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John Howard says Donald Trump's behaviour 'not compatible with democracy'
Former Liberal prime minister John Howard has taken aim at Donald Trump, describing him as “not compatible with democracy”.
Howard, who took Australia into Afghanistan and the Iraq war alongside the United States during his time in office, said the Republican candidate’s refusal to accept the result of the 2020 election meant he would not want Trump to win this time.
Howard said in an interview with Nine News:
In normal circumstances, I would unhesitatingly favour a Republican victory, but there are reasons that prevent me doing that on this occasion.
In other words, I think his refusal to accept the result of the last election and various attempts to overturn that result not compatible with democracy.
When you play the democratic game, you’ve got to accept the democratic result… The choice the American people must make is a difficult choice - I’m glad I don’t have a vote there, because I think it would be very hard.
I’m not impressed with Kamala Harris. I don’t think she’s got a very good idea of how to run the American economy.
I worry that she might lead an administration that will spend far too much, and some of that expenditure will be irresponsible ... she leads a party that, generally speaking, favours far too much government intervention for my liking.
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Rishworth questioned on calls for total ban on gambling advertising
Moving to calls for a total ban on gambling advertising, Amanda Rishworth was asked why the government won’t accept this recommendation?
She said the government has “introduced bet stop [and] activity statements”, so are “looking at the evidence of what actually makes a difference”.
Now, when it comes to the late Peta Murphy’s report, we’re of course working through those recommendations. 21 of those recommendations have really significant interactions or require co-governance with states and territories, and I’m working with my state and territory colleagues about how we progress many of these recommendations.
So, this is a joint effort. But to suggest we haven’t been doing anything is just not right. We have taken the most significant action.
What about comments from health experts that banning gambling ads would go further to tackle the scourge of problem gambling and help families? Rishworth said “we’re looking at that recommendation very closely” and repeated that she was working with state and territory colleagues.
Asked when a decision on this is expected, she repeated a similar answer:
We’re working through all the issues. I continue to talk with my state and territory colleagues, and we’ll keep working on this.
Rishworth defends rate of increase to JobSeeker
Asked if the government should do more to increase JobSeeker – going up roughly a dollar to $56 a day, still well below the Henderson poverty line – Amanda Rishworth said:
In terms of those on the lowest incomes, we’re very focused on supporting those people. Many people on JobSeeker will also get Commonwealth rent assistance. They will also benefit from our freeze to medicines, will benefit two years in a row from our $300 discount on energy bills.
So, these are a suite of measures. We’ll always look at where we can better support people. Part of that is making sure that we do every budget look at what we can budget for. At the same time as making sure we’re not adding to the inflation challenge. That’s the balance we’re doing.
Amanda Rishworth questioned on increase to rent assistance
The minister for social services, Amanda Rishworth, was also on ABC News Breakfast to discuss the increase to jobseeker and rent assistance from today.
She was asked about those comments from Dr Cassandra Goldie (see earlier posts) that while extra money is welcome for people receiving government payments, rent increases for a single person is only $1.64 a day.
Is that enough? Rishworth responded:
Obviously it’s a 12% increase in the support of rent assistance on those maximum rates. But since we’ve had come to government, people have had $2,000 on average extra in rent assistance for those receiving commonwealth rent assistance.
The minister said this “helped to drive down rents across the board” and is “not the only measure”.
Free weekend trains in Sydney in bid to support football finals amid industrial action
Sydney’s business community is pleading with rail workers to call off industrial action ahead of meetings to confirm travel arrangements for this weekend’s footy finals, AAP reports.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union failed to reach a breakthrough in emergency talks with the NSW government and threatened to not provide the extra services needed for a marquee weekend of sport.
In Sydney there are NRL and AFL finals – including the Swans’ sold-out game against Port Adelaide at the SCG – and the Bledisloe Cup rugby union fixture.
The state’s transport minister Jo Haylen says trains will be free on the weekend, a concession to the union hoped to allow for timetable changes so special event services can run. She told ABC Radio today:
One of the bans that the union has put in place is around altering the timetable, so that means no ability for Sydney Trains to run those special event services.
