Australians on hantavirus-hit ship to be repatriated via Netherlands
Australians among the remaining 22 passengers on board the MV Hondius were scheduled to be evacuated on a Dutch flight to the Netherlands overnight.
The repatriation operation had evacuated 94 people of 19 different nationalities on Sunday, said the Spanish health minister, Mónica García.
García said it was decided to fly the Australians to the Netherlands because of timing problems with a second plane that was to fly passengers back to Australia from Tenerife.
Instead all the remaining passengers were evacuated on the Netherlands flight.
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Pressed on the possible scenario, she said “only One Nation are in favour of that” and wouldn’t talk about “what is going to happen after the next election”.
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It came after the shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, said he had “never ever” and “never ever” would make a statement in favour of the hypothetical alliance.
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Hume said:
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The most important is to get the primary vote up for the Liberal and National party … There are so many hypotheticals … I will say that the Coalition are determined and dedicated to present to the Australian public a platform that they can vote for.
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There is no one in the Coalition party room today that is telling us we need to expand the Coalition to include One Nation.
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On the Coalition’s decision to preference One Nation over the independent candidate, Hume said it was a decision for the “party organisation, not for the parliamentary team”.
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The message we sent in Farrer was that the teals vote with Greens, 70% of the time and for the people of Farrer that wasn’t going to represent their interests … We will always put our preferences where we think the national interests lies, where we think the interests of the electorate lies and that is what we did in Farrer.
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Australians among the remaining 22 passengers on board the MV Hondius were scheduled to be evacuated on a Dutch flight to the Netherlands overnight.
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The repatriation operation had evacuated 94 people of 19 different nationalities on Sunday, said the Spanish health minister, Mónica García.
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García said it was decided to fly the Australians to the Netherlands because of timing problems with a second plane that was to fly passengers back to Australia from Tenerife.
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Instead all the remaining passengers were evacuated on the Netherlands flight.
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Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
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The deputy Liberal leader, senator Jane Hume, says the Coalition should be listening “very carefully” to the people of Farrer after facing a thumping loss at the weekend’s byelection.
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As Donald Trump prepares to meet Xi Jinping this week in Beijing, Malcolm Turnbull has been urging global leaders to “stand their ground” when dealing with the US president and said doing otherwise was a “massive mistake”.
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And of course, the federal budget is due to be handed down today – and one commentator thinks it could mark the end of the Howard era. We’ll be bringing you a lot more on that, and all today’s stories as they happen.
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Key events
Finance minister says budget will look at all the ‘levers available’ to address housing crunch
Katy Gallagher, the finance minister, is doing the rounds this morning before the release of the budget.
She told ABC News Breakfast the budget was all about seeing deficits fall, the budget in a stronger position as well as dealing with “some of these really difficult challenges across the economy, including housing”. She added the budget was about putting “fairness at the centre”:
We’ve made it clear that we’ve been trying to look in housing. Our focus had been on supply, and it remains on supply. We need to build more houses in this country.
But we also need to look at all of the different, I guess, impacts and levers available to government to respond to this housing challenge.
It’s an entrenched issue, and we need to make sure that we’re all pulling all the levers available to make sure younger people can realise that dream of home ownership.
Good morning, Nick Visser here to snag the blog. Let’s dive into budget day.
Hume won’t rule out Coalition-One Nation alliance
Caitlin Cassidy
Asked last night about a possible Liberal/National alliance with One Nation, Jane Hume refused to reject the idea outright.
Pressed on the possible scenario, she said “only One Nation are in favour of that” and wouldn’t talk about “what is going to happen after the next election”.
It came after the shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, said he had “never ever” and “never ever” would make a statement in favour of the hypothetical alliance.
Hume said:
The most important is to get the primary vote up for the Liberal and National party … There are so many hypotheticals … I will say that the Coalition are determined and dedicated to present to the Australian public a platform that they can vote for.
There is no one in the Coalition party room today that is telling us we need to expand the Coalition to include One Nation.
On the Coalition’s decision to preference One Nation over the independent candidate, Hume said it was a decision for the “party organisation, not for the parliamentary team”.
The message we sent in Farrer was that the teals vote with Greens, 70% of the time and for the people of Farrer that wasn’t going to represent their interests … We will always put our preferences where we think the national interests lies, where we think the interests of the electorate lies and that is what we did in Farrer.
Caitlin Cassidy
Jane Hume says ‘no one wanted’ Farrer byelection
The deputy Liberal leader, senator Jane Hume, says the Coalition should be listening “very carefully” to the people of Farrer after facing a thumping loss at this weekend’s byelection.
Appearing on ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Hume acknowledged it was a “tough night” for the Coalition and “the message that we heard from voters was loud and clear”.
They wanted change. Standing on a booth with teals in orange on one side and One Nation in orange on the other, both of them were saying ‘vote for change’.
Asked if the Liberal party would be “squeezed out of existence”, Hume said that’s “not our intention” and added the Coalition had been responsible for “years of prosperity and progress”.
This is … a byelection that nobody wanted. It occurred only a year after the election, after a local member had retired, after a quarter of a century which is a long time to have a seat … There was no love lost for the Labor party either. It is just that the Labor party didn’t have the balls to turn up … The Liberal party lost its way. The Coalition lost its way. We split twice in the last 12 months. There is frustration out there. We will take the result with humility.
Australians on hantavirus-hit ship to be repatriated via Netherlands
Australians among the remaining 22 passengers on board the MV Hondius were scheduled to be evacuated on a Dutch flight to the Netherlands overnight.
The repatriation operation had evacuated 94 people of 19 different nationalities on Sunday, said the Spanish health minister, Mónica García.
García said it was decided to fly the Australians to the Netherlands because of timing problems with a second plane that was to fly passengers back to Australia from Tenerife.
Instead all the remaining passengers were evacuated on the Netherlands flight.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
The deputy Liberal leader, senator Jane Hume, says the Coalition should be listening “very carefully” to the people of Farrer after facing a thumping loss at the weekend’s byelection.
As Donald Trump prepares to meet Xi Jinping this week in Beijing, Malcolm Turnbull has been urging global leaders to “stand their ground” when dealing with the US president and said doing otherwise was a “massive mistake”.
And of course, the federal budget is due to be handed down today – and one commentator thinks it could mark the end of the Howard era. We’ll be bringing you a lot more on that, and all today’s stories as they happen.
