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55m agoHume backs ‘Wilson’s version of events’ over Joyce’s claim of power-sharing talks
1h agoAlbanese and Trump pose together for a selfie in New York
2h agoVictoria’s Big Build royal commission begins
3h agoAlbanese defends social media crackdown against White House criticism
3h agoQantas confirms 2028 launch of Sydney-New York direct flights
3h agoWilson says One Nation power-sharing talks are ‘figment of Barnaby's imagination’
4h agoJoyce speaking with ‘very, very senior Liberals’ about power-sharing deal
4h agoMany flights delayed or cancelled at Sydney airport this morning amid fog
5h agoBragg says proposal to use super for mortgages not 'controversial'
5h agoSmartglasses ban on Sydney’s eastern suburb beaches on the cards
6h agoCrack down on big money donations to parties, Grattan Institute says
6h ago‘Culture of secrecy’ and ‘inadequate factchecking’ at Four Corners criticised by ABC watchdog
6h ago‘Super intelligence’: Trump says AI should be renamed and rejects calls for further protections for it
Anthony Albanese has posed for a selfie with Donald Trump at the UN assembly in New York.
Posted to Albanese’s Instagram account, the selfie of the pair was captioned “Always good to catch up with @potus”.
Supermarket roast chicken taste test: ‘Ham-flavoured chook is extremely divisive’
On a lighter note, Nicholas Jordan has conducted a taste test of supermarket roast chickens, or “bachelor’s handbags” …
Who will rule the roost as the tasters decided on a pecking order of eight roast chooks?
You’ll need to read the full report to find out:
Wong warns nuclear test ban under ‘serious strain’, condemns Russia at UN
Foreign minister Penny Wong has said the global norm against nuclear testing is under “serious strain”.
Wong criticised Russia’s decision to pull back from the test ban treaty, while speaking at a UN meeting marking 30 years of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). She called on remaining nations to ratify the agreement “without delay”.
Any nuclear explosion – of any yield – could have irrevocable consequences … In this context, we must make it clear that Australia strongly opposes Russia’s revocation of its ratification of the CTBT. That Russia would even countenance a return to nuclear tests is an affront to all who want a world without nuclear weapons. Australia and partners continue to call on Russia to reverse this course of action.
Any nuclear explosion – of any yield – could have irrevocable consequences …
In this context, we must make it clear that Australia strongly opposes Russia’s revocation of its ratification of the CTBT.
That Russia would even countenance a return to nuclear tests is an affront to all who want a world without nuclear weapons.
Australia and partners continue to call on Russia to reverse this course of action.
Wong also welcomed Tonga’s recent ratification, marking full treaty coverage across the Pacific.
If you were following the blog earlier this morning, you would have seen the spat between One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce and Liberal Tim Wilson.
A quick recap: Joyce claimed he had been speaking with “senior Liberals” about a potential power-sharing arrangement should Pauline Hanson’s One Nation win enough seats at the next federal election.
Wilson rebuked this, and now Liberal senator Jane Hume has also poured cold water on Joyce’s claim.
Appearing on Sky News this morning, Hume was asked if she had any knowledge of Joyce’s supposed negotiations. “No, I’m afraid I don’t,” she said.
Pretty sure that I guess [Angus] Taylor doesn’t. Pretty sure that Matt Canavan doesn’t either, but Barnaby may persist and we’ll see what happens … But yeah, I think we’re probably closer to Tim Wilson’s version of events than Barnaby’s at this point in time.
Pretty sure that I guess [Angus] Taylor doesn’t. Pretty sure that Matt Canavan doesn’t either, but Barnaby may persist and we’ll see what happens …
But yeah, I think we’re probably closer to Tim Wilson’s version of events than Barnaby’s at this point in time.
Chris Young KC went on to say that the royal commission would also work to uncover the “wastage, misdirected funds, and inflated costs” on the Big Build – a pipeline of more than 100 projects with a combined value of about $150bn.
