Peter Cain resigns from Canberra Liberals shadow cabinet over concerns about leadership
Canberra Liberals MLA Peter Cain has resigned from the shadow cabinet, citing concerns about the party's leadership.
In a statement, Mr Cain said his resignation was "effective immediately".
"This decision follows ongoing concerns regarding the direction of the current leadership team and the processes through which key decisions have been made," he said.
Mr Cain was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2020 and represents the electorate of Ginninderra.
He has most recently held the shadow ministries of attorney-general, planning and environment and housing services.
Soon after the 2024 ACT election, Leanne Castley was named leader of the party, replacing Elizabeth Lee, and Jeremy Hanson was elected as her deputy.
In the statement, Mr Cain said the decision to resign was not one he had "taken lightly".
"I believe I can best serve the Canberra community and the people of Ginninderra from the backbench."
He also alluded to issues around workplace culture being among the reasons for his resignation.
"I also have a duty of care to my hardworking staff, who deserve to work in a safe, supportive, and respectful environment," he said.
He said he would remain on the backbench as a member of the party and "continue to work hard, speak up and advocate for policies that reflect the best of what a Liberal philosophy has to offer".
"I am proud of the work I have done and the advocacy I have led across the portfolios I have held, always with a focus on delivering better outcomes for Canberrans," he said.
"I remain available to engage with anyone to advance the best interests of Belconnen and the ACT."
Leanne Castley and the Canberra Liberals have been approached for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
SBS Australia
an hour ago
- SBS Australia
Energy price rules for electricity retailers are changing soon. Here's what to know
Energy retailers will be barred from raising bills more than once a year and will be forced to remove unfair fees for vulnerable customers under new rules announced by the energy market rule maker. The move will help reduce the complexity and opacity of the poorly understood electricity system, and prevent customers from being ripped off, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said. The changes announced by the Australian Energy Market Commission include: Preventing retailers from increasing prices more than once a year Banning excessive fees for late payments, and Prohibiting fees for vulnerable customers Retailers must also ensure vulnerable Australians are receiving their best available plan. The commission's rule changes will be phased in over the course of next year, with the first tranche coming into effect on 1 July 2026 and the remaining changes applying from 30 December 2026. The changes are intended to clamp down on retailers who lure customers in with cheap deals, only to move them onto higher cost plans or impose hidden fees and charges. "I'm not going to pretend that they're a silver bullet, but clearly, the situation hasn't been working," Bowen told ABC Radio National on Thursday. "There are many, many Australians, either in hardship or not in hardship, who aren't on their best possible plan. That's not their fault. We need to make it as easy as possible for them to change." Research has found about 40 per cent of Australians don't read their energy bill. More needs to be done to ensure busy consumers receive their best offer, Bowen said. But it's only part of a broader reform process to make the energy system simpler and fairer, he said. On Wednesday, Bowen flagged changes to so-called Default Market Offer rules in a bid to force energy companies to compete harder for customer dollars and prevent unfair price hikes. The regulations were intended to establish a benchmark price to limit price gouging and put downward pressure on prices through competition between energy companies, but were not working as planned, Bowen told the Australian Energy Week conference in Melbourne. Bowen flagged reforms to the Australian Energy Regulator's price-setting mechanism for NSW, South Australia and Queensland to better align with Victoria's rules.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Albanese talks with Europeans, Liberals overhaul committee
Welcome back to your weekly federal politics update, where Brett Worthington gets you up to speed on the happenings from Parliament House. The whole thing has the whiff of a reality TV dating show. Will they meet? Won't they meet? Will there be chemistry? Will there be a blow-up and then an awkward scene where the two need to sit in neighbouring arm chairs and try their best to say nice things about the other. Likely, it's just how the reality TV star-turned US president likes it. Such is the omnipresent nature of Donald Trump's second presidency that he manages to loom over everything, even when he's not even in the room, as was the case at the G7 summit when he took his (nuclear) football and went home early. Barely a week has gone past in the last seven months without Prime Minister Anthony Albanese being asked when he would meet with Trump in person. Speaking ahead of his scheduled meeting, he made clear he'd been putting in the preparation work, doing all the stretches needed to walk onto the field with Trump. At the same moment he was saying that, Trump's press secretary was drafting a message that she'd send out six minutes after the PM's press conference ended, announcing the US president was leaving the G7 summit to go home. There was no shortage of pontificating about whether or not it was a snub of the Australian prime minister (said by people seemingly forgetting that the Middle East was literally on fire). Sure, Albanese's desire to talk AUKUS submarines and tariffs are important. But in the case of the boats, they're not arriving for decades. More pressing is the prospect of bunker-busting bombs being dropped over Iran, which could