Nampijinpa Price moves to Liberals

Australia Broadcast Center

08-05-2025

Samantha Donovan: Hello, welcome to PM, I'm Samantha Donovan, coming to you from the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation in Melbourne. Tonight, Government frontbencher Mark Dreyfus to be dumped from Cabinet as factions flex their muscle in the new Labor government. Also, two men found guilty of murdering Indigenous schoolboy Cassius Turvey in Perth and dog therapy making a difference in youth detention.
Megan Nutbean: I used to take my three-legged border collie into youth justice and there was something about the fact that she had three legs that just brought out this incredible nurturing side in the young people.
Samantha Donovan: In a move that shocked many in politics, Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has announced today she's leaving the National Party room and moving to the Liberals. Her decision comes as the Liberal Party looks for a new leader. And the Greens are on the hunt for a new leader too, after Adam Bandt conceded defeat today in his seat of Melbourne. Labor's Sarah Witty is the new member. Kimberley Price reports.
Kimberley Price: His seat had looked unwinnable since late yesterday and today Greens leader Adam Bandt stepped up to concede defeat.
Adam Bandt: A short time ago I called the Labor candidate for Melbourne, Sarah Witty, to concede, to congratulate her and to wish her all the best as the next member for Melbourne.
Kimberley Price: Adam Bandt has held the seat of Melbourne for 15 years. He blamed voting preferences for his defeat.
Adam Bandt: The Greens got the highest vote in Melbourne but One Nation and Liberal preferences will get Labor over the line. To win in Melbourne we needed to overcome Liberal, Labor and One Nation combined and it's an Everest that we've climbed a few times now but this time we fell just short.
Kimberley Price: Observers believe the leadership contest within the Greens is coming down to a choice between Senator Sarah Hansen-Young and Senator Mehreen Faruqi. Senator Faruqi says she's not campaigning.
Mehreen Faruqi: Adam has done a fantastic, run a fantastic campaign and we will wait for all the results to be declared, have a party room and then start the process of electing the leader.
Kimberley Price: Meanwhile, the coalition's crushing defeat has resulted in an unexpected twist. Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has announced she will switch from the Nationals to the Liberal Party. As for the leadership of the Liberal Party, senior party figures are backing Susan Lee to take the top job, including former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.
Jeff Kennett: It is time for the Liberal Party to have a different perspective on life and that I think would come through a female.
Kimberley Price: Angus Taylor is another major player in the Liberal leadership race. Some riffs are emerging in the coalition after Queensland LNP Senator Matt Canavan suggested a break-up between the Nationals and Liberals. But frontbencher and former Nationals leader Michael McCormack has rejected that idea.
Michael McCormack: We've been very good as coalition partners, very good for Australia, very good for small business, for agriculture.
Kimberley Price: The National Party has an automatic leadership spill after every election. Michael McCormack says he expects David Littleproud will be re-elected unopposed.
Michael McCormack: No, I won't be putting my hand up for the Deputy Leader's job and look, David will be the only one I'm pretty certain who will put his hand up for the Leader's job.
Kimberley Price: Elsewhere, Nationals candidate Andrew Lethlean remains in a close contest to take the Victorian seat of Bendigo from Labor's Lisa Chesters. Across the lower house, 11 seats are still in doubt with over 80 per cent of the vote counted. Acting Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope says the organisation is going through the largest count ever, thanks to distribution of preferences and three candidate preferred races.
Jeff Pope: We're not just doing 150 counts, which is what can be the general perception for each division at this stage, we're actually doing about 98,000 counts across those 150 divisions. It's a mammoth undertaking.
Kimberley Price: Some of the tightest electorate races still undecided are Bean in the ACT, Bullwinkle in eastern Perth, Bradfield in Sydney and Kooyong, Flinders and Menzies in Victoria.
Samantha Donovan: Kimberley Price. And the Labor caucus will meet tomorrow to decide on the make-up of its new ministry. It sounds like some big changes are on the way. Isabel Rowe is our reporter at Parliament House in Canberra. Isobel, there are reports two Labor ministers are set to lose their Cabinet positions. Who are they?
