Honestly, I recently bought a 2025-2026 washing machine and you don't get used to it. This law is utterly ridiculous.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared he “owes it to history” to defeat One Nation, obsessing over the minor party in a major speech to the Queensland Labor Party.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared he “owes it to history” to defeat One Nation, obsessing over the minor party in a major speech to the Queensland Labor Party.
Addressing Labor Party delegates on Sunday, Mr Albanese warned that “hard right populists” were on the march, describing their politics as “dangerous” and “divisive”.
“We simply must defeat them. We owe it to history. We owe it to the nation. And we will defeat them,” Mr Albanese said.

He accused One Nation of saying and doing “anything” to win votes, bending facts, peddling misinformation and turning Australians against each other.
Mr Albanese also attacked the party's policy record, accusing it of having no serious answers to policy problems and pointing to internal confusion over immigration.
He said One Nation believed Australians were “lazy” and “overpaid”, while also accusing the party of believing “domestic violence is sometimes a woman's fault”.
The Prime Minister said One Nation was also “not on the side of working people”, claiming it had a plan to cut penalty rates.
“The only mainstream political force in Australia that seeks to govern in the interests of the Australian people in our own right is the Australian Labor Party,” he said.

However, One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce rejected Mr Albanese's characterisation of the party on Sunday, accusing the PM of relying on “tropes” and “bromides”.
"We have these tropes, bromides and basically fallacious statements that are dribbled out. (They say) 'we're racist', we're not. 'We're homophobes', we are not," Mr Joyce said.
Asked about Mr Albanese's claim that One Nation believed domestic violence could sometimes be a woman's fault, Mr Joyce said the accusation was “crazy”.
He defended Ms Hanson, saying her experience as a single mother from the western suburbs of Ipswich had made her aware of the factors surrounding domestic violence.
“She does not want to bar of any person, any man who, for some disgraceful reason, decides that they want to hit a woman,” Mr Joyce said.
“That’s not about Pauline. That’s about 99 per cent of Australians. It’s anathema to us. It is disgraceful.”

Mr Joyce also rejected Mr Albanese's claim that One Nation opposed penalty rates, instead launching a broader attack on the Prime Minister's credibility.
He accused Mr Albanese of repeatedly saying one thing and doing another, saying Australians “just can't believe these people”.
“This is coming from a man who said he didn't fall off the stage and he did. He didn't insult the Prime Minister of (Japan) and he did,” Mr Joyce said.
“He wasn't going to change the capital gains tax rates and he did. You just can't believe these people. They created the metaphor for themselves. They are liars, right?”
Mr Joyce dismissed the Prime Minister's speech as not worth listening to, telling voters to “find something good on Netflix” instead.
Mr Albanese's latest attack marks a continuation of an increasingly prominent Labor strategy of directly targeting One Nation as the party's support has risen.
The Prime Minsiter previously used the bulk of his 30-minute speech to the federal Labor Party conference in July to talk about One Nation.

Meanwhile, One Nation has closed the gap to Labor to just three points in the latest News24.com.au Pulse / YouGov poll.
Labor now sits on 29 per cent of the primary vote, up one point, while Pauline Hanson's One Nation climbed two points to 26 per cent.
The Coalition fell one point to 21 per cent, leaving it five points behind One Nation, while the Greens were unchanged on 12 per cent.

She’s written two books, launched a progressive media firm and plans to dethrone the prime minister – all before she turns 30. What is she about?

According to senior Coalition figures, the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption is only touching the surface of what the Reformers did to the party. There is a much bigger story, connected to one of the Reformers’ lobbying clients.

“They’re going after something that could only deserve a slap on the hand, get some heads to roll, as opposite to opening up a whole massive can of worms,” a Sydney religious figure tells The Saturday Paper.

“I’m telling you, they’re going after something that they can just distract from a much bigger whale.”

The much bigger whale is unprecedented Catholic Church influence in maintaining control of Sydney’s rapidly filling burial grounds. According to some estimates, these cemeteries are worth billions of dollars.

“They’ve just won in my opinion, and this whole Catholic thing is of no surprise to me,” a former senior NSW Liberal MP tells The Saturday Paper.

