Australia news LIVE: Sussan Ley’s leadership expected to be challenged within days; Anti-Herzog protests turn violent in Sydney’s CBD
Chalmers nominates tax system as primary weapon against inflation
By Brittany Busch
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government planned to deal with the up-tick in inflation with responsible cost-of-living relief, "primarily through the tax system".
He said budget repair and boosting productivity were also a priority.
"We do acknowledge and understand that this inflation is putting extra pressure on people in the community," Chalmers said.
"This inflation is higher than anyone would like. The interest rate decision which accompanied it puts extra pressure on millions of people with a mortgage. We take our responsibilities to every Australian seriously, and we know right now, when they are under pressure, we need to do more than acknowledge that and act."
Energy minister keeps renewable transition costs under wraps
By Brittany Busch
Nationals MPs have targeted Energy Minister Chris Bowen over the cost of the renewable energy transition.
Asked to give a total cost for the renewable transition, Bowen said the overall number was complex to tally, and government investment was confidential between relevant parties.
Bowen said: "The vast majority of investment in renewable energy will come from the private sector. That is a fact. We do have government schemes to support renewable energy, notably the capacity investment scheme which is a very successful scheme. The cost is commercial in confidence."
Bowen rejected the Nationals’ characterisation of the energy transition as "renewables-only".
"We don’t have a renewables-only energy policy. We have a policy to get to 82 per cent of renewables, backed by gas," he said.
Chalmers taunts 'old mate' Taylor over Liberal leadership
By Brittany Busch
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has seized an opportunity to attack opposition defence spokesman Angus Taylor amid speculation the Liberal MP would spill the party’s leadership this week and challenge Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.
Asked to answer for persistent inflation, Chalmers said Labor had performed better than the previous Coalition government on economic management.
"My old mate [Taylor] ... went to the election with a policy for higher income taxes, bigger deficits and more debt," Chalmers said.
"Flicking the switch from [Ley] to [Taylor] will make their lack of economic credibility worse not better.
"We saw in the election campaign, and we have seen in the last few days that [Taylor] is not very good with numbers. We have seen that again this week. They are divided, divisive, but we aren’t distracted. We will maintain a focus on inflation, productivity and global uncertainty, and you will see that in [the] budget in May."
"Solidarity, friendship and love": Albanese defends Herzog visit
By Brittany Busch
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended his invitation of Israeli President Isaac Herzog and called for the Greens to calm the situation down after police and protesters violently clashed in Sydney last night.
"President Herzog is here in Australia to offer sympathy and solidarity to people who are mourning and offer his support to members of Australia’s Jewish community," Albanese said today.
"He has said, to quote him, that his visit is ‘in the spirit of solidarity, friendship and love’. Not enough of that anywhere in the world, not the least here in the past couple of months."
Albanese said he would continue to treat Herzog with respect, saying he had known him for a long time, and they could have respectful discussions together.
"We need to turn the temperature down and the Greens political party need to be a part of turning that temperature down rather than up," he said.
The prime minister said he would ‘allow the police to do their job’ investigating the violence at the protest in Sydney last night. He said those who saw footage of people praying being grabbed would ‘want to know all of the circumstances around that’.
"I note that the NSW police have said they will examine the footage which was taken last night," he said.
‘Rip her apart’: Nationals MP forced to withdraw jibe
By Brittany Busch
Crossbench independents have called out Nationals backbencher Colin Boyce in question time for saying ‘rip her apart’ after Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown asked a question about the prime minister’s invitation to the Israeli president.
Watson-Brown was repeatedly jeered by Nationals MPs as she said the invitation had undermined unity in Australia, and called for Isaac Herzog to be sent back to Israel.
Independent MPs, seated near Boyce in the chamber, immediately drew attention to his remarks, with Kate Chaney standing and saying: ‘I am seeking a ruling on whether the member for Flynn [Boyce] is breaching the standing order … by saying ‘rip her apart’," Chaney said.
Boyce withdrew the comment, before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the question and said the temperature needed to be turned down around the Israel-Hamas conflict, including in the parliamentary chamber.
NSW Greens MP allegedly ‘punched by police’ at protest
By Emily Kaine and Isabel McMillan
NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd alleges she was a victim of police brutality in Sydney last night, when police and protesters violently clashed at a demonstration against Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia.
Speaking this morning on ABC News, Boyd said she would seek legal advice to discuss options for ‘suing the police’.
"I’ve heard the reports that there was some sort of aggression from the rallyers. I didn’t see that at all," she said. "But what I did see was the police suddenly running at protesters. I started to record everything for accountability purposes.
"I got bashed from the side. I got lifted off the ground, thrown into somebody else, and then when I was trying to rebalance myself, I got punched in the head, and then another police officer punched me in the shoulder. This was completely disproportionate. They knew I was a member of parliament."
Boyd said she had spoken to NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon, and asked him if he ‘stood by the actions of [officers]’ last night.
