PM Anthony Albanese Press Conference PM ALBO:  Thanks very much. This will be a short press conference for reasons that are obvious for those of you who are travelling with us to Tokyo. I am incredibly honoured and humbled to have been sworn in as Australia's 31st Prime Minister. Australians have voted for change. And my Government intends to implement that change in an orderly way. This morning, we had sworn in the interim Ministry that you see before you here in order to enable myself and Senator Wong to visit Tokyo for the Quad leaders meeting. In Tokyo, we will also have important bilateral meetings with President Biden, Prime Minister Kishida and Prime Minister Modi. I received a phone call last night and had a very fruitful and positive conversation, renewing my acquaintance with President Biden. The relationship with the United States is our most important, along with our relationships in the region and our multilateral commitments as well. The meetings that we will have, no

Queensland Floods Disaster assistance has been extended to the three Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Charters Towers, Flinders and Richmond following the intense rainfall and flooding throughout Northern and Central-Western Queensland over the past month. The assistance is made possible through the joint Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) and will help these councils to cover counter-disaster operations, such as clean-up and sandbagging, and the cost to repair essential public infrastructure damaged during the event between 21 April and 12 May 2022. Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience, Bridget McKenzie, said the Australian Government would always stand with Queenslanders after a natural disaster. “The DRFA extension to Charters Towers, Flinders and Richmond LGAs will assist the communities to recover from the effects of the recent deluge. We will continue to work with the Queensland Government to ensure that people affec

Man at Work ( Welder ) Image by  Mike Flynn  from  Pixabay   (ABS) The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April 2022 was 3.9 per cent, according to data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).  Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said: “In April, we saw employment rise by 4,000 people and unemployment fall by 11,000 people. As a result, the unemployment rate decreased slightly in April, though remained level, in rounded terms, with the revised March rate of 3.9 per cent. “3.9 per cent is the lowest the unemployment rate has been in the monthly survey. The last time the unemployment rate was lower than this was in August 1974, when the survey was quarterly.” The unemployment rate for males fell by 0.2 percentage points to 4.0 per cent, its lowest level since October 2008. For females, it remained at 3.7 per cent for a second month, which is the lowest it has been since May 1974. The participation rate also decreased in April, down by 0.1 perc

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State Berlin, Germany SECRETARY BLINKEN:   Good afternoon.  It’s a great pleasure to be back in Europe to continue intensive coordination with allies and partners on some of the most urgent issues facing our countries, and that begins with today’s NATO meetings.  And I want to especially thank Secretary General Stoltenberg for his leadership, the deputy secretary general of NATO, and especially Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of Germany – not only for hosting us, but for taking initiative to bring the foreign ministers together in an informal but very productive series of discussions. The 30 NATO Allies remain fully engaged, aligned, committed to supporting a democratic, independent, and sovereign Ukraine.  The world has seen the strength and resilience of the Ukrainian people these past three months.  It’s seen the unity at the heart of NATO.  President Putin launched this brutal and unprovoked war thinking he could eliminate Ukraine as an independen

PM Scott Morrison and Family   View from The Hill: Scott Morrison tells Liberal launch ‘I’m just warming up’, as he pitches on home ownership  THE CONVERSATION  When he mounted the stage as a warm-up speaker at Sunday’s Liberal launch, Josh Frydenberg received a reception beyond the obligatory enthusiasm required of the handpicked party faithful at these affairs. “Wow – I wish I got that reception in Kooyong,” the deputy Liberal leader and treasurer quipped. Frydenberg, fighting a desperate battle to survive against the teal invasion in his Melbourne seat, had already been on ABC Insiders with a defence of Scott Morrison, and various government policies, that wouldn’t do him much good with his local voters. It might have been all hands to the wheel for launch day, but the Brisbane gathering failed to project the image of a party on the verge of defying the odds to score a triumph. Morrison’s message was that he and the government had seen the country successfully through th

  With voting already underway, and the sausage sizzle less than two weeks away, there are three things worth knowing if you are trying to work out which side is most likely to win: the likely result in terms of the two-party preferred vote the record of the electoral pendulum, based on the two-party preferred vote, in predicting election outcomes, and the record of the opinion polls in predicting how far the electoral pendulum is likely to swing. Here’s how are they used together to predict a result. The two-party-preferred The two-party preferred vote (which compares Labor and the Coalition) combines the first preferences with second or other preferences. If Labor wins 51%, the Coalition wins 49%, and vice versa; the numbers always add up to 100. But the two-party preferred, on its own, is not enough to predict the outcome of the election. You also need to get your head around the electoral pendulum. The electoral pendulum Devised by psephologist Malcolm Mac

Statement by Philip Lowe, Governor: Monetary Policy Decision Number 2022-11          Date 5 April 2022 At its meeting today, the Board decided to maintain the cash rate target at 10 basis points and the interest rate on Exchange Settlement balances at zero per cent. Inflation has increased sharply in many parts of the world. Ongoing supply-side problems, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and strong demand as economies recover from the pandemic are all contributing to the upward pressure on prices. In response, bond yields have risen and expectations of future policy interest rates have increased. The Australian economy remains resilient and spending is picking up following the Omicron setback. Household and business balance sheets are in generally good shape, an upswing in business investment is underway and there is a large pipeline of construction work to be completed. Macroeconomic policy settings also remain supportive of growth and national income is being boosted by higher commodi

Lesbian Day of Visabilty White House Media: Celebration of Lesbian Day of Visibility, the White House hosted a roundtable conversation with trailblazing lesbian and LGBTQI+ senior leaders from the White House and the broader Biden-Harris Administration. The roundtable included lesbian and queer advocates, community leaders, leaders across the federal government, several of whom are the first out lesbians to hold their position, including Ambassador Chantale Wong, Director of the Asian Development Bank, who is the first out lesbian to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to an ambassador post; Admiral Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health, who is a lesbian and the first openly transgender woman to achieve the rank the four-star admiral in any of the country’s uniformed services; White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre; and Deputy White House Communications Director Pili Tobar. The roundtable was convened by White House Gender Policy Council Director Jennifer Klein.  Whi