Isobel Roe: That's right. There are 30 frontbench positions in this second ministry of Anthony Albanese's and the factions are meeting as we speak today ahead of caucus to decide. What we know so far is the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has been sensationally dumped essentially from the frontbench by his faction, the Victorian Right, and that's to make way for second-term MP Sam Rae. Mark Dreyfus served as the Attorney-General in Labor's first term and he had expressed his desire, we understand, to continue in the role, but the ABC has confirmed that he's likely lost his position in this carve-up. There's a fight as well between the Victorian and the New South Wales Right factions and that also puts in jeopardy Minister Ed Husic's position on the frontbench as well. The Labor Left faction now makes up more than 50 per cent of the caucus, so that should result in an extra spot in the ministry. So as we know, Labor has a Right and a Left faction and in the way that they sort out who's going to do what job, they put forward people from their factions to take up those spots. It's been noted that Ed Husic is the only Muslim MP and Mark Dreyfus a Jewish MP in that frontbench and there's been commentary about the significance of those two people in particular being pushed from Cabinet at a time like this.
Samantha Donovan: And Isabel, is there any word on who the new Attorney-General might be?
Isobel Roe: Not at this stage, definitely not, no.
Samantha Donovan: And the other big news this afternoon is that the Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is moving from the Nationals Party room to the Liberals. What's being said about that in Canberra?
Isobel Roe: That was quite a surprise, I must say. Senator Price has put out a statement today saying that she believes she'll be more effective as a member of the Coalition if she sits within the Liberal Party. She's a Northern Territory Senator from the CLP, the Country Liberal Party. She can choose whether to sit in the Nationals or the Liberals camps. She's always picked the Nationals, but she has a right to choose. So she's saying that she feels obliged to play a robust part, her words, in the rebuilding of the Liberal Party and that she wants the Liberal Party to stop whispering our values and start declaring them again.
Samantha Donovan: And so does her move to the Liberal Party room have any implications for the Liberal Party leadership?
Isobel Roe: It certainly potentially does. As we know, the Liberal Party need to pick their new leader. Peter Dutton, of course, lost his seat of Dixon on the weekend. Jacinta Price is a conservative leaning person and it could mean that she is there to boost the numbers essentially for someone like the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor. Now we don't know if that's the case. There has been speculation about whether or not she herself wants some sort of role in the Liberal leadership and that that is why she's made this move. We heard not long ago from Nationals MP Kevin Hogan, who's told the ABC that he's disappointed at her departure from the Nationals party room.
Kevin Hogan: I haven't even had the chance to speak to the centre directly yet. But look, obviously she's made that decision. I'm personally disappointed. We're a tight team, a strong team, the Nats. But I seriously wish her well. And if she has ambitions to be the deputy Liberal leader, she obviously can't do that from being a member of the Nationals.
Samantha Donovan: That's the Nationals member for the New South Wales seat of Page, Kevin Hogan. And before that, I was speaking to Isabel Rowe at Parliament House in Canberra. And in case you're wondering, just to clarify, a senator can't lead the Liberal party. After a 12-week trial, two men have been found guilty of the murder of Indigenous Perth teenager Cassius Turvey in 2022. Another man was found guilty of manslaughter and a woman acquitted of both murder and manslaughter. Our Perth reporter Grace Burmas has been following the case.
Grace Burmas: Cassius Turvey was just 15 years old. He was walking in the Perth suburb of Middle Swan in October 2022 when he was assaulted and hit over the head. And he died in hospital 10 days later. Now, that death really triggered an outcry from the community. There was vigils and there was protests across the nation. His face was everywhere. And especially in WA, everyone really knew the name Cassius Turvey.
Samantha Donovan: And he'd been hit with a metal bar, hadn't he? Tell us what the court heard in terms of the interaction between Cassius Turvey and his friends and the accused.
