Australia has been preparing for Trump
Australia has been preparing for the likelihood of Donald Trump presidency for some time, Penny Wong says.
The foreign minister met with Mike Pompeo, the former CIA director and secretary of state who is expected to be given a top role in the new administration, recently.
She told ABC’s Radio National Breakfast the meeting was a “very important engagement”.
Wong was also asked about the future of Australian ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, following the results, given Trump had declared in a television interview the former prime minister was “nasty”.
She insists that Rudd has been “highly effective” with both Republicans and Democrats.
“So we’re confident that Mr Rudd will continue to an excellent job in engaging with the new administration,” the Labor frontbencher said.
Would it be in the national interest to replace Rudd with Scott Morrison?
“The national interest is, I think, outlined by Joe Hockey recently, when he spoke about these matters, he said,” she says.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re Liberal, Labor, Green, whatever, Australia first.
“And that’s certainly the approach I hope political leaders will take in relation to backing in our ambassador and the government as we engage with the new administration.”
Emergency legislation to be moved to respond to High Court ruling
The government will today introduce urgent legislation into parliament after it lost a crucial High Court case on ankle monitors and curfews for freed immigration detainees.
More than 200 people who were in immigration detention have been released since the High Court ruled last year that the ongoing custody of one detainee, dubbed NZYQ, was unlawful.
It sparked rushed laws to give the home affairs minister unprecedented powers over people released from immigration detention, including placing strict curfews and ankle monitoring devices on former detainees, and enabling other conditions related to what they can do or where they can go.
The High Court ruled on Wednesday that law was not valid.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the laws would also strengthen the government’s power to deport people who had their visas cancelled.
“The court’s decision is not the one the government wanted — but it is one the government has prepared for,” he said.
“The security and safety of the Australian community will always be the absolute priority for this government.”
You can read the full report from Jake Evans below.
Good morning 👋
Hiya friends.
Welcome to our politics live blog. Courtney Gould from the ABC’s Parliament House team here to guide you through the day.
It’s early but fair warning, I suspect today is going to get busy. We’ve got the Australian response to the US election and the continuation of senate estimates (featuring a Reserve Bank and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade grilling).
And on top of all of that, the government will today move to push through emergency legislation to respond to yesterday’s High Court loss on ankle bracelets and curfews for immigration detainees.
Let’s just jump straight in.
