‘Economic vandalism’: Major projects axed

Ms King on Thursday announced a list of major rail and road projects would be axed under a federal overhaul of infrastructure spending.

One in ten future projects will be cut after an independent review found that “too many large-scale projects are receiving funding commitments without adequate planning.”

She said the review had found an estimated $33 billion in known cost pressures in the program, and that the figure was on track to blow out further.

“It is clear that the previous government deliberately set about announcing projects that did not have enough funding, and they knew could not be delivered,” she said.

“It can only be described as economic vandalism.”

Dutton’s anti-Semitism rant ‘darkest hour’

Peter Dutton’s use of anti-Semitism to criticise Labor’s response to a major High Court ruling has been condemned by a senior minister who called yesterday’s Question Time the darkest performance he’s ever seen during his political career.

Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke lashed Mr Dutton for using racial bigotry as a “political opportunity” after the Liberal leader linked a rise in reports of anti-Semitism to divisions in Labor

“Yesterday was one of the darkest moments I’ve seen in the house in my nearly 20 years here,” Mr Burke said.

“At a moment where both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are experiencing levels of bigotry beyond anything that has been seen prior to October this year it is something where the role of leaders is to bring people together to call out all forms of bigotry.”

Speaking on Thursday, Labor MP Dai Lee said that Mr Dutton’s “inflammatory” use of language was counter-productive.

“Criminals who get released from prisons currently should have some kind of measures in place so people can track them,” she said.

“The High Court ruling took everybody by surprise and we need to get constitutional experts to find out how to address this. But I think we need to have a language that actually gets a solution, not to really inflame and instil fear in the community.”

‘Significant’ visa changes

The government has sought to rush a raft of new measures through parliament that will permit the use of electronic monitoring ankle bracelets, strict curfews and threat of jail time, in the wake of the release of dozens of detainees, including convicted criminals, in the wake of a High Court decision.

The High Court last week found ongoing detention to be unlawful if there was no prospect of them being deported.

So far, 84 people have been released into the community as a result of the decision, including convicted murderers, rapists, and child pedophiles.

The government has maintained that all of those people are on “appropriate” visas, but rushed through emergency legislation on Thursday to alleviate growing safety concerns among the community.

Immigration Minister Andrew Miles introduced the emergency legislation on Thursday that will criminalise bail breaches for those detainees impacted by the decision.

Those detainees will now be bound by curfews, ankle bracelets and mandatory reporting, and face five years behind bars for breaching, with an “equivalent penalty” for “repeated cases of non-compliance”.

Before the High Court’s decision, breaches of visas could be met with ongoing detention, but that is no longer possible for the detainees impacted.

Mr Giles said the government would continue to work through the implications of the High Court judgement.

“Further responses may be required once we have received the High Court’s reasons for decision,” he said.

Earlier, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the government has set “the strictest possible conditions” to keep the community safe.

Labor will seek to pass two bills called the Migration Amendment (Bridging Visa Conditions) bill and the Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Omnibus no 2) bill.

The urgent bill rush is in response to concerns that some of the individuals released into the community had been convicted of serious crimes, including murder and child sexual assault. It’s unknown how many of these individuals have committed crimes.

Albo’s US meeting under fire

Mr Albanese should not be taking a trip to the US for the APEC summit whilst legislation has not yet passed to deal with the release of detainees from indefinite detention, according to Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price.

Speaking earlier, Senator Price fired up at Anthony Albanese’s attendance at a major summit in the United States today.

“It is not one that can have any time to wait. This needs to be dealt with and dealt with immediately,“ she told Today

The Prime Minister’s decision to fly to San Francisco for a high-level Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering has raised eyebrows with the Coalition arguing Mr Albanese should be focused on domestic issues.

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to attend APEC meetings on Thursday with leaders poised to discuss trade and rising global tensions.

‘Unprecedented’

Liberal MP Julian Leeser has argued Israel’s defence force is abiding by international law and called for Hamas to be stopped.

The Israeli Defence Force stormed into one of Gaza’s largest hospitals late on Wednesday after it accused terrorist group Hamas of hosting a command post under the complex.

When asked about fears of the safety of civilians and hospital patients, Mr Leeser said deaths occurring were a “result of Hamas’ choices and actions” in “hiding its infrastructure under hospitals.”

“Hamas needs to be stopped in what they are doing. The terror tunnels need to be taken out. The infrastructure needs to be taken out.”

Rise in bigotry ‘appalling’

Independent MP Allegra Spender, whose Sydney electorate has one of the biggest Jewish communities in Australia, said rising reports of antisemitism were “appalling.”

Speaking on Sky News the prominent Teal condemned the government’s “shouting match” during Question Time yesterday and said the community did not feel safe.

“The Jewish community is really scared,” she said.

“I think this issue is of real concern and having a shouting match yesterday was not the way to make the community feel like it’s being taken seriously.”

Macnamara MP Josh Burns, whose electorate includes Caulfield, the site of last Friday’s clash between Palestinian supporters and the Jewish community, said rates of anti-Semitism were “certainly the worst in my lifetime”.

He said he was concerned not just by the far right, but more so by the “smaller groups of people who clearly feel quite aggrieved by what’s going on in the world and are … visiting the Jewish community”.

“We have had very thorough concerning incidents of which some of which are with various police agencies at the moment,” he said.

Coalition jumps on visa bill

Opposition Home Affairs spokesperson James Paterson has weighed in on Labor’s proposed visa law change calling the 18-page piece of legislation “pretty thin” and arguing that the government’s crackdown won’t support re-detention.

Senator Paterson said Labor’s threat to jail asylum seekers and refugees who breach their visa conditions for up to 5 years won’t be strong enough to deter offenders.

“All it does is enforce the conditions of visas, which the government already said were being enforced,” he said.