Politics live updates: Clare O’Neil backs renewables, Labor faces energy backlash as power bills set to double

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has kept tight-lipped on whether last week’s about-turn on the sale of Sydney’s Victoria Barracks was a captain’s call from Anthony Albanese.

The 180-year-old garrison was supposed to be sold to private developers under a cost-saving plan targeting unneeded Defence assets.

But critics argued the site – estimated to cost taxpayers $200m over the next decade – holds deep cultural significance as the “spiritual home” of the Australian Army, with the likes of former prime minister Tony Abbott and NSW Premier Chris Minns among those calling on the Albanese government to reconsider.

The Prime Minister and Mr Marles announced at the weekend that the barracks would remain in public hands but instead be transferred to the Department of Finance.

Fronting media on Wednesday, Mr Marles – who also serves as defence minister – would not be drawn on how the decision was reached but stood by the original plan.

“What I know is that my job each and every day is to provide for the defence of the country, and the idea that we are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on sites around the country that we’re not using is just not tenable,” he told News24, adding the money would be better spent making the military “much more capable”.

“The Defence Estate Audit was damning in its assessment of the way in which the Defence Estate has been managed over decades, and it made clear that a failure to make difficult decisions had left the army with the burden that it has today.”

with NCA Newswire

Australians have gathered at the Australia National War Memorial for Remembrance Day to mark the anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War.

Acting Prime Minister Richards Marles, Governor General Sam Mostyn, Nationals MP Michael McCormack, ACT chief minister Andrew Barr and former Labor Leader Kim Beazley were among those to lay wreaths.

Regional support chaplain Kelly Horne delivered the commemorative address and spoke about Australia’s support and training for Ukrainian fighters after Russian’s illegal invasion.

She described moments of human connection during military rotations for Operation Kudu in the UK in 2023.

“These trainees would become soldiers the following week and would find themselves on the front line in Ukraine,” she said.

“They needed every military trick in the book, and our amazing contingent of mostly young Australians gave them everything that they could.

“Today, we remember to remember you too.

“War changes people permanently.

“It is so very easy to look at the sheer number of lives lost.

“But one thing that Operation Kudu, our support for Ukrainian troops, has taught me is that there is always something that we can do.”

Master of Ceremonies Scott Bevan told attendees said WWI was the “largest and most costly conflict the world had known”.

“The Great War involved the mobilisation of 70 million personnel in uniform worldwide,” he said. “They fought in a global conflict that drew in more than 100 countries, caused the disintegration of old empires, and reshaped the political order for much of the 20th century.”

Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy has travelled to Western Australia’s Henderson shipyard to witness a ceremonial “steel cutting” on the first of the Army’s Landing Craft Heavy vessels.

The vessels, which can each carry 500 tonnes of military vehicles, are being built by local shipbuilder Austal based on a design from Dutch company Damen.

On Wednesday the Minister is also expected to confirm a local WA business is now supplying parts for Virginia-class submarines being constructed in the United States.

A trio of Australian MPs attending an international gathering calling on their governments to take a tougher line on Chinese dominance have called for a national stocktake on our dependencies on China and raised fears about over-reliance on EVs.

Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill and the Labor Member for the federal Victorian seat of Holt Cassandra Fernando, as well as the federal Liberal Member for McPherson, attended the annual conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.

Speaking exclusively to The Nightly on the sidelines of the conference in The Hague in the Netherlands, Mr Rebollo, Senator O’Neill and Ms Holt laid down their political arms to draw attention to Australia’s over-reliance on Chinese goods.

In a joint interview, Mr Rebello said Australia needed to face up to its dependencies on China sooner rather than later.

“To face the fact that we need to have these discussions about the role of China in our region and the role that Australian is going to play in the Indo-Pacific region more broadly, going forward, in managing the current stability in the area going forward,” he said.

“I don’t think we’ve had the conversation at the level that we need to have it. There are people in government who would be having those conversations. There’ll be people in political circles and think tanks. But we’re not having those conversations as part of our day-to-day discussions, and they should be.”

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Millions of people across Australia are pausing to honour those who served their country in all wars and armed conflicts, reflecting in a minute’s silence at 11am in capital cities, country towns and regions.

Remembrance Day marks 108 years since the armistice that ended four years of continuous warfare on Europe’s Western Front, the main battleground of World War I, where more than 60,000 Australians died.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has paid tribute to Australia’s soldiers while in Singapore, using a stopover on his journey to the United Nations climate talks to mark the event.

Mr Albanese laid a wreath at the Changi Chapel and Museum early on Wednesday, joined by Australia’s Singapore High Commissioner Robyn Mudie.

