Australia news live: Antoinette Lattouf gives evidence in case against ABC | Australian politics

CFMEU vehicle set ablaze in Sydney, union says

A car belonging to a CFMEU official was torched overnight in a suburb on the south-west fringe of Sydney, the construction union has confirmed.

The New South Wales police said it is investigating the incident after emergency services were called to Appin at around 1am after reports of a fire.

“Officers attached to Campbelltown City Police Area Command arrived to find a boat and Ford utility alight,” police said.

“The fire was extinguished by Fire and Rescue NSW and no injuries were reported.”

Mark Irving SC, who the federal government appointed as administrator to the construction union last year after a media investigation uncovered alleged links to organised crime figures, said:

“We are taking the matter very seriously and the administration has referred this crime to the NSW Police.

The administration will do everything in its power to ensure all lines of inquiry are explored by responsible authorities.

All worker in the construction industry, including CFMEU organisers, should be safe at work and no one should be exposed to criminal violence.

Townsville ‘black zone’ residents warned to stay away

The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, has urged residents in Townsville’s “black zone” – Hermit Park, Railway Estate, Rosslea, Idalia, Oonoonba and Cluden – who were advised to leave yesterday, to stay away until given the all clear.

Crisafulli told reporters more rainfall, high tides and dam releases meant those areas were still at risk of more flooding.

With that, I will pass the blog to the highly capable hands of Jordyn Beazley.

Thanks for reading, I’m off to devour Grammys content.

Antoinette Lattouf gives evidence in case against ABC

Amanda Meade

Albanese spruiks ‘positive agenda’ ahead of parliament’s resumption

The PM confirms it will be a “busy couple of weeks” for Labor as parliament returns on Tuesday but he is “optimistic” Australians will respond well to a “positive agenda”.

He gives a “shout out” to the education minister, who has now secured deals with six of states and territories on fully funding public schools. Just Queensland and New South Wales are yet to sign on, though Albanese flags “we’ll get them there, I’m sure”.

It is so important, and so important for the students … because that’s how we compete in the 21st century. So, early childhood learning. Schools. TAFE. Universities accord. All of this fits together with how we build Australia’s future. Along with childcare, the reform we’ve done there, the biggest reforms in aged care in this century – all about building Australia’s future, as well as support for manufacturing …

All of these things fit in together. And this two weeks we have to progress some of this – we’ll legislate on three days of Child Care Subsidy, making free Tafe permanent, production tax credits for critical minerals and rare earths, keeping the NBN in public hands … and the response to the Robodebt Royal Commission. So a busy couple of weeks …

But I’m optimistic that Australians will respond to a positive agenda with fully costed policies – ones that build on the foundations we’ve built this term, but builds on that for the better Australia that we need to create – and one that we are busy working on each and every day.

So welcome back everyone, I look forward to the next fortnight and beyond. Good on you.

Albanese continues to attack Coalition on pledge to cut ‘wasteful spending’

That’s before you get to the $600bn they need to build their government owned and operated nuclear power plants into the 2040s, and that, depending on who you listen to – if you listen to David Littleproud, construction will begin the day after the election. If you listen to others, it will begin in a couple of years’ time to consult and and deal with the law, the few little simple facts that it’s outlawed in Queensland … and, indeed, this is a friendless policy amongst any state and territory government or, indeed, any state and territory opposition as well.

They won’t tell you what the cuts will be. But they will tell you they’re coming. They’ll tell you after the election. But they won’t have an independent audit. They’ll just decide themselves what the cuts will be … Well, that’s not the Australian way. And we have an opportunity to really drive that home over the next fortnight and over the coming period as well. Australian families – if they had got their way – would be $7,200 worse off right now if Peter Dutton had got his way and blocked the cost-of-living relief that we’ve put forward.

The scale of the opposition’s planned spending cuts won’t be revealed before the federal election, Dutton has confirmed.

PM says voters ‘couldn’t find a more stark choice’ between Labor and Coalition

“You’ll be worse off under Peter Dutton” is a phrase you’re likely going to hear quite a bit in the coming weeks – forming the tagline of a Labor advertising campaign ahead of the federal election.

Albanese continues on cost of living relief, stating you “couldn’t find a more stark choice” that Australians will face in the coming months between Labor and the Coalition.

Labor providing that cost-of-living support, building Australia’s future for the long-term – where are the future jobs, future industries, going to come from? – and a Coalition saying, under Peter Dutton – saying themselves – that they want to go back.

They want to go back, and being worse off under Peter Dutton. Now, we know that they opposed all of our cost-of-living measures. They opposed energy bill relief. They opposed cheaper childcare. They opposed free Tafe and think that people don’t value it. They, of course, most starkly, opposed our tax cuts for every single Australian taxpayer.

And we know, as well, that they opposed wages increasing. They wanted low wages to be a key feature of their economic architecture. But, having waited three years for a cost-of-living measure, they’ve come up with one.

And it’s a doozy, this one…! They don’t want workers to get a tax cut, but they do want bosses to get a free lunch. And that is the big distinction. And they want workers to pay for it … there’s about four million different businesses registered, sole traders – $20,000 a pop for people to engage in meals, entertainment, liaisons at golf courses, karaoke nights, weekends away – who knows what it would be? What we know is that $20,000 would be paid for by people who will never get that opportunity. And we know, as well, that they didn’t put forward any costing of it.

Albanese says he begins 2025 with a ‘sense of optimism’

Inflation is down. Wages are up. Unemployment is low – indeed, our average rate of unemployment is the lowest that it’s been in many, many decades, going back more than 50 years. And that is something that we can be proud of.

I think the hard work this group have done [Labor] in making sure that we provided cost-of-living relief for people who are most in need in a way that helped to put that downward pressure on inflation – rather than what some of the economics orthodoxy would suggest we do – which is not worry about what the impact of [what] the economy was, as if the statistics weren’t about people.

What we understand in this room is that we want an economy that works for people, not the other way around. And that has meant prioritising, making sure that people aren’t left behind.

He points to cost of living measures enacted by Labor – free Tafe and construction apprenticeships, to impact living standards in the short-term, while also “setting up those young Australians and other Australians as well retraining for a new career”.

Anthony Albanese speaking in Canberra

He begins addressing the Labor caucus by providing an update on the ongoing floods in northern Queensland.

Albanese visited the national operations office this morning and received a briefing on the extreme weather event.

We have people on the ground to help mobilise the support that we have and the presence in Townsville. But we’ve activated as well income support and we will do whatever is necessary to provide support for people – but I do want to say, once again, at the worst of times, we’re seeing the best of the Australian character.

We’re seeing not just emergency personnel – we’re seeing volunteers helping their neighbours, helping people out, even going door to door, knocking with the evacuations that have had to take place in Townsville.

Man in Queensland on drugs and child sexual assault charges

In Queensland, a 50-year-old man has been charged by detectives in relation to the alleged supply of dangerous drugs and alleged sexual assault of a child.

On 15 January, a search warrant was executed at a Mackay Harbour address, where the man was taken into custody. It is alleged that a number of drugs, drug utensils and electronics were seized.

Queensland police allege the man supplied dangerous drugs to a girl under 16 and sexually assaulted her.

They allege he also groomed a second teenage girl under 16 with the intent to engage in a sexual act, and supplied dangerous drugs to two other children.

He has been charged with 22 offences including six counts of supplying dangerous drugs to a minor, three counts of rape and two counts of grooming a child under 16.