3m agoMon 9 Feb 2026 at 1:13am

Energy Minister’s more than $60,000 phone bill due to a department error, secretary says

Officials from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water have faced questions at senate estimates this morning.

They were asked about Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen’s more than $60,000 monthly phone bill while launching a bid to host COP 31 in Azerbaijan in November 2024.

Secretary Mike Kaiser says he regrets such a large bill. 

“The department erred in not arranging for his phones to be on the appropriate tariff for overseas travel, that’s an error we made,” he says.

“He [Bowen] was not aware of it, nor were his staff.”

Deputy Secretary Luise McCulloch confirmed $30,000 has been refunded but would not disclose which telecommunications company was involved.

“The telecommunications company agreed with us that had we and the minister been aware that the international roaming charge had been charged at the rate it had been charged we could have actually acted on it,” she says. 

20m agoMon 9 Feb 2026 at 12:55amHawke ‘adamant’ Liberal colleagues are behind Sussan Ley

Manager of Opposition Business Alex Hawke says he’s “adamant” his Liberal colleagues are behind Sussan Ley’s leadership.

The latest Newspoll shows the Coalition’s primary vote has declined to 18 per cent, while One Nation’s vote has increased to 27 per cent.

Speaking to Sky News, Hawke says Angus Taylor supports the opposition leader and remains in the leadership team.

“If someone wants to challenge for the leadership, they challenge and that isn’t happening at the moment,” Hawke says.

The manager of opposition says he’s “very serious” about the need to attract former former Liberal and National voters, who moved to One Nation, back to the Coalition.

He says he thinks the re-forming of the Coalition will provide the basis for people reconsidering their support.

“I think the Coalition is also going to improve, in terms of its management of issues, the Liberal and National policies and so therefore people can be confident that we’re going to be modernising the Liberal-National Coalition,” he says

33m agoMon 9 Feb 2026 at 12:42am

One Nation an ‘existential threat’ to the Nationals, independent MP says

Independent MP Andrew Gee has urged his old colleagues to follow in his footsteps and move to the crossbench, following the latest Newspoll.

The federal member for Calare quit the Nationals in 2022.

He believed the reason One Nation support was on the rise was because voters were appalled by the Coalition fighting.

“I think what you will see with One nation in a lot of country seats, is it will directly erode the National party vote,” Gee said.

“That’s what’s driven all of this craziness and self indulgent mayhem that you’ve seen, and they don’t know what to do or how to react.”

“They are so petrified.”

He described One Nation as an “existential threat” to the National party.

45m agoMon 9 Feb 2026 at 12:30amAny move to roll Ley would be seen as a ‘political assassination’: Wallace

Shadow Attorney-General Andrew Wallace has warned a challenge against Sussan Ley would be branded as a “political assassination”.

The Liberal frontbencher has repeatedly backed in the opposition leader amid speculation she could face a challenge from Angus Taylor as soon as this week.

Wallace dismissed questions about a challenge as “hypothetical,” “rumour” and “innuendo”.

“Sussan Ley is our elected leader. She is the first woman leader of the Liberal Party and were she to be deposed, I can almost guarantee you there’ll be people out there saying, ‘oh … you guys have just politically assassinated the first female leader of the Liberal Party’,” Wallace told reporters in the hallways of parliament.

Asked if Taylor should put the matter to rest and explicitly rule a move in or out, Wallace said that was a matter for him.

“I am certainly not about to give them gratuitous and unsolicited advice,” he said.

1h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 11:57pm

Independents urge Labor to expand paid prac scheme to medical, allied health students(ABC News: Ian Cutmore)

Helen Haines and David Pocock have urged the federal government to expand its paid prac scheme to medical and allied health students.

Labor introduced paid prac payments for an estimated 68,000 nursing, teaching and social work students last year to prevent “placement poverty”.

But the Indi MP and ACT senator want that scheme expanded to include students in allied health, which will cost the budget $290 million over four years.

Haines says expanding it will encourage students to study the programs and will increase the availability of health professionals.

“People mid career, making decisions about whether they will change jobs because jobs they’ve been in no longer exist. Some of them are very, very interested in the health sciences,” Haines says.

“But in order to enrol in the health science degree, they know that they are signing up thousands of hours of unpaid leave and they’re choosing simply not to because they can’t afford to,” she says.

1h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 11:37pm

Ley urges protesters to stay at home

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has urged those wanting to protest Israel President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia to stay home.

