Importance Score: 75 / 100 đ´
Key events
On environmental laws, Plibersek denied that the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, had intervened in a bid to strengthen them, saying the blame was squarely at the feet of the Greens and the Liberals in the Senate.
You can read more on the history of these laws here:
Tanya Plibersek says Americans donât want âa Big Mac taxâ
Plibersek was asked about tariffs in the US, and made a somewhat laboured segue into saying it showed Australia was on the right track economically before getting into the meat of the issue (pun intended).
We are well-prepared and in a better place than most other nations to deal with this uncertainty.
But no one likes to look on as the two biggest economies in the world play chicken.
I think, for Americans, this is actually also a very confusing time as well. I think a lot of Americans, when they start to see prices rise domestically in the US, will begin to wonder why this is happening in the American economy. Australian beef goes into Big Macs.
I donât think Americans want a Big Mac tax.
Plibersek on the campaign
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has just spoken to the ABC.
She spoke about the ongoing tumult in the US, the election campaign, whether she would be interested in becoming opposition leader should Labor be defeated on 3 May and sea dragons in Sydney Harbour (really!).
Australian judge resigns from Hong Kong’s highest court
An Australian judge has become the latest foreigner to resign from Hong Kongâs highest court before the end of his term on Friday as a security crackdown fans international criticism of a perceived erosion of the rule of law in the financial hub.
Robert French, a former chief justice of Australiaâs high court, said he respected Hong Kong and the âintegrity and independenceâ of the remaining foreign judges but that the ârole of the non-permanent justices on the court of final appeal has become increasingly anachronistic and arguably cosmeticâ.
Britain and China agreed to have non-permanent foreign judges on the court when London handed its former colony over to Chinese rule in 1997 under a âone country, two systemsâ formula.
Their presence was widely seen by lawyers, businesses and politicians as burnishing the cityâs rule-of-law credentials after it lost access to Britainâs privy council for appeals.
Noting that the Hong Kong court was the only one in greater China to have foreign judges serving, French said there âmay be a substantive role for international judges in Hong Kong in the future as part of an international commercial courtâ.
The government confirmed the resignation in a statement, saying it was grateful to French for his valuable contributions and his âsupport for the rule of law in Hong Kong.â
Last year, another non-permanent judge, Britainâs Jonathan Sumption, quit the court shortly after a landmark verdict in which 14 prominent democratic activists were convicted for subversion, part of a national security crackdown on dissent.
In their latest Back to back Barries podcast, Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry examine Peter Duttonâs surprise backflip on his work-from-home policy, and ask: what can the Coalition do to recover from a bad week? And can they limit the damage quickly?
Have a listen here:
As promised, we have Malcolm Farrâs take on whatâs gone wrong so far for Peter Dutton.
He speaks to the director of public data at the pollsters YouGov, who says the collapse followed Duttonâs âembrace of controversial Trump-style policies such as banning work-from-home arrangements and proposing to sack 40,000 public-sector workersâ.
With the US president taking his wrecking ball to the global economy as well, things have just spiralled for the self-styled antipodean Trump.
At a time of global disruption, voters might be seeking a calm hand on the tiller.
Dutton has now realised the US president isnât a suitable model for Australian politics, no matter what his billionaire acquaintances such as Gina Rinehart say.
Australian voters broadly think American politics is nuts at the best of times and menacingly toxic under Trump. Why vote for a wannabe Trump here?
Hereâs the full piece by Malcolm:
Our reporter Henry Belot has an exclusive about Zahid Safi, who is running as the Liberal candidate in the Melbourne seat of Bruce.
Safi is listed as the last author on a 2021 Senate submission which says victims of the Afghanistan war did not suffer âbased on ethnicityâ â a claim that flies in the face of Australian government and UN opinion.
Read his full report here:
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live blog of the election campaign as we enter day 16. Iâm Martin Farrer, bringing you some of the best of the overnight stories and then it will be Nino Bucci with the main action.
Although weâre more than two weeks in, this weekend will see the two major parties officially launch their election campaigns â expected tomorrow. Anthony Albanese will be in Perth and weâll be there with him to bring you the latest, while Peter Dutton will make his announcement in western Sydney.
Weâre looking at whatâs gone wrong with the Coalition campaign this morning, specifically of course how Peter Dutton has gone from leading Anthony Albanese in the polls to trailing. Veteran Canberra observer Malcolm Farr is on the case.
And we also have an essay by Paul Daley about the prime minister and how 3 May will define his legacy.
We have an exclusive news story about how the Liberal candidate for Bruce co-authored a parliamentary submission suggesting the Hazara community in Afghanistan was not persecuted on the basis of its ethnicity, contradicting the Australian government and drawing rebuke from international human rights groups. More coming up.
An Australian judge has become the latest foreigner to resign from Hong Kongâs highest court before the end of his term on Friday as a security crackdown fans international criticism of a perceived erosion of the rule of law in the financial hub. More to come.