Australian news and politics live: Greens Leader Larissa Waters responds after Dorinda Cox joins Labor

West Australian

4 days ago

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The Prime Minister has confirmed publicly he is seeking to meet with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Canada later this month.
Canadian leader Mark Carney invited Anthony Albanese to attend the meeting of global leaders when they spoke shortly after the May 3 election.
Mr Albanese confirmed on Tuesday the widely speculated meeting with Mr Trump was being organised to take place in Alberta rather than Washington..
'That's what we hope to do there,' he told ABC Perth.
He said his approach in dealing with Mr Trump was to be 'consistent and clear and unambiguous'.
'That is what I've been. I've had three really constructive discussions with President Trump, but it's important that you don't jump around and take different positions from day to day,' he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is on ABC Perth talking about Dorinda Cox and the North West Shelf.
He says Senator Cox had decided after much thought that her values aligned more closely with those of Labor rather than the Greens, leading to her defection.
'We know that the Greens have lost their way,' Mr Albanese said.
'That's one of the reasons why they lost three of their four seats in the House of Representatives, and the domination of issues that certainly aren't environmental have been their concerns.'
Asked how someone who has so stridently spoken out against the extension of the North West Shelf project can now be on board with Labor, Mr Ablanese points out the Greens including Senator Cox voted for the safeguard mechanism as the primary way to cut emissions.
'The North West Shelf, like other projects right around Australia, the top 200 emitters, are all subject to that (safeguard mechanism) that requires emissions to be brought down each and every year or to be offset as part of getting to net zero,' he said.
'We have not just a policy of net zero. We have a plan to get there… You can't change the way that the economy functions through just good will or good thoughts.'
Having worked as a delivery driver at Pizza Hut, as a cleaner, in a newsagency and at a call centre, Sally McManus used to depend on an award wage.
Now, the 53-year-old firebrand leading Australia's top union body is calling for a 4.5 per cent pay rise for nearly 3 million workers who live pay-to-pay on an industry award or minimum wage.
The Fair Work Commission will on Tuesday release its annual wage review decision.
Ms McManus says it's essential the nation's lowest-paid workers receive a pay rise above inflation.
'It's about whether you can keep up with your bills or not, it's whether or not your life gets slightly better, whether it stays the same or whether it goes backwards. It's everything,' she tells AAP.
'When you're on those wages, you're not saving money. Everything you earn, you spend.'
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Read the full story here.
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With two Aboriginal women now having left the Greens, the party is facing questions about its representation and approach to First Nations issues.
'I think there's two very different reasons why those strong First Nations women made the decisions they made. It was definitely their call to make,' she told ABC News Breakfast.
'Senator Thorpe has gone on to be a really strong voice in the Parliament and I'm sure Senator Cox will continue to work for the issues that are meaningful for her,' Waters explained.
'But the Greens remain entirely committed to strong advocacy on truth telling, on treaties, on justice, on healing, on reparations. Our policies are still very firm for First Nations justice and we won't be changing course in that regard.'
Read the full story here.
The Greens are reeling after WA Senator Dorinda Cox announced her move to Labor, but party leader Larissa Waters says there's no animosity and wishes her well.
'Dorinda spoke for herself yesterday and said her values aligned more closely with the Labor Party. And people need to have values fit with the party they seek to represent,' she told ABC News Breakfast.
'Dorinda called me an hour before her press conference with the Prime Minister. And we had a very calm and measured conversation about it. And I did genuinely wish her all the best.
'There's no animosity there. It's disappointing for us to lose a Greens senator. But Dorinda says her values lie there. You need to be true to yourself, don't you?'
Read about Dorinda Cox's surprise move here.
Mental ill health and poor father-son relationships have been revealed as key factors that could contribute to men's violence against women.
A longitudinal study conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) surveyed men and boys in 2013/14 and again in 2022 for critical insights into factors influencing the use of violence.
The research has produced the first national estimate of male intimate partner violence perpetration, with the 2022 study finding more than one-in-three Australian men aged 18 to 65 have used intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
This is up from one-in-four men who reported ever having used intimate partner violence among the same cohort surveyed in 2014.
The latest study also found an estimated 120,000 men nationally were starting to use violence for the first time each year.
Read the full story here.