Protesters pepper-sprayed by police in Sydney after Hannah Thomas addresses crowd
Nick Visser
Police just used pepper spray on the gathered crowd, prompting people to run from a squad of mounted officers. Some people are coughing and wiping their eyes in the grass, while others have reconvened.
The pepper spray was used as some in the crowd attempted to break through metal barricades. More police vehicles are arriving, adding to the dozens of officers already here.
Before the police used pepper spray, Hannah Thomas, the former Greens candidate who was seriously injured during a protest in June, briefly spoke to the rally crowd.
Thomas, who has undergone multiple rounds of surgery, told Guardian Australia it was still triggering being back at an action that was heavily policed. But she said the defence expo warranted the protest.
“That event is fucked.”
Protesters and NSW police clash during an attempted blockade by the Palestine Action Group at the weapons expo at the ICC Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPShare
Updated at 23.14 CET
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Andrew Messenger
Queensland teachers have voted to take strike action in the next three weeks, after knocking back a pay offer from the state government last Friday.
Queensland Teachers Union delegates voted for the escalation at a state council meeting on Saturday, after union members overwhelmingly voted down a state government 8% pay offer last week.
“No specific date has been determined, further meetings of QTU Executive are expected before any formal announcement will be made,” QTU president Cresta Richardson said.
The QTU encourages the government and the Premier to end the negotiation by offering a package that addresses the QTU’s claims, and our members see value in.
Meanwhile, state government employees members of the building trades group of unions are set to walk off the job at 10am today. Members of the Etu, Amwu, Ppteu and Cfmeu are demanding a 35 hour working week, which they say would put them in line with white-colour public servants.
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Liberals and Nationals should stay together but ‘not at any cost,’ Bragg says
Like an old married couple, the Coalition has gone through plenty of “marriage counselling” sessions, Andrew Bragg says.
Jumping back into that interview on ABC News Breakfast, the shadow cabinet minister says that the Liberals do need to come up with their own separate policy, after the Nationals came out with the anti net zero stance over the weekend.
Bragg says he’s a supporter of the Coalition staying together and he doesn’t “believe that the fragmentation of the centre-right is in Australia’s interests,” but that also doesn’t come at any cost.
We’ve been married for a long time. There have been times where there have been marriage counselling sessions and I think before the next session, we certainly need to have our own position.
There’s a reason you have divorce laws, I guess. But we would be much better served to stay with the Nationals, because we have given Australia good government over this last 80 years. So that would be my strong preference, but it’s not at any cost.
Bragg is also aware of the other existential threat to the Liberal party – young people.
He says there’s an expectation with the growing number of millennials and gen Zs on the voting roles, to show “that we actually believe that [climate change] is a real risk to our future, and that we have a credible policy to address it”.
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Updated at 23.02 CET
Penry Buckley
NSW premier: ‘I’m not responsible for the invitations’ to defence expo
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has defended the state government’s sponsorship of the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition, the focus of an attempted blockade by human rights protesters in Darling Harbour this morning.
Speaking on ABC Radio Sydney earlier, the premier said the maritime sector was a “massive part” of the NSW economy, contributing 40% of defence industry jobs in the state, which he said would remain important as regions including the Hunter move away from coal extraction.
Minns denied having seen calls from NSW Labor MPs Cameron Murphy and Anthony D’Adam for Israeli weapons companies to be removed from the conference, as reported by the Guardian, but characterised the MPs as “frequent critics” of the government.
Asked if he was comfortable with the attendance of Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems, and the state-owned company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, he said:
I’m not responsible for the invitations. That’s not me running away from … who’s invited to this particular summit.
I have got little to no exposure or decision making in relation to Australia’s relationship with foreign countries and foreign arms manufacturers in relation to where it’s used. That’s the Commonwealth government’s responsibility, it’s not mine … We want to see the industry grow. I’ve got a responsibility to see ten of thousands of people move into new industries in the decades ahead.
NSW premier Chris Minns. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAPShare
Updated at 22.47 CET
We have some more pictures of the protest outside the ICC in Sydney.
Police have been using pepper spray on demonstrators.
A protester washes his eyes out after being pepper sprayed by NSW police. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPAnother protester washes his eyes out after being pepper sprayed by police during an attempted blockade at a weapons expo at the ICC Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPPolice arresting a protester. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPA protester holding a ‘Free Palestine’ sign during the Tuesday morning protest. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPProtesters holding ‘Stop Arming’ placards outside the weapons expo in Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPShare
Updated at 22.44 CET
Protesters pepper-sprayed by police in Sydney after Hannah Thomas addresses crowd
Nick Visser
Police just used pepper spray on the gathered crowd, prompting people to run from a squad of mounted officers. Some people are coughing and wiping their eyes in the grass, while others have reconvened.
