Federal politics live: Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he wants to see a social media ban in place by Christmas

It’s clear the lesson Peter Dutton has taken from Trump’s victory: that if voters are angry enough about their economic situation, they can turf out an incumbent government.

And it has encouraged him to renew the cost of living attack line that has been a recurring theme for him as opposition leader, but which had taken second place in recent months to the war in Gaza.

This morning, he drew a triangle between migration, housing and energy, all of which he will argue reflect Anthony Albanese’s “poor management” of the economy.

And just as Donald Trump won votes among Hispanic voters, Dutton is pitching this message directly to recent migrants, who live in many of the outer suburban seats he aims to win.

“As a very proud migrant nation we celebrate the amazing contribution of migration to our country…

“But as every migrant family will tell you, they want a home for their 18-year-old one day, they want to make sure they’ve got a place at school…

“I just don’t think the government can continue to ignore Australians on the issue of migration.”

Dutton says there are similarities between the US and Australian experience when it comes to cost of living.

“Incumbent governments that do not read the room and do not understand the priorities that people have will be punished for it,” he says.

There’s been a lot of election speculation today on the blog in part thanks to WA Premier Roger Cook revealing he’d sought advice on moving the state election to avoid a potential clash.

Earlier, the PM denied speaking to Cook about the issue.

But that didn’t stop Opposition Leader Peter Dutton from questioning whether a “tricky deal” had been struck between the two Labor leaders.

“If there is a secret discussion or deal going on with the WA premier, I think the prime minister should be open about it because he has looked the Australian public in the eye before and said he would go full term,” he says.

“If that is not the case, has it changed and if so why?”

He went on to suggest the PM was only looking at an early election option to avoid a leadership challenge*.

*There’s been no speculation (at least that I’m aware of) that Albanese’s position is on the rocks.

A bill to address misinformation online has been branded “one of the worst bills ever put forward by an Australian government”.

The Coalition’s communication’s spokesman, David Coleman, came out swinging this morning as he hit out at the legislation.

The bill is currently before a Senate inquiry but is facing an uphill battle to find support after the Coalition announced it would not back the bill.

Here’s what Coleman told reporters in Queensland.

“It would have a chilling effect on free speech.

“It would mean that ultimately, government regulators would decide what can be said and what can’t be said. It is completely unacceptable in a democracy. It has no place in this country, and that’s why the coalition has so strongly opposed this legislation.”

Earlier, the PM was asked if, in the context of X-owner Elon Musk being expected to play a significant role in the Trump administration, he would stand by the legislation. 

“We decide the policies that Australia puts forward as a sovereign nation,” he said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is also up this morning. He’s speaking with reporters in Toowong in Brisbane’s south.

He wants the government’s proposed social media ban to be implemented by Christmas.

“We’ve got two sitting weeks coming up and we would encourage the government to make sure that they continue the drafting process to get the bill into parliament,” he says.

The proposal would ban children under 16 from accessing social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat and X. YouTube is likely to be captured by the law as well. 

But the government says there will be exemptions for “low risk platforms”.

Shadow Communications Minister David Coleman has extended an offer to work in a bipartisan way to get the legislation introduced as quickly as possible.

The PM was also asked if he should make a stop in Florida for a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump while he’s overseas.

Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham suggested the meeting should take place while the PM is in Peru and Brazil for the APEC and G20 meetings.

But Anthony Albanese said Florida was a bit out of the way.

“If you have a look at the map, it’s actually not on the way [home],” he told the reporter in Devonport.

The PM says Birmingham can’t make up his mind: “He says I do [too] much trips, then he says secondly I should do more.

“I had a really constructive discussion with president-elect Trump last week,” he says.

“It was a very good beginning to our relationship.”

Anthony Albanese says he’s confident Labor will be returned with a majority by voters at the next election.

The PM was asked about Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s view that a Labor majority was off the cards.

Albanese hit out at Dutton for not having a plan.

“We are now in the thralls, apparently, of an election campaign, perhaps in December, Peter Dutton does not have a single costed policy out there,” he says.

“He has one policy, which is for nuclear energy sometime in the 2040s, no plan for what happens with energy security in the meantime, just a plan for negativity and saying what he’s opposed.”

