Live: Labor one seat away from majority, Barnaby Joyce to be challenged for Nationals leadership

Albanese to sign submission for minimum wage increase

The Prime Minister will today sign a submission to the Fair Work Commission, urging it to give those on the minimum wage a pay increase. 

Anthony Albanese campaigned on the issue and said he would support the wage being lifted to match inflation. 

But he says Labor’s submission will not specify a figure. 

“There won’t be a number in the submission but what there will be though is the strong view that we have that people who are the minimum wage simply cannot afford a wage cut,” he said. 

Penny Wong’s message to the Pacific: ‘We stand shoulder to shoulder with you’

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says it was important to travel to the Pacific “to demonstrate our commitment to a building a more secure region, and a stronger Pacific family.”

She also met with Henry Tpuna, the Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum.

Liberal Party might consider gender quotas, MP says

“It will probably be something we’ll discuss,” Liberal MP Stuart Robert said.

“We all understand we want a greater reflection and diversity in parliament. Our parliament should look like our community.

“We all know that you can’t be what you can’t see, so the opportunity to get a more reflective parliament, I think, is something we should all be focused on.”

‘You can’t judge Peter Dutton on his views’, Liberal MP says

Peter Dutton has been the centre of his fair share of controversy during his more than 20 years in parliament.

In 2015, he was caught on a “hot mic” making a joke about “water lapping at the door” of Pacific Island nations because of climate change and the next year he made inflammatory remarks about refugees’ literacy levels.

He was also the only opposition frontbencher in 2008 to boycott then prime minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations and personally voted no “and encouraged people to do the same” to same-sex marriage in the 2017 postal vote.

Ultimately, Dutton voted in favour of same-sex marriage in parliament after majority support for it was made clear by the postal vote.

But Liberal MP Stuart Robert says you can’t judge the next Liberal leader on his views or actions. 

“You can’t judge someone on either comments they’ve made, or decisions they’ve done when they’re exercising their either personal conscience or their particular viewpoint,” he told RN Breakfast. 

“Just because someone’s got a different view to the ABC, respectfully, doesn’t make them terrible or wrong.

“It simply gives them a different view, and that has got nothing to do with the size of his heart or the quality of his character or the capacity of his intellect, respectfully.”

Stuart Robert chalks up the Liberals election loss to ‘longevity’

Liberal MP Stuart Robert says the reason the party lost Saturday’s election will vary from state to state, but cited “longevity” as a main reason.

“One [reason] is simply the longevity of the government,” he told RN Breakfast.

“Any governments that been there for a while, I think Australians start to say ‘well, maybe the other team should have a turn.'”

Liberal MP grilled on asylum seeker boat text message

Liberal MP Stuart Robert has refused to say whether or not it was appropriate that Scott Morrison instructed the Australian Border Force to publicise an interception of a suspected asylum seeker boat on election day.

“I can’t comment on it having not been involved in it,” Mr Robert told RN Breakfast. 

“But I think all Australians understand that the Labor party, by virtue of history, is incredibly weak on our borders. They’ve show that consistently, and I dare say they’ll show that again.

“In the circumstances of this case, without any details, I simply can’t comment.

“I’ll leave others to determine what they’re going to investigate.”

He added he thought it was “hilarious” the new Labor government are going to investigate the text messages.

“I won’t be taking lectures from the Labor party on caretaker conventions or boat arrivals.”

Dutton has the chance to show ‘his full character’, Stuart Robert says

The Liberal party will gather in Canberra on Monday, with former Defence Minister Peter Dutton expected to be chosen as the new leader

“I hope you’ll see the Peter Dutton that I know and respect. I’ve known him for a long, long time,” Liberal MP Stuart Robert told RN Breakfast this morning. 

“You’ve seen Peter Dutton take on some very tough roles in terms of Home Affairs and Defence and that requires a fairly tough resolve to keep Australians safe in a difficult world.

“Peter’s opportunity now is to show the full side of his character, which his family knows and loves.

“He is a warm-hearted, very, very decent, very competent individual.

“People will see the depths of his understanding, they’ll see the size of his intellect and I think they’ll see the size of his heart.”

Liberal Party to look at role of ‘teal’ independents and controversial preselections in post-election review

Just days after its election defeat, the Liberal Party has announced the terms of its post-election review, focusing on the loss of seats to “teal” independents, and problems in the preselection process.

Analysis: Albanese has had a stellar first week — but it will only get harder from now

The timing of the Quad has been much to Albanese’s advantage, however, at home, the picture is grim on cost of living, as treasurer Jim Chalmers has underlined this week, writes Michelle Grattan.

For many Australians, the remainder of this year will be very difficult, and there is not much the government can do about it.

