Turnbull tells Taylor to stand up and make his intentions known
The former PM Malcolm Turnbull, who was rolled in a leadership spill pushed by Peter Dutton and won by Scott Morrison, tells RN Breakfast he won’t offer an opinion on who should lead the Liberal party, but that if Angus Taylor wants to run he needs to “stand up and say” it.
Turnbull had pushed Dutton to come up with a list of names on a petition to call a spill, which had initially delayed the move.
He tells RN Breakfast:
I think it is fair if people want to remove the leader, then they should be prepared to put their hands up. You know, so as I said, I think this is true with Taylor. I mean, if Taylor wants to be leader, [he] should stand up and say he wants to be leader, say why, and those people who support him should stand up and take responsibility for it.
He adds that even Sussan Ley, who is more moderate compared to Taylor or Andrew Hastie, isn’t actually a moderate, and had backed Dutton in that 2018 coup.
Key events
Jonathan Barrett
CBA posts record profit but warns of ‘upward pressure’ on interest rates
Commonwealth Bank has warned that interest rates remain under “upward pressure” from inflation after reporting a record $5.45bn half-year cash profit backed by surging home loan volumes and business lending.
Australia’s biggest lender said in an earnings release this morning that the economy was struggling to meet increased consumer demand. CBA said:
As a result, inflation is now expected to remain above the Reserve Bank’s target band for some time, placing further upward pressure on interest rates.
The bank’s cash profit was up 6% from a year ago, beating expectations. It announced an interim $2.35 dividend, up 10c from a year ago.
CBA reported a fall in the number of people falling behind in their mortgage repayments as a percentage of its total mortgage book, after last year’s three interest rate reductions and tax cuts eased household pressure.
The arrears level is still elevated and the impact of last week’s rate hike is yet to hit mortgages.
The strong profit result drew criticism from the Finance Sector Union which has complained that the bank’s workers are subject to rising workloads and are anxious over an increase in automated processes.
Butler avoids making judgement on Tame’s use of ‘globalise the intifada’ phrase
Health minister, Mark Butler, has defended Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia and reiterated that its purpose is to “provide comfort and solace” to the Jewish community.
Almost every politician is being asked about former Australian of the Year Grace Tame’s use of the phrase ‘globalise the intifada’ at a Sydney march on Monday.
Butler is next in the RN Breakfast hot seat, and says that the phrase isn’t “useful”, and adds his name to the list of politicians telling people to turn the temperature down.
To the extent that globalised the intifada means bring the conflict to the streets of Australia, it is not a proper phrase to be using.
I think we have a great tradition of freedom of speech, of the right to demonstrate and protest here in Australia. People have done that for decades, including about their views on conflicts that are happening in many other parts of the world. People did it in relation to the Vietnam War and the Iraq War and many others. Really it is a question of reiterating the importance of peaceful protest, of respectful dialogue.
On Tame’s use of the phrase, Butler says:
That’s a matter for every individual who uses the phrase to answer to.
Turnbull laments the Liberals’ shift to the right
Turnbull has made no secret that he doesn’t like the party shifting towards the right and believes his former colleagues have spent too much time watching Sky News after dark.
He says the party should stop focusing on culture wars and stop chasing Pauline Hanson down the “burrow”.
The problem the party has got is that it has drifted away from the center of Australian politics. It’s become lost in this sort of world, this bubble of populist right-wing media … They’re fighting culture wars and, you know, basically chasing Pauline Hanson down a right-wing populist borough, and no wonder her vote is ahead of theirs. They’ve got to get back to the centre.
Turnbull tells Taylor to stand up and make his intentions known
The former PM Malcolm Turnbull, who was rolled in a leadership spill pushed by Peter Dutton and won by Scott Morrison, tells RN Breakfast he won’t offer an opinion on who should lead the Liberal party, but that if Angus Taylor wants to run he needs to “stand up and say” it.
Turnbull had pushed Dutton to come up with a list of names on a petition to call a spill, which had initially delayed the move.
He tells RN Breakfast:
I think it is fair if people want to remove the leader, then they should be prepared to put their hands up. You know, so as I said, I think this is true with Taylor. I mean, if Taylor wants to be leader, [he] should stand up and say he wants to be leader, say why, and those people who support him should stand up and take responsibility for it.
