Australia politics live: Pocock pushes back on CSIRO cuts as Labor insists it has not reduced funding; Thorpe criticises ‘outrageous’ search powers expansion in Victoria
Pocock to lead Senate motion opposing CSIRO cutsSpeaking of the CSIRO, David Pocock will lead an urgency motion that the cuts to the CSIRO, “which have led to the loss of 1,150 jobs, have weakened Australia’s ability to diversify our economy and respond to major challenges.”The urgency motion has been co-signed with Liberal senator Claire Chandler and Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson.It means with the Coalition and Greens, Pocock will have the numbers to pass the motion against the government. It will be the latest of several challenges the Labor has faced in the Senate – including being forced to drop its defence honours bill this week.An urgency motion allows the Senate to debate the issue and then vote on it being a matter of urgency.You can catch all the action this afternoon, after question time.ShareUpdated at 23.24 CETKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureLey says Liberal focus remains on reducing personal income taxSussan Ley has promised a “compelling” economic agenda, as the latest ANU Australian electoral survey reveals Labor are now seen as the better economic managers, a mantle the Coalition has held for years.Appearing on Sky News this morning, the opposition leader says she’s focused on reducing personal income taxes.
I said we would develop a serious, compelling policy agenda around the economy that includes … living within our means, and the next thing I said was we would deliver personal income tax cuts to low and middle-income earners, we would have a substantial package in the lead-up to the next election.
You might remember the Coalition said it would reverse Labor’s personal tax cut promised at the last election. On whether Ley would admit that was a mistake, she says, “We pretty much acknowledged that.”She doesn’t directly address that finding by the ANU that the Coalition is no longer trusted as the better economic manager.ShareUpdated at 00.02 CETDepartment budget reprioritisation ‘moving deckchairs on the Titanic’, says HumeThe Coalition has accused the government of “lying” by telling the public service to find savings, but it has been skirting questions over whether there should be cuts to department budgets.On Sky News this morning, Jane Hume, who was shadow public service minister at the last election when the Coalition promised to cut 41,000 public service jobs, won’t say whether the opposition supports the move, just that she’ll be asking questions of the finance minister at estimates next week.
Where are these cuts going to take place? Because when we know, when this government talks about efficiency and reprioritisations, what all that simply means is that they’re moving they’re moving the chess pieces around, moving the deck chairs on the Titanic, but they’re not actually making the savings that they need.
These are the questions that we’re going to be asking the finance minister next week at Senate estimates. Because, quite frankly, this is the first that we’ve heard of this in February this year, finance minister Katy Gallagher came out and said, the public service is the right size.
Hume says the public service has grown “unsustainably” and wants to know where any jobs will be cut – whether in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Social Services or other frontline services.They’re the exact same questions the government was asking of the opposition during the election campaign.View image in fullscreenLiberal senator Jane Hume. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShareUpdated at 23.51 CET‘Unprecedented’: Lidia Thorpe criticises Victorian police over expanded search powersBenita KolovosVictorian senator Lidia Thorpe has criticised a decision by state police to expand search powers in Melbourne’s CBD and surrounds from Sunday, until 29 May 2026.The declaration of the city as a “designated area” for six months will give police and protective service officers (PSOs) the ability to randomly stop and search anyone without a warrant or reasonable grounds. The decision has been criticised by human rights and legal groups who have described it as a “vast overreach”.Thorpe told ABC Radio Melbourne this morning it was “outrageous”. She went on:
This is unprecedented police powers. And I think [Victorian premier] Jacinta Allan is throwing us all under the bus. We know that racial profiling is a massive problem in Victoria. There’s been a recent report which the premier has seen from the Centre Against Racial Profiling that clearly points out that police profile black and brown people in Victoria. So I see a lot of harm being done from these ridiculous powers. Police have enough powers, and we see through that report that Aboriginal people, particularly, are 15 times more likely to be searched than white people.
View image in fullscreenIndependent senator Lidia Thorpe. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShareUpdated at 23.42 CETEducation minister to introduce bill to establish Australian Tertiary Education CommissionLater this morning the education minister will introduce a bill to formally establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec), which is the body that has been charged with looking at the job-ready graduates program – among other university reforms.As reported a little earlier this month, the legislation won’t pass this week (with only one more sitting day to go after today), with the government’s focus on the environment legislation.It means that while the Atec is now operating in an interim capacity, the formal legislated body will only be set up later next year – despite the government initially planning for it to be established by 1 January.Former Labor leader and University of Canberra vice-chancellor, Bill Shorten, also urged the government to take more urgent action on the job-ready graduates program this morning.ShareUpdated at 23.26 CETPocock to lead Senate motion opposing CSIRO cutsSpeaking of the CSIRO, David Pocock will lead an urgency motion that the cuts to the CSIRO, “which have led to the loss of 1,150 jobs, have weakened Australia’s ability to diversify our economy and respond to major challenges.”The urgency motion has been co-signed with Liberal senator Claire Chandler and Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson.It means with the Coalition and Greens, Pocock will have the numbers to pass the motion against the government. It will be the latest of several challenges the Labor has faced in the Senate – including being forced to drop its defence honours bill this week.An urgency motion allows the Senate to debate the issue and then vote on it being a matter of urgency.You can catch all the action this afternoon, after question time.ShareUpdated at 23.24 CET‘No funding cuts’ to CSIRO says government, as agency looks at hundreds of job cutsUp to 350 research roles are on the cutting room floor at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), but the government says it’s not due to funding cuts.Speaking to ABC’s AM this morning, the industry minister, Tim Ayres, says the agency is still being funded “to the tune of around a billion dollars every year”.
There are no funding cuts to the CSIRO. That is the most important point.