Every wasted, misdirected, or inflated dollar is $1 that could have been used to fund a hospital bed, a classroom, or another vital state service.
Young said everyone named in the commission will have a “fair opportunity to respond to the evidence” and no adverse finding would be made “unless they’ve first been told of it and given a proper opportunity to answer.”
He said where the evidence warrants it, they will refer matters to the special prosecutor, Victoria police, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac), and the relevant regulatory and licensing authorities, and “any decision about charges is for them”.
It is too soon to say what the commission will recommend. We must first examine what happened and why.
Corruption not a ‘crime without victims’, counsel assisting royal commission says
Counsel assisting the Big Build royal commission, Chris Young KC, said while corruption has often been described as a “crime without victims”, that is “not what we have been told”.
He cited several examples, including the directors of a small Indigenous-owned labour hire business who wrote to the minister responsible for these projects and to the premier in April 2022, saying they had been “threatened with violence and banned” from a state government project. Young said:
They said they had recordings. They asked for help … They got a reply a year later, which referred them elsewhere. By then, their business was all but finished, and it was closed a few months after.
He said a woman working in traffic management on a public hospital was “locked in a storeroom by a man recently released from prison for stalking and threatening to kill a woman” who “smoked ice and blew the smoke in her face”.
She reported it. She says that what happened next was that she lost her job … There are others. Workers were reportedly told they no longer had jobs on a state tunnel project because they belonged to the wrong union. Some subcontractors say they lost work because they would not pay. Some people were seriously injured. Others had their property destroyed.
Big Build royal commission to pursue ‘every person’ involved in corruption
Commissioner Chris Kourakis says the royal commission’s job is to bring those responsible for delivering the Big Build – the Victorian government’s pipeline of more than 180 major road and rail projects – “to account publicly”.
It’s also the job of this commission to pursue every person who is reasonably suspected of being complicit in the abuse of entrusted power for private gain and to expose and to refer for prosecution whoever is implicated by the evidence the commission receives. The commission will do so from those who carried the highest level of responsibility down and without exception
Kourakis also provided a warning to “all those who have done wrong” that the commission will leave “no stone unturned in search for whatever is hid or whomever lurks underneath it”:
Anyone who has an ambition to remain in the industry will be better served by early voluntary disclosures to the commission than by waiting to be found out.
Big Build royal commissioner says closed hearings already held, detective appointed
Commissioner Chris Kourakis said that while this is the first public hearing of the inquiry, work began immediately after it was stood up in August. He says this work has included appointing Victoria police detective supt Daniel Ryan to lead the commission’s investigation team.
He said prior to joining the commission, Ryan worked in professional standards in Victoria police and had earlier worked in the homicide squad, the joint organised crime taskforce, and the criminal proceed squad.
Kourakis also confirmed the commission had already held a number of closed hearings:
They were closed because their purpose was to obtain sensitive information to guide the commission’s investigations. Early disclosure of that information would have compromised the commission’s ongoing investigations.
He said it would continue to hold closed hearings when necessary, but it would also “deliver on the just expectation of the Victorian public that there will be full disclosure of all matters touching on the integrity of the infrastructure projects the commission is charged to investigate.”
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This week, Jim Chalmers released Treasury’s economic forecast for the next 40 years. The outlook predicts major challenges on geopolitics, the AI transformation, and for the first time, deaths will overtake births in Australia within a few decades.
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The royal commission into allegations of corruption on Victorian government construction sites has begun, with commissioner Chris Kourakis kicking off proceedings by asking his associate, Peter Tantalos, to read out the letters patent, which formally established the inquiry in August.
Kourakis joked that reading it out would take Tantalos some time – about 26 minutes – which he said would “seem a lot longer to him than it will to the rest of us”. But he said it was not a “tedious formality”.
It is the document which constitutes this commission. By having it read, all who hear it will appreciate, and I and the staff of the commission will be reminded of the breadth and depth and importance of the inquiry we have been charged to conduct. It may also prompt members of the public who may have helpful information for the commission to come forward and provide that to us.
