Category: Australian News

One Nation MLC Sarah Game has again displayed her determination to stand up for parents and taxpayers – this time earning support for helping to publicise a South Australian council’s plans to stage a kids’ storytime conducted by a local drag queen. 

Since being elected in 2022 Sarah has introduced various bills to defend family integrity and children’s rights, including the Education and Children’s Services (Parental Primacy) Amendment Bill 2024 that aims to give parents more control over the education their children receive on issues of morality, ethics, politics, social values, and identity – including gender and sexuality.  

This latter platform saw Sarah respond to constituents who raised concerns about a planned show titled “Rainbow Storytime”, scheduled to take place today (Monday 15 July) at the Salisbury Community Hub Library. 

Part of a school holiday program, the event is featuring Adelaide drag performer Fifi, who will read stories such as “Chicken Divas” and “Just the Way We Are” to children of all ages. 

Initially, Sarah wrote to the SA Minister for Local Government, plus the Minister for Education, outlining her concerns and the concerns of locals, who were outraged at the Salisbury City Council’s plans. 

Sarah told the ministers that numerous people had voiced their view that shows with adult themes – such as drag acts – are inappropriate for young audiences and said that public funds should never be used for such events. 

She asked about the criteria used to determine the appropriateness of such content, plus the frequency of council-organised events involving adult-themed content. 

“Public institutions must run with integrity and transparency, ensuring that taxpayer funds are spent in a way that is consistent with the expectations and values of the community,” she told the ministers. 

Following that letter, Sarah last week featured in a front-page article in the Adelaide Advertiser about the planned show, telling the paper she believes it is “totally inappropriate for young children” to be encouraged to question their “gender identity and gender fluidity”. 

“There’s a growing concern in the community about teaching children about gender fluidity because we don’t really understand the impact that has on young minds,” Sarah said. 

“They’re adult concepts and it’s confusing for children; I think we just need to allow children to be children, and let them grow up and be who they are without these other influences.” 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, along with the Governor-General Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC, will welcome Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla to Australia in October this year.

This will be The King’s first visit to Australia as Sovereign.

The King shares a long history with and affection for Australia, having previously made 15 official visits to our nation and having visited every state and territory.

During this visit, The King and Queen will travel to the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales.

Official Australian portraits of The King and Queen have now been released and can be downloaded from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet website.

In the official portraits, The King wears The Sovereign’s Badge of the Order of Australia, while The Queen wears the Wattle Brooch which was gifted to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Australia in 1954.

Australians can request printed versions of the portraits through their Federal Member of the House of Representatives or Senator in their state or territory.

Planning is currently underway for the Royal Visit, and more information will be provided in due course.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese:

“I am honoured to welcome The King and Queen on their first Royal Visit to Australia later this year, they are always welcome visitors.

“The King has a deep regard for our great nation, and has always spoken warmly of the time he has spent here and the astounding beauty of our extraordinary continent.

“I look forward welcoming The King and Queen back to Australia for this important visit.”

They never give up, those people smugglers.

This is especially the case when they detect an Australian government gone weak at the knees on border security.

There appears to have been a significant uptick in attempts by people smugglers to breach our borders since the High Court released an immigrant detainee last year, only for the Albanese Labor government to panic and release another 148 of them into the community. Quite a few of them have since reoffended, some quite seriously. They were obviously in detention for a reason—to keep the Australian community safe from them—but that doesn’t seem to have entered into Labor’s calculations.

Instead, Labor has sent a clear signal: criminals will roam free if they can make it to Australia.

The people smugglers have listened. Indonesian authorities have detained five suspected groups this year, while another four boats have reached Australia, including two that reached the mainland in Western Australia, and another that reached Christmas Island in May.

This week, there have been two boats carrying a total of around 70 people intercepted and turned back to Indonesia. The people being smuggled are from all over: Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India. It was reported that one group paid up to $15,000 each to people smugglers. It’s a business model that sells false hope, and one of the reasons it makes money right now is because of Albo’s weakness.

Labor – again caving to the fanatics in its left faction, has gotten rid of temporary protection visas, one of the most effective deterrents to people smuggling. These are essentially visas that allow a genuine political refugee to stay in Australia on a temporary basis until conditions in their home country improve so they may safely return. Labor has also dragged its feet on upgrades to patrol boats and surveillance aircraft, needed more than ever now that people smugglers have changed tactics.