The pepper spray was used as some in the crowd attempted to break through metal barricades. More police vehicles are arriving, adding to the dozens of officers already here.
Before the police used pepper spray, Hannah Thomas, the former Greens candidate who was seriously injured during a protest in June, briefly spoke to the rally crowd.
Thomas, who has undergone multiple rounds of surgery, told Guardian Australia it was still triggering being back at an action that was heavily policed. But she said the defence expo warranted the protest.
“That event is fucked.”
Protesters and NSW police clash during an attempted blockade by the Palestine Action Group at the weapons expo at the ICC Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPShare
Updated at 23.14 CET
Dropping net zero would make Australia a ‘pariah state’, Bragg says
One of the Liberal party’s most staunch net zero supporters, Andrew Bragg, says Australia can’t walk away from the Paris agreement and a commitment to reduce emissions.
But, and there’s a big but here, that doesn’t mean net zero has to be reached by 2050.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Bragg says – as he did yesterday – that the Paris agreement states that net zero has to be achieved in the second half of this century.
(However, we would add here, that the advice from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on what is needed to achieve the Paris goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C is net zero by 2050).
Virtually every country has committed to net zero emissions. We would be a pariah state.
The Paris Agreement is the red line here. I mean, you’ve got to be in the Paris Agreement. Because if you weren’t, you would be in a group of countries like Iran and Libya and maybe two or three others … And the Paris Agreement requires you to get to net zero in this century. I think that that would be an important objective for Australia to maintain
Shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 22.28 CET
No rate cuts from RBA today
Patrick Commins
The Reserve Bank’s monetary policy board won’t be announcing a rate cut at 2:30pm today, after figures last week showed inflation came in hotter than expected in the September quarter.
After three cuts this year, the RBA’s cash rate sits at 3.6%.
With the outcome preordained , there will be a lot of focus on the RBA’s latest set of economic forecasts, released in the latest Statement on Monetary Policy, and the governor’s press conference at 3:30pm.
Unemployment is also on the rise, and Michele Bullock will need to explain how the central bank is navigating the last mile to bring inflation definitively back under control without pushing the jobless rate much higher.
Economists have largely pushed out forecasts for a rate cut to early next year, or predicted that the central bank may be done cutting rates.
That will be bad news for indebted homeowners, but may help take some of the steam out of the already unaffordable housing market, where prices are accelerating.
Financial markets, for now at least, are still pricing in some chance of a rate cut over the coming year.
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Updated at 22.08 CET
Four arrested as protestors converge on Sydney defence expo
Nick Visser
A few hundred protesters are gathered at Sydney’s Tumbalong Park, where police have cordoned them into a fenced-in area across from the International Convention Centre. The protest was initially meant to be a blockade, but dozens of uniformed officers and mounted units have surrounded the ICC to prevent any major disruption.
Josh Lees, an organiser for Palestine Action Group, said police were aggressive when protesters began to gather near Sydney’s IMAX theatre, using pepper spray and pushing the group towards the cordoned area. He said multiple people were arrested. It’s unclear if anyone has been charged.
NSW police said four people have been arrested, adding in a statement:
Police will have a presence at the assemblies and will work with protestors to ensure there are no breaches of the peace and there is minimal impact to the community.”
Chants of “shame”, “long live Gaza” and “hands off the West Bank” rang through the crowd.
Lees said it was a nice turnout for an early Tuesday morning, but added:
It’s good, but we need more.
NSW police are seen as protesters hold placards during an attempted blockade by the Palestine Action Group at a weapons expo at the ICC Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPProtesters outside the ICC Sydney on Tuesday morning. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPShare
Updated at 22.16 CET
McIntosh believes there is enough goodwill between the two parties to form a unified position on energy policy.
Staying on RN Breakfast, McIntosh says there’s a “long history of being able to work with the Nats”.
I think our relationship is strong enough for us to come to settle on a position as long as we’re listening to our communities … So if we continue on a sensible path where we are stripping away any other agendas besides trying to do the best for Australians, I think we’ll end [up] there.
McIntosh adds that the Liberal party’s review – led by Dan Tehan – has been “a good one” and will save the party from an internal “uproar”.
On the issue of Sussan Ley’s leadership, McIntosh says the media are “making more of that issue than what we’re feeling internally”, but admits the party does need to get its act together.
Everyone’s had a chance to speak. It’s not like we’ve waited for one party room, there’s going to be an uproar, and no one really knows each other’s positions.
But I think Australians do want us to sort out our issues quite quickly. They’re disappointed in us, probably could use stronger words than even disappointed and want us to get our act together. So let’s start focusing on those policies that make a difference.
