Latest news with #TedO'Brien
Sky News AU
20-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Shadow treasurer Ted O'Brien warns Albanese government ‘definitely going after taxing capital' at economic round table
Shadow treasurer Ted O'Brien has accused the Albanese government of plotting to raise taxes on capital, ahead of Treasurer Jim Chalmer's economic round table. Mr O'Brien told Sky News Sunday Agenda that the government was laying the groundwork to increase taxation across key areas of the economy. It comes after leaked treasury advice warned that the government would need to hike taxes or cut spending in order to avoid massive budget blowouts. 'I think it's clear the government wants new taxes, and I think that's one of the things we have to prosecute over this first sitting of the parliament,' Mr O'Brien said. 'They're definitely going after taxing capital. They're going after taxing investment. They're going after taxing companies. 'I believe they have an agenda to tax — there's just no doubt about that.' The government has invited economists and business leaders to the economic round table from 19 to 21 August 2025 to address possible tax reform. However, Mr O'Brien questioned the integrity of the roundtable, suggesting Labor may already have made up its mind on key economic reforms. 'My fear here is Labor might actually have an agenda already, and that this is nothing but a talk fest,' he said. The opposition has called for a broader, bipartisan approach to tax reform, with Mr O'Brien signalling the opposition was open to a 'holistic' discussion. 'If it's done holistically, if it's looking at more efficient taxation, if you're looking at fixing up what is currently a mess with Labor being overly reliant on income taxes.' Labor is facing mounting fiscal pressures including ballooning NDIS costs, an expanding defence budget, and the cost of the Future Made in Australia program. Former Treasury secretary Ken Henry recently warned that without stronger productivity, the government would be forced to either raise taxes or cut spending. 'If we continue on that trajectory … we will have no option but to raise taxes,' Mr Henry told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
Perth Now
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
'Message of inspiration': state election buoys Liberals
Federal Liberals should take heart from Tasmania's election result, its deputy leader says, despite another hung parliament in the state looming. Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockcliff claimed victory at the election on Saturday, with his party securing 14 seats compared to Labor's nine. But both major parties have fallen short of the 18 needed for a majority, with negotiations set to begin on forming a minority government. Party members should be hopeful about the future of the federal division, despite its election wipeout in May, Deputy Liberal leader Ted O'Brien said. "There's clearly a difference between federal and state elections, but those who think the Liberal Party is on its knees and nearly dead, I think you can only just look at the Tasmanian election," he told Sky News on Sunday. "We are rebuilding, and so, if anything, it really should be a message of inspiration to Liberals right across the country. "Hopefully sanity will prevail. I don't think Tasmania deserves yet more uncertainty over the weeks ahead." Saturday's election was the fourth time in seven years voters in the state have headed to the polls. Former federal Liberal MPs who were defeated at May's federal election have been voted into the state's lower house, including Bridget Archer and Gavin Pearce. Tasmanian Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam said there were many reasons why the party did not perform at the federal election but had the largest vote share at the state poll just two months later. "We ran a bad (federal) campaign. We didn't run a campaign relevant to Tasmania. We weren't speaking to their issues," he told ABC's Insiders program. "Politics is local, and never has that been more true than in a place like Tasmania. They own their politicians, they own their issues. They want Tasmanian solutions." While Liberal and Labor parties in Tasmania were in negotiations with the crossbench to form minority government, Senator Duniam said there was not a conceivable path for Labor to get into power. "It would be an unimaginable disaster for there to be a Labor party that's gone backward in the polls to join up with the Greens and a range of crossbenchers who have all very disparate views about the future of our state," he said. "It would send us backward, and we'd be back at the polls in no time." Labor experienced its worst-ever result at a state election, receiving just 26 per cent of the primary vote. Labor frontbencher Michelle Rowland said time was needed to work out the results in the state. She said the result was likely Tasmanians backing the status quo. "There is something to be said about the desire for stability, I think, by all voters," she told Sky News. "This has a bit of a way to go in terms of the count and in terms of who may be in a position to form what looks like minority government."