Grace Burmas: Throughout the 12-week trial into his murder, one of the main focuses in the trial and the main key evidence was who hit Cassius Turvey with this pole that had been ripped from a trolley. Now, there was a lot of deliberating. There was a lot of back and forth between two of the co-accused sort of blaming each other that it was the other one who really yielded the fatal blow. What we do know and what we've heard in court is that Jack Brearley, who's one of the men who have been found guilty of murdering Cassius, he chased a group of boys across an oval in Middle Swan and he is the one who hit Cassius Turvey with that metal pole from the trolley, causing his death 10 days later.
Samantha Donovan: So Grace, the jury took just over three days to reach a verdict. What do you think were the key pieces of evidence?
Grace Burmas: That's right. So the jury heard from over 90 witnesses during the trial and each of the four accused, I should say, were cross-examined by each other's lawyers. So it was very extensive. The focus of the evidence was really who hit Cassius Turvey with the pole that was taken from the trolley. We had the two men that have now been found guilty of murdering him, Jack Brearley, who was saying that it was Brodie Palmer, and we had Brodie Palmer saying that it was Jack Brearley. But the key pieces of evidence is that we heard Jack Brearley was angry about his windows being smashed in his car the day before. Another key part that we heard was bragging on the phone about what he did. Now in court we heard he said "he was lying in the field and I was just smacking him with a trolley pole so hard he learned his lesson".
Samantha Donovan: Yes. So you've told us about the two men who were found guilty of murder, but who were the other two? One was found guilty of manslaughter, the other was acquitted.
Grace Burmas: That's right. So Mitchell Forth was found guilty of manslaughter and the person who was acquitted was Aleesha Gilmore. Now she was not there when Cassius died, but she was accused because of being involved in targeting the group of kids that Cassius was a part of. Now as you said, she has been found not guilty of both murder and manslaughter.
Samantha Donovan: So what was the reaction in court as the verdicts were read out?
Grace Burmas: So none of the four accused reacted to the verdict. We know that Mitchell Forth appeared to be unwell and that he was handed a sick bag, but it was really the comments from Cassius' mother, Michelle Turvey, outside court that drew all of our attention. She thanked everyone who had supported her through the trial. She called the proceedings three months of hell. She also acknowledged that most of the witnesses were children and friends of Cassius' who will be scarred for life.
Mechelle Turvey: My body just went numb with relief. Justice to me will never be served because I don't have my son and he's not coming back for anything. They can just rot as far as I'm concerned, but this is amazing. It's going to be great for all our healing. Yeah, it's been a lot of regrieving over three months, but yeah, I feel very light-weighted in my heart and soul today.
Samantha Donovan: That's Michelle Turvey, the mother of Cassius Turvey. She was speaking outside court in Perth today after two men were found guilty of her boy's murder. The sentencing hearing is set down for the 26th of June. This is PM, I'm Samantha Donovan. You can hear all our programs live or later on the ABC Listen app. Ahead, house prices on the rise in the outer fringe areas of cities. Pakistan's Prime Minister says his nation's military has responded to India's airstrikes by downing Indian jets, a claim Delhi has not confirmed. It comes as international leaders call for the two neighbouring nuclear-armed countries to de-escalate the conflict. Some observers in the subcontinent, though, are worried that domestic pressure within both nations will make that unlikely. Gavin Coote has this report.
Gavin Coote: Caught in the middle of an escalating conflict, residents on the de facto border between Pakistan and India are leaving with their belongings as tensions continue to spiral. Sibir Hassan lives in a border village in Indian Kashmir, which has been nearly deserted after the two nations' armies began exchanging artillery fire.
Sibir Hassan: There were 14 to 15 small explosions during the cross-border shelling during the night. Children and the elderly are in a state of fear and panic, and that is why they've fled their homes.
Gavin Coote: For two weeks, India had promised a forceful response to a deadly militant attack on tourists in Kashmir. Yesterday, India launched a number of missiles on what it claims was terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan, and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan says it's retaliated by shooting down five Indian aircraft, which India has not confirmed. World leaders, including US President Donald Trump, are calling for calm.
Donald Trump: I know both. We get along with both countries very well. Good relationships with both, and I want to see it stop. And if I can do anything to help, I will be there.
Gavin Coote: There are some signs that the conflict may have reached a plateau. Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has told the New York Times that while Pakistan reserves the right to strike if India mounted further attacks, the nation is ready to de-escalate. But many remain fearful of a larger military conflict.
