Source : the age
Key posts
The speed limit on Bells Creek Arterial Road appears ambiguous. After turning off the Bruce Highway towards the coast about 90 kilometres north of Brisbane, motorists make their way through the pine plantations, and forgotten paddocks, into the massive Aura housing development, advised only to slow down – to 70km/h – for a few roundabouts connecting side streets yet to open.
Baringa, one of four greenfield suburbs being built in Aura, is a microcosm of the interstate and international migration transforming the state’s south-east. That growth is also evident in voter enrolments for the federal seat of Fisher in which it sits, 11.5 per cent above the average electorate (almost 15,000 additional voters) and ripe for redistribution. There are currently five seats in Australia with double-digit enrolment deviation, and all are in south-east Queensland.
Aura, the so-called City of Colour, will see a community the size of Port Macquarie or Shepparton settle in between the beach and the Bruce Highway.Credit: Dan Peled
The speed limit on Bells Creek Arterial Road appears ambiguous. After turning off the Bruce Highway towards the coast about 90 kilometres north of Brisbane, motorists make their way through the pine plantations, and forgotten paddocks, into the massive Aura housing development, advised only to slow down – to 70km/h – for a few roundabouts connecting side streets yet to open.
Baringa, one of four greenfield suburbs being built in Aura, is a microcosm of the interstate and international migration transforming the state’s south-east. That growth is also evident in voter enrolments for the federal seat of Fisher in which it sits, 11.5 per cent above the average electorate (almost 15,000 additional voters) and ripe for redistribution. There are currently five seats in Australia with double-digit enrolment deviation, and all are in south-east Queensland.
The prime minister has wished a happy Easter to “happy little Vegemites” as diplomatic efforts have ensured that Canadians will again enjoy the popular Aussie spread. Watch the video.
Labor has pledged a fresh funding injection to extend the Revive Live program, providing support for Australia’s live music venues and festivals.
The election commitment extends the program to 2026-27 with an additional investment of $16.4 million, adding to $8.6 million pledged in the 2025-2026 budget. The total investment amounts to $25 million.
The initiative is available to majority Australian-owned live music venues and contemporary music festivals that showcase Australian artists.
Arts Minister Tony Burke said venue and festival owners across Australia had told him the program had provided the support they needed to continue hosting and promoting live music.
“Gigs have always been a huge part of my life. I know the vital role live music venues and festivals play in providing local artists with the chance to perform, develop and grow audiences,” Burke said.
“This increased funding for Revive Live will help to ensure that the music we make here is the soundtrack to Australia.”
Anthony Albanese has visited the Sydney Royal Easter Show. Here are some pictures.
The prime minister visited the show each year when he was a child. He said his mother had first taken him there when he was one month old.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Albanese hailed a diplomatic victory on Vegemite again being allowed in Canada.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The PM visited the show after Dutton.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The PM says the show gives city kids a great opportunity to engage with animals.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Albanese has congratulated Labor Party campaign boss Paul Erickson and his partner Dimity Paul, who have welcomed their first child.
Paul Erickson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“It’s just wonderful news,” Albanese said while speaking at Sydney’s Easter show. “Paul Erickson’s a dear friend of mine and Dimity is someone who is just remarkable. People who know Dimity story, she’s a breast cancer survivor, who’s an advocate, she’s just a wonderful human being, and I have been able to send them very warm congratulations, and I do so publicly today.”
Erickson, who is national secretary of the federal Australian Labor Party and also ran Anthony Albanese’s successful 2022 campaign, took a brief break from the election over Easter to welcome his first child, a baby girl, in Canberra. Paul is chief of staff to Sports Minister Annika Wells.
Albanese has spruiked the Labor Party’s record, saying there is a clear precedent for the government in delivering for working people.
“Defending the rights of working people to have decent wages and conditions is something we’ve been doing since 1891,” he said. “We have supported working people earning more, and also we support them keeping more of what they earn.”
The prime minister has detailed Labor’s legacy of protecting workers.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
It comes as the government today announced it would introduce laws to protect penalty rates, with Labor also promising to deliver a series of income tax cuts and extending the instant asset write-off for small businesses if elected.
Albanese has pointed to what he said was opposition’s lack of transparency and backflipping on policies such as working from home.
“This is an opposition with policy chaos,” he said. “They didn’t do any work over three years.”
The PM said the Coalition would backflip on policies after the election if voted in.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Albanese referred back to the 2019 election campaign when costings for Coalition policies were only laid out a few days before the election.
“That was pretty unwise,” he said. “Dutton continues to say that they will have to make cuts, but they’ll tell you what they are after the election.”
Albanese also suggested the Coalition would backflip on policies after the election if voted in, citing Liberal senator Jane Hume’s comments today in support of bringing people back into the office.
“During this campaign, you’ve had chaos on work from home,” he said. “Hume said the quiet bit out loud, which is they are coming after work from home after the election.”
Albanese has taken a jab at Dutton and accused the opposition leader of asking for information on events that were not happening.
“This is a week where Peter Dutton could not say that the science on climate change was real because he wasn’t a scientist,” he said. “I said the other day, does he believe in gravity? Because he’s not a scientist? Or the world is round? I mean, this is flat-Earth stuff.”
The prime minister also said Dutton had shown he was not match-fit for global diplomacy when the opposition leader “verballed” the president of Indonesia and said that he had made a statement that “just wasn’t true.”
Albanese said Dutton’s request for a briefing on Russia’s apparent bid to host military aircraft out of Indonesia was asking for information on something that was not happening.
“I mean, do they want a briefing on the fake moon landing?” Albanese asked. “That is where they are at as an alternative government.”
Albanese says he will continue pushing for the release of Australian Oscar Jenkins believed to be in Russian captivity.
“We’ll continue to make representations to the reprehensible regime of Vladimir Putin on behalf of Mr Jenkins,” he said.
A video of Jenkins was posted online earlier this year, seemingly showing him alive in Russian captivity but suffering from a broken arm.
“We will stand up and use whatever avenues we have at our disposal to continue to make those representations,” Albanese said.
The prime minister said he wanted to see peace in Ukraine but that it needed to be on terms acceptable to Ukraine.
“The Russian war against the people of Ukraine is a war against international law,” he said. “The people of Ukraine are fighting for a democratic nation, for their own sovereignty. I have clearly said, unlike the coalition, that we’re prepared to consider being part of a coalition of the willing peacekeeping force Ukraine.”
Education Minister Jason Clare has blasted Dutton’s policies.
Speaking at the Easter show, Clare said comments from Liberal senator Jane Hume today revealed the true intentions of the Coalition which only recently backflipped on its policy to stop public servants from working from home.
Jason Clare and the PM have slammed the Coalition.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“Now, let’s get it clear about what Peter Dutton is,” he said. “This is Dutton dressed up as lamb. He is pretending that he doesn’t want to stop people from working from home.”
Clare said the Coalition was trying to con people into voting for them, and that the “cat’s out of the bag”.
“Hume thinks stopping people working from home is a good policy,” he said. “It’s less than two weeks, and we’re starting to see what they really think again.”