"He said he would send a police officer to come and talk to me. I think legal action is where I’ll be going first, and then we can talk about what the options are. But this was a brutal assault. It looks like a pretty clear case. I’ll be discussing my options about how to sue the police for that," she said.
In an Instagram post late last night, she wrote: ‘I blame you @chrisminnsmp’. The post shows a selfie of Boyd in a neck brace.
‘State-sanctioned violence’: Greens blame PM, Minns over protest clashes
By Nick Newling
Greens leader Larissa Waters has described clashes between protesters and police last night as ‘state-sanctioned violence’, blaming Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for inciting the conflict after visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Australia.
"They should never have invited the head of a state committing a genocide, to our shores," Waters told journalists at Parliament House in Canberra.
"The footage coming out of Sydney last night is absolutely horrific. Peaceful protesters being assaulted, being punched, men in prayer being pulled up off the ground as they pray and thrown aside by police is appalling. This is state-sanctioned violence. You’ve now got more chance of being arrested for being a peaceful protester than you do for inciting a genocide."
"[NSW] Premier [Chris] Minns and the prime minister bear the responsibility for creating the conditions that has led to this appalling police violence. This violence now needs to be independently investigated. Those protest rights must be restored and respected, and President Herzog should not set foot anywhere near federal parliament when he’s here in Canberra tomorrow," she said.
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi, a Muslim woman, said the police action at the protest was ‘abhorrent’, ‘disgraceful’, ‘completely unnecessary and completely unjustified’. Faruqi said she was proud to speak at the protest and that it was peaceful.
"The protesters were not violent. The police [response] was. The violence perpetrated by the police on the people of NSW last night has been enabled and emboldened by a premier who has cracked down on our democratic right to protest in such draconian and authoritarian ways, leading us down the path to fascism," Faruqi said.
Afternoon headlines
By Isabel McMillan
Thank you for reading our national live news blog on Tuesday, February 10. Here’s what we have covered so far today:
- Pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered in major cities around the country last night to protest Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia. A demonstration in Sydney ended in violent clashes between police and protesters.
- The Lebanese Muslim Association blasted NSW Police’s forced removal of a group of men praying near pro-Palestine protests in the Sydney CBD as ‘unacceptable, unjustifiable and un-Australian’.
- But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese backed his decision to invite Herzog to Australia, saying it was appropriate to allow the Jewish community to mourn with the leader.
- The Reserve Bank’s decision to lift interest rates has driven consumer confidence to its lowest level in two years. The ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly measure of consumer sentiment dropped 3.6 per cent, to its lowest level since December 2023 when the official cash rate was 4.35 per cent.
- Communications Minister Anika Wells said the government was taking action against online gaming platform Roblox after children were exposed to ‘graphic violence’ on the site.
- Overseas, Savannah Guthrie’s family is ‘at an hour of desperation’ in the search for her missing mother, the US Today show host said in a video, just hours before a purported ransom deadline apparently set by Nancy Guthrie’s abductors.
My name is Isabel McMillan, taking over from Emily Kaine for this afternoon’s news.
Families slam $185 fines after teens’ methanol poisoning deaths
By Annika Smethurst
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has apologised ‘unreservedly’ to the families of two Australian teenagers who died of methanol poisoning in Laos, saying it failed to keep them informed about court proceedings that resulted in $185 fines for 10 people.
The devastated Melbourne parents described the court outcome as a betrayal and beyond comprehension, and said they felt abandoned by Canberra after learning about the court case and its outcome from British authorities.
Melbourne teenagers Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jones, both 19, were among several international tourists who died after unknowingly drinking alcohol contaminated with lethal methanol in the tourist hub of Vang Vieng in November 2024.
The pair fell ill at the Nana Backpacker Hostel, which authorities believe was the source of a mass poisoning that killed six people, including travellers from the UK, the US and Denmark.
Read the full story here (https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/laos-poisoning-families-condemn-185-fines-after-australian-teens-deaths-20260209-p5o0o1.html).
UK, Middle East states condemn Israeli plan to expand West Bank powers
By
Britain has joined a string of Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in condemning a move by Israel on Sunday to ease restrictions on settlements and widen its powers in the West Bank.
"The UK strongly condemns the Israeli Security Cabinet’s decision to expand Israeli control over the West Bank," the British government said in a statement. Critics say the Israeli move amounts to steps towards annexing occupied land.
The Israeli decision will make it easier for Jewish settlers to buy land, two senior Israeli ministers said. One of them, ultranationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said in announcing the plans that the government would ‘continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state’.
A joint statement by Middle Eastern foreign ministers denounced the move as a violation of international law and a step that would undermine any two-state solution.
Most nations have long backed the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as the best way to resolve the generations-old conflict. The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, is seen as the largest part of that future state.
Annexation is opposed by US President Donald Trump, who last year said he would not allow it. Trump is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Wednesday.
AP, Reuters