Hartosh Singh Bal: We are on an escalating ladder. It's a very dangerous situation. I don't think the world realises how precarious this ladder is.
Gavin Coote: Hartosh Singh Bal is the executive director of The Caravan, a politics and culture magazine in India. He thinks while neither country wants an all-out war, the leaders of both nations are under pressure to appear forceful.
Hartosh Singh Bal: We have an army general in Pakistan who is domestically pressured, who is finding it difficult to maintain control. At the moment, he's seen a surge of popularity. Modi, while a popular leader and a government that is under no challenge, had seen some loss of support. He was not certainly looking for an escalation, but such an escalation, it does him no harm. It helps him significantly. And I think he has always played to this kind of theatre. This is what he revels in.
Gavin Coote: Just how concerned are people within India about where this could lead?
Hartosh Singh Bal: Anxiety. A great amount of anxiety. What is going to happen? What is not going to happen? Where will this stop? The same questions you're asking me, I think every Indian citizen, every Pakistani citizen at this moment is asking each other, trying to look for answers on the media, journalists, experts, government. Actually, no answers are forthcoming at this point of time. There is no clarity that feeds into the anxiety.
Gavin Coote: But some argue the US's role as a peacemaker in South Asia is diminished, which could make it harder to de-escalate the situation. Dr Pradeep Taneja is a senior lecturer in Asian politics at the University of Melbourne.
Pradeep Taneja: China is another factor. China is the biggest supporter of Pakistan. China is also the key provider of military assistance to Pakistan. China also has been, China claims China has been a victim of terrorism, and therefore China could in fact get Pakistan to try and control these militant groups who operate out of Pakistani territory. But China chooses not to do that.
Samantha Donovan: Dr Pradeep Taneja from the University of Melbourne, Gavin Coote reporting. Well, there's been another blow for aspiring first home buyers today. New figures show there's been an exodus of younger Australians to the outer fringes of cities in search of more affordable homes, and that's leading to rapid price growth in those areas. But analysts say there is one silver lining for those looking to climb the property ladder. Here's our business reporter, David Taylor.
David Taylor: Property price growth in outer suburban areas of Sydney and Melbourne has outpaced the growth in inner city areas over the past 12 months. Head of research at Cotality, formerly CoreLogic, Eliza Owen, says it's due to strong demand for more affordable homes.
Eliza Owen: Yeah, I think what this data shows us is that for all that, especially young people are told that they need to be looking further out to find something affordable, is that the flip side of that is the fringe becomes the fastest growing.
David Taylor: In Sydney, according to Cotality data, all of the top 20 suburbs for price growth were at least 20 kilometres from the CBD. Melbourne followed a similar pattern. In the mid-sized capitals, growth was more evenly spread, but again, it's still skewed to the outer ring suburbs. Eliza Owen says there's no end in sight to the rapid price growth, but says mortgage repayments should fall.
Eliza Owen: A lower interest rate environment over the course of 2025 is going to help with mortgage serviceability. So that aspect of affordability, we will see mild improvements. Even if property prices rise, depending on how much buy, it can still mean mortgages are more affordable if interest rates fall. However, you've still got the challenge of things like a deposit hurdle. A more widespread access to something like the first home guarantee, which is part of what we saw with the labour policy platform ahead of the election, would enable more people to get over that deposit hurdle easily. But then you've got to consider they're taking on more debt. So there's probably more of a widespread structural issue that we need to address when it comes to making sure our grandchildren stay in cities like Sydney. And that probably comes back to supply side aspects and developing more varied types of housing.
David Taylor: And on supply, the latest official data showed dwelling approvals slumping 8% in March to just over 15,000. It means housing supply is still falling short of demand. Indeed, the median income, according to Cotality, is no longer enough to buy a median priced home. AMP's Deputy Chief Economist, Diana Mousina, agrees with Eliza Owen that government housing policies are helping more Australians into housing. But there's more to do.
Diana Mousina: Our own forecast at AMP is that we'll see about 3% national property price growth this year. So that's not particularly strong in a period where you've got falling interest rates. But it is still likely that prices are going to rise in the next 12 months.
