Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy with the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, in 2025. Australia has announced more money to help Ukraine fight against Russian attacks. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/EPA
Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy with the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, in 2025. Australia has announced more money to help Ukraine fight against Russian attacks. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/EPA
Angus Taylor says he won’t join Pauline Hanson in judging people based on skin colour or race
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, said he would not join One Nation’s Pauline Hanson in judging people “based on the colour of their skin or their race”.
“I judge people on their character and their conduct … if she wants to judge people based on the colour of their skin or their race, One Nation needs to explain that,” Taylor told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.
Migration in this country has been too high and the standards have been too low, and that must change.
But what we favour is a values-based immigration policy where people who come to this country adopt our core values, and that is regardless of race or religion or where they come from.
Angus Taylor. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
In her address on Wednesday, Hanson rejected accusations One Nation is a racist party and claimed it was common sense to oppose what she described as the “failed policy of multiculturalism”.
Asked if Australia was still at risk of being swamped by Muslim migration, as she claimed in 2016, Hanson said: “Not if I have anything to do with it.”
She accused the media of double standards and petty attacks, of missing the party’s re-emergence and its role in speaking for disgruntled voters.
“Australians aren’t buying this crap from the political establishment and its media supporters any more,” she said.
“I understand people are angry. I really get this,” Taylor said on Thursday.
But what we need in a response to that is a credible plan, and we didn’t get that yesterday.”
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has defended the federal government’s adjustments to its controversial capital gains tax (CGT) changes, rejecting claims that Labor was forced into a humiliating backdown by furious business groups.
Appearing on ABC’s 7.30, Chalmers faced intense questioning from Sarah Ferguson after announcing the turnover threshold for small business exemptions would lift from $2m to $10m. The $475m tweak effectively carves out 98% of active Australian businesses from the new tax dragnet.
Ferguson suggested the carve-out exposed a hurried policy and a government whose commitments were built on “shifting sands”. Chalmers said the concessions were the result of “meaningful consultation” rather than a capitulation to industry backlash.
“We have chosen the harder road of reform rather than the political path of least resistance,” he said, arguing the broader policy was vital to help young first home buyers.
Chalmers also ruled out resurrecting a previously floated gas export tax, insisting the government was “entirely focused” on legislating its current, highly contested tax agenda over the next fortnight.
When pressed on whether Australia’s Asian trade partners could trust his word that a gas export tax was permanently off the table given recent pivots over other policies, Chalmers said:
I understand that people will level that charge against us, but then it’s more important to us that we get the substance right rather than the politics right.
AFL great Tony Modra in serious condition after truck accident
AFL great Tony Modra has been seriously injured in a truck accident on his South Australian property, Australian Associated Press reports.
Modra, renowned as one of the AFL’s most brilliant players in a career spanning 1992 to 2001 at Adelaide and Fremantle, was in hospital in a serious condition with undisclosed injuries on Thursday night.
Modra was driving a truck on his property at Back Valley, about 90km south of Adelaide, when the vehicle struck a tree about 5.15pm ACST (5.45pm AEST) on Thursday.
“Police and emergency services responded to reports that a truck had crashed into a tree at Range Road, Back Valley,” South Australian police said.
“The driver and sole occupant of the truck, a 57-year-old man from Waitpinga, was taken to hospital for treatment for serious injuries.”
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir, who played alongside Modra at the Dockers from 1999 to 2001, was shocked by the news.
“He’s obviously a big part of the Freo family and all I can say is I wish him and his family well,” he said.
“Hopefully he can pull through. I’m thinking of him. We’re all thinking of him and his family.”
Modra has lived on a beef and cattle farm at Waitpinga since 2003. A dual All Australian and five-time Crows leading goalkicker, Modra, who was born in McLaren Vale, south of Adelaide, kicked 588 goals in 165 AFL games.
Tony Modra, pictured in 2017. The AFL legend has been seriously injured in a truck accident on his South Australian property. Photograph: Morgan Sette/AAP
Australia announces $100m in new support for Ukraine
Tom McIlroy
The federal government has announced another $100m in support for Ukraine as it continues its fight against Russia’s invasion.
Australia’s ambassador to Nato, Angus Campbell, represented Australia at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting in Brussels overnight, announcing plans to bring Australia’s overall support for Ukraine to over $1.8bn.
The new contribution will come in the form of two $50m payments to the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, of which Australia is a major backer.
It will help secure the military equipment and capabilities the country needs to defend itself, including air defence capabilities and munitions, the government said.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, said:
What happens in Ukraine matters here in the Indo-Pacific, which is why it is so important for Australia to stay the course and continue to stand with Ukraine until they find peace on their terms.
<small>Source: The Guardian</small>
