Taiwan votes on politicians accused of being close to China
More than two dozen opposition lawmakers are facing possible removal from parliament, accused of being too close to China and weakening Taiwan's national security.
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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Vote counting done, the deal-making begins for Tasmania's next government
So here it is. The final seat chart for Tasmania's parliament: Liberals with 14, Labor with 10, five Greens and six other members of the crossbench. Sound familiar? Well, aside from some shuffling of the deckchairs, the 2025 Tasmanian election — not to be confused with the 2024 one (although you'd be forgiven for doing so) — ended up almost exactly where it was before Premier Jeremy Rockliff pulled the trigger. We can get to the whole what was the point later, but there is one rather vital question that has yet to be answered — who will be the government? Gone are the days when who would form government was known on election night. And, apparently, gone are the days when knowing the final makeup of parliament means we know which party will be leading the state at the end of the year. That answer may not be known for over a month. But at least the players are known, because the pathways to government or a no-confidence motion have become slightly clearer. Let's start with the Liberals on 14 seats. That may seem, on the face of things, to be a better chance. Whichever party hopes to form government will need 18 votes on their side. Finding four votes from a crossbench of 11 does not sound that hard in theory — until you start to break down who is in the crossbench. The Greens won't be offering up their five. Craig Garland is so infuriated by the way the Liberals have handled Marinus Link that he would be willing to vote for a no-confidence motion. Kristie Johnston voted for the last no-confidence motion and, while she hasn't ruled out offering supply and confidence, it may not be encouraging. That's six, maybe seven votes down, leaving four for the Liberals to truly court, with three of them newbies. The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers' Carlo Di Falco and former Launceston Councillor George Razay have both said they are open to working with either side. For the record, so has anti-salmon campaigner Peter George, but his progressive values don't mesh particularly well with either major party. The easiest person for the Liberals get, or in this case keep onside, is independent David O'Byrne. Mr O'Byrne offered support in the last parliament, voted against the no-confidence motion in Premier Jeremy Rockliff and has spoken about how difficult it was for Labor to govern with 10 when there were just 25 members of the lower house as opposed to the 35 they now have. Mind you, last election Labor ruled out trying to form government, so Mr O'Byrne had no other option. As a former Labor leader with those values, he has to entertain the idea. Labor's rather mammoth effort of securing eight votes is made so much easier by the fact the Greens want to engage with it. Greens Leader Rosalie Woodruff gave Labor Leader Dean Winter the opportunity to work together during that weird time between the no-confidence motion and the election. Mr Winter flat-out refused. But things look very different from the other side of this election. The party is out of options, down on votes, and staring down four years of opposition, assuming this parliament makes it that long. The very fact that Mr Winter is playing phone tag with Dr Woodruff says it all. But the two clearly have some different ideas about how a minority Labor government might work. Labor is continuing to insist it will not do a deal with the Greens, while Dr Woodruff maintains there must be an agreement for it to work. She may not be sure what that looks like, but has said "there is no possibility of any minority government without some movement". That suggests compromise. So, is Labor just playing semantics with the word deal? Will it accept a so-called agreement with the Greens? They will be roasted by the Liberals if they do, but how much does that matter if the Libs are the ones sitting on the Opposition benches? Perhaps, Labor thinks it can avoid doing any sort of agreement with The Greens. After all, the Greens seem very determined to kick out the Rockliff Government — even more so post Marinus drama — and Labor is their only path to do so. Maybe that is all Labor has to offer up. Be it on the Greens if they want to be the key reason the Liberals stay in power. But there is a middle ground. The parties' values overlap, why not lean into that? After all, it was the Greens and Labor, with others on the crossbench, that banded together last parliament to lower the political donation disclosure threshold to $1,000, introduce industrial manslaughter laws and decriminalise begging. Surely working together could be about finding the middle space in the Venn diagram where no one compromises their values. Banning conversion therapy, working towards a treaty for First Nations peoples and strengthening the Integrity Commission are a few commonalities that spring to mind. If Labor gets the Greens on board, and with Craig Garland's vote, the party is only crossbenchers away from seizing power through a vote of no confidence. Of course, it may not come to that, but the backup plan is looking viable. And how wild would that be? Labor, which recorded its lowest ever primary vote, taking government and installing a premier that could not even pull a quota in his own right. If it pulls this off, Labor MPs will make up just over half of the 18 votes that they need in the lower house. What mandate do they really have? Then again, Tasmanians voted for 11 MPs that are neither Labor nor Liberal and the vast majority of those 11 MPs hold values that are far closer to Labor than the Liberals. Whether it can be called a progressive parliament is debatable. Winter's 'jobs jobs jobs' Labor is big on industries like mining, forestry and aquaculture and rarely delves into social issues. In fact, some have observed Mr Rockliff appears more socially progressive. But it certainly is not a Liberal friendly parliament either. They may have seen an uptick in their primary vote of more than three per cent and Mr Rockliff's 22,000 first preference votes, but their right-wing values do not appear to have won over the vast majority of Tasmanians. If the result was a true endorsement of the Liberals, wouldn't they have gained a single seat? In the end, all of this pondering does not matter, because both parties want government. One is trying to keep it, the other trying to claim it — and that means it is going to take a while. It is unclear exactly when Tasmanians will know who is going the lead the state. But while the parties play their power games, parliament is paused. No legislation is being passed, no big brave decisions (save Marinus) are being made — and the state is effectively left on standby.