Albanese says he’s opposed “every cost of living measure” the government has put in place.

“This is a guy who doesn’t have a plan going forward,” he adds.

“I’m confident, I’m about majority Labor government.”

The PM, who is in Tasmania today, then gives a little taste of what we can expect for the rest of the day when asked if former state Labor leader Rebecca White could be named as the party’s candidate for Lyons. 

Anthony Albanese has denied speaking with his WA counterpart over potentially moving the date of the state election to avoid a clash with a federal poll.

Yesterday, Premier Roger Cook set the cat among the pigeons by revealing he’d sought advice on moving the fixed date of WA’s election.

The prime minister dismissed it as the media being “obsessed” with the election speculation.

Albanese says the election will be held next year, and be called “April, or before”.

“Look, I’m focused on governing. That’s what I’m focused on and I’ll leave the speculation to others.”

He reiterates it would be his preference for there to be four-year fixed terms at a federal level to avoid this “obsession with dates”.

Anthony Albanese is asked how he would deal with trade tensions between the US and Australia.

As a candidate, US president-elect Donald Trump vowed to introduce hefty tariffs on all imports.

In Tasmania this morning, he’s asked how he’d deal with a trade war between the US and Australia.

“I wasn’t aware there was one. So thank you for that announcement,” he says.

He continues:

“We support trade, and I know that the US has a trade surplus with Australia. It is in the United States’ interest and also Australia’s interest for there continue to be trade between our two great nations,” he says.

 Anne Urquhart gets a big applause from supporters watching on as the PM invites her to make a few remarks.

She says she’s excited by the opportunity to win Braddon for Labor.

“I was born here. I was raised here, and I raised my family here,” the senator says.

She says her motto is to “never give up”.

“I will fight for this region,” Urquhart continues.

Urquhart says she will resign as a senator and nominate as the Braddon candidate when the election is called.

“I’m sure the party will go through its own processes to fill the Senate vacancy.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is speaking now from Devonport on Tasmania’s north-west coast.

He’s there to announce Labor senator Anne Urquhart will be attempting to trade the upper house to the lower house at the next election.

She’ll be trying to wrestle the seat of Braddon away from the Liberals. The incumbent, Gavin Pearce, is retiring at the next poll.

The PM says “everybody knows the name Anne Uruqhart”.

“She has been a magnificent advocate for 13 years in the Senate,” Albanese says.

“She has made the right decision, as far as I’m concerned, to take that advocacy to the House of Representatives, to join the Labor team that we have there.”

We’re well into every political reporter’s favourite season: election speculation season!

Yesterday, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook set the cat among the pigeons by revealing he’d sought advice on the timing of his state’s fixed election amid concerns it could clash with a federal poll.

Social Services Amanda Rishworth was asked on ABC News Breakfast this morning if Australians could know if they’re going to the polls before January 26.

“That’s well above my pay grade,” she laughed.

“It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that we will be having an election in 2025.

“But for me and for my colleagues, we’ve got two weeks of parliament coming up. Where we want to pass very important legislation in a range of different areas, to support
Australians and to support them with cost of living pressures.

“So that’s where my focus is. And that’s where it will continue to be.”

Western Australians are locked in to vote on March 8. A federal poll is due before May 2025.

Australian farmers and some of the nation’s biggest companies could face the burden of significant tariffs on goods exported to the United States from next year.

US president-elect Donald Trump successfully campaigned on a promise to introduce an across-the-board tariff of either 10 or 20 per cent, which would represent a dramatic shake-up of current trade arrangements.

Andy Stoeckel, an honorary professor at the Australian National University and a former head of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), said Trump’s strategy could lead the world into a protectionist era.

“Protectionism is bad,” Dr Stoeckel said.

“Consumers end up paying and prices go up, so it transfers money from consumers to protected producers.”

You can read more from David Claughton below.

Shadow Environment Minister Jonno Duniam has denied the Coalition’s commitment to net zero by 2050 is in question as Nationals backbenchers continue to agitate for a climate policy rethink.

The backbench MPs want the policy revisited in the wake of Donald Trump’s US election win (something Nationals leader David Littleproud shot down quickly on Monday).

