Eric Abetz named a minister in Tasmanian government
Adam Morton
The conservative Liberal will have responsibility for contentious salmon farms and native forest logging in Tasmania after being appointed to senior roles in Jeremy Rockliff‘s new cabinet.
The former federal Coalition senator has been named the state minister for business, industry and resources, which includes salmon and forestry. Abetz will also be minister for transport, and the leader of the government in the lower house as the Rockliff government attempts to navigate a parliament in which it holds only 14 of 35 seats.
The announcement of the cabinet followed the Liberals reaching an agreement with the state’s three new Jacqui Lambie Network MPs - Miriam Beswick, Andrew Jenner and Rebekah Pentland.
JLN promised to back the Liberals on confidence and censure votes that did not involve “malfeasance or corruption” and guaranteed to support all budget bills. The minor party also said it would give the government notice if it intended to vote against any of its legislation, and then vote for an adjournment so the parties could negotiate.
Rockliff still needs a deal on confidence votes with at least one of the state’s three independent MPs – Craig Garland, Kristie Johnston and David O’Byrne – to reach the 18 votes needed in parliament.
Eric Abetz during Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra in April 2022. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Greens leader calls on government to ‘immediately recognise Palestine’
Posting on social media site X, Adam Bandt also said the government should “end military exports and stop military contracts with Israel, and stop backing the invasion”.
The Labor government should immediately recognise Palestine.
Labor must also end military exports & stop military contracts with Israel, and stop backing the invasion.
No need to wait. There’s no barrier to this happening right now.
The airline has dodged legal action over an incident at Doha airport in which women were forcibly removed from planes by armed guards and some intimately examined.
However, while the federal court dismissed the case against the airline, justice John Halley determined the five Australian women bringing the case could instead re-plead their claims for damages against Matar, a Qatar Airways-owned subsidiary engaged by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) to run Doha airport.
The five women initiated legal action against the airline in 2022, later adding the QCAA and Matar to the case over the incident in October 2020, seeking damages over “unlawful physical contact”, false imprisonment and mental health impacts, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
They were among more than a dozen passengers who were escorted off the Sydney-bound Qatar Airways plane by armed guards as authorities searched for the mother of a newborn baby found abandoned in a plastic bag at Hamad international airport. The infant survived.
The women were taken to ambulances on the tarmac and some were forced to submit to invasive examinations for evidence they had recently given birth. The lawsuit claims one passenger was forced to undergo a strip-search holding her five-month-old son.
Senator’s Jacqui Lambie Network split without ‘huge drama’
Sarah Basford Canales
Tammy Tyrrell, the Tasmanian senator who spectacularly quit the Jacqui Lambie Network before the Easter weekend, has likened the deterioration of her relationship with Lambie and the minor party to a marriage breakdown.
Tyrell told ABC on Wednesday afternoon she had made the decision to “rip the Band-Aid off and separate” with the minor party after it became clear they were no longer happy with her.
“If someone is not happy in a relationship, and it is made obvious they are not happy with the way the other person in the relationship is representing them, someone has to make a decision. I said before that the people of Tasmania are the children in this relationship and they will be looked after fabulously.”
Asked whether there was tension or a “blow up” between the two Tasmanians, Tyrell said she would not speak badly about the senator she once worked for as an office manager.
I would love to say there was a huge drama but, in any relationship, there are highs and lows and in all honesty, we’re not really in a low, we are just travelling the course of our relationship. Jacqui and I wish each other well. We’re not going to do anything different in that we are going to try and get the best for Tasmania with the legislation. We will work together moving forward. And I will never speak badly about them.
Tyrell was also asked about the role of the minor party’s board in her resignation. The now independent senator said there was nothing murky about the board she had sat on before resigning.
We are new to the political game but we were not silly so we knew we had to make sure that the network was protected and a board was created. But if you speak to Jacqui or another senator I am sure they would be happy to explain more.