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Updated at 22.01 CET
Melissa McIntosh wants Liberals to ‘get their act together’
Internal divisions haven’t stopped Coalition MPs fronting up to their morning interviews today, including shadow communications minister Melissa McIntosh, who tells ABC RN Breakfast the public want her party to “get their act together”.
The Liberals are getting closer to an energy policy, but there’s still broad internal debate over where it should land.
McIntosh says they’ll get to a position “relatively soon”, and says many in her community of Western Sydney, struggling with their power bills, don’t want net zero.
This is not an ideological thing that we don’t believe in climate change or any of that sort of stuff. They’re just really struggling. Their power prices are up … Dan Tehan has been very consultative with colleagues for weeks now, and there’s been a number of working groups, a number of meetings, a number of sessions for people to be involved with I think we’ll come to a position relatively soon.
Shadow communications minister Melissa McIntosh. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 22.01 CET
Coalition must ‘pull itself together in some shape or form’, Monique Ryan says
Independent Monique Ryan – who won former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s seat – is weighing into the party’s political woes, and says voters are “asking what the Liberals care about”.
Leader Sussan Ley hasn’t been given a chance to be a leader, says Ryan, after Peter Dutton led a “really disappointing campaign” without a significant policies.
Ryan says there needs to be a strong opposition, to stop it becoming a government that can do what it likes unchecked. (She’s not particularly complimentary of Ley though).
At the moment all [Liberals] seem to care about is their own political prospects, which are heading to oblivion if they continue to behave this way.
I don’t think [Ley’s] been particularly impressive herself, to be honest, but, you know, people want the conservative side of politics to have a policy platform. We’ve seen in Victoria for many years what happens when you don’t have an effective Opposition. What you have is a poor government that can do what it likes and Australians deserve better. They need to have an effective Opposition. So I would hope that the Coalition can pull itself together in some shape or form so it can do that.
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Updated at 21.52 CET
Keeping the Coalition together
Can the Liberals and Nationals coexist? “Very easily” says Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie.
The Nationals came out of the gates early to firm up a position to scrap net zero, leaving the Liberal party scrambling to come up with its own policy, that will appease members of its own party and keep the Coalition together.
On the Today show, McKenzie concedes leader Sussan Ley has “one of the most difficult jobs” in Parliament, to rebuild the Liberal party.
We want her [Ley] to be successful because we believe that the Coalition is the best government … and after a catastrophic loss, there’s a lot of rebuilding to do.
But, you know, the National party’s been getting on with the job of delivering an energy plan that’s cheaper, better and fairer.
The Liberals have made clear [their] process hasn’t finished yet. And when it [is] we’ll sit down and have a conversation.
The shadow infrastructure minister Bridget McKenzie. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 21.24 CET
Good morning
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
Liberals and Nationals will sit down today for their party room meeting, as the senior Coalition partner considers dropping net zero targets.
The government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation bill (EPBC) will also be up for debate in the House today – and I’ve been told there has been plenty of time allocated for plenty of speeches.
We’ll also be following the attempt by protesters to blockade a state-government sponsored defence conference in Sydney this morning organised by the Palestinian Action Group.
It’s going to be a busy one – stick with us!
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Updated at 21.15 CET
Hastie ‘increasingly determined to run for leadership’ next year
Staying with the Coalition turmoil and as mentioned at the top of the blog, the Nine newspapers are reporting that Andrew Hastie is “increasingly determined” to run for the Liberal leadership in the new year.
There is a growing possibility that Ley will bow to pressure from the rightwing of the Liberal party to dump support for Australia’s net zero target after their Coalition partners the Nationals announced over the weekend that they would ditch the plan.
If she does not – and she is privately believed to want to keep the policy in order to woo back urban voters – she could leave herself open to a leadership challenge in the new year, the Nine outlets report.
Her deputy, Ted O’Brien, and rightwinger Angus Taylor are seen as potential challengers but Hastie “is viewed as a more likely contender” after “developing his support base and policy agenda” in the weeks since quitting the frontbench team over climate policy.
The report said:
Sources close to Hastie not authorised to speak publicly said that despite wanting to spend more time with family, he was increasingly determined to run for the leadership as early as next year. His supporters believe he has overtaken Taylor as the right’s preferred candidate, though Taylor is likely to draw more support from the moderates given he has espoused less contentious policy positions than Hastie since the election loss.
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 21.14 CET
Sussan Ley under pressure from conservative men
Our political editor writes this morning that there are no good options for Sussan Ley in the showdown over net zero and she faces either losing voters or losing the backing of many MPs and splitting the Coalition asunder.
Tom McIlroy writes:
If things get worse for Ley, a leadership rival like Angus Taylor or Andrew Hastie might move against her, seeking to draw a line under the chaotic six months since the election. A new leader could use the summer break to recalibrate and start fresh in 2026.