The October budget will be a juggling act for Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher — who are already searching for savings — and not as benign as the March one.

One message from this election — most notably in the large vote for the “teals” — as well as from extensive other evidence, is that Australians are deeply disillusioned with the way politicians conduct themselves.

They are looking for a more civil discourse. Admittedly, the adversarial system, the nature of today’s media and feral social media work against this.

And broad statements of good intentions — “I want to lead a gentler parliament,” said Mr Albanese on Thursday — are not enough.

However, if Mr Albanese can actually succeed in raising the tone on the political battleground, that will be very welcome for many voters.

• You can read the full analysis from Michelle Grattan here

Is Darren Chester not that optimistic about his leadership chances?

When he wrapped up his reply to the previous question, Darren Chester said he “wouldn’t be putting too much money on me at this point.”

“Let’s be honest with each other. There’s been one Victorian leader of the Nationals in 50 years. We have got a bit of work to be done,” he says. 

“I think it’s healthy for our room if several candidates put their hands up.

“There is people like David Littleproud, Michael McCormack, former leader Keith Pitt. Michelle Landry a real champion in Capricornia. Anne Webster told people she’s interested in the deputy leader role.

“I think it’s time for a change, it will be a question of whether the colleagues see me as part of that or whether they go for someone else.”

Darren Chester says he gets on ‘very well’ with Peter Dutton

If Darren Chester becomes Nationals leader, and Peter Dutton becomes the leader of the Liberal Party, what will their relationship be like?

“Peter Dutton and I get on very well. When he was the leader of the House I was deputy leader of the House so we had to work together in terms of managing the House. And he was defence minister, I was veterans minister. We get on very well,” he says. 

“Let’s be honest, there hasn’t been a Victorian leader of the Nationals for 50 years, I wouldn’t be putting too much money on me at this point.”

Does Darren Chester think Barnaby Joyce was a drag on the Coalition’s vote?

Darren Chester says “there is no question I think that some of those more extreme comments from some of my colleagues had an impact” of last Saturday’s vote.

“I think we have to be honest with each other in the room, in the National Party room, and have that conversation. Because there’s no question in my mind that some of the comments by a few colleagues — only a few — which were quite extreme in their views, had an impact on the Liberal Party candidates in those more moderate parts of urban areas.

“It’s not a great result for the Nationals to find themselves in Opposition because then we can’t be in the room where the big decisions are made and really influence the outcomes for regional Australians.

“Let’s be honest with each other in the National Party room and figure out how to develop our policy, how we conduct ourselves in the public debate and not be sabotaging the campaigns of Liberals in the city.”

So which colleagues is he talking about?

“I have made my feelings known last year about some of the comments from George Christensen and Matt Canavan at the time,” Darren Chester says.

“They weren’t helpful to the cause and I made it clear at the time I didn’t think that was a way our party needed to go. I’m not here to bag colleagues, I’m trying to trying to find a way our party can unite itself. We really are a difficult party to lead for anyone.”

Darren Chester says Nationals need to connect with younger, female voters going forward

“The Nationals did really well last weekend. We held all our 16 seats. That’s a positive for us and I congratulate Barnaby and the whole team for doing that,” Chester says.

“The point is we had significant swings against us in many seats. I’m concerned as I travel around my electorate and regional Australia I’m constantly getting feedback from younger voters and female voters they don’t think we connect with them, we are not focused on the diversity of issues they are interested in and I need to focus on ways to connect with these people.

“That’s what I’m putting myself forward for, a fresh start in terms of putting forward different approaches how to connect with regional Australians going forward.”

Darren Chester says he can offer a ‘more moderate, more respectful’ democracy

Victorian MP Darren Chester is on News Breakfast this morning and has been asked why he’s challenging former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce for the Nationals leadership. 

“First of all, what I will say is I’m not here to tip a bucket on Barnaby Joyce, he’s our leader and has done the best he can do in that job.” Chester says. 

“But when we have a transition point like election, in the National Party the leadership positions are declared vacant, both leaders and deputy and I think it is healthy for the room, and good for the democracy of the room, that members who are interested in taking a leadership role put their hand up and we have a ballot.

“That’s what will happen on Monday, it may well be more than me that puts our hand up. I think it’s important we listen to the message we received over the weekend from the Australian people.

“I think they want us to be perhaps more moderate and more respectful in public debates in this country. They want a calmer democracy I guess and I think I can offer that to the room.

Nadesalingam family could find out today if they can return to Biloela

The Prime Minister has indicated a decision regarding the future of a family of Tamil asylum seekers, removed from their home in regional Queensland, will be made today.

The Nadesalingam family was removed from Biloela in 2018 by immigration authorities, after a court found they were not owed protection by the government.