SBS Australia
5 hours ago
- SBS Australia
From fleeing war to getting engaged in 10 days: Meet five of parliament's newest faces
Australia's federal parliament has welcomed almost 40 new parliamentarians, among whom are ex mortuary workers, former diplomats and those who have fled war. The May election brought to Canberra greater numbers of women — with 112 women across the two houses now just slightly trailing men at 114 — and people from diverse cultural backgrounds. There are now eight First Nations politicians, an increase of two from the last parliament. As the dust settled on the first sitting fortnight, SBS News spoke to five new senators and MPs. Here's what we found out. Senator for SA Charlotte Walker Australia's youngest senator, Charlotte Walker, thinks her perspective makes her particularly qualified for the job, after an unlikely win in the third spot on Labor's ticket in South Australia. The 21-year-old has gone from uploading make-up tutorials to sitting in parliament and chatting policy while playing Minecraft to reach electorally important younger voters. "Obviously, I am younger than my colleagues, it's no secret, but I've still got my own experiences, and I think that my experience shouldn't be devalued just because of my age," she told SBS News. That experience includes growing up in the country town of Yankallila, where she witnessed a domestic violence crisis and recalled seeing children miss class in primary school due to fights going on at home or parents fleeing abusive relationships. Charlotte Walker is Australia's youngest senator. Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop Walker says that, outside of government funding for services, there needs to be an shift in attitudes to domestic and family violence and encourages Australians to call out unacceptable behaviour by friends or family. "It might have just been a friendly joke, and there wasn't any bad intention there, but we really need to be calling people out when we see things like this. That's where it starts," she said. Promising to advocate for the interests of fellow young Australians, she said: "we hear you and we will act on your demands for a better future." LISTEN TO Last week, Walker cited young people's fears of finding a rental property or being able to afford moving out of their childhood homes and said climate change wasn't "a matter of faith or belief" for young people but "hard fact". Senator for NSW Jess Collins Liberal senator Jess Collins insists her election victory shows that suggestions women in the Coalition face a glass cliff or are put in unwinnable seats "is a total myth". She highlights the number of "amazing female candidates", arguing the NSW branch would have been "close to gender parity" if the party had done better at the election. In a first speech that drew several laughs, Collins revealed she got engaged to now-husband Ben only 10 days after their first date — although she did note they had been friends for decades beforehand. Liberal senator Jess Collins says there is no "glass ceiling" for women in the party. Source: SBS News / James Smillie After having four children in as many years, her time as a stay-at-home mum has informed her passion for recognising the "contribution of the family", including changes to the tax system. She said we need to "flip the script" on childcare subsidies, suggesting that — instead of pumping billions into the subsidy system — the government should make fees for child care while a parent is at work tax deductible. "When you lodge a tax return at the end of the year, you can apply all of your childcare fees against the money that you earned, and that'll effectively bring down the tax that you pay," she told SBS News. With a PhD in anthropology and fond memories of her research visits to Papua New Guinea, Collins would like to see development aid programs trickle down more effectively to people on the ground. She emphasised the importance of links from "community to community, rather than government to government". The New Zealand-born senator is close to fulfilling another dream. Collins hopes to acquire her first set of footy boots soon, enthusiastically telling SBS she played touch footy for the second time in her life with colleagues on a dewy Canberra morning during the first sitting week. Banks MP Zhi Soon Zhi Soon still finds it "a bit surreal" to sit in the chamber as the MP for the Sydney seat of Banks, having won the seat — held by the Liberals since 2013 — on his second go. The Malaysian-born former diplomat, previously stationed in Afghanistan, is inspired to apply lessons learned from other countries and make Australia "an education superpower". Currently looking at early childhood options for eight-month-old daughter Dorothy, he is passionate about "making sure that every child in this country can access mobile childhood education right through to schooling from primary school to secondary school". Banks MP Zhi Soon is passionate about education access. Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop He says Australia can learn from the likes of South Korea, Singapore and Finland. While Soon was elected to a suburban Sydney electorate, he's no stranger to getting his hands dirty, with his in-laws often putting him to work on the farm. "A bit of everything, from feeding potty lambs to chipping burrs [removing weeds], mending fences and helping out with drenching [giving sheep medication to prevent parasites], is pretty commonplace when I go out there," he said. In his first speech, Soon said multiculturalism is more than a word. Elaborating to SBS News, he recalled different families that have treated his "with such warmth". "It's about bringing people together, no matter what background you come from and being able to share that culture with each other". This included food, and he said he grew up on Lebanese kibbeh. Calwell MP Basem Abdo New father Basem Abdo brought home his son Noah on election day, 3 May, a joy compounded by keeping the Victorian seat of Calwell in Labor's hands after a tight race that involved 13 candidates. While his focus is steadfast on his community, he finds being separated from the four-month-old tough, but says he has unlocked a new skill: "sleeping standing up". In an emotional first speech, Abdo shared several trials, from leaving Kuwait in 1990 at the outbreak of the First Gulf War to more recently, losing his mother. Basem Adbo has experienced the effects of war first-hand. Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop His memories of buildings shaking and taping windows, as well as being "confronted by Israeli occupation" during a 2011 visit to the the occupied West Bank , inform his advice to colleagues about war. "When we turn off our television screens, those things are still happening. And it's incumbent on all of us to consider that and to consider the long-term view of things when we're trying to reshape things," he told SBS News. Abdo says he will champion issues of his community inside the private caucus process, including Palestinian statehood, which he views as more than symbolic. "It's the right of self-determination. I would view it as a right, not as just symbolism," he said. The first MP of Palestinian heritage represents a diverse electorate, with one in four residents Muslim. He looks forward to tackling economic challenges important to his community, including aligning "skills policy with the jobs of the future". "It's not just for young people coming out of high school, it's also people in middle age [who are] going to reskill. As we transition the economy, we don't want a generation gap," he said. Barton MP Ash Ambihaipaher The young lawyer, who won the safe Labor seat of Barton in Sydney, is proud to have been raised by a diverse community from her Tamil Sri Lankan uncle, Thiru, to an Italian family that taught her to "brine olives, make salami and roast chestnuts". She used her inaugural speech to recognise how much Barton has changed, highlighting that Australia's first prime minister Edmund Barton, for whom the seat is named, championed the White Australia policy, while over half of the seat's residents are now born overseas. "I think pointing it out was just to illustrate that we as a community, nationally, Australia has evolved, and that's okay, and it's about learning from the past," she told SBS News. The seat was previously held by former minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, who retired from parliament at the election. Ambihaipaher describes being "personally devastated" by the failure of the Voice to Parliament referendum. However, she thinks a lack of information and understanding within her community highlights an opportunity to bridge an education gap about "what we're trying to achieve". Ash Ambihaipaher says she "lives and breathes multiculturalism". Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop "If we don't fill that gap with education and truth-telling and talking about what has happened, then we've lost. We're already on the back foot in that sense," she said. Adding later, "I think we end up living in little silos, and I think it's important that any representative should be a conduit to make sure that people understand each other's issues." Chatting to SBS amid the chaos of the first parliamentary fortnight, Ambihaipaher recalls "finding peace" and moments of reflection in a previous job, working in a mortuary. "When there's a lot going on in in this world you do reflect on those times when you're in the mortuary, it's very quiet. You've just got this little crackling radio in the background. It is a very peaceful place," she said.
