Australia news live: Albanese says objectives of Trump’s ‘board of peace’ are ‘unclear’; measles warning for Sydney

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Just rounding out the rest of the prime minister’s jam-packed Insiders interview, Albanese reiterated that Australia would give “further consideration” to Donald Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace but said it was unclear what the objectives of the board are.

It’s unclear what the objectives of this are, which is why we will give it further consideration. My government is one that always has an orderly considered approach to all of our policy, including our international engagement.

So we’ve had the 5% housing deposit rolling out, being taken advantage of. Three days of guaranteed childcare subsidy began on 6 January. Cheaper medicines, $25, came in on 1 January. 1800 Medicare has been accessed by tens of thousands of Australians. The bulk-billing incentive has led to a massive spike in the number of free doctor visits …

What we have been focused on is dealing with the immediate, but dealing with all of those issues that are so important for Australians as well. And as we go back, school goes back this fortnight, and what that will mean is that the increased fair funding for every school, that begins to kick in as well. So you can walk and chew gum at the same time, as the saying goes, and we’ve been determined to do just that.

We’re seeing them adopt One Nation policies and shift to the right. And the problem here is that what that is doing is legitimising the hard-right policies that One Nation advocate for.

You can’t fight One Nation by being a lighter version of them. Now people like the late Senator Ron Boswell understood that. John Howard understood that when he put One Nation last on how-to-votes. What we saw at the last election was a preference deal between One Nation and the Coalition. We’ve seen them become closer and closer as the Coalition have shifted to the right.

The politics of just identifying grievance and not coming up with solutions is a cul de sac that doesn’t get the country anywhere.

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Source: www.theguardian.com

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