Scott Morrison, the former Prime Minister (2018-22), has delivered his valedictory speech to the House of Representatives.
Morrison will resign as the Liberal member for Cook later this week.
First elected to parliament in 2007, Morrison was re-elected five more times. He served nearly six years in opposition before becoming a Cabinet minister upon election of the Abbott coalition government in 2013. Becoming prime minister on August 24, 2018, Morrison won the 2019 election, but was defeated at the election of May 21, 2022.
Jeremy Rockliff, the Liberal Premier of Tasmania, has announced that negotiations with two former Liberal MPs have broken down and he will call an early election tomorrow.
Rockliff said John Tucker and Lara Alexander had “failed to commit to a new, enduring agreement”, following their resignations from the Liberal Party in May, 2023. The former Liberals had concerns relating to the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium project. Their resignations sent the government into minority status in the House of Assembly.
The Reserve Bank of Australia today made no change to the cash rate, leaving it at 4.35%.
The 4.35% rate has been in force since November 2023.
The bank’s decision is its first in a restructured process. As part of the new processes, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Michele Bullock, held a press conference an hour after the bank’s decision was announced.
Watch Michele Bullock’s press conference (45m)
The coalition will support the Albanese government’s tax cuts, the Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, confirmed today.
Flanked by the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, and the Shadow Finance Minister, Senator Jane Hume, Dutton said “the coalition is not going to stand in the way of people who are doing it tough”.
With repeated references to “the liar in The Lodge” and the government’s “egregious lie”, Dutton said the coalition would take “a significant tax policy” to the next election.
Watch the Dutton-Taylor-Hume press conference (35m)
The Chinese Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been sentenced to death by a court in China.
Yang Hengjun
Yang Hengjun, a pro-democracy activist, has been detained for the past five years. His death sentence will likely be commuted to life imprisonment after two years of “good behaviour”.
The libertarian economist and newly-elected President of Argentina, Javier Milei, has delivered a strident defence of capitalism at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
This is the official timetable of key dates for the Dunkley by-election on March 2, 2024.
The dates show the election is being conducted within the minimum timeframe whereby polling day must be no less than 33 days from the issue of the writ.
2024 Dunkley By-Election Timetable
Event
Date
Explanation
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a “country report” on the Australian economy, warning that growth is weakening and inflation remains persistently high.
As 2024 starts, a reminder that across the nine federal, state and territory jurisdictions, there are eight Labor governments.
Current Australian Heads of Government & Opposition Leaders – from December 21, 2024
No.
Jurisdiction
PM/Premier/
Chief Minister
Age
Party
Since
Opposition Leader
Age
Party
Since
1.
AUSTRALIA
Anthony Albanese
62
ALP
23.05.2022
On the eve of the third anniversary of the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill insurrection, President Joe Biden has made a swingeing attack on his putative Republican opponent in this year’s election, former President Donald Trump.
Speaking in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Biden told his audience: “Democracy is on the ballot. Freedom is on the ballot.”
Watch Biden’s speech (33m):
It is time to review the year in digital technology. Oh, what fun! As with prior reviews, we will arrange this review like an award ceremony.
There are three criteria for an award:
Census data to be released Tuesday shows Australia changing rapidly before COVID, gaining an extra one million residents from overseas in the past five years, almost all of them in the three years before borders were closed.
For the first time since the question has been asked in the census, more than half of Australia’s residents (51.5%) report being either born overseas or having an overseas-born parent.
More than one quarter of the one million new arrivals have come from India or Nepal.
The really bizarre thing about calls for a UK-style windfall profits tax on gas is that Australia’s already got one.
By lifting its cash rate by 0.5 points, from 0.35% to 0.85%, the Reserve Bank has added about another $120 per month in payments for a A$500,000 mortgage.
If financial markets are to be believed, by the end of this year it will have added a total of $800 per month – and, by the end of next year, a total approaching $1,000 per month.