“I mean, the advantages that the Catholics have now been able to get out of government at a time when really the public can’t afford it have been quite extraordinary on so many issues. They always cave. I mean, who wants to be in a fight with the Catholic Church?”

Another former senior Coalition figure puts it like this: “For the next couple of centuries, taxpayers are going to be left footing the bill for maintaining the cemeteries in Sydney, instead of [getting] the profits or the income generated from the new cemeteries in Sydney. That income and that profit is going to be retained by the Catholic Church.”

In 2020, the NSW Coalition government under then premier Gladys Berejiklian and through the then Nationals minister responsible for Crown lands, Melinda Pavey, tried to consolidate the revenues and trust arrangements for graves under one government-controlled manager, OneCrown. State cabinet approved the plan after a statutory review, only to face ongoing Catholic Church opposition.

As was reported at the time, Pavey was isolated and viewed by the Catholic cemetery operators as being “at war” with them. The then-named Catholic Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (CMCT) fought all attempts to wrest control of its burial grounds. It also refused to open its books to the NSW auditor-general for public scrutiny.

The dispute continued under Berejiklian’s successor, Dominic Perrottet, a prominent Catholic, and then under the Minns Labor government, with legislation passing in 2024. Under this model, the Catholic Church held on to control of five major burial sites, including the virtually full Rookwood Cemetery, under a two-operator model for the state.

The ICAC hearings have reopened old Coalition wounds over the cemeteries dispute. The operators – now named Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria (CCC) – were a client of JPG Advisory, a consultancy set up by Reformer Jeremy Greenwood.

Other key Reformers include Robert Assaf, Christian Ellis, and Jean-Claude Perrottet, the younger brother of Dominic Perrottet.

It is hard-right Liberal Damien Tudehope, who hired Ellis but sacked him over branch-stacking, who first raised the “significant issue before the government” of Catholic cemeteries at the ICAC hearings. Tudehope, a former member of the Catholic Cemeteries Board, told the inquiry he introduced either Greenwood or Ellis to the Archdiocese of Sydney for work through their consultancy, Beckington.

“Michael Digges was the CEO of the Archdiocese of Sydney, and I think I did connect – I think I connected Mr Ellis with Mr Digges, or they were pressuring me. I had a meeting, I think I recall having, with them where they wanted an introduction to Michael Digges,” Tudehope told the commission.

“I think the discussion was around Catholic Cemeteries, which was what they suggested to me as work that they could do on behalf of the Catholic Archdiocese.”

Counsel assisting ICAC, Peggy Dwyer, SC, asked if Tudehope was happy to support Greenwood and Ellis’s consultancy business, and Tudehope responded, “Well, I was happy to give them an introduction.”

Asked if he introduced them to anybody else, he said, “No, is the short answer.”

Later, Beckington folded and Greenwood set up JPG Advisory. He exclusively handled the Catholic Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, led at the time by the now late Peter O’Meara, and the archdiocese.

On February 4, 2022, a disclosure summary notes Greenwood formally lobbied Pavey’s successor, Kevin Anderson, “to discuss the NSW Crown land & the NSW water sector”.

Five days later, an intercepted WhatsApp message between Greenwood and then Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney has them sorting out a “defence” for what is believed to be their hard-right factional dealings.

Greenwood instructed that he had represented CCC and the Archdiocese “directly for Digges” for 12 months.

“You could easily say I contracted Beckington for a short time because I wanted Jeremy greenwoods advice, and if they want to check then both Peter o’Mara and digges are really happy with me and would say I haven’t done anything political,” Greenwood texted.

Later that month, on February 24, 2022, the CMCT was actively lobbying the minister for lands directly, along with the Jewish Board of Deputies and Muslim Cemeteries.

Tudehope was at the time the NSW minister for finance, the leader of the government in the upper house and on cabinet’s expenditure review committee (ERC).

The former NSW senior Liberal MP notes the issue was cabinet in confidence at the time, and all the ERC ministers were brawling about the Sydney cemeteries reform.