What’s going on in the CSIRO is after 15 years of not doing a systemic review of the CSIRO’s programs of research, this management and this board are getting on with that work to make sure that all the programs of research match very closely the federal government’s national science priorities. That’s the work that’s going on here. We have funded the CSIRO fully.
View image in fullscreenIndustry minister, Tim Ayres. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShareUpdated at 23.27 CETBill Shorten urges government to reconsider property tax reformFormer Labor leader Bill Shorten, who’s now enjoying post-political life as vice-chancellor at the University of Canberra, has made a public push for the government to reconsider property tax reform.Shorten took a progressive approach to tax reform to the 2019 election – proposing changes to negative gearing, trusts, franking credits and capital gains tax. Since that election loss, Labor’s looked at those policies like kryptonite.Speaking to RN Breakfast earlier this morning, the former leader hinted that it might be time to look at them again.
Oh well, people had a chance for some big tax reform in 2019 and didn’t, and 49% of people wanted it. I’m not going to give advice to the government on what they need to do there. There’s no doubt in my mind that income is taxed too heavily in Australia and property is taxed too lightly. But, you know, I’ve hung up my legislative spurs.
As a VC (and we know universities hate the job-ready graduates program), he also implored Jason Clare to fix the failed scheme, but did give the education minister credit for “ambitious” reform in other areas.
We’ve got to have the overdue discussion about reforming the jobs-ready graduate program, the unloved policy child of the Morrison era.
View image in fullscreenThe vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra, Bill Shorten. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShareUpdated at 23.27 CETChalmers won’t put a number on public service savingsWhile the 5% figure has been floating around, Jim Chalmers skirts around the question and won’t confirm whether there’s a hard target on each of the departments to find savings.Speaking to ABC’s News Brekky, the treasurer is also quick to distance the move from the Coalition’s proposed staff cuts during the election.
We’re not proposing that every department cut their staff or cut their programs or their budget by 5% across the board. We’re doing what we always do, which was – we asked for suggestions and ideas for areas where we could redirect lower-priority spending to higher-priority areas.
Asked earlier on RN to respond to Sussan Ley’s accusation that the reprioritisation of resources is a “broken promise”, Chalmers says, “We won’t be taking lectures on responsible economic management from Sussan Ley or Ted O’Brien.”ShareUpdated at 22.27 CETLabor looking for ‘political fix’ on environment laws, says LeyJumping back to Sussan Ley’s appearance on ABC News Breakfast, the opposition leader has accused the environment minister, Murray Watt, of “mismanaging” the negotiations.The opposition has said it’s not in a “rush” to pass the legislation this week, as the government moves closer to securing a deal with the Greens on the environment protection and biodiversity conservation laws (EPBC).She points out just how much the government is willing to compromise by offering two very different deals to both sides.
I’ve actually said to the prime minister – through the media – I’m ready, every week through summer to take a phone call from him and have a meeting and work out how to do this.
There’s the minister with two sets of amendments. One for the Coalition, and one for the Greens. They’re completely different, and [Watt’s] saying, ‘Please, somebody agree with me.’ That is a political fix, not a proper legal approach.
ShareUpdated at 22.22 CETCoalition’s energy plan ‘harebrained’ and will push up power prices, treasurer saysContinuing his media rounds, and joining ABC RN Breakfast, Jim Chalmers rips into the Coalition with modelling released by the government that if Australia kept all coal-fired plants open for 10 years from 2028, it would cost the budget more than $17bn.Pressure on energy prices comes from ageing coal-fired power, not renewables says the treasurer.Chalmers says the modelling shows the Coalition’s energy plan is “harebrained”.
What the Coalition is proposing with this harebrained approach to net zero would push up power prices and swing a wrecking ball through the budget and the economy.
The older, traditional sources of energy are becoming less reliable as they get closer and closer to closure. I think, from memory, yesterday we had parts of six major power plants out of operation, and that puts upward pressure on prices.
The treasurer adds the Coalition’s energy policy is driven “100% by the internal party politics of the Coalition party room”.ShareUpdated at 22.03 CETLey says government has ‘lied’ or ‘mismanaged’ their budgetThe opposition leader, Sussan Ley, says the government has either “lied” or “mismanaged” their budget, in response to Labor directing departments to find savings.Jim Chalmers defended the move a moment ago, saying it’s about “reprioritisation” of lower priority spending to high priority projects.On ABC News Breakfast, Ley says Labor promised no cuts of public service jobs during the last election.
Labor promised this city that there wouldn’t be any cuts … So, are they backing away from the promise? Or have things got so bad since the election that they actually have to address savings as a matter of urgency? … Either they lied to you at the election or they really, really have mismanaged the budget.
Ley, who says she previously worked in the public service before entering politics, accuses the government of “letting Canberrans down” and questions how these savings will “solve the over $1tn debt that this country is facing”.View image in fullscreenLeader of the opposition, Sussan Ley. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShareUpdated at 21.46 CETWhat’s going to happen to interest rates?Jim Chalmers won’t speculate on whether – if inflation continues to stay out of the Reserve Bank’s target band – the interest rate could go up or down.The treasurer says the central bank has already cut rates three times this year, but admits it doesn’t go far enough for families still under pressure.
It’s why we’re cutting taxes two more times to provide that relief that people need and deserve. At a time where this inflation is a little bit higher than we’d like and expect to see later today, the headline inflation tick up a little bit.
Over on Sky News, Chalmers is asked whether he will concede government spending has led to inflation remaining sticky. He says “there’s no evidence of that” and that it hasn’t been brought up by the Reserve Bank either.Pete Stefanovic also tries to push him on whether the government will extend the electricity bill rebates, but Chalmers won’t give anything away, and says decisions will be taken on that in “coming weeks”.View image in fullscreenTreasurer Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShareUpdated at 22.31 CET