[The union and Sydney Trains] are meeting now and we’re hopeful that given we have opened the gates … that we will be able to insert those special event services to get people out to Sydney Olympic Park.
Acoss wants jobseeker lifted to same rate as pension
Q: I know you’ve been pressuring the government on the jobseeker front for many years now. What ideally would you like to see the figure increased to, per week?
Acoss CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said:
We have consistently said that payment needs to go up to the same rate as the pension, so it would go from $56 per day now to $82 per day.
This is a modest increase. It was recommended that we get a substantial increase to jobseeker … repeatedly by the independent Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee which was created by the Labor government.
Very generous tax cuts were delivered for people on higher incomes, and here we are today with again a couple of dollars extra for people who are on the pension and jobseeker – just $1 extra per day to cover very serious increases in costs.
Jobseeker’s $1 a day increase ‘nowhere near what it needs to be’, Acoss CEO says
The chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service, Dr Cassandra Goldie, spoke with ABC News Breakfast earlier as the government’s promised 10% increase to commonwealth rent assistance begins today.
Goldie said that jobseeker payments will go from $55 per day to $56 per day, and for single pensioners it will go from $80 per day to $82 per day. The commonwealth rent assistance would go from $94 per week to $105 per week, she added.
I think people can see that every dollar does make a difference, but these are not big dollars – and these are coming off the back of poverty payments already.
Jobseeker is nowhere near what it needs to be as the unemployment payment to help people out there trying to cover those big rent increases, those ongoing increases in food prices and of course, medicines and other essentials.
Shorten skirts question on whether Donald Trump is compatible with democracy
As the wide-ranging interview wrapped up, Bill Shorten was also asked about comments from former PM John Howard that Donald Trump is “not compatible with democracy”.
Shorten said Howard is “entitled his opinion” but the comments were “a pretty interesting development [and] I think his party should listen carefully to what he says”.
Asked if Trump is incompatible with democracy, as Howard suggested, Shorten said he currently serves in the government who “will work with whoever America produces [via] their electoral processes”.
But what does Shorten, the soon-to-be vice-chancellor, think? He said:
Get back to me on the first of February … or sometime in February on that one.
But I do think that the January 6 riots were shocking. I do think it’s a matter of record that more could have been done by the outgoing president. But you know, John Howard has got the freedom of not being in politics, and I have the privilege of serving in a cabinet.
Shorten questioned on role of group homes moving forward with NDIS
Moving to the NDIS, Bill Shorten was asked how the government is progressing with recommendations to phase out segregated employment by 2034 and group homes within 15 years – which the government said needed further consideration.
He responded:
I think we’re capable of providing independence, innovation and the accommodation options for people with profound and severe disabilities, which will ultimately make the need for sort of group homes … not so necessary. But it’s going to take a lot of work to get that right.
See, a lot of the housing we use is sort of what you call was the legacy housing – the states might have built it in the 50s and 60s, and they passed that over to the NDIS accommodation. Sometimes we’re fitting people around old houses rather than working out what new tech could mean for innovation, independence for people.
It is a complex task, and it’s going to be a multiple election cycle task, but we are now as a nation investing the money in it, which wasn’t always the case.
Asked about UN vote, Shorten says ‘mainstream Australia’ wants comprehensive ceasefire deal
Bill Shorten was also asked to respond to comments from opposition leader Peter Dutton, that the government is damaging its relationship with the US and Israel, after Australia decided to abstain from a UN motion calling for a withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank.
At the same time, deputy leader of the Greens Mehreen Faruqi said Labor had “shown itself to be gutless fence-sitters” and voters would “not forgive and forget”.
Shorten said Dutton’s “job is to just oppose things that the government are doing” and defended the government’s position:
The fact that we’re pressing for a ceasefire, that we want increased humanitarian access – so we want the release of hostages, which we’ve been very consistent on and that we want to prevent regional escalation – is the right way to go.
In opposition [it’s] easy just to throw rocks, but when you’re in government you’ve got to take into account all the perspectives and the long-term interests. And I think that the fact we’re supporting a comprehensive ceasefire deal is actually where mainstream Australia is.
Q: The Fed has cut rates by half a percentage point. Should the RBA be looking to do the same?