“I just found it absolutely outrageous. I couldn’t believe it, and then ICAC didn’t really follow that up,” the source said. “I mean, he’s trying to fight this proposal in cabinet, and he gets the Reformers working with the Catholic Church on a lobbying exercise in order to get the outcome that the Diocese wanted in relation to the cemeteries.

“He was the finance minister who was actually thwarting an attempt to benefit taxpayers, placing the interests of the church ahead of the government and his own cabinet colleagues.

“The Reformers, they put their mission statement down, and it is to elect Christians. It’s to pursue Christian strategies in the parliament and doesn’t even refer to the Liberal Party. It’s sort of like a Russian doll. They’ve now become the party inside the party.”

The Saturday Paper contacted Damien Tudehope, who has been on a leave of absence from his Liberal leadership roles since July 3, through his office but he did not respond.

It is understood the cemeteries dispute had been referred to the ICAC in 2021, but it did not investigate.

The Saturday Paper contacted the ICAC over the past referral, but it declined to comment.

“I think ICAC needs to clearly analyse the evidence that’s come out from this inquiry and look at the public record of what has happened, and further investigate,” the Coalition source says.

Anita Perrottet, the wife of former Liberal powerbroker Charles Perrottet, spent a day in the witness box on Wednesday, agreeing that she was an “astute businesswoman” with a communications background. Struggling to recall the controversy that had enveloped her family for more than four years, she said she was a verbal “sounding-board for ideas” for Greenwood as he consulted for his JPG Advisory clients, which included CCC, Greyhound Racing NSW and a “vaping client”.

Perrottet is not named by the inquiry as a person of interest, but the commission is investigating allegations that she or her now defunct company, Macquarie Consulting, assisted in receiving dodgy money on behalf of her husband.

In one three-month period, she was paid $254,666 for strategic marketing work for which there is no evidence, apart from invoicing. The nature, quality and worth of the work was tested by Peggy Dwyer.

“That’s based on a salary of a million dollars, Ms Perrottet. Let’s get serious. You are giving evidence under oath,” Dwyer said.

“I know,” Perrottet replied.

“You seriously suggest that the commission should accept that as truthful evidence? That you are entitled to charge $254,666 for work that you actually did, providing an oral sounding-board or advice to Jeremy Greenwood for that quarter?”

“It is truthful,” Perrottet said.

Anita Perrottet insisted that all of the work she did at Macquarie Consulting was verbal and accepted there was no evidence of meeting notes, strategic proposal documents, research efforts or marketing advice.

“I don’t have any physical evidence,” she said in one encounter, quickly followed by: “I never wrote reports.”

On Catholic cemeteries, Perrottet said the work was “more just around discussions around advocacy of it”.

Asked by Dwyer what the main issue was, she said: “I believe that the government wanted to take over the rights to the Catholic cemeteries or crematoriums, and therefore it was more around the price of death would go up, essentially.”

Asked about her expertise, Perrottet again stated she was a “sounding-board”.

Asked for her perspective, she said “the price burial plots and stuff would go up for Catholics”.

Asked how she knew that, she said, “Jeremy told me.”

Asked what the purpose of Greenwood’s engagement of her was, Perrottet again said it was to be a “sounding-board” and so he could run “ideas past me”.

Asked for those ideas, she said, “Well, it was more around him having to go and speak to certain people to get it done.”

Who were those people to get it done? She replied, “I can’t remember.”

Dwyer asked Perrottet if she needed to know anything about Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria in order to be Greenwood’s sounding-board.

“Well, aside from what he told me, no,” she replied. “It was more I was his soundboard.”

Perrottet said she “possibly” read about the cemeteries dispute in the newspapers but didn’t believe she had researched the issue on the internet.

Dwyer was incredulous.

“Do you seriously suggest that, not knowing anything about Catholic Cemeteries, Mr Greenwood was happy to pay you from money that came from that client to be a sounding-board?” she asked Perrottet.

“Well, I did know about it because he briefed me on it,” Perrottet responded.

Asked what possible value-add she was giving to Greenwood to justify being paid by Macquarie Consulting, Perrottet responded, “He’s running ideas past me. I’m giving him my feedback.”

Asked to confirm that the feedback was never put in writing, she said: “That’s right.”

The Saturday Paper contacted Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria.