Tasmanian senators Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Barnaby Joyce is criticising delays in implementing a new system of compensation and rehabilitation for veterans, the draft legislation of which he says was initially meant to be released in 2023.
He says the legislation, which is meant to combine the three current acts that govern these issues – the veterans entitlement act, the military act, and defence rehabilitation act – “was supposed to go through or be complete in 2025. Now they are saying it won’t be complete until 2026. They might not even be the government then.”
Joyce says it’s important that Australians know the context of this issue, in understanding his frustration:
Since 1997 about 1600 Australian ex-servicemen and women have committed suicide … If that happened in a number of plane crashes, we will be having royal commission after royal commission, so this is incredibly important. These people have served our nation.
Joyce calls for peace before statehood discussion on Israel and Palestine
Barnaby Joyce has said “it’s not the right time and it’s not the place” to be having a discussion about recognising a Palestinian state.
“The only thing we should be discussing is how we bring about peace,” he has told the ABC.
At this point in time, Gaza is run by a terrorist organisation called Hamas and so a plan to create a separate terrorist state, how does that work?
Obviously we would want, as things progress, for Israel and the Palestinians to come to an arrangement which brings peace over the longer term and that’s what everybody wants …
Nobody wants what is happening there at the moment. It is a complete and utter human tragedy but the source of this, the instigator of this, was a terrorist organisation and you cannot start saying I’m going to open up negotiations with a terrorist organisation.
Is Australia going to have diplomatic relations with a terrorist organisation representatives of the Gaza Strip?
Concern among LGBTQ+ groups about Cass review findings into trans healthcare practices in UK
The findings of a major review of trans healthcare practices in the UK have been met with deep concern by Australian LGBTQ+ organisations, with “caution and care” urged in local interpretations of it.
Representatives from Equality Australia, the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health (AusPATH), Acon, the Trans Justice Project and more, said the review “ignores the consensus of major medical bodies around the world and lacks relevance within an Australian context”.
The director of community health at Acon, Teddy Cook, said:
Trans people everywhere should have access to the highest attainable level of health through a robust, evidence based, multi-disciplinary and affirming approach, an approach that demonstrably saves trans lives.
In ignoring key evidence and research, the Cass review does not meet that standard and has today let down the very people, families, health providers and communities it seeks to support.
LGBTIQ+ Health Australia has urged local institutions to “hold the report at arm’s length” and ensure that it is not used “to drive extremist responses … that do more harm than good” to trans healthcare, such as the withdrawal of puberty blockers from trans and gender-diverse young people.
LGBTIQ+ Health Australia chief executive Nicky Bath said:
The report itself acknowledges that the review is marred by poor quality data and flawed methodologies, which in and of itself, calls into question the validity of the report’s conclusions …
We call on the Australian government to stand by trans and gender diverse young people, listen to them, their families, organisations and clinicians and resist the pressure that will come to withdraw access to puberty blockers and instead support affirming care practices that respects children-centred care, the autonomy and dignity of transgender and gender-diverse people.
Insurers have received 11,527 claims to date from last weekend’s severe storm in New South Wales, the Insurance Council of Australia has reported.
Most of these claims related to damage to buildings and contents as a result of wind and heavy rain causing gutters to overflow and flash flooding to occur.
The ICA said that at this stage it was too early to estimate the insurance damage bill, which most severely affected the Hawkesbury-Nepean and Illawarra regions of New South Wales.
The ICA’s advice to people whose property has been affected by storm-related damage is:
If property or a vehicle have been affected, customers are advised to contact their insurer as soon as possible to commence the claims process even if they do not know the full extent of damage.
Insurance customers are not required to keep destroyed property, including carpets and furnishings, and should instead take photos, note any identifying information, and keep materials samples.
New data also released today shows that losses from declared insurance catastrophes this summer have reached close to $1.6bn, with the cost of the Christmas storms now exceeding $1.1bn.