Labor must reinstate TPVs to stem the growing tide of people smuggling and make sure we don’t return to bad old days under Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, when those incompetent prime ministers oversaw some 50,000 people arrive illegally in Australia on more than 800 vessels. That was the last time we didn’t have TPVs. More than 1200 people died.

We’re not downplaying the difficult task of monitoring millions of square miles of ocean, but is it too much to ask of any government to do one of the most basic jobs a government can have—secure our borders?

The Albanese Government’s new Indo-Pacific Broadcasting Strategy will increase access to trusted and reliable news, deliver quality content and foster engagement across the region.

Labor made an election commitment to deliver the Strategy, which will help Australia build closer relationships with countries in our region and restore our place as a partner of choice, as we work towards a peaceful, stable, and prosperous world.

The Strategy provides a framework to help foster a vibrant and independent media sector, counter misinformation, present modern multicultural Australia, and support deeper people-to-people engagement.

There are three key areas that the Strategy focuses on:

• Support the creation and distribution of compelling Australian content that engages audiences and demonstrates Australia’s commitment to the region.
• Enhance access in the region to trusted sources of media, including news and current affairs.
• Strengthen regional media capacity and capability and boost connections between Australian-based and Indo-Pacific media and content creators.

To help media organisations in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and South Asia  provide quality media services, the Government is establishing the Indo-Pacific Media Fund. One of the Fund’s first initiatives is to support the Australian Associated Press to provide targeted training and access to news content in the Pacific.

The Strategy is underpinned by the Government’s investment of $40.5 million over five years from 2022-23 in the ABC to create new content, improve digital engagement, increase ongoing support for media partners in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and South Asia, and expand Radio Australia’s FM footprint across the Pacific.

The PacificAus TV initiative is also receiving $28.4 million over five years from 2022-23 to bolster the viability of Pacific regional media and expand access to Australian commercial television programs.

These contributions build on Australia’s longstanding support for the region, such as the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme and the PNG-focused Media Development Initiative which have supported the resilience, independence and professionalism of the Pacific media sector for more than a decade.

To reflect the varied media sectors and Australia’s diverse relationships across the region, the Strategy is accompanied by the Australia-Pacific Media and Broadcasting Partnership, Australia-Southeast Asia Media and Broadcasting Initiative and Australia-South Asia Media and Broadcasting Initiative.

Images and video are available at DFAT’s media library

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong:

“Media plays a crucial role in elevating the voices and perspectives of our region and strengthening democracy.

“The Government is committed to supporting viable, resilient and independent media in the region, by deepening media connections and sharing content that builds a richer understanding of modern, multicultural Australia.”

Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP:

“A healthy Fourth Estate is imperative in the era of digital transformation and misinformation.

“This Strategy continues Australia’s longstanding commitment to supporting a robust media sector in our region.

“By leveraging Australia’s strengths, we can partner with the region to boost media connections, and foster a diverse and sustainable media landscape.”

Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy MP:

“Australia and the Pacific share close cultural and people-to-people links, and an enduring love of sport. These connections will be further enriched by the boost in Australian content, allowing us to watch, read, and listen to shared stories across the region – from rugby to news and music.

“We also look forward to continuing and expanding our support for media development, including through the new phase of the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme and future opportunities through the Australia-Pacific Media and Broadcasting Partnership.”

Greens Deputy Leader and Higher Education Spokesperson has responded to new campus protest rules imposed by Sydney University which include bans on camping, three days’ notice for any demonstration and requirements to obtain approval to use megaphones or even to attach banners to university buildings.

Breaches of the rules allow the Sydney University to dissolve protests, remove property, and direct students and staff to leave parts of campus.
 

Senator Mehreen Faruqi:

“Students and staff should not need permission to exercise their fundamental right to protest on their own campus.

“What we are seeing here is a despicable attempt by neoliberal, corporate university management to stifle student activism and shut down political expression.

“Staunch campus activism has changed the world. Universities campuses should always be political spaces where students and staff are encouraged to speak out on issues of social, racial and environmental justice.

“Sydney University students  campaign for Indigenous rights, an end to South African apartheid and the Vietnam War. They were on the right side of history then, and they are on the right side of history now with their protests for a free Palestine.

“Sydney University is trying to smother activism and these  rules are a shameful attempt to quash further protests against the genocide in Palestine. 

“Sydney University must dump these shameful anti-protest rules, which disturbingly seem to have been introduced without consultation or notice.”

Labor is once again announcing something that isn’t new or adequate funding for frontline services. Meanwhile, Destroy the Joint report that at least 40 women have been killed by family and domestic violence this year.