Speaking with ABC’s Radio National Breakfast, Duniam stressed a change was “not on the cards”.

“We are currently committed to, and as far as I’m aware, remain committed to net zero by 2050,” he says.

“That’s not the policy in question.

“What we need to do is, while we seek to do what we can to achieve those goals, which – including this government, doesn’t seem to be occurring too positively – is ensure that Australians don’t pay inordinate amounts of the things they need to do every day – electricity, getting about in their vehicles, so making sure that the goods so bad at the supermarket are not at increased cost.

“So there are a range of things we need to do there, but walking away from net zero as a standalone policy is not something that we are contemplating.”

He says Australia has it’s own problems to deal with and it needed to make sure “our policies suit our problems” (aka using taxpayer funded nuclear power plants to reach climate targets).

Former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr says he’s fearful of Ukraine‘s future under a Trump presidency, amid reports the US-president-elect has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

During the election campaign, Donald Trump said he’d find a solution to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours.

“Trump has been absolutely consistent on this, moreover, hasn’t had any opposition within his party,” he told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast.

Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should line up a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump in Florida, while he’s overseas.

Albanese spoke to the president-elect on the phone last week after the election and signalled they would look to meet in person soon, but it wasn’t clear when.

Senator Birmingham told Sky News the PM should arrange a meeting ASAP and said it should happen while he’s in Peru and Brazil for the APEC and G20 meetings.

“They should be seeking that and trying to attach it to these travels that have already taken Anthony Albanese to South America,” he said.

“The chance is there for him to go up to Florida, seek this meeting, that should be the type of proactive approach,” he said.

Bob Carr was also asked for his view on Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd’s future in the role.

Last week, the former prime minister deleted tweets describing Donald Trump as a “traitor to the West” and “the most destructive president in history” after the Republican’s election win.

Carr, a former Labor foreign minister, says Rudd is a “very fine ambassador” who “brings value to every meeting he has in Washington”.

“I couldn’t imagine a more effective ambassador at this time,” he told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast.

“He’s got tremendous access in Washington, and we should not be remotely defensive about criticisms he made of Donald Trump, especially given that the Trump’s own choice as vice president JD Vance in 2016 was referring to the man he now serves as US president, as quote, America’s Hitler, unquote.”

Bob Carr was also asked about the statement from former PM Paul Keating, accusing the government of being out of touch with the public on foreign policy.

The former Labor foreign minister said the militarisation of Northern Australia has “taken place with a scandalous lack of consultation with the Australian people”.

“Australian diplomacy should be quietly working, not only with America and with China, but with partners in Asia, Japan and India, towards the notion of a detente between America and China,” he told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast. 

“If you’re able to build areas of cooperation and reduce areas of adversarial conflict between the Soviet Union under Leonard Brezhnev and the United States under Richard Nixon and later under Ronald Reagan, it’s not this bigger task to aspire to increasing areas of cooperation and diminishing areas of conflict between China and the US, and that ought to be a goal of Australian diplomacy.”

Senior members of the government have been quick to hose down any suggestions the AUKUS submarine deal is under threat following Donald Trump’s election.

But former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr is not of the same view.

Speaking with ABC’s Radio National Breakfast, Carr says the scepticism is “far more widespread than is being admitted publicly in Canberra”.

He says there will be a point, either under Trump or the president that follows him, where the Secretary of the Defense will say the US cannot achieve its targets for submarines that are needed in the competition with China.

“It’s almost inevitable that that is going to happen, and we will be offered a new view of AUKUS,” he says.

“Which means American attack class subs being stationed on a virtually permanent basis in Australian ports.”

After the success of Trump’s cost-of-living slogans in the recent US election, the Coalition has already jumped on adopting a key message from the campaign, asking voters if they are better off now than they were 2.5 years ago.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth was given the task of downplaying concerns the line is a “government killer” (Karl Stefanovic’s words, not mine) on this morning’s TV shows.

“Of course we are very concerned and focused on the cost of living. I mean, that’s been our number one priority to fight inflation and to support cost of living where we can,” she told Nine’s Today Show. 

The Labor frontbencher argued comparing the US and Australia was like comparing apples and oranges.

“I think there’s some very different circumstances here in Australia to overseas,” Rishworth added.