He adds that even Sussan Ley, who is more moderate compared to Taylor or Andrew Hastie, isn’t actually a moderate, and had backed Dutton in that 2018 coup.
Turnbull says Herzog should be ‘respected as a guest’ while in Australia
The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has defended the government’s invitation to Isaac Herzog, and said he should be “respected as a guest” while he visits.
Speaking to ABC RN Breakfast this morning, Turnbull said protesters should have demonstrated “peacefully” and heeded the advice of police. But he added that in hindsight, the police should have allowed men who were praying on the street to finish. The men were captured on film being dragged on the ground by officers.
Nobody is justified in assaulting police and they should have complied with the lawful directions from the police.
I don’t know the whole context, but one would have hoped that the police would have waited for the prayers to be concluded, frankly … I think in retrospect, I’m sure they feel they would have been better off letting them conclude their prayers.
Turnbull says that like Anthony Albanese has, he would urge the public to turn the temperature down “rather than allowing this visit to become an occasion for increasing the division”.
I think the question people will ask after this visit is whether the visit from President Herzog has assisted in making it very clear that the Jewish community in Australia should not be targets of or the objects of protests against the state of Israel. I mean, the one thing we have to be clear about in this multicultural society of ours is that we cannot allow foreign wars to be fought out here.
Islamophobia envoy calls for NSW police to apologise
Adeshola Ore
Australia’s Islamophobia envoy, Aftab Malik, has called for a public apology and investigation into New South Wales police grabbing men kneeling in prayer during a Sydney protest against Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s visit.
Video shot at a protest in Sydney on Monday night showed about a dozen men, led by sheikh Wesam Charkawi, kneeling in prayer, before police descended on the group at the Sydney town hall during the protest.
Appearing at Senate estimates hearing last night, Malik said there needed to be “consequences”:
The police need to come out with a public apology. There needs to be an investigation.
There are some red lines and that was crossed last night. That is simply unacceptable, and the police force should know better …. there is no excuse.
Malik said he had spoken to a number of people who were grabbed by police and said they were “scared.” He said people were in a “vulnerable state” while they were praying.
McKenzie criticises Grace Tame over chant
The Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has joined her former colleague Barnaby Joyce in criticising Grace Tame, after she addressed a march against Isaac Herzog in Sydney on Monday and said “globalise the intifada”. Joyce said yesterday that Tame’s Australian of the Year honour should be stripped.
McKenzie told Sunrise this morning that Tame should face consequences.
President Herzog’s visit should be a time of healing in the wake of the Bondi attack.
Joining McKenzie on a Sunrise panel, housing minister Clare O’Neil took a different tone and said that while the chant shouldn’t be said, there shouldn’t be a “pile-on” against Tame, and urged everyone to “turn the temperature down”.
Before we start a national pile-on on to Grace Tame, can we just remember that every single child in our country is safer today because of her willingness to talk about traumatic incidents of sexual abuse.
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, defended Tame yesterday against Joyce and said his criticism “says a lot more about Barnaby Joyce than it does about Grace Tame”.
Speculation mounts over Taylor and Liberal leadership challenge
Speculation is growing that Angus Taylor could resign from shadow cabinet today, as he positions himself for a leadership spill against Sussan Ley.
Shadow cabinet rules mean Taylor would have to resign to begin publicly campaigning against Ley, and would see Taylor’s close allies also forced to resign from their frontbench positions.
Yesterday Jonathon Duniam, a senior and influential member of the Liberal right faction, told Taylor to make his intentions known.
Meanwhile, Ley’s allies want her to demand Taylor and his allies put their names to a petition calling for a spill, a move that was discussed in private talks on Tuesday.
Sarah Basford Canales
‘Assertions, hypotheticals and opinions quickly became accepted as facts by some’
In his opening statement, Burgess cautioned those judging the agency’s actions in retrospect with the benefit of hindsight.
Naveed first came under Asio’s purview in August 2019 after suspected links to possible Islamic extremism while a teenager. In the weeks leading up to the Bondi attack, he and his father, Sajid, travelled to Davao City in the Philippines for a month.
Critics questioned why the trip to the southern province of Mindanao – a former hotbed for pro-Islamic State and Islamist militant groups – hadn’t raised national security flags.
