News and politics recap: Albanese says Liberals, Nationals, One Nation a coalition after escalator trip

The Federal Government has announced a plan to establish a specialised court for workplace relations to protect and enforce workers’s rights on Thursday afternoon.

The new court would bypass workers’ cases with the Fair Work Commission to the Federal Court, according to Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth.

“I would ask people to consider it as a specialist workplace court that will be able to resolve issues for workers and enforce their rights,” Ms Rishworth said in Adelaide on Thursday.

The Government will begin a consultation process with businesses, unions, and the law community to determine what the court’s legislation will look like and avoid “unintended consequences”, Ms Rishworth said.

The Minister referred to the Keating government’s similar workplace relations court which was established in 1994, but was abolished by the Howard government.

“This is a piece of unfinished business,” she said.

Former Nationals senator John Williams has criticised Barnaby Joyce, saying he is no longer trustworthy after jumping ship to One Nation.

“I simply cannot trust him anymore,” Mr Williams said on Sky News.

“What he’s doing now is he’s putting out bushfires, actually, with Malcolm Roberts’ statements, some of Pauline (Hanson’s) statements.

“He’s flat out putting out bush fires and holding the fire hose.”

Mr Williams represented New South Wales as a senator between 2008 and 2019.

She is one of the great examples of Australian meritocracy, a woman who smashed stereotypes about what a CEO should look like.

Shemara Wikramanayake, who rose from an immigrant Sri Lankan family to head Australia’s top investment bank, announced her retirement shortly before the Macquarie Group annual meeting in Sydney today.

The woman with the difficult-to-pronounce surname and modest personality succeeded in the high-ego world of finance through sheer competence.

Known for her emotional intelligence, equanimity and numeracy and known to friends as “Shem”, Ms Wikramanayake was “always gracious and effective in dealing with the successes as well as the inevitable challenges” predecessor Nicholas Moore told The Nightly.

Read more.

Labor Party national conferences are not what they used to be. In many ways, that is not a bad thing.

Delegates are no longer exposed to union leaders holding court around the pool in their budgie smugglers, as Bob Hawke famously did at Terrigal in 1975.

The modern Labor Party is much more corporate. And clothed. But a lot of the passion has also gone.

This conference is more choreographed and stage-managed than any of the 49 before it.

The outcomes on most, if not all, policy debates have been predetermined through months of discussions between the party’s factional heavyweights.

The passion and conviction of many on the floor is real, but the voting is merely performative.

​Read the full opinion piece. ​

While there’s been a lot of chatter about how Labor have stage managed their National Conference, Tim Ayres has been called out for being M.I.A when called to speak on an amendment.

The Industry Minister, who will play a leading role in the Albanese government’s AI plan, was called to the stage at the Adelaide Convention Centre to speak about a proposed national Fair AI Taskforce.

After the amendment was presented and supported, new national president Kate Ellis said “thank you delegates, to confer the support I call Tim Ayres”.

“All right,” she said after he was a no show.

“We are going to move on to the next speaker.”

The assistant Minister for the Digital Economy Andrew Charlton then spoke on the matter, insisting he was “always happy to stand in for my boss”.

Mr Ayres later emerged and spoke on the amendment while vowing he wouldn’t be late for lunch.

The AI taskforce pushed for the government to engage broadly with community, unions, and experts around its plans to “seize, shape and share” AI opportunities.

One of the points in the amendments states that Labor will “advocate for equitable access to AI education and digital skills training to ensure that the benefits of AI literacy are available to all workers and communities”.

Throughout the morning and into the afternoon the conference will continue to roll through amendments which have been submitted by the hundreds of delegates.

By Thursday morning there had been about 500 submitted, however, several had reportedly had commonalities so were merged together. Mean of the common amendments were in the AI section.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has defended his contentious housing and tax changes in his May Budget as Labor’s bid to deliver rather than “dither”, “and not just to mark time”.