Australian Greens leader in the Senate and spokesperson on women, Larissa Waters

“Labor’s announcement today is yet another re-hash of previously committed funding. The 19 projects that will be constructed will be done using $100 million in funding announced in the 2022-23 October Budget.

“The construction of 720 safe places is welcome and desperately needed, but will accommodate at most a mere three percent of women and children seeking housing. Moreover, waiting three years until 2027 for these facilities to be built is cold comfort to women and children being killed by family and domestic violence now.

“This government keeps making announcements, but there’s never any new or adequate funding for frontline services, which is what the women’s safety sector and this crisis of men’s violence demands.

“In 2022-23,73,287 people experiencing family and domestic violence presented to homelessness services. 720 safe places is a drop in a very large ocean of need – at most it could help three percent of people who need help – and they won’t provide anyone safety until 2027.

“With no new funding announced today for crisis accommodation or affordable housing, Labor is forcing women and children to remain in violent households, because there is nowhere for them to go.”

Australian Greens Deputy Leader and Antiracism spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the Government needs to urgently implement the National anti-racism strategy and fully fund the Race Discrimination Commissioner to ensure all forms of racism are combated.
 

Senator Faruqi: 

“Combating Antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism is an important priority, but it seems like the Government is making policy up on the run.

“We already have a Race Discrimination Commissioner which is empowered to fight all forms of racism. 

“Labor is trying to reinvent the wheel instead of backing the solution they already have. The Government should adequately fund the Race Discrimination Commissioner to urgently complete and implement the national anti-racism strategy rather than meddling with its mandate by creating new positions that eat into its remit.

“You can see how little Labor has considered this approach by the fact that the Islamophobia Register wasn’t consulted and the anti Islamophobia envoy was hastily added on to the announcement without even a candidate. Muslims facing Islamophobia in this country should not be an afterthought.

“We need a united effort to defeat racism in this country, which is so pervasive and deep seated, especially against First Nations people. The best way to dismantle Antisemitism, Islamophobia or any other type of racism is by working in solidarity with groups facing hate and racism.

“Australia still hasn’t reckoned with the Christchurch mosque massacre where a man from this country with an extreme Islamophobic ideology killed 51 Muslims.

“If the Albanese Government was serious about tackling racism, they would drop their Trump style immigration policies, stop blaming international students and migrants for their own policy failures and end their own Islamophobic crusade against Senator Payman.”

This month marks 50 years since the landmark establishment of the Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office (ASNO).

In July 1974, the Whitlam Labor Government showed global leadership by establishing what is now referred to as ASNO following Australia’s ratification of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

ASNO was one of the first agencies of its kind dedicated to preventing nuclear war and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.

The establishment of ASNO and Australia’s ratification of the NPT has demonstrated Australia’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation to the international community and helped bolster global efforts towards a world free of nuclear weapons.

Over the past 50 years, ASNO been implementing the highest standards of nuclear safeguards to help prevent the misuse of dangerous nuclear material and to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

ASNO has also been central to strengthening the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, leading Australia’s efforts to implement the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). This includes hosting 21 stations as part of the international monitoring system, which is critical to detecting nuclear weapons tests, for example, in North Korea.

ASNO is now working with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and AUKUS partners to develop a first-of-its-kind safeguard arrangement for Australia’s conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine program that sets the highest non-proliferation standard.

ASNO will continue to work to strengthen global non-proliferation verification standards and support regional partners implement their non-proliferation commitments.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong:

“Australia has a proud history of advocating for non-proliferation and disarmament – and the Albanese Government is continuing this legacy.

“Given that it is nuclear weapons that most risk catastrophe, we must work harder to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.

“We will continue to work with others to strengthen the NPT and urge progress on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty.”

An FOI request released today clearly shows Immigration Miniter Andrew Giles deliberately misled the Parliament.

Minister Giles received clear written advice from Home Affairs that drones were not used to monitor immigration detention detainees at large in the community just hours before he made the false claim on television that they were.

In a Sky News interview on 30 May, Minister Giles said:

“There is a quarter of a billion dollars that we’ve invested in supporting our law enforcement agencies to enforce, and that’s enabled things like using drones to keep track of these people we know.”

Five days later, Minister Giles made the embarrassing confession in the Parliament that drones were not being used to monitor detainees and he blamed Home Affairs staff for the mistake.

He told the Parliament during Question Time on 3 June:

“Last week, in an interview on Sky News, I did state that Operation AEGIS was using drones. I relied on information provided by my department at the time, which has since been clarified.”