Burgess said:
In the days and weeks after the Bondi attack, assumptions, assertions, hypotheticals and opinions quickly became accepted as facts by some. They were recycled and exaggerated in the following weeks. This resulted in calls for action that were not supported by any fact.
In a rare public intervention, Asio issued a lengthy critical statement on Sunday ahead of a program aired on ABC’s Four Corners.
The episode broadcast claims by a former undercover agent, known as “Marcus”, that father and son terrorists Sajid and Naveed Akram were showing signs of being radicalised years before they killed 15 people at Bondi beach.
Asio’s statement said the episode contained “significant errors of fact” and would reserve the right to take further action.
Burgess said on Tuesday night he was still considering what action to take.
Is there either a legal response or additional statements from me publicly to demonstrate the false claims? Of course, I’m minded and aware of there’s a royal commission, and I think that’s the best place through which I will do that.
He reiterated on Tuesday night the alleged former agent’s claims were untrue but said he was welcome to put that to a royal commission.
Asio boss dismisses criticisms over Bondi terror attack
Sarah Basford Canales
The head of Australia’s domestic intelligence agency has dismissed criticisms that his officers didn’t do enough to prevent the Bondi shooting attack as “baseless” while declaring claims by a former undercover agent aired on the ABC were untrue.
Asio’s director general, Mike Burgess, told a Senate estimates hearing last night he ordered a review immediately after the attack into how his agency assessed shooters Naveed Akram and his father Sajid in 2019 when they first appeared on the radar.
Burgess said the independent review remained highly classified but cleared Asio of wrongdoing.
The Akrams did not adhere to, or intend to, engage in violent extremism at that time. In other words, many of the claims and criticisms being made about Asio’s handling of the case are baseless.
The Asio chief said he welcomed the royal commission’s final report, due before 14 December 2026. He said:
The royal commissioner, of course, will reach her own conclusions.
If Asio is found to have made mistakes, we will own them, and we will learn from them.
Man charged after allegedly shining torch at police at Sydney protest
Penry Buckley
A demonstration against the New South Wales police’s response to Monday’s protest in Sydney against the visit by Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, ended mostly without incident last night, despite an hour-long standoff between protesters and police.
In a statement last night, NSW police said an 18-year-old man was arrested at the protest after allegedly continuously shining a torch in the face of police officers. He was taken inside Surry Hills police station and police said in another later statement that he had been charged – with three counts of assault police officer in execution of duty without actual bodily harm, and custody of knife in public place.
As we reported yesterday, the protest was organised by the Palestine Action Group outside the Surry Hills police station to “rally against police brutality” after violent clashes on Monday, and to call for all charges against protesters to be dropped. Yesterday’s protest was static and peaceful, with Josh Lees, an organiser for the Palestine Action Group, calling on the crowd to “not stick around for too long in these parts” when speakers concluded about 7pm.
While the larger section of the crowd of at least a thousand dispersed, a smaller group of several hundred people headed immediately towards a line of about a hundred officers separating the protesters in Harmony Park and the police station. At this time, Guardian Australia witnessed one protester being restrained by police behind the line of officers.
An at-times tense standoff of more than an hour followed, with some protesters verbally confronting police at close quarters, and the crowd chanting “quit your job” and “too many coppers, not enough justice”. Officers took out canisters of pepper spray, and some protesters put on protective masks and goggles, but incidents like those seen on Monday night did not materialise.
Organisers including Lees stood with their backs to the line of police, facing the crowd, in an attempt to prevent the situation escalating, and were eventually able to convince protesters to move on.
NSW police assistant commissioner Peter McKenna said police had “showed enormous restraint in a high-pressured situation”.
Welcome
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you for what will be another busy sitting day.
There’s more reaction to Monday night’s protests with calls from Australia’s Islamophobia envoy for a public apology from New South Wales police after they were seen grabbing men who were praying on the street.
The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, will continue his travels in Australia and visit Canberra today.
Asio has overnight defended itself against criticisms over the Bondi terror attack during a Senate estimates hearing.
The government has reported an uptick in bulk-billing rates – the health minister, Mark Butler, is doing the media rounds this morning spruiking the trend.
And Angus Taylor is inching ever closer to a leadership spill against Sussan Ley – all eyes and ears are on the Liberals to see if they make any moves today.
I’ve got a coffee, I hope you’ve got one too, let’s get cracking!
