Australia politics live: government has conveyed ‘despair, frustration’ to China over Yang Hengjun verdict, PM says; Coalition set to back tax-cut changes | Australian politics

The Australian Republic Movement has also sent its well wishes to King Charles following the monarch’s cancer diagnosis.

National Director and CEO Isaac Jeffrey said it was “an incredibly challenging and private time for any family” and thanked the king for raising public awareness.

I wish Charles the best for his treatment, and a speedy and complete recovery. I send our thoughts to him, Camilla and their family.”

On the stage three tax cut changes that all indications point to the Coalition supporting, Simon Birmingham said:

We believe that tax reform as we legislated was important to achieve and we still believe it is important for the future. Let’s remember that the stage three, the Coalition had legislated in government, was abolishing the 37 cent in the dollar tax bracket*, outright eliminating bracket creep for the vast majority of working Australians. Labor’s proposal keeps that 37 cent in the dollar. It keeps bracket creep and therefore actually grabs an extra $28 billion from Australians over the next few years in extra tax the government will take.

…Our concern is for Australian households, and we want to see every household pay as little tax as possible and get whatever they can in terms of support for the huge pressures they are facing right now and that they’re facing as a result of what adds up to some $8,000 on average, that they are worse off over the last 12 months alone.

*Just a reminder that the original stage three tax cuts, passed by the Turnbull government while Scott Morrison was treasurer, left the 37c bracket where it was. It was the Morrison government changes which scrapped the 37c bracket and also changed the 32.5c bracket to 30c (done while Josh Frydenberg was treasurer)

Turnbull argued at the time that the changes made by the Morrison government made the tax system more costly without making it more equitable.

Birmingham on Yang Hengjun sentence

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham was out and about early this morning, getting ahead of the day. He told ABC News Breakfast he expected “strong and direct” action in response to the suspended death sentence Australian academic Dr Yang Hengjun was given by a Chinese court:

It’s important that in every single engagement, our prime minister, our foreign minister and all our officials have, the case of Dr Yang is clearly laid out for the Chinese. The anguish and anger that exists across Australia should be made clear and felt in Beijing, and the expectations of Australia that he ought to receive treatment that ultimately enables his release and return to Australia need to continue to be made clear.

Now, we will be seeking briefings in the normal course of events as an opposition to understand the behind-the-scenes steps and how these decisions can best be calibrated. But it is critical that we make sure Australia’s feelings are heard and that in no way in the days, weeks, months or if need be, years ahead, should this case be allowed to slip from mind or from advocacy.

Back to ‘broken promises’

And of course, someone asks about “broken promises” on the stage-three tax cuts.

Anthony Albanese says:

I went to the National Press Club and said very clearly that the government had changed its position because of cost-of-living pressures. I was quite clear about us changing our position and why we were doing it. I note – I note – the various reports today saying that the Liberal party has changed its position on stage-three tax cuts.

If this is carved in stone, how is it that they have changed their position?

If they are fair dinkum, then their response must be to not only oppose what we are putting forward with our legislation we’ll introduce today, but to promise to roll it back.

Unless they do that, then it’s all just wind. It’s all just politics. What we are about is people, not politics.

I watched this whole debate away from Canberra and it all seemed quite far away. Do we want governments to react to changing circumstances or do we want them to be bound by arbitrary promises the press gallery elicit during election campaigns that are increasingly about gotcha moments?

Because who is that actually serving? Every government breaks election promises. Some are just better at the sell.

And when the broken promise has an adverse effect, sure, go nuts. But if the “broken promise” actually creates better policy that helps more people – isn’t that what we want?

Watching the fallout of a government announcing it was changing a policy that was created five years ago among Canberra watchers and comparing that to the reactions of normal people was, as you could expect, chalk and cheese. The biggest reaction I got while on the Gold Coast was “what’s stage three?”.

PM asked about Uluru statement

Back to domestic matters, Anthony Albanese is asked whether his government is still committed to the other parts of the Uluru statement from the heart – truth and treaty. The commitment was for the whole statement to be acted on, but once the voice went down in the referendum, truth and treaty appeared to have been shelved. Albanese says:

What we’re committed to is what we said during the referendum. What the voice to Parliament was about was making a practical difference on housing, on health, in education, on all of those measures.

We’re looking at ways in which we can advance those. We’re doing work particularly on employment, making sure that real jobs are created with real training and real skills to lift up opportunity for First Nations people.

We’ll be having more to say when we respond to the Closing the Gap statement which we’ll be doing in coming weeks.

‘What we won’t do is conduct diplomatic negotiations through the media’

Anthony Albanese sticks to his habit of not doing diplomacy through the media and says any action Australia takes will be conveyed directly to China:

We will respond very directly to China. We’ll respond directly and clearly and unequivocally to China. What we won’t do is conduct diplomatic negotiations through the media. That’s not what we do. We’ve made our position very clear. The details of which we will make directly to China.

China has been told of ‘outrage’ at Yang Hengjun verdict, PM says

‘We want to see his majesty return to full duties as soon as possible,’ Albanese says

The bells have stopped tolling and Anthony Albanese is speaking outside St Andrew’s. His first comments are about King Charles:

All Australians will be sending their best wishes to King Charles for a speedy recovery. This is difficult news, and we hope for King Charles, for his majesty, and for all of their family, all the very best. We want to see his majesty return to full duties as soon as possible. We of course look forward to the commonwealth heads of government meeting held in our region. And of course, we have invited King Charles to visit Australia, and we sincerely hope that that is able to occur.

The first parliament sitting of the year church service is complete and, once the bells stop ringing, we will hear from the prime minister.

‘Price gouging’ report due

The former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Prof Allan Fels AO will hand his report into “price gouging and unfair practices” to ACTU secretary Sally McManus today.

The ACTU commissioned Fels to undertake an inquiry into Australia’s prices, back when big wigs were pretending that the record profits corporations were making were just one big coincidence and the real inflation driver was workers’ wages. We are all pretty across what the report is going to say, I think.

Since then, the Albanese government has ordered its own inquiry into the prices of Australian supermarkets, so I don’t know, maybe everyone who was pointing to the record profits Australian businesses were making was on to something.

King wished a speedy recovery

The Australian Monarchist League has wished King Charles a speedy recovery in response to the news he has been diagnosed with cancer.

The AML, which includes former Liberal senator Eric Abetz, said “the prayers thoughts and best wishes of all Australians of goodwill* will be with the King of Australia and his family as they face this health challenge together”.

*Nice caveat there

Interest rate decision due

Just in case there wasn’t enough on today, it is also RBA meeting day, which means we will get another interest rate decision.

Turns out the data has caught up to what people were already feeling – inflation is slowing but so is the economy (who would have thought that forcing people who pay for housing to pay more for that housing through either interest rate or rent hikes would mean that they would have less to spend in other parts of the economy and that would have an impact?!) so no one is predicting the RBA will raise rates today.

Instead, the experts expect a hold or a decrease in rates, which is not as outlandish as it seems, given that there had been expectations earlier in 2023 that by the end of 2023, rates would begin to trend downwards again.

That didn’t happen, which means the focus is on the early part of this year. Given we are in a cost-of-living crisis that seems to be driven by housing, there are going to be a lot of eyes on the RBA for the next 12 months.