coalition has been for the nine years they were in government, which sums up why they did not land a single energy policy for those whole nine years.
With all due respect, we are not going to be lectured by a party, a Coalition, that could not come up with an energy plan for nine years while they argued and quibbled over whether or not climate change even existed. We’re not going to then be lectured by then about Paris or environmental targets or anything else.
What we have is a clear path to renewable energy, shored up by gas, shored up by hydro, that will deliver to the grid the electricity needs for now, and the future, that Australians need – and at a cost Australians need.
All the Coalition is offering is a nuclear fantasy to build nuclear plants somewhere in the never-never that our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren and great great-grandchildren will be paying for, that will not deliver the energy needs we need, at a higher cost.
Second shadow minister says Coalition committed to Paris agreement following O’Brien’s earlier comments
The shadow environment minister, Jonathon Duniam, has also claimed a Coalition government would remain committed to the Paris agreement.
To recap: at today’s debate, the Coalition’s energy spokesperson Ted O’Brien refused to commit to staying in the Paris agreement.
The finance minister, Jane Hume, told Afternoon Briefing there was “no doubt” the Coalition was committed to the Paris agreement.
And now, also speaking on Afternoon Briefing, Duniam said “there is no intention to leave it”.
We have signed up, we now have a legislated target here, which is frankly unnecessary, we were going to be working toward the target anyway.
We’ve got to do what we can to minimise our impact on the planet and I think there are a range of measures that can be put in place. We differ from the government about how best to achieve the target.