What did Penny Wong say about recognising Palestinian statehood – and is Australia at odds with its allies?
The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, has said a “pathway out of the endless cycle of violence” in the Middle East can only come with recognition of “a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel”.
Two-state solution 'only hope to break the endless cycle of violence': Penny Wong – video
Some commentators have interpreted the speech as a hint that Australia could recognise Palestinian statehood in the near term.
So what did Wong actually say about a two-state solution, what was she silent about, and how does this fit in with what Australia’s allies are doing? Daniel Hurst has this excellent explainer:
Icac concludes probe of former Labor minister’s conduct
The New South Wales corruption watchdog has ended its investigation into former Labor minister Tim Crakanthorp after concluding there were “no reasonable prospects” of finding his conduct corrupt.
Crakanthorp was sacked from cabinet last August after it was revealed the Newcastle MP had allegedly failed to declare “substantial private family holdings” relating to his wife’s family.
Neither Crakanthorp’s wife nor her family were accused of any wrongdoing.
The premier, Chris Minns, referred the matter to the Independent Commission Against Corruption after asking Crakanthorp to resign as a minister after he became aware of the properties across the Hunter region, for which he was the minister.
A spokesperson for the Icac on Wednesday said:
As the Commission is satisfied that there are no reasonable prospects of finding Mr Crakanthorp’s conduct is sufficiently serious to justify a finding of corrupt conduct, it has terminated its investigation.
The former member for Newcastle, Tim Crakanthorp in NSW parliament in 2022. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Hi, Kate Lyons here, I’ll be taking you through the rest of the day’s news.
To start us off, AAP have an update after the late-breaking news yesterday that Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art have lost a legal battle over its Ladies Lounge exhibit.
The artist behind the Ladies Lounge said she is deeply saddened after the exhibit was found to be unlawful.
A case was brought against the operators of Mona in the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal by Jason Lau, who was refused access to the lounge, because only women are allowed entry.
The Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision ruled on Tuesday that Kirsha Kaechele’s artwork may have had a point but violated the law.
The women-only, curtained-off lounge now has 28 days to allow “persons who do not identify as ladies” access to the installation.
Ms Kaechele posted on Instagram on Wednesday that she was “saddened by the court’s ruling against the Ladies Lounge”.
“But, by grace of due process, I have been granted a 28-day period. This allows me space to absorb the situation, seek counsel and compose myself,” she wrote.
“I am so grateful for your ongoing understanding and support through one of the most difficult periods of my life. Such periods can be painful, as many of us know.”
A MONA spokesperson said the museum is taking time to figure out its next steps.
“We are deeply disappointed by this decision. We will take some time to absorb the result and consider our options,” she said.
Reuters is reporting some pushback from China on the Aukus deal, particularly where it comes to discussions surrounding Taiwan.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has called remarks made by the US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell dangerous, after he suggested Aukus could help deter any Chinese move against Taiwan.
“His remarks are very dangerous,” said spokesperson Zhu Fenglian when responding to a question at a weekly press conference.
The establishment of the so-called trilateral security partnership between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia is essentially to provoke military confrontation in the region through military cooperation in small circles.
US assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images
Campbell, who made a rare link between Taiwan and Aukus, told Washington’s Center for a New American Security thinktank that new submarine capabilities would enhance peace and stability, including in the strait that separates China and Taiwan.
Zhu:
Any attempt to use relevant military cooperation to intervene in the Taiwan issue is to interfere in China’s internal affairs, violate the one-China principle, and endanger peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. We firmly oppose.
There’s been much discussion today about a speech Penny Wong gave last night, suggesting support for a Palestinian state may provide a pathway to a two-state solution.
The foreign minister said the recognition of a Palestinian state would help ensure long-term security for Israel, and further undermine Hamas.
Here’s a video from her speech, delivered at the Australian National University:
Two-state solution 'only hope to break the endless cycle of violence': Penny Wong – video