In spruiking his economic measures, Dr Chalmers said the Labor government was proud to have acted to reform the “broken status quo” rather than just leave it to the next generation.

The Labor frontbencher claimed during his speech to the National Conference that he was “rolling out the most ambitious reform package in a quarter of a century”.

“If we had left this problem for somebody else to fix, we would be consigning another generation to a broken housing market that has locked too many Australians out of housing and should be working,” he told the crowd at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

“Acting on this is what it means to make change, not make excuses.

“This is what it means to make a difference, and not just to mark time.

“This is what it means to deliver, and not to dither.”

He accused opponents of “clinging” to the past and insisted that such significant changes were never going to be an easy feat.

“None of it comes easy,” he said.

“It is contentious and contested.

“But all of it, delegates, is worth it.

“And if reform subjects us to daily rage bait from the usual suspects peddling their usual partisan misinformation and disinformation, then so be it, because fights like these are a small price to pay for progress.

“It is a price worth paying for an economy that works for everyone.”

Dr Chalmers had moved Chapter One of the conference which is titled “An Economy That Works for Everyone”, it was seconded by Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.

Unemployment held steady at 4.4 per cent in June in a sign the Reserve Bank of Australia can still raise interest rates without jeopardising its dual mandate on tackling inflation and maintaining full employment.

The latest labour force data shows 76,300 jobs were created last month.

With inflation at 4 per cent being well above the RBA’s 2-3 per cent target, a steady jobless rate means the Reserve Bank can still raise rates given unemployment is still below the 4.6 per cent level considered to be at the upper end of full employment.

The jobless rate fell in May after hitting a four-year high of 4.5 per cent in April, reaching levels last seen in late 2021 when Sydney and Melbourne were still in COVID lockdowns.

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Anthony Albanese has sworn “for f..k’s sake” in an awkward escalator incident at Labor’s National Conference in Adelaide.

Before taking to the stage to address more than 2000 people at the milestone event, the PM expressed frustration while riding an escalator at the Adelaide convention centre which had jolted and stopped.

His blow up, captured by Seven cameras, was witnessed by media, Labor members and security.

It comes after the PM was caught grumpily telling a driver off in his parliament court yard during a recent international visit.

Anthony Albanese says Labor will create a “Fair Work Court” to help workers exploited by employers seek justice.

The Prime Minister declared in a speech at the Labor National Conference that it would be a priority for his government as workers continued to be underpaid, overworked and unable to take on the legal fight themselves.

“Australians have been underpaid by hundreds, even thousands of dollars, but simply don’t have the time or the resources to navigate the legal system,” he said.

“Or (workers) are told their case will take months, even years, to resolve, and cost them more than their claim is worth.

“Now, that’s just wrong, and we’re going to fix it today.

“I announce that our government will create the Fair Work Court.

“This will be headed by expert judges working seamlessly with the Fair Work Commission.

“It will resolve disputes faster and at lower costs for both workers and employers, good for workers, good for business, good for the country, and we’re going to deliver.”

Anthony Albanese has told more than 2000 people at Labor’s National Conference to lean into the “fundamental contrast” the party has from the “confusion, conspiracy theories, and candidate chaos” from the conservative side of politics.

The Prime Minister was welcomed into the Adelaide Convention Centre on a Thursday morning for the three-day event with a standing ovation before he outlined his vision for the conference and the country.

He used the address to spruik Labor’s laundry list of social and economic policies to improve Australians ’ lives, work and study while tearing down the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation.

He said they were focused on cutting support for Australians and leaning into “attention-seeking culture wars imported from overseas”.

“None of them have anything new or anything positive to offer our country,” he said.

“This has always been the fundamental contrast between Labor and all our political opponents, and never more so than now.

“Beyond One Nation’s personality clashes, policy confusion, conspiracy theories, and candidate chaos, and regardless of who leads the Liberals to the next election, in every way that matters, the Liberals, Nationals, and One Nation are already a coalition.”