We need to have a sensible conversation about migration, and about the amount of funding the Commonwealth can and must deliver to meet the needs of a growing population.
We need this because we want to make sure there is a home for everyone.
revealed it is pursuing jail time of more than two years for McBride.
The courtroom is filled with his supporters and media, one of whom yelled “shame on the court” as the judge entered before being told to be quiet.
Prior to entering the court, McBride told a rally outside the court “I did not break my oath to the people of Australia and to the soldiers that keep us safe”.
The sentencing will mark the end of a years-long saga beginning in 2014 when McBride began taking documents from defence offices in Canberra in a backpack and after charges were first laid against him in 2018 for passing those documents on to journalists at the ABC.
slow speed at which the federal government is moving to reform road user charges, Pallas says the commonwealth must work with the state on any changes.
Last year, the commonwealth intervened in a case to strike down Victoria’s electric vehicle tax, much to the anger of the state’s treasurer.
Asked if the federal government should get a move on and introduce its own tax for low and zero emissions vehicles, Pallas told reporters outside parliament:
They won’t be doing it unless the state of Victoria is satisfied with it. We control the registration system, we own the roads. I don’t think they’ll be taking the charge without it being satisfactory to the state. I’ve been very clear with the federal government about this.
He says there needs to be a national conversation “about how effectively we move to an appropriate system of charging for the use of our roads”. He goes on:
Clearly, the idea of it applying exclusively to EVs was a matter of concern. I think everybody who pays fuel excise at the moment would say they don’t want to be subject to double taxation. So we’re going to have to work constructively with the commonwealth to come up with a solution. I’m up for that. I just want the commonwealth to recognise they can’t take a windfall in fuel excise and use it to prop up the bottom line.
Fuel excise when it was originally put in by the states was about repairing the road base … to effectively pay the states for the wear and tear on the road network. That’s over time being taken away from the states, so we get less than a quarter of that money back for the wear and tear on the road base. As a government, we’ve said from the commonwealth, [we are] happy to work in cooperation with you, but the whole idea of usage charges … has to be about proper repair and maintenance of our own road network.
Victoria rolling out digital driver’s licences
Victorian roads minister, Melissa Horne, is speaking outside Victorian parliament about the rollout of digital driver’s licences. She says:
People are really excited about it. We’ve done a couple of things to make sure it is as secure as possible. So over the last few months, we’ve had a group of people doing a process called red teaming. That’s basically where you get a group of hackers to come on in and actually see if they can hack the system so that we can actually make sure that this is absolutely as secure as possible.
Horne says the team of hackers found “some quirks in the software” that have been “ironed out”.
She says there are so safety features which allow people to conceal their personal details when using their digital licence:
It’s your full driver’s licence, so that you can show anyone exactly what your licence entails and all the details on that. Secondly, it [displays] an identity sort of card so that if you’re going to a post office to pick up a parcel or something like that, you may not necessarily want to disclose all the details on your driver’s licence, such as your driver’s licence number, for example, or, in the case of people probably much younger than me who need to get into a venue over when they’re over 18. They can just show the proof of age.
Housing and grocery relief top budget priorities for constituents, independent MP says
Independent Curtin MP, Kate Chaney, has spoken to the ABC about what her constituents wanted out of the budget:
I did a survey in the last week asking people about how cost-of-living pressures are affecting them and what they would like to see, and the two things that came out on top were tax reform so it’s easier to buy a home than an investment property, and also … grocery relief and tax reform were some of the things people wanted to see.
Oh, the other thing was more social and affordable housing.
Anthony Albanese has popped up on budget day to speak to Brisbane radio B105.
The topics:
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“Getting laid for the nation”, also referred to as “shag our way out of it” (Jim Chalmers telling people to have more babies).
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Jim Chalmers being a proud Queenslander.
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The Broncos.
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The Rabbitohs.
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The budget for Albanese’s wedding (it won’t be as large as Kyle Sandilands’, but it won’t have a cash bar).
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The ring he designed for his partner, Jodie Haydon.
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The NRL grand final ring.
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PNG maybe joining the NRL which the host explains as “the rumour is that it could actually help keep China away”, which is a very succinct way of describing sports diplomacy.
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Kokoda.
Governments ‘need to respond to challenges as they arise’, McKim says
Nick McKim said he believed Australians were ready to have serious conversations about changing how things are done:
I think Australians absolutely understand that circumstances change. So since the last election, we’ve seen a record series of interest rate rises, we’ve seen rents going through the roof, we’ve seen cost-of-living pressures.
Those things happened since the last election.
People understand that governments need to respond to the challenges as they arise. And honestly, I think a government that actually took significant action to assist with cost-of-living pressures, stopping the supermarkets’ price gouging, putting dental and mental health in the Medicare, doing something serious on wiping student debt – I think those (policies) will be popular and I think they would be genuine assistance to people who need it most.
Source: theguardian.com
