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Key events
Katharine Murphy
Husic to address National Press Club
Good morning. As well as all the other moving parts today, industry minister Ed Husic will address the National Press Club at lunchtime to share his thoughts on Labor’s election promise to deliver a $15bn national reconstruction fund.
Husic will tell the NPC the fund represents “one of the largest peacetime investments in rebuilding and strengthening Australian industry”.
According to speech extracts circulated by his office in advance, Husic will say broad public consultation on the fund will begin next week to better define priority investments and to determine how the fund will make investment decisions.
The intention is for the fund to be similar to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation – it will make independent investment decisions that align with its mandate and objectives.
In a portfolio sense Husic is spearheading the government’s agenda to revitalise manufacturing and ensure innovation is commercialised in Australia. One of the key elements associated with revitalising manufacturing will be getting a temporary fix on high energy prices.
Those internal deliberations are ongoing and, as we reported yesterday, the government will need buy-in from the premiers to deliver a comprehensive response.
Morrison ‘addicted’ to power
Martin Farrer
The Nine newspapers continue their serialisation today of Niki Savva’s book about Scott Morrison with the revelation that a close Morrison ally – Liberal MP Alex Hawke – thinks the former prime minister became “addicted to executive authority” and should have quit politics immediately after the last election.
In the book Bulldozed, Hawke is quoted as saying of Morrison that he “didn’t really take advice from people” and that he “wasn’t the greatest listener”.
Hawke also apparently believed that “Morrison should have quit parliament almost immediately after the election, rather than stay and risk becoming bitter and twisted”.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our politics live blog. The final parliamentary sitting week of the year is building up to an interesting conclusion and my colleague Amy Remeikis will be along soon to take you through the action.
But first we should have a look at some of the stories that have made news overnight.
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A UN-backed report said the Great Barrier Reef should be placed on the world heritage in danger list and said climate change was presenting a “serious challenge” to the values that saw the reef inscribed as a global wonder in 1981. It came with 10 recommendations that could “drastically improve” its outlook, including urging the Australian government to make “clear commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions”.
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Our top politics story is that a Guardian Essential poll shows Anthony Albanese is in a strong position going into the summer break. The poll puts Labor ahead of the Coalition on the two-party -preferred “plus” measure 51.4% to 43.1%, while voter disapproval of Peter Dutton remains 10 points higher than for the prime minister.
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It comes as Scott Morrison faces a rare censure motion this week from the House of Representatives over his takeover of five government ministries during the pandemic. Meanwhile, Nine newspapers are continuing their serialisation of a book lifting the lid on Coalition squabbling over the secret ministries scandal, with the revelation that a close ally thought the former PM became “addicted” to power.
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The US government must drop its prosecution of the WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange because it is undermining press freedom, according to the media organisations that helped him publish leaked diplomatic cables 12 years ago today. Now the Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País have come together to oppose plans to charge Assange under a law designed to prosecute first world war spies. “Publishing is not a crime,” they say, stressing that the prosecution is a direct attack on media freedom.
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