Josh Frydenberg leaves door open to political comeback
Josh Frydenberg has literally propelled the comeback speculation himself and said he’s not closing the door to another tilt at federal politics and going for the top job, during a publicity blitz ahead of the release of his memoir.
In a lengthy interview with 60 Minutes last night he told Tracy Grimshaw the Liberal party was facing an existential threat and had to change.
Asked whether current Liberal leader, Angus Taylor, would appreciate the feedback that he’s “getting it wrong”, Frydenberg said:
I think he’s getting that from lots of corners. People are saying that the Liberal party needs to do better.
The polls are showing that the Liberal party is at an all-time low. And so, things have to change. Because there’s something existential about the threat that I think the party now faces.
So, Grimshaw asks, does Frydenberg still want to become prime minister?
Look, I certainly haven’t closed the door, but I don’t need to rush to a decision. The next election is 18 months away.
Key events
Tim Wilson feels lukewarm on Josh Frydenberg’s return to politics
The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, is pretty lukewarm on a potential Josh Frydenberg return to parliament and hints the former treasurer would have to sit within the pecking order.
Wilson is pretty adamant on RN Breakfast that any political resurrection would be under the Liberals’ current leader Angus Taylor.
He speaks pretty broadly on the question, and says he has “no issue with people putting themselves forward” – it’s not exactly a warm welcome.
I think it’s always good to have candidates who want to step up and run and make sure we pick up seats so that Angus Taylor can be prime minister of this country.
What we need is people who’ve got courage in their hearts and prepared to make the sacrifices necessary for public office. So, I have no issue with people putting themselves forward.
I encourage them to do so so they can be part of a winning team, so we can have an Angus Taylor-led government.
Host Sally Sara asks whether Wilson supports a reported idea from Frydenberg that the GST take should be increased and whether it’s helpful for the Coalition to have ex-pollies making suggestions from the sidelines.
Wilson says taxes should not be increased, but throws Frydenberg a bone:
Well, I believe we want a better country, and that’s through a contest of ideas. But in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, we’re not going to be increasing taxes. In fact, we want to do the complete reverse.
Mulino dodges question on whether Australia should block livestream of US execution
Daniel Mulino doesn’t want to comment when asked whether Labor would support the Greens’ call to block the livestream of a firing squad execution in the US.
Earlier this morning, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she wrote to the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, and the communications minister, Anika Wells, to stop the live stream, and that the government should slap fines on any tech platform that showed the stream or didn’t take steps block the video later.
Mulino at first dodges the question completely and says very broadly that the government is “forward leaning” on tech safety. Obviously not satisfied with the answer, host Sally Sara tries again. Mulino replies he doesn’t want to comment on “domestic politics of any other country when it comes to matters like this”.
Sara then asks her next guest, the shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, the same question. He’s a lot more forthcoming, but says it would be a challenge to block the live stream without it amounting to a “censorship ban on the internet”.
My basic principle is we shouldn’t be promoting that sort of violence. And so my fundamental view is yes, I think it’s enormously problematic to tolerate this type of behaviour. But the challenge is going to be: how do you do that in a way that doesn’t amount to a censorship ban on the internet?
If it’s going to be livestreamed, how are you going to do that without creating the artifice to be able to block content on the internet and create an online portal of censorship? And I don’t, the specifics of that, I’ll have to leave to others.
Labor not watering down trust tax bill, says Mulino
The assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino, says Labor is not watering down proposed changes to put a minimum 30% tax on discretionary trusts.
Mulino tells ABC RN Breakfast there have been changes made to the legislation since it was first announced, including carve-outs for discretionary testamentary trusts, but he’s tight-lipped on what else has been adjusted.
We’re not watering this down. This is a very substantial review. This is about fairness in our tax system. It’s about trying to better align the taxes that people pay when they earn income through trusts versus when they earn income from working, from providing their labour.
These are changes that have been called for by experts for decades. If we go back to major reviews in the 1970s and all the way through the Howard government, the Henry review, even the Abbott government’s review, these changes to trust taxation have been called for.
The Coalition are certainly no fans of the legislation and have called for it to be scrapped completely.
Asked about warnings from the opposition that the trust changes could harm small businesses, Mulino doesn’t say much, just that the government “has taken a number of actions when it comes to small business”.
Josh Frydenberg leaves door open to political comeback
Josh Frydenberg has literally propelled the comeback speculation himself and said he’s not closing the door to another tilt at federal politics and going for the top job, during a publicity blitz ahead of the release of his memoir.
In a lengthy interview with 60 Minutes last night he told Tracy Grimshaw the Liberal party was facing an existential threat and had to change.
Asked whether current Liberal leader, Angus Taylor, would appreciate the feedback that he’s “getting it wrong”, Frydenberg said:
I think he’s getting that from lots of corners. People are saying that the Liberal party needs to do better.
The polls are showing that the Liberal party is at an all-time low. And so, things have to change. Because there’s something existential about the threat that I think the party now faces.
So, Grimshaw asks, does Frydenberg still want to become prime minister?
Look, I certainly haven’t closed the door, but I don’t need to rush to a decision. The next election is 18 months away.
Ryan ‘not bothered’ by Frydenberg comeback speculation
The release of Josh Frydenberg’s book this week has reheated speculation the former Liberal treasurer could have another go at his former seat of Kooyong in Melbourne.
But Monique Ryan, the independent who won the seat from Frydenberg in 2022, says she’s “not bothered” by all the chatter.