“This is a welcome visit. It’s an opportunity for the Albanese government to reset a strained relationship with Israel. But more importantly, it’s an opportunity for every Australian to stand with Jewish Australians who just a few short weeks ago, were in absolute pain and distress, where they still are,” Ley told Sky News.

“Let’s just make sure those protesters acknowledge that, in a country where you do have the right to protest, there are times you just need to step back and just let the hope shine through.”

2h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 11:04pm

Duniam won’t say if Ley will be leader this time next month(ABC News: Ian Cutmore)

Liberal frontbencher Jonathan Duniam has refused to say whether Sussan Ley will still be leader in a month’s time.

Several Liberals have been out and about venting their frustrations about the state of the Coalition amid a dire poll that cut their primary vote down to 18 per cent compared to One Nation’s 27 per cent.

Duniam told ABC’s AM it was only natural that leadership speculation would occur at this stage of the electoral cycle were they’re “in the doldrums” when it comes to the polls.

He urged colleagues not to get distracted. At the same time, when repeatedly pressed, Duniam didn’t really offer any assurance that he thought Ley would remain as leader.

But he did concede it wasn’t just all on Ley’s shoulders.

“We have to make it change. We have to get on with the job. And as part of the senior leadership in our federal Liberal team, I share responsibility for, of course, how things are going. But this is not just at the feet of one person or a couple of people,” he said.

“This is a team result that we need to own and rectify.”

2h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 10:28pm

PM wants Coalition to get their act together

Anthony Albanese also hit the airwaves this morning, where the questions on Nova Sydney ranged from “how’s Toto”, what his plans were for Valentine’s Day, and to could Pauline Hanson be the next prime minister?

“No,” he responded.

“Pauline Hanson and One Nation are all about grievance and identifying problems, not providing solutions, and dividing people.”

The PM said he hoped the Coalition could get their act together and fend off One Nation because the country needed a strong opposition.

On the current state of the opposition, Albanese said he’s watching with “some incredulity” and remarked that Nationals leader David Littleproud “looked like a hostage” at a press conference yesterday to confirm the Coalition was reuniting.

And Toto? She’s “alright” but sad that Albanese is leaving her for the day.

3h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 9:57pm

Herzog visit will mean a ‘great deal’ to victim families of Bondi terror attack: ECAJ

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has warmly welcomed the arrival of Israel president Isaac Herzog. 

Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of ECAJ, said the visit would mean a “great deal” for the survivors and victims families of the Bondi terror attack.

“His visit will lift the spirits of a pained community and we hope will lead to a much-needed recalibration of bilateral relations between two historic allies” he says.

3h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 9:31pmVent your frustrations in the party room not in public, Ley tells colleagues

If you missed it this morning, Liberal senator Jane Hume gave a pretty scathing assessment of the Coalition as she tried to make sense of the past couple of weeks. 

Hume argued voters had turned off from the Coalition because they were a “rabble” and questioned if the current leaders were leading the party astray.

The clip was played to Opposition Leader Sussan Ley as she fronted up for a lengthy interview on Sky News.

She argued there were better ways for her colleagues to vent their frustrations than live on air.

“In any political party there is different views and characterisation about direction and the proper place to have that discussion is inside the party room,” Ley said.

“In public, we must present a credible alternative to the Australian people.”

The opposition leader remains confident her hold on the job is safe.

Asked if she thought she had the numbers to survive a spill, Ley responded: “That’s a hypothetical that I’m not engaging in”.

4h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 9:13pm

Relationship with Littleproud ‘absolutely not’ toxic: Ley

Sussan Ley is denying the relationship between herself and David Littleproud has turned toxic.

“We’ve sat at ministerial tables and worked in government and opposition,” she told ABC’s News Breakfast. 

So Australians are just supposed to believe the Coalition is just a happy family again, the opposition leader is asked.

“We made clear statements yesterday … We talked about how we have indeed resolved those differences and that we are stronger moving forward,” she says.

4h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 9:09pm

Ley won’t say if she’s asked Angus Taylor about leadership speculation

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s next stop on the morning media tour was ABC’s News Breakfast. 

She faced several questions about whether she’d be able to hold on as leader amid speculation challenger Angus Taylor could make a move within weeks.

Ley says she spoke to Taylor over the weekend and she’ll speak to him today but pressed on if she’d asked directly if he plans to challenge her she didn’t say.

“Let me tell you what I have talked to Angus about: I’ve talked to Angus about the challenges facing Australians, as I have every one of my team.”

4h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 9:03pm

What concessions did the Nationals make to reform the Coalition?

Under the deal agreed to yesterday, the Nationals will return to the shadow frontbench after serving out a six-week suspension for a breach in shadow cabinet rules.