David Taylor: Do you see Diana Mousina any time on the horizon where first home buyers will get a look into the market in metropolitan areas? Or is this still a pipe dream?
Diana Mousina: I don't think it's a pipe dream to get into the market in metro areas because there are still options out there for first home buyers. When you look at the median value of a home in metro areas, those are not typically the ones that first home buyers buy. And on top of that, we have seen a lot of support from the government, from the Labor government, for first home buyers and more election promises on that in the latest round.
David Taylor: The Reserve Bank next meets to decide on interest rates later this month.
Samantha Donovan: David Taylor reporting there. An animal hospital in Melbourne is using an unconventional method to turn young people away from crime. Since 2018, it's been running a pet therapy program, sending volunteers and their dogs into youth detention centres and other parts of the justice system. Nadine Haynes has the story.
Nadine Haynes: There's nothing quite like the therapeutic power of pets.
Megan Nutbean: So I used to take my three-legged border collie called Myrtle into youth justice. And there was something about the fact that she had three legs that just brought out this incredible nurturing side in the young people.
Nadine Haynes: Megan Nutbean is the community programs manager at Lord Smith Animal Hospital in Melbourne. She's witnessed firsthand the difference animals can make to troubled young people.
Megan Nutbean: There were these two boys and they were big and boisterous, very heightened, lots of swearing and kicking the walls and a little bit intimidated. As soon as they clocked that Myrtle only had three legs, they were just teddy bears. So I just think there's so much power in dogs and having young people who find it hard to access that side of themselves. There's a real potential to influence how they see themselves.
Nadine Haynes: Since 2018, Megan Nutbean has been recruiting special humans and their remarkable dogs to join this unique pet therapy volunteer program. They work with young people who are at risk of disengaging from school or who were in the justice system or have been in the past.
Megan Nutbean: The kids that we're talking about have often experienced a lot of childhood trauma. They might have neurodevelopmental conditions that make it hard for them to feel safe and to engage in whether it's youth justice or a classroom. And what we've found is the dogs can shift them into a regulated state so quickly and so profoundly. It's really incredible.
Nadine Haynes: She says this connection with the animals and their owners helps the young people to engage with staff and teachers again and get the support they need to get back on their feet. The volunteers and their dogs are chosen very carefully and she says the team is always on the lookout for more. One passionate team that's been volunteering in the pet therapy program is firefighter Mitch Simons and his five-year-old Husky cross Pomeranian, Archer. They have been visiting the Parkville Youth Detention Precinct in Melbourne for two years now.
Mitch Simons: I'm a firefighter, so there's a genuine serving the community focus for my role. Archer, he's a full-blooded Pomsky and he's got a bit of attitude so he blends well in with the young people at Parkville and they really do love him.
Nadine Haynes: Mitch Simons says the presence of Archer at Parkville Youth Detention makes the young people drop their guard.
Mitch Simons: It's really satisfying when a sad young person starts to get a sparkle in their eye and a bit of a smile and then there's just natural conversations and interactions with the dog. It's pretty rewarding and we just about see that every day. If we can make a difference to young youth offenders and make their day a little bit better and teach them some of the simple skills that society expects of people today, you know, like communication, trust, respect, it makes a big difference.
Nadine Haynes: In other settings, teachers are also noticing the benefits. Maya Graham is the assistant principal at Parkville College, a government school that educates students who are or have been detained in custody. Two years ago, she introduced the pet therapy program to the school and says it made a world of difference.
Maya Graham: So when they get to interact with the dogs during the pet therapy visits, there's kind of this parallel learning where they'll talk about the dog's behavior and talk about the dog's feelings and then it facilitates parallel learning about themselves and we can then transition to talking about their own social and emotional skills and their emotional literacy and we find that incredibly beneficial for the young people that we work with.
Samantha Donovan: That's Maya Graham from Parkville College in Melbourne. Nadine Haynes with that report. Thanks for joining me for PM. I'm Samantha Donovan. The podcast of the full program is on the ABC Listen app and we'll be back tomorrow. Good night.