Sky News AU
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
‘More a cheerleader than a leader': Albanese torched for ‘weak' visit to China
Deputy Opposition Leader Ted O'Brien says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's trip to China 'speaks to weakness'. 'When you have six days in country, I think it is fair for the Australian people to expect more from it,' Mr O'Brien told Sky News Australia. 'I think he was particularly weak on issues of security. 'The prime minister is more a cheerleader than he is actually a leader.'
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
News Corp commentator Lucy Zelić nails her political colours firmly to the mast
Lucy Zelić has graduated from an SBS sports broadcaster with perfect pronunciation of foreign names to a conservative commentator who happily describes herself as one of the 'Liberal faithful'. In 2018 Zelić's custom of pronouncing World Cup footballers' names in the same way they would be in their home country saw her labelled 'spectacularly silly and flamboyant' by the News Corp columnist Claire Harvey. Zelić joined the Daily Telegraph as a columnist in May, and this month branched out as an afternoon host on Nine Radio's 2GB. At the Tele she has written extensively about her opposition to trans women competing in women's sport and attempting to be housed in women's prisons. She has argued that childcare is harmful for children: 'You'll have to forgive me for longing for the days where our fathers went to work, our mothers spent our formative years at home with us and blocks of land cost as little as $400.' This week, filling in for afternoons host Michael McLaren on 2GB, Zelić conducted a cosy interview with the deputy opposition leader, Ted O'Brien, in which she declared her political allegiance. Even by 2GB standards it was highly partisan. 'I've got a personal question to ask you first,' she said. 'Please tell me, as a Liberal faithful, which I have been for many years and so many of our loyal listeners are, can you give me some good news? Ted, are we going to get our act together, mate?' Zelić continued the interview by referring to the Liberals as 'we', asking if 'we are any closer to … standing in our convictions and rediscovering what it is that people really loved about the Liberal party. 'Cause I had your back, mate, I'll tell you now.' Zelić did not appear to believe her interview was biased in any way, as she finished up with: 'Ted, I appreciate that you've fielded some of the tough questions I've thrown at you today.' Zelić and 2GB declined to comment. Last weekend readers using the Canberra Times app were stunned to read a profile of former police constable Zachary Rolfe under the headline: 'Who is Zachary Rolfe: the story of the NT cop with prominent Canberra parents.' The feature, written in 2022, was updated in the version available on the web with several introductory paragraphs referring to the findings of the inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker in Yuendumu the previous Monday. The coroner, Elisabeth Armitage, found that Rolfe was racist and it could not be ruled out that his attitudes contributed to his conduct on the night he shot and killed Walker. However, the version served to readers on the Times app appeared without the updated paragraphs and could still be found there in its original form as of Friday. The feature focused on Rolfe's Canberran parents, Richard and Deb, who have 'been supporting Indigenous artists for years'. It said their son, one of three, attended Canberra Grammar, was in the first XV for rugby and rowing and lived in the wealthy suburb of Red Hill. 'Zach Rolfe's friend said he was influenced by his parents' attitudes and beliefs, of wanting to help others. And trying to portray Constable Rolfe as a privileged toff wasn't the reality.' A family friend was quoted as saying Rolfe 'was always goal-driven. He always said to me that he liked having a hard day's work. So I think that's been hard for him the last three years [as at 2022], he hasn't been able to work. He's felt a bit unproductive.' The feature was promoted prominently on the front page of the Times website and app on Saturday, independent of any coverage of the inquest, with the lines: 'Zachary Rolfe came from a world of privilege but his parents always made sure to give back.' In the comments section multiple readers asked why the 'puff piece' did not refer to the coroner's findings. Comments could still be read on the app on Friday, but were not visible on the web version. The updated paragraphs made no mention of Rolfe being found to be racist, other than via a link to a separate story on the inquest. The editor of the Canberra Times, John-Paul Moloney, is on leave but a spokesperson for its publisher, ACM, said the masthead 'stands by the publication of this background article' and pointed to seven other stories published about the inquest and the coroner's findings. 