She told Nine earlier this morning Frydenberg seemed more interested in being prime minister than worrying about his electorate:
Josh does have a track record with the Kooyong community. He was the member for that seat for 12 years, and in 2022, our community rejected him because they were so frustrated with his inability to affect any change to government policy on climate change. People were unhappy with his economic management. People were very unhappy with the way that he punched down on Victoria during the Covid years …
He says he wants to be prime minister, but he doesn’t speak much about Kooyong, and that’s the part of the world that I’m most focused on.
Ryan might not be fazed but I’m sure the small (and real) “waiting for Josh Frydenberg” (WFJF) faction of the Liberal party have fingers and toes crossed for a political resurrection.
More states to sign on to AusAlert system ahead of ‘disaster season’, minister says
Kristy McBain, the emergency management minister, is doing the media rounds, to talk ahead of what could be a brutal and damaging summer season in Australia.
On Monday a total fire ban was declared across both the Greater Sydney and Greater Hunter regions as the temperature was forecast to climb into the 30s.
You might remember a couple of months ago there was a national test of the AusAlert system, where all compatible phones sounded an alarm and displayed a test message.
McBain tells ABC News Breakfast just two states have so far signed on to the system, but more will be going through that process in the coming weeks “before we hit disaster season proper”.
That will get much better protection for communities who are experiencing disaster, as I said. Near real-time message not [reliant] on any one telco provider is a real gamechanger for emergency management.
Reserve Bank should ban point of sale charges for small business, says Labor minister
Labor frontbencher Kristy McBain says the Reserve Bank should go a step further than its card surcharge ban, and ban charging at the point of sale for small businesses.
The government has copped a bit of flack from the card surcharge ban, which was costing consumers $1.6bn a year, with som small businesses raising the price of their goods in response.
McBain tells Seven’s Sunrise that the government isn’t in charge of these decisions – the Reserve Bank is – but small businesses shouldn’t have to keep paying fees to card networks or banks to accept those card and digital payments.
These banks are making billions of dollars in profits every year and small businesses are already paying account-keeping fees and a range of other fees directly to their banks.
I’d like to see the RBA actually take that next step and say there is no charging for those point of sale machines.
Krishani Dhanji
Big tech, health and education on the parliamentary agenda
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji with you here on our politics blog to cover another busy sitting week.
Time is quickly running out for the government who have a few key pieces of legislation they want to pass with only three joint sitting weeks left in the year and one Senate-only sitting week.
As my colleague Tom McIlroy has brought you this morning, Labor’s digital duty of care bill will be in the spotlight, with the Greens putting themselves at the negotiation table. They want bigger fines – a share of global revenue – for tech platforms that do the wrong thing.
Health and education are also on the legislative agenda: the government’s plan to reduce private health insurance rebates for over-65s isn’t loved (or at all liked, really) by the Coalition or the Greens so they’ll need to find a way around that. But the opposition and Greens are more supportive of a bill to change university funding, which guarantees spots for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, regional, rural and First Nations families (though expect lots of amendments).
Buckle in, it’s going to be a busy week!
NSW government moves to challenge One Nation to cost promises
The NSW government will seek to amend legislation to give One Nation access to the independent Parliamentary Budget Office in a bid to challenge the populist party to cost their promises.
In a statement, the Minns government said it was clear the March 2027 election would see three parties competing to form government – and the legislation only contemplates a Labor v Coalition contest.
The treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, said he was “looking forward” to seeing One Nation’s ideas.
But right now, voters will only get advice from the independent PBO on the costs of the Coalition and Labor’s policies. They should get that same advice about One Nation’s policies.
One Nation has made no secret of how much they admire American and Argentinian-style wage policies, healthcare policies and cuts to the public service.
No doubt they will want to import these ideas into NSW, but voters deserve to have independent advice about what they mean for them.
FlyDubai pilot links to Australia ‘disturbing’: opposition
The opposition says reports the FlyDubai pilot involved in a thwarted hijacking was radicalised while studying in Australia are “deeply disturbing”.
At the weekend, the attorney-general of the United Arab Emirates said that pilot Hamad Saif al-Shamsi underwent a “drift towards extremism and terrorism” while studying in Melbourne.
The shadow home affairs minister, Jonno Duniam, said there could be no place for hate preachers or anyone advocating terror or violence in the country.
That is why the Coalition will tighten visa laws to keep those who preach hatred out of Australia and deport non-citizens who promote violent extremism.
Extremism has no place in Australia. We need to detect it early, confront it wherever it emerges and give our police and security agencies the resources they need to keep Australians safe.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said the man was radicalised online, as extremist groups target young people, particularly men. He said the government wanted to properly screen people at the border and in online settings.
Al-Shamsi received a student visa for study in Australia in 2014. He left in 2017 and his visa was cancelled two years later.
Greens call for US execution live stream to be blocked
The Greens are pushing for the Albanese government to ensure the live streaming of a firing squad execution in the US is not able to be viewed in Australia.
Last week, the US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, said the public would be able to watch the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan on 3 December.
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has written to the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, and the communications minister, Anika Wells, seeking assurance it won’t be shown in Australia.
Hanson-Young suggested large fines could apply for digital platforms if they showed the stream or did not take steps to block the video at a later date.
Hanson-Young told the ABC:
I think this is incredibly shocking and barbaric, and Australians don’t want this on our screens.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to Monday’s politics coverage.
Krishani Dhanji will be with you shortly.
Let’s begin.