Bill Shorten says “the Fed is different to the RBA” and while the RBA is independent “that doesn’t mean that they’re immune to getting advice from other people or hearing different points of view”.
I think it is significant that the Fed has decided to lower interest rates in America by half a per cent, but our economies are not identical. So how long that takes to flow through and the impact that has remains to be seen.
I noticed that our dollar rallied on the basis that the Fed was cutting rates and of course, with a rallying dollar, it means … it takes some pressure, inflationary pressure [off] us.
Bill Shorten was asked if the Greens had outperformed the government, at least in the messaging on housing.
He told host Patricia Karvelas:
The reality is most Australians see through the Greens.
We’ve got cost of living pressures, which are absolutely real. With the Reserve Bank increasing interest rates 13 times, what you’ve got is mortgage holders under pressure [and] what you’ve got is renters under pressure, and it is a challenge. And that is why we’re trying to increase, through various mechanisms, the amount of supply of housing in this country.
Shorten calls Greens ‘formidable and destructive’
The Labor MP Bill Shorten has also been speaking with ABC RN and has been scathing of the Greens – after a bitter housing standoff this week. Josh Butler has an full explainer on this below:
Shorten described the Greens as a “formidable and destructive political part of Australian life” and said:
Labor and the Liberals, whatever you think of us or the Liberals, we seek to form governments in Australia, and when you form a government, that means you’ve actually got to get things done. The Greens are playing a sort of competition … a party in protest or an outrage factory so they can [be all] things to all people, because they only have to implement their policies.
So they play by different set of rules, and what they do is they create anxiety. They create anxiety for people who might want to buy their first home. They create anxiety for our NDIS reforms.
They think that [they are morally] superior to people who disagree with them, and I found in political life, [just] because someone disagrees with you doesn’t make them morally inferior, they just have a different proposition or set of values.
Dutton responds to modelling showing power bills could rise under nuclear plan
Peter Dutton was questioned on new modelling showing power bills could rise by about $665 a year under the Coalition plan to build nuclear plants around Australia.
He responded by arguing that power bills had gone up under Labor, and decrying a loss of baseload power under renewables.
However, Ameo last month said that Australia’s main power grid would remain reliable as it shifts from coal domination to running overwhelmingly on renewable energy – but only if investments in new generation are delivered “on time and in full”. Adam Morton had the full story:
Shorten and Dutton respond to latest job figures
The outgoing NDIS minister Bill Shorten and opposition leader Peter Dutton made their regular Friday morning appearance on the Today show just earlier.
Shorten was asked about the latest job figures, released yesterday, which dampened hopes of an interest rate cut. He said:
Like everyone I hope to see downward pressure on interest rates, although I think it is good that we’re seeing such strong job numbers (with 47,500 jobs added last month).
I mean, when you see that under this government nearly a million new jobs are being created, that’s got to be good news. The majority of them are full-time jobs, and most of them are going to women.
Dutton responded that people are picking up second and third jobs and working more hours, so “businesses are more reluctant to put people on full time, which is why we see full time numbers come back under this latest announcement”.
AMA urging stop to ‘coercive and deceptive’ marketing of commercial foods for infants
The Australian Medical Association is calling on the government to implement best practice standards for nutrition in commercial foods for infants and young children.
As part of its submission to the Department of Health and Aged Care’s public consultation, the AMA is urging the government to put a stop to what it says is coercive and deceptive marketing of products.
This comes as a study found not a single infant or toddler food product stocked in Australian supermarkets meets standards set by the World Health Organization. Natasha May had the full story last month:
President Professor Steve Robson said parents and guardians should be able to rely on the government to ensure commercial foods are labelled and marketed responsibly:
Many commercial foods for infants and young children fail to support optimal health, growth and development. The nutritional content of many of these products is inadequate and they fall short of international standards for labelling and promotion.
Parents and guardians are being bombarded by coercive marketing but do not have enough information about the nutritional quality of the commercial foods being sold to them to be able to make informed choices.
To protect our youngest Australians, comprehensive changes to the composition, texture, and labelling of commercial foods for infants and young children are imperative.
The AMA says the changes must be mandatory, and compliance must be strictly monitored and enforced.
