Key events
‘Factional assassin’
Husic says deputy prime minister Richard Marles wielded “a factional club to reshape the ministry”. The former minister for industry and science is speaking on ABC Insiders.
Asked “why do you think you were dropped?,” Husic said:
Factions play a really important role in managing merit, moderating ambition and providing an orderly transition for renewal. That’s very important.
The difficult issue here is that we’ve had bare faced ambition and a deputy prime minister wield a factional club to reshape the ministry. I think people, when they look at a deputy prime minister, they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin.
Husic says Gaza a ‘factor’ in being dropped from cabinet
Former minister for industry and science Ed Husic says speaking up on Gaza was a “factor” in his being dumped from the prime minister’s cabinet.
He appears on ABC Insiders this morning:
You can’t celebrate diversity and then expect it to sit in the corner silent. You need to speak up, when you bring the different views to either a Cabinet table or a caucus. I certainly took the view you need to speak up for the communities that you care about. I certainly tried to help us navigate … difficult issues, such as Gaza, post the horrors of October 7. I don’t think I could ever stay silent in the face of innocent civilians slaughtered, tens of thousands starved out of Gaza. So, I tried to find the way to be able to speak to the Cabinet table and speak elsewhere, to be able to make sure that their voices are heard.
And importantly, if I can end on this point. There are a lot of people that are seeing things on the TV screens, seeing the horrors, turning to their political representatives, and they’re not asking for the lines of the day, they’re asking for a statement of values, what you believe in, what you will stand up for, and I think that is an important obligation to fulfil.
I think I fulfilled my role not just as a Cabinet minister but as a caucus member. You should have the ability to speak up on the issues that you believe in. You should have the ability to question. It builds a stronger, not a weaker, party, to do so.
When asked “Do you think this has cost you?”, Husic responded:
I think it’s been a factor in there. Would I do things differently? I don’t think so.
Husic conceded last year that many Muslim and Arab Australians did not feel listened to by the Albanese government over Israel’s war in Gaza, describing his public interventions as necessary so that people believed “that their concerns have somewhere to go to be vented and aired”.
Read more about Husic and Mark Dreyfus being dropped in Tom McIlroy’s report here:
Lisa Cox
NSW forestry agency should be shut down for repeatedly breaking law, critics argue
A former magistrate and one of Australia’s most experienced scientists have launched an extraordinary attack on the New South Wales government’s logging agency, describing it as effectively a “criminal organisation” that should be shut down after a string of court convictions.
Prof David Heilpern, a NSW magistrate between 1998 and 2020 and now the dean of law at Southern Cross University, said the state’s Forestry Corporation should be “disbanded” as it was was no longer fit for purpose.
The corporation has been convicted of more than a dozen environmental offences, including a judgment in the land and environment court last year that found the agency was likely to reoffend and had poor prospects of rehabilitation.
Read the full story:
One of the key considerations for the new Liberal leadership will be how the party reacts to the deep political currents that led to its massive loss in the election.
We’ve had a look at one of those trends: the party’s ‘women issue’:
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price nominates for Liberal deputy leadership
Krishani Dhanji
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has formally nominated for Liberal deputy leader, days after leaving the Nationals party room.
Nampijinpa Price will run with Angus Taylor, and said in a statement, the decision brings “a great deal of responsibility which I fully accept”.
The Country Liberal party senator from the Northern Territory sparked anger among Nationals for defecting this week, as leader David Littleproud called the decision “disappointing”.
As a CLP senator, she can sit in either the Nationals or Liberal party room, but told 2GB radio earlier this week that there was an “expectation” for her to sit with the Nats.
Price released a statement this morning, and said the Liberals needed to “fight for the forgotten people”.
There is no question that returning to our roots as a party is critical right now. If we want to inspire and empower Australians across our country, we must return to these roots – these basic values – that define who we are as a party.
We must once more remember and fight for the forgotten people, those on whose shoulders Australian society has been built and still depends. These are the mainstream Australians who have a big contribution to make.
The party will vote for its leaders on Tuesday, the same day the new Albanese ministry will be sworn in.
We’ll get to the politics in a second, but it’s worth noting a heartwarming social media post that Price put online overnight.
Her Instagram post, accompanied by a family photo, read:
Thanks to my grandmother and mother for teaching me resilience, determination and demonstrating what it means to have self belief. Happy Mothers Day all the wonderful mothers ♥️
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Welcome
Good morning, and happy Mother’s Day!
We’re launching our live blog today with the news that Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has confirmed she will run for the deputy leadership of the Liberal party, days after defecting from the Nationals party room.