fundamentally reshape what the looming decades look like. To view a meeting of world leaders through the prism of Trump also seemingly ignores the reshaping the world is currently going through. When Albanese travelled to South America for meetings with world leaders late last year, there was questioning about who might step into the void as world leader should Trump pursue an isolationist agenda. The thinking was that the Europeans were diminished figures and China's Xi Jinping sensed an opportunity. Fast-forward to today and suddenly the Europeans are back in play, eager to fill any void Trump might leave behind. With Trump gone, Albanese started talks with the Europeans to forge closer defence ties, while also using his time in Canada to deepen his relationship with the leaders of Britain and NATO. But there are clear signs that Albanese wants to lance the boil and meet with Trump (if for no other reason than to end the questions about when the two will meet). To do that, it could see Albanese make an unexpected trip to Europe next week to meet Trump on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in The Hague. Before he set flight for North America, Albanese announced he'd be bringing Camelot to Canberra, summoning knights from the business, union, government and civil sectors for a roundtable meeting on productivity. Falling to Jim Chalmers to fill in the details, the treasurer used a a National Press Club address on Wednesday to issue a clarion call to the two dozen groups that will be invited to the August roundtable. Chalmers pointed to Labor's landslide victory as a signal that the government needed to be bold and to build beyond the slate of commitments it took to voters, including on taxation. He said he expected those who attend the roundtable to put their vested interest aside and work towards achieving practical outcomes. He vowed to put aside his own political ideology and expected others to do the same in pursuit of consensus. The treasurer also took aim at the assembled media, deriding the "rule-in-rule-out game" as having a cancerous effect on public discourse. The treasurer broke with his prepared speech to pay tribute to his new departmental secretary Jenny Wilkinson, who last week became the first woman to lead the Treasury. He then went on to call out the head of the Productivity Commission, Danielle Wood, the Reserve Bank, Michele Bullock and the chair of the competition watchdog the ACCC, Gina Cass-Gottlieb. "It is a source of considerable pride in our government that we have women leading the Reserve Bank, the Productivity Commission, the Treasury, in each of those cases, for the first time in the history of those economic institutions," he said. There's never been a female federal treasurer. That's something Chalmers might change should he rise to PM one day. Murray Watt has fast developed a reputation of the man the prime minister turns to when he has a troublesome issue to resolve. First, he phased out live sheep exports as agriculture minister. Then as workplace relations minister, he phased out CFMEU officials from the embattled union, a move the High Court this week deemed was constitutional. The Queenslander now finds himself with the daunting task of trying to pass an overhaul of environmental laws that somehow manages to reach consensus between business and environmental groups. His predecessor Tanya Plibersek was working towards the same goal before Albanese brought a stop to that to appease WA Labor concerns before the state and federal elections. Two successive governments have failed to update the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act since it was written in 1999. Environmentalists want a "climate trigger" in the legislation so it could be used to block projects based on their climate impact. Business groups argue that would add complexity to an approval process that they already think is too burdensome. Speaking after a meeting with stakeholders on Thursday, Watt said they'd agreed to an 18 month timeline to land the new laws. He said there was no other option, with the current laws failing to do enough to protect the environment, while also resulting in approvals taking too long. Until recently, Alan Stockdale's greatest sin in Liberal ranks was for coming from south of the Murray River. That a Victorian had been called in to run the NSW division as part of a federal takeover goes a long way to explaining the state the party found itself in. Desperate times (not nominating candidates for elections), call for desperate actions. That said, Stockdale's days were always going to be numbered after he told the NSW Liberal Women's Council that women were "sufficiently assertive" and the party might need to "protect men's involvement". Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, a fellow Victorian, was quick to suggest Stockdale would do well to reflect on the "shocking" comments over a whiskey with the old boys at the men's only Melbourne Club. As it turns out, he'll have plenty of time to do just that. Speaking after a Liberal Party federal executive meeting, Ley announced the intervention in the NSW division would continue for another nine months. She thanked Stockdale and fellow Victorian Richard Alston before announcing their services would no longer be required, calling in former NSW premier Nick Greiner to take over the intervention. That wasn't the end of the call ups to help the party. On the same day, Ley announced former state minister Pru Goward and federal minister Nick Minchin would conduct an autopsy into the Liberal's disastrous federal campaign. The review will examine the Liberal's historically low primary vote, its performance among key voter demographics and the long-term challenge posed by teal independents. After the May election, there were no shortage of Liberals bemoaning the number of election reviews that have been left to collect dust on shelves. With their future survival at stake, they're hoping this one might actually get put into action.