ABC News
7 hours ago
- ABC News
Did Donald Trump just give China a major advantage on AI?
Last month, the Trump administration quietly reversed one of its own policies by lifting a ban on US tech giant Nvidia's H20 microchip exports to China. For anyone who has followed Donald Trump's erratic record on trade, another U-turn might not sound like a notable development. But this time, the stakes are much higher because these microchips are critical to powering the next generation of artificial intelligence. Whichever country dominates microchip production will likely lead the global AI race, with massive implications for military strategy and economic output. For nearly three years, the US has tried to keep these powerful chips out of China's hands. Now, by reopening the door, has Mr Trump handed Beijing a major advantage on AI? We spoke to three experts to explain how we got here. Back in April, the Trump administration banned H20 microchip exports to China, toughening restrictions put in place by the Biden administration. It has since reversed that decision. According to Jason Van Der Schyff, a fellow at Australian Strategic Policy Institute's technology and security program, this backflip may be in response to the booming black market demand for high-powered US chips in China. "Over a billion dollars worth of restricted chips were smuggled into China in just a few months," he said. "The reversal may be a pivot by the administration, recognising if you don't offer a legal channel for the slightly degraded chips, buyers will simply go around you." Professor Shahriar Akter, who specialises in the study of advanced analytics and AI at the University of Wollongong said this move seems to follow "a philosophy in Silicon Valley that if you sell more" it will pour more back into "your research and development". Associate Professor in Information Systems at Curtin University, Mohammad Hossain, suggested the Trump administration is trying to kill two birds with one stone. The US is trying to maintain leverage in a broader geopolitical trade-off involving China's critical exports, rare earth elements, while "keeping China dependent on US technology", he said. Nvidia is the tech giant behind these highly sought after microchips and it is led by CEO Jensen Huang who is the ninth-richest man in the world. The H20 is a step-down from Nvidia's top-tier chips (H100 and B200) and was specifically designed to comply with US export restrictions while catering to the Chinese market. "Basically, [H100 and B200 chips] can do things much faster than the H20," Mr Van Der Schyff said. "If we consider how quickly AI is moving any impediment that could be brought to time more than anything is going to maintain that US strategic advantage." While the H20 is less powerful, Mr Van Der Schyff warns that "these aren't toys … even slightly downgraded chips still enable model training at scale". "If you're concerned about national security, letting an adversary access chips that are only one rung down the ladder still poses a strategic risk." While the US hopes to stall China's progress in artificial intelligence, experts warn this strategy may have the opposite effect. China's push to dominate AI is already underway and restricting exports to only H20 chips incentivises them to accelerate domestic developments. "At present in the world, 50 per cent of AI researchers are being produced by China alone," Dr Akter said. Chinese tech giants like Huawei and Biren Technology have been ramping up their own AI accelerators. "Huawei's chips are already being deployed in major training clusters," Mr Van Der Schyff said. Still, China's domestic developments trail behind industry leaders like Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung when it comes to cutting-edge manufacturing. "There isn't necessarily a danger that China catches up overnight but these restrictions do however give Beijing a clear incentive to sort of go all in on industrial policy for their own semiconductors to accelerate domestic progress," Mr Van Der Schyff said. "We've seen this play out previously with 5G and also with aviation." All three experts cautioned that it's difficult to gauge China's true AI capabilities. "Given the closed nature of China's systems and their propensity to not always tell us the truth", it's unclear how much China's artificial intelligence has developed, Mr Van Der Schyff said. Dr Akter used an analogy to explain the uncertainty: "There are two types of AI technologies", one is called glass box and the other is called black box. "Glass box technology is basically explainable AI, which is open source and we can explain where data is coming from and how it is being used to develop AI models and what would be the outcome." Whereas, black box technology is the opposite, we cannot trace back to the source of the data and we cannot tell what models have been used. That opacity makes it difficult for the rest of the world to assess whether Beijing is playing catch-up or quietly pulling ahead. The country that has the upper hand in microchip production will likely lead the global AI race and that has significant repercussions, experts said. "The country that dominates compute will dominate AI, and AI will shape everything from military planning to economic productivity."