That’s down from the six months Ley demanded in her first offer to reform the Coalition.

So what concessions did the Nationals offer in negotiations to reform the Coalition. Well, that’s a bit unclear.

After James McGrath said he wasn’t going to get into the nitty gritty of the reformed Coalition, ABC’s Radio National Breakfast put the same question to the Nationals deputy, Kevin Hogan.

“I suppose we’ve sat out, we have taken time out of shadow cabinet …,” he responded.

Pushed further, Hogan said that was “for others to judge”.

“We had a principled position. We stood by that. The important part for us was the senators should never have been punished in any way.”

4h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 8:53pm

Libs, Nats should ‘calm down’ and focus on what unites us: McGrath

Liberal senator James McGrath says it will take some time to repair the trust between the Coalition and voters.

He called on his colleagues to “calm down, have a cup of tea or coffee” and just work out what will unite them, rather than divide them.

Asked who was responsible for the split, or what in the negotiations got the Libs and Nats over the line, McGrath declined to say.

“There are no winners or losers out of the reformed coalition. What is important is that the Coalition has been reformed, and we can stop talking about ourselves,” he says.

4h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 8:45pmHerzog arrives in Sydney

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog,has arrived in Sydney for a four day visit to Australia.

He was met by Israel’s ambassador, Amir Maimon, at the airport.

Herzog will meet with members of the Jewish community following the Bondi terrorist attack.

4h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 8:41pm’I’m not going to sprinkle gold dust on a cow pat’: Split hurt Coalition brand, McGrath says

Liberal frontbencher James McGrath is pretty frustrated with the way things have been going for the Coalition over the past couple of weeks.

The senator doesn’t shy away from the fact the messy 17-day split has damaged the Coalition brand.

“I’m not going to sprinkle gold dust on a cow pat. The polling is dire. It is horrible. It is terrible,” he told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast. 

“But speaking as a former campaign director, I’m not surprised it’s this bad because we’ve been spent three weeks having a very public discussion talking about ourselves rather than focusing on the many failings of the Labor government.”

McGrath says the message he’s received from voters is that they’re angry because they keep talking about themselves (he’s self-aware and jokes that he’s now guilty of that crime by jumping on the radio for a chat about it).

4h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 8:34pm

‘Up for the job’: Ley insists she’s going to the next election as Liberal leader

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has continued on her merry morning television tour, stopping by the Today Show next.

She brushes off the latest opinion poll as just a “point in time” as she acknowledged it had been a difficult period for the Coalition after its bitter 17 day split.

Asked how long she can hold on as leader, Ley responds: “until the next election”.

“I’ve been elected by my party room. I’m up for the job. We’re up for the job and we know that we have to hold this government to account.”

4h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 8:30pmLey and Littleproud ‘have to reflect on themselves’, says Hume(ABC News: Ian Cutmore)

Jane Hume has walked straight out of the Sky News studio and into the corridor where she has unloaded even further on her own party and the Nationals.

She says she is “not agitating” for a leadership bill, despite her closeness to Angus Taylor, who she backed in the last spill.

“But at some point, we have to speak up and say something’s got to give,” she adds.

The threat of “non-existence” at the next election “cannot be blamed on anyone else” than Sussan Ley and David Littleproud, she says.

“It has to come back to the leadership we are facing today… They have to reflect on themselves.”

“At this point we’re talking about a leadership contest between Sussan Ley and Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor. None of them will have seats after the next election if this continues, so something’s got to give.”

4h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 8:25pm

Ley not concerned dire polls will open door for leadership challenge

So is Sussan Ley concerned the recent trends in poling will lead to her ousting?

“I’m not concerned about the optics of what people commentate on in this building,” the opposition says.

It comes amid speculation leadership aspirant Angus Taylor could use the latest Newspoll as justification to mount a leadership challenge in the coming weeks.

4h agoSun 8 Feb 2026 at 8:24pm

Ley ‘understands’ why voters marking Coalition down

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley says she understands Australians are frustrated after yet another dire poll for the Coalition.

The latest Newspoll, published in the Australian, suggested the Coalition’s primary vote is continuing on its downward trajectory, down to just 18 per cent. That’s compared to One Nation’s 27 per cent and Labor’s 33.

Ley told Seven that she understood why voters may have turned from the Coalition in recent weeks.

“When they don’t see a clear united message coming out of Canberra, they mark us down. I understand that,” she says.

But the Coalition is back together, she says, and the focus is back on the Australians who are “counting on” them.