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
WA government hands down 2025-26 state budget
The nation's strongest economy has delivered its seventh straight net operating surplus of $2.5bn, largely driven by huge revenue from mining royalties and a bigger slice of the GST. The WA budget was handed down by Treasurer Rita Saffioti making it the first since the Cook Labor government was re-elected in a landslide earlier this year. Treasurer Saffioti said the government took a conservative approach to the budget, given global uncertainties surrounding US trade tariffs and conflict in the Middle East. 'This budget cements WA as the most responsible budget manager of the nation, while investing in the economic and social infrastructure to power new jobs and investment in the state,' she said. 'In a world of global instability and uncertainty our government has a strong economic plan for this state. 'It is a constant reminder of the importance of protecting WA's share of the GST.' WA's GST grant is expected to rise by $400m to $7.8bn in the coming year. This year the state received 75 per cent of its population share of the GST, but the government says it was estimated WA contributed $39bn to other states costing every Western Australian about $13,000 each. The biggest spend in the budget by the government was $38bn allocated to infrastructure projects over the next five years to support future growth. The money will fund hospitals, schools, community facilities and infrastructure needed for electricity and water supplies. How does WA compare to other states? WA is the nation's biggest economy, which has seen the state government deliver a surplus every year since 2018-19, driven by a huge revenue from mining royalties and a bigger slice of the GST. Victoria, on the other hand, forecast its first operating surplus recorded since the pandemic at $600m in its recent budget, but predicts its net debt will reach $194bn by the end of the decade. NSW is expected to deliver an operating surplus of $4.9bn by the end of the June and remain in surplus next year. Cost of living WA households will no longer receive power bill relief from the state government despite electricity and water bills rising by 2.5 per cent. Electricity credits were first applied to bills in November 2020, but the popular program to help households through the cost-of-living crisis has now been scrapped. A credit will still be applied under a federal government initiative later this year. Households are likely to see their electricity bills rise to about $1950, as well as pay an additional $50 a year for water. Road users will be paying an additional $33 a year for their car rego and driver's licences which will increase by about 3 per cent over the coming year. While household costs go up, the government has invested $963m in other cost of living measures. Initiatives have been targeted at helping low income households purchase residential batteries through no interest loans, cash payments for families with school aged children and cheaper public transport. Housing Like other states, housing affordability is a major issue for many Western Australians on middle to low and single incomes. As the state grapples with a huge housing shortage, population growth and demand has seen house prices and rent soar across the state. The WA government has invested $1.4bn to boost supply and other initiatives to drive housing in Perth and the regions. First homebuyers will be helped into the housing market with reduced stamp duty, along with others who buy homes off the plan. Key start programs are being launched for people willing to live in a modular home or take up a shared equity loan with the government for apartments, townhouses and other multi-dwelling housing. Other initiatives will see millions used to fast track water, wastewater and energy substations to unlock housing lots in Perth and the regions. Jobs Building and construction workers are being lured to the state with promises of cash under programs that have already seen more than 1000 tradespeople relocate to WA from across Australia and NZ. A Construction Visa Subsidy Program has also been extended to help building and construction businesses attract skilled migrant workers to fill vacant positions that will speed up home and infrastructure projects across WA. The budget includes $331m to be spent in TAFE and training to skill workers to meet the demands of future industries, seeing $12m allocated to train hundreds of apprentices for AUKUS. The treasurer said it was a budget that cemented WA as the most responsible budget manager of the nation, while investing in the economic and social infrastructure to power new jobs and new investment in the state. 'Western Australia has become the envy of the nation for our financial management and economic success.'