The museum tells the stories of some of the 90,000 prisoners of war and civilians interned in Changi during the Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II.

“The 15,000 Australians who were interned here in Changi represent the best of the Australian character. Tthey showed courage, selflessness, sacrifice and mateship,” the Prime Minister said.

Closer to home, Remembrance Day in 2026 coincides with the opening of the Australian War Memorial 85 years ago in the nation’s capital in 1941, where a major event will occur.

Governor-General Sam Mostyn will lay a scarlet poppy wreath, first laid in 1934 on the memorial’s construction site, to symbolise the continuity of tradition, and many military leaders will be in attendance.

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Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has defended the government’s May Budget, arguing that its measures are helping more young Australians enter the property market and purchase their first home.

“We have as a government a pretty unapologetic focus in getting more Australians into home ownership,” Ms O’Neil told Sunrise.

“And the data that’s been released since the Budget actually shows us that we are having real success on that.

“So what we’ve seen in the data so far is that we’re seeing first home buyers and owner occupiers significantly increase the share of lending going to them. And we are seeing investors step back from existing homes. But good robustness of investors investing in new dwellings.”

Her comments come ahead of the release of fresh lending data, which is forecast to reveal a further downturn in new home loan commitments. Figures for the June quarter already recorded declines across owner-occupiers, property investors and firt-home buyers.

Australian Defence Force representatives were “tracking” members of the public, veterans and military personnel on Facebook after thousands issued their support of Australia’s most highly decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, following war crime charges being laid against him in the lead up to Anzac Day.

The Nightly can reveal internal correspondence between military officials, obtained under freedom of information laws, shows Australian Defence Department members were monitoring and documenting evidence of a “protest movement” across social media in the lead up to April 25.

Now, Shadow Minister for Defence Personnel, Phillip Thompson has questioned whether ADF officials will be tracking social media accounts again before Remembrance Day, in a move he described as “disgraceful”, rather than being focused on being war-ready.

Protesters were calling for members of the public, veterans and ADF personnel to wear a green ribbon on ANZAC Day in objection to war crime murder charges laid against the Victoria Cross recipient.

Documents released through the Freedom of Information requests said protesters described the movement as a “quiet, respectful show of solidarity for fellow service personnel who many feel they have been poorly treated by the Government and the broader political process”.

The protest called for backers to add a green ribbon to represent the “Military Thin Green Line” on medals or uniforms.

In the document release, military personnel appeared to share a series of social media posts of members of the public with top brass.

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Eleven Australian soldiers killed during the first World War have been formally identified by the federal government, including the great uncle of Deputy Prime Miniter Richard Marles.

Mr Marles described the identification of his great uncle, Lieutenant Andrew Anderson, as a “genuinely remarkable revelation” for his family.

“I was notified a few weeks ago that I was one of the living relatives, the next of kin, to lieutenant Andrew Anderson, who died on 20 September, 1917, in the battle in Belgium, during the First World War,” Mr Marles told the ABC on Wednesday morning.

“He is one of 60,000 Australians who lost their lives during the First World War, as I have come to learn, almost a third of that number were unidentified.

“For more than a century, he has been in the crater -- in the cemetery in Belgium, under an un Unknown Soldier tombstone. Next year there will be a formal service to change the headstone over his grave.”

Labor’s renewable energy rollout has come under fire amid warnings electricity price could nearly double by 2029 as coal-fired power stations close faster than renewable projects are built and connected to the grid.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil defended the government’s energy strategy, saying the shift to renewables was essential to bringing down electricity costs for Australian households.

“We’re really focused on trying to bring energy costs down for households because electricity is too expensive in Australia,” Ms O’Neill told Sunrise.

“And we’re doing that in two ways in that short term energy bill, price relief that we’ve provided to households of now up to about $450.

“But we are also trying to tackle the underlying driver of what has made energy in Australia so expensive.”

Ms O’Neil argued Australia had delayed the transition for too long and needed to accelerate renewable energy construction.

“The truth is that our country doesn’t have a real choice here. We have to move towards renewables,” she added.

“The reason that coal fired power plants are shutting is not because of government policy. It’s because they are old, they are ageing, and they are very expensive to run. We have to make this shift.”

But Deputy leader of the Nationals Bridget McKenzie criticised Labor’s approach, arguing the government was failing to ensure reliable replacement power was available as coal-fire stations shut down.

“Chris Bowen is living in an alternative reality. He’s off lecturing the globe on energy policy and emission reduction. Whilst here at home we’ve got wholesale prices expected to double,” Ms McKenzie said.

“We’ve got data centres coming online and our population is increasing. We have no replacement for that. Five megawatts that is closing under the Labor Party.”