'The second paragraph of the article links directly to reporting of the findings,' the spokesperson said. 'The fact that this is an article from 2022 is made clear at the top and bottom of the article.' The web version does include a footnote saying the story was from 2022 and had been updated, but the app version did not, as of Friday. ACM was contacted for further comment on the discrepancy between the app and the web version of the story. Allen & Unwin will publish a substantial book about the Rolfe case, The Red House: Kumanjayi Walker and Zachary Rolfe: An Australian Reckoning. It was written by the Walkley award-winning researcher and producer Kate Wild, who worked for the ABC for many years, and will come out next month. Wild, who has been following the story since she heard the news in 2019, has written 'an exploration of the inseparable connections between this country's past, present and future and the chance to change that cycle'. Wild says she has spoken with countless people who saw the conflict between Rolfe and Walker as the 'centre of a map'. 'Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Territorians have taken me along some of their paths on that map over the last five years, and before that,' she said. 'I hope their work and my efforts combined have made markers on a new road.' Bluey has done it again, becoming the most streamed show in the US for the first half of 2025. In 2024 it was the most streamed show in the US for the entire year. US viewers watched 25bn minutes of the seven-minute show on Disney+ between January and June this year, according to Nielsen streaming content ratings. In second place was Grey's Anatomy with 22.5bn minutes. Six out of the top 20 most-streamed titles fell into the animation category: Bluey; Family Guy; Bob's Burgers; SpongeBob SquarePants; American Dad! and South Park. The ABC originally co-commissioned the series with BBC and has the Australian streaming rights. It was marked 'satire' at the top of the page but some readers were still tripped up by an opinion piece in Thursday's Age by the state political editor Chip Le Grand, headlined: 'Premier gives thanks to her everlasting gift: the Liberal Party'. In the scenario Le Grand visits the Labor premier, Jacinta Allan, at home and gets a tour of a house adorned with tributes to Liberal failures. 'On the eastern wall, before a golden butsudan, stands a squat statue in the image of John Pesutto, a former Liberal leader who, on the day he was dumped by his party colleagues, was comfortably ahead of Allan in the polls,' Le Grand writes. 'On the western wall hangs a painting in the style of French Romantic Eugene Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People depicting Moira Deeming in a flowing gown hurdling over a prostrate Pesutto to barricade the entrance of a unisex bathroom.' His point was summed up in the last line: 'Politics wasn't meant to be this easy.' Some Age readers relished the satire and thanked the writer for the laughs. Others remarked: 'This only works if it's funny.' Journalists covering the Erin Patterson trial in Morwell were astounded when the reporter from newswire Australian Associated Press departed before the jury returned its verdict. The supreme court said it was the biggest criminal case in recent memory, with 252 journalists and outlets registered for updates. Many of those, including an AAP reporter and photographer, converged on Morwell to report from the scene. A handful each day had a chance to sit in the courtroom itself. Why would AAP, which has dozens of clients relying on its copy, leave the scene at the 11th hour after a nine-week trial? The acting CEO of AAP, Emma Cowdroy, confirmed the reporter left because resources were stretched and it was too expensive to leave a journalist 'for an indefinite period of time at Morwell'. The jury was out for seven days and the media were left in a holding pattern in the small town. However, the court did provide a live audio feed to a court in Melbourne where AAP, and many others, covered the verdict. 'On the day of the verdict, we had a photographer at the court at Morwell, as part of our plan to remain there as/when possible,' Cowdroy told Weekly Beast. 'We provided quick and effective coverage of the verdict to our subscribers, including valuable ongoing content.'
Sky News AU
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Ted O'Brien may not back US-style primaries for NSW Liberal Party
Deputy Opposition Leader Ted O'Brien is reluctant to say whether he will support a US-style primary voting system for the party's NSW branch. The Liberal Party is considering adopting a plan which will allow members of the public to decide who should be preselected. Mr O'Brien says he wants to foster a 'healthy debate' within the party to decide on an outcome.