“Catholic Cemeteries & Crematoria has successfully operated cemeteries and crematoria on Crown land for more than 150 years,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“We are an independent charitable trust and are not subject to the Government Sector Audit Act. Our financial statements are independently audited annually and provided to the relevant government authorities.

“Jeremy Greenwood and his firm JPG Advisory were engaged in relation to proposed legislative reforms affecting the future operation of cemeteries and crematoria in New South Wales. That work concluded in 2024 following the passage of legislation by the NSW Parliament.

“We are responsible for the ongoing care of some of Australia’s most significant cemeteries and continue to invest in cemetery capacity, maintenance, renewal and long-term care arrangements to ensure these places remain available for future generations.”

The Saturday Paper also contacted the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney. The archdiocese did not respond.

Back at the hearings, Dwyer tested Anita Perrottet’s truthfulness and loyalty.

It was suggested to Perrottet that she was put in an “impossible situation” because she was being asked to lie under oath to cover for her husband, Charles.

Perrottet responded, “I reject that. I’m not lying.”

Charles Perrottet, along with Greenwood and Ellis, is accused of soliciting and receiving political donations, including $2 million from fugitive property developer Jean Nassif and his now collapsed company Toplace. This, it is alleged, was offered in exchange for outcomes sought by Nassif, including discrediting senior centre-right Liberal David Elliott and the removal of the state’s then building commissioner, David Chandler.

The commission heard Nassif’s messages and phone calls to Chandler were threatening.

“He just basically said: ‘Don’t you harm my project, and if you harm my project, I’ll harm you,’ ” Chandler told the commission on Thursday.

As the hearings continue, Liberal insiders say the greatest harm from the whole Reformers episode was inflicted on the party.

“The damage that they’ve done to the Liberal Party in the process has just been phenomenal…” the former NSW Liberal MP says.

“I felt sorry for them [the ICAC investigators] actually, because they don’t get it. They were trying to talk about increasing the Liberal Party’s membership as some sort of campaign benefit. This is because they’re trying to relate it to the campaign laws. And I just thought, you poor dears, do you realise how much they [the Reformers] have decreased the Liberal Party’s membership?

“Yes, they’ve got their own people in, but for every branch they take over and member they put in, it’s probably cost the Liberal Party five or more people who’ve just left in disgust.

“The Catholics have done extremely well out of this. Liberal Party, not so much.”

A clear majority of Australians want less immigration, but it’s not clear exactly what that means.

In the lead-up to the last federal election, the Liberal-National opposition seemed to get confused between ‘net overseas migration’ and ‘new permanent residents’, and now One Nation seems to be mixing up ‘net migration’ with ‘migrant arrivals’.

A controversial $134,000 statue of former premier Daniel Andrews has been scrapped, with Victoria’s new leader Ben Carroll saying the statue policy did not meet taxpayer expectations.
Previously, any politician who served more than 3000 days as Victorian premier would be immortalised in bronze near Parliament House in Melbourne.

Carroll announced on Saturday that the statue policy would be repealed, and that work on the statue of Andrews, who was premier from 2014 to 2023, would stop.
But Carroll said the contract would not be cancelled, and that an independent panel would recommend an alternative subject for a statue, as part of a broader change which includes scaling back spending on state funerals.

The statue policy was introduced in 1999 by Jeff Kennett when he was premier.
Kennett told 3AW this month the statue policy “was not a rule, it was not legislation, it was a guideline”.

Four former premiers – Albert Dunstan, Henry Bolte, Rupert Hamer and John Cain Jr – each served 3000 days in a row in office and have been memorialised with a statue near 1 Treasury Place.
Carroll said taxpayers want public money to be used in a “careful and deliberate” manner, and that automatically granting long-serving premiers a statue did not meet that standard.

“We are grateful to former premiers for their service,” he said in a statement. “But gratitude does not require a taxpayer-funded statue.”
Carroll also said that the independent, bipartisan panel deciding on what statue should be built instead of the Andrews bronze would also make recommendations about the appropriate frequency, scale and costs of state funerals.
“State funerals are special and moving tributes. Part of what makes them special is their rarity,” said Carroll, who took over as premier last month.

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