The family is currently in community detention in Perth, and Labor went to the election promising they would be allowed to return to Biloela.

Anthony Albanese has told Nine Radio their situation has dragged on too long.

“We are a strong enough society to say that we should not treat people badly, in order to send a message to others. And it’s beyond my comprehension how this has gone on for so long, at enormous cost,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. 

Albanese says Morrison approving asylum seeker media release was a ‘breach’

The Prime Minister says it was a disgrace for his predecessor Scott Morrison to approve a media release about asylum seekers on election day. 

The Commander of Operation Sovereign Borders issued a statement confirming Australian authorities had intercepted a boat traveling from Sri Lanka. 

Federal Labor believe the media release was issued so the Liberal Party could send text messages to voters about border security. 

Anthony Albanese says the media statement was a breach of caretaker conventions, but he’s not blaming public servants. 

“Very clearly this statement was made so that it could facilitate the sending of… we are not sure how many but potentially many millions of text messages to voters in a last minute scare campaign,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

“It was an entire breach of proper processes.”

France trusts new Labor government, French ambassador says

The French ambassador to Australia says France trusts the new Labor government.

It comes after President Emmanuel Macron called Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to congratulate him on winning the election.

In a statement, the Elysee Palace said the pair agreed to rebuild relations and noted the deep breach of trust caused by the Morrison Government’s decision to terminate a $90 billion submarine contract.

On Radio National, the Ambassador Jean-Pierre Thebault has been asked if France trusts Australia again.

“We do and we hope that unfortunate events that happened in the past will be lessons in that we will remeber when … and being sincere and being straight forward.”

LNP government had been ‘dismissive’ of North Sydney, Independent says

News Breakfast: Lots of soul-searching within the Liberal Party, lots of questions over which path the Liberal Party will go now that they have lost so resoundingly. One particularly robust contribution came yesterday from Tim Smith, a Victorian Liberal state MP. He says the Liberal Party should not focus anymore on seats like north Sydney, Kooyong, Goldstein, instead turn its focus to the outer suburban seats, the regional seats, and he says, and I quote, he’s called voters in seats like yours, North Sydney, “Loud, entitled and privileged.” What do you say to that mindset within the Liberal Party?

Kylea Tink: Look, I think that I actually feel really sorry for anyone who could speak like that about any constituency. I don’t think it matters if it’s the seat of North Sydney or the seat of Gwydir where I grew up. Every seat has the right to be heard and I truly believe that for us to be the best nation we can possibly be, we need to be pulling ourselves together, not driving ourselves apart. And it is true that this government had been very dismissive of North Sydney over the last six years, really. We were just described as inner city wine bar residents or, you know, latte sipping. The reality is there’s very good people that live in Sydney. People who work hard, who have really worked to educate themselves, are raising their families, are building businesses. So to use terminology like that on anybody in this country I think is actually probably speaks volumes as to whether or not that person should be in Parliament.

What happens to the independents if Labor gets a majority?

If Labor wins one more seat, it can govern in its own right and would not have to negotiate or consult with the independents.

Independent for North Sydney Kylea Tink says she thinks “all Australians would like the new Prime Minister to approach politics differently in this next term.”

“I think it’s fascinating that we use that language that the government doesn’t have to consult to get legislation through because the reality is that every community’s voice in the House of Representatives should be equal. That’s why we have the number of seats we do.

“If we didn’t want to consultative Parliamentary environment, why wouldn’t we just say, ‘You’re in government, the rest of you can sit down for the next three years and don’t bother turning up’?

“I do think it’s really important that our Parliamentary system look at what’s happened in this last election and really move towards a positive way of doing politics in this country which is embracing the House of Representatives as an area where communities can come to consensus on the best way forward for our country rather than someone just saying, ‘Well, I won so it’s my way or the highway.'”

Independent says voters tired of ‘party politics’

Independent Kylea Tink, who won the seat of North Sydney, says voters turned away from the LNP government because they felt weren’t being represented anymore. 

“It was the fact that the government hadn’t been listening for the last three years,” she told News Breakfast. 

“The specific issues [they mentioned] were faster action on climate, the introduction of an Integrity Commission, addressing how our economy is geared and addressing the systemic inequality we have in our country, they were fundamentally things people wanted to see action on.

“But the reason they were drawn to our campaign is because we were very clear that my job as their representative would be to argue for those things in the House of Representatives, and time and time again the message I received from people is they were really tired of party politics and they had a real sense that the people who were sitting in the House of Representatives had stopped representing them and were actually engaged in party political fighting.

“So I think that’s actually what this moment in political development means in Australia, and it is really exciting to think that we may be returning our House of Representatives to what it was initially designed for — which was to provide representation equally for all communities.”