It will be an awful look for the first female opposition leader to be torn down by a bunch of conservative men, but once the rot sets in, even a small stumble can become the spark for a leadership challenge.
Ley is dogged by bad options and bad timing. Whether she can hold on to her job to Christmas, and present a credible climate policy, remains to be seen.
Nationals Leader David Littleproud speaks to shadow energy minister Dan Tehan as opposition leader Sussan Ley takes notes during question time in the House of Representatives on Monday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Read Tom’s whole article here:
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Nationals net zero position doesn’t put pressure on Ley’s leadership, Littleproud says
Josh Taylor
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has said the Nationals ditching the net zero target will not put pressure on Sussan Ley’s leadership of the Liberal party.
Littleproud told ABC’s 7.30 that the Nationals and Liberals are “sovereign parties” and each party was going through its review process on net zero, with the Nationals deciding this week ahead of the Liberals settling their position in the coming weeks.
Asked if it would cost Liberals urban seats at the next election, he said the Nationals’ policy is still about reducing emissions, but should be done in a cheaper way and address energy affordability for businesses and households.
He said after the Liberals decide their position, the two parties will work constructively to get to consensus.
He said “all solutions” including nuclear “should be on the table” for forms of energy, with coal assets sweated out through the transition, with the energy operator focused on the most affordable energy source, not focused on the 2030 interim target.
Nationals leader David Littleproud leaves during question time in the House of Representatives on Monday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 21.07 CET
Rivalry between the US and China is ‘all over’, Keating says
Caitlin Cassidy
Keating was also frank in his assessment of the rivalry between China and the US, describing the Asian superpower’s achievements as “like nothing in human history”:
It comes after Trump described crucial trade talks with the Chinese president in South Korea as “amazing”, saying their dispute over the supply of rare earths had been settled and that he would visit China in April.
Keating said “between the United States and China, it’s all over”:
The Chinese have won hands down. It’s all over. They can out produce people. They’ll dominate technological capabilities … What China is today in terms of modernity, capacity, utilisation of services, is like nothing in human history.
He said president Trump was “too street smart” to know that there would be “any chance of any sort of military defeat of China”.
The Americans see the Chinese have committed the great sin of internationalism. They built an economy bigger than America … This year, Chinese GDP is $40tn, and American GDP is $30tn … Imagine American military police in Shanghai, Beijing today with 1.4 billion Chinese [people]. I mean, what does an American victory look like?
Paul Keating speaks in Sydney on Monday evening. Photograph: Sitthixay Ditthavong/AAPShare
Paul Keating says he gave ‘fighting points’ to Anthony Albanese before Trump meeting
Caitlin Cassidy
The former prime minister Paul Keating says he provided Anthony Albanese with “fighting points” ahead of his meeting with Donald Trump lest the US president turn “nasty” on him.
Speaking to journalist Troy Bramston at the State Library of NSW on Monday evening, Keating said he believed the prime minister would have been willing to respond to Trump with strength if the situation called for it:
I did give our prime minister a heap of fighting points in the event that Trump turned nasty on him. It turned out he didn’t have to use them … The meeting went really well, but I think the prime minister was up for having Australian punch back, if he received one [hostility], and I think this is the way to handle it.
Asked how he would respond to Trump if he were in office, Keating described the president as a “power guy”:
If you showed the slightest sign of weakness, you’re buggered with him.
He likened Trump’s leadership style to that of the “mafia family model”, in that it was insular and respected powers regardless of whether they adhered to the global rules based order:
Trump’s primary interest is in the western hemisphere. That’s why he’s interested in Greenland. That’s why he’s interested in Canada and Mexico … He doesn’t care about Europe … I don’t think he cares about east Asia … he has a view about these places like mafia families … The Chicago family doesn’t disturb the family in Florida, right? I think this is Trump’s view about foreign policy.
Paul Keating appears in conversation with Troy Bramston at the State Library of NSW in Sydney on Monday. Photograph: Sitthixay Ditthavong/AAPShare
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Krishani will take you through the day’s events.
The former prime minister Paul Keating says he provided Anthony Albanese with tips about how to “fight back” against Donald Trump if the US president had turned nasty during their recent meeting. Speaking at the State Library of NSW, Keating also compared Trump to a mafia boss and said that China had won the battle for superpower supremacy with the US “hands down”. More coming up.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has said the Nationals’ decision to ditch the net zero target will not put pressure on Sussan Ley’s leadership of the Liberal party. His comments on ABC’s 7.30 last night came after a weekend of turmoil around the Coalition and reports this morning that the former frontbencher, Andrew Hastie, would consider running for the Liberal leadership. More on that, too, soon.
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