The FOI shows that Minister Giles received written advice from his department that contains no mention of drones being used to monitor detainees.

The FOI, published on the Right to Know website, requested all documents from Home Affairs that Minister Giles relied upon when he made the incorrect claim that drones were being used to monitor detainees.

In response, Home Affairs provided an email sent by Associate Secretary Emma Cassar at 9:39am on 30 May, just before Giles’ Sky interview at 11:15am, that said:

“Quick points on case monitoring in the community: – Drone footage over accommodation – to ascertain a) property risks, b) proximity to other properties/community/risk settings (eg: licenced venues).”

Click here to read the full email from Home Affairs to Giles.

Click here to read the full FOI request correspondence.

Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Dan Tehan said today’s FOI revelation heaped more embarrassment on a Minister who had demonstrated he was not up to the job.

“What is clear from this FOI is that Andrew Giles has deliberately misled the Parliament,” Mr Tehan said.

“One read of the very short and very clear advice from his department and it is obvious that drones were not being used to monitor detainees at large in the community.

“What this FOI proves is that Minister Giles was throwing the department under the bus when he said he was provided advice that required clarification. The advice was very clear and required no clarification. Minister Giles just got it wrong.

“It is even more unbelievable that it took Minister Giles five days to correct his mistake when the advice from his department was written in black and white, suggesting Minister Giles was again hiding from accountability and hoping to avoid responsibility.

“Minister Giles has a track record of dodging responsibility. He refuses to front the media when things go wrong, and this is not the first time he has thrown his department under the bus.

“But it’s the coverup that gets you, and Minister Giles has been caught deliberately misleading the Parliament by blaming Home Affairs staff for his own incompetence.

“Andrew Giles should do the honourable thing and apologise to his department and then resign.

“It has passed time for the Prime Minister to sack this incompetent minister.

“It is now beyond a joke that Giles is still in his job and still making mistakes.

“It just shows how weak the Prime Minister is that he will not sack his factional ally.”

Pauline Hanson has claimed she was ordered not film an interview next to a statue of Mary Poppins because the children’s character is ‘apolitical’.

The One Nation leader was filming an interview with Sky News in Maryborough on Queensland‘s Fraser Coast Region on Wednesday night when she claims a local official threatened to ring the police.

At the start of the interview with Steve Price, the One Nation Leader claimed that as they were setting up earlier, there had been a confrontation off-camera.

‘So a staffer came from the council and told me that I can’t film here next to Mary Poppins, because she’s apolitical, and told me I shouldn’t be here,’ Senator Hanson explained.

‘I told them “get lost, I’m doing the interview here”.’ 

Ms Hanson continued: ‘They said “we’re going to ring the police”… (and) they’ve gone away to ring them.

‘So if the police turn up and you see a confrontation here, you know what’s happening with it, because Mary Poppins is apolitical, and I shouldn’t be actually doing the interview here.’

Ms Hanson then held up an artwork to the camera depicting her as Mary Poppins created by a local.

A defiant Senator Hanson stood her ground as she vowed not to be bullied when she knew her rights.

‘I’m not a pushover, and no one is going to bully me or tell me,’ she continued.

‘I know I’m in my rights, and I can stand here beside my mate Mary Poppins, and I will.’

It’s unclear why Senator Hanson decided to be filmed next to the Mary Poppins statue. 

Senator Hanson also revealed it had been the second time someone had threatened to call the police on her in Maryborough that day.

She claimed the town was ‘run by a bunch of bullies who don’t want to see One Nation here.’

‘I’m sick and tired of these people. This is the second time today,’ she told Price.

Ms Hanson explained she had wanted to inspect the site of an old TAFE.

‘It was built about nine years ago. It’s sitting there in wreck and ruin.’

‘I went on the property to actually have a look at it.’

‘I was told by the security guard, ‘you’re not allowed to come here.”

‘I said, ”I’m here as a Member of Parliament. I want to know where the taxpayers’ dollars are going (with) this facility sitting there”.’

Ms Hanson said the security guard warned he would call the police. 

‘”Good, call the police”, I said. Because I’m going to have a look around,’ she recalled.

Senator Hanson wanted to inspect the site as it could have been used for ’emergency housing, for aged care, for educational purposes’.

The statue of Mary Poppins is located in the Maryborough City Hall Visitor Information Centre and is a tribute to the creator of Mary Poppins, P. L. Travers who was born Helen Lyndon Goff in Maryborough in 1899.