Julian Leeser says Liberals had ‘false sense of confidence’
Stephanie Convery
Liberal MP Julian Leeser has said his party lost the federal election because it “did not produce a suite of policies that address the fundamental concerns they had about cost of living”.
Speaking to ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today, he said the party had developed a “false sense of confidence” around Anthony Albanese’s poor performance on some issues, including the voice to parliament and on responding to antisemitism in Australia.
The party’s failure to address young people, women and multicultural communities also contributed to their loss, he said.
Leeser said:
We have fundamental lessons we did not take from the previous campaigns, outlined in a report, which talked about the need to focus on young people, on women, multicultural communities, and I don’t think we did enough to focus our policy offerings on that. And the third key thing is I don’t think we have necessarily our campaign structure, our campaign professionals and activists on the ground, as developed as they could be.
In large parts of Australia there is not a presence of our party and [that] makes the opportunity of winning seats with excellent candidates – even if you have an excellent policy platform – much harder. And we don’t have a good pipeline, like the Labor party does, for activists and campaigners, and I think those are real structural issues we need to address.
Key events
Lisa Cox
The federal government-owned defence housing company has been fined $18,780 for unlawful land clearing at the site of a controversial defence housing development in Darwin.
The infringement notice, issued 1 April, has prompted environment groups that have campaigned against the development at Lee Point to call on the new environment minister Murray Watt to revoke Defence Housing Australia’s (DHA) environmental approval.
The fine was issued following an investigation by the federal environment department.
It found DHA had conducted habitat clearing outside of the stages of the development it had been approved to commence before it had met a condition to have a construction environmental management plan in place.
The executive director of the Environment Centre NT, Dr Kirsty Howey, said the fine was “little more than a slap on the wrist and shows how profoundly broken our environmental laws are”. Howey said:
Minister Murray Watt must act to stop any further destruction at this site and fix our environment laws to stop species extinction once and for all.
Brittany Hayward-Brown, convener for Birdlife Top End said:
The trust of the community in DHA has been destroyed. If they cannot follow the rules set in place by regulators to protect bird populations at Lee Point, then they should not be permitted to engage in any further destruction.
Guardian Australia has approached Watt and Defence Housing Australia for comment.
In a statement to the ABC today, DHA said it “takes compliance matters seriously and is committed to ensuring strict adherence with approvals across all development projects”.
A DHA spokesperson said:
The infringement was issued following DHA clearing a small area between 30 April and 2 May 2024 that was not in compliance with its Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 conditions at the time.
This infringement notice does not affect the validity of DHA’s environmental approvals.
SA senators named after counting wraps up
More election results: the Australian Electoral Commission has announced the count has been completed for South Australia’s Senate representatives. In order of their election, they are:
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Marielle Smith – Australian Labor party
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Alex Antic – Liberal party
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Karen Grogan – Australian Labor party
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Anne Ruston – Liberal party
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Sarah Hanson-Young – Australian Greens
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Charlotte Walker – Australian Labor party
AEC says why it decided against Goldstein recount
The Australian Electoral Commission decided not to conduct a full recount of the Melbourne seat of Goldstein, despite independent candidate Zoe Daniel requesting it, because they were confident the preference distribution was “thorough” during the later part of the count, AEC spokesperson Evan Ekin-Smyth has said.
Speaking to Afternoon Briefing, Ekin-Smyth said:
Given there was a little movement in the late part of that full distribution of preferences we think it is fair enough to do a recheck of first preferences for those top two candidates.
He said the margin of 260 votes between Daniel and Liberal candidate Tim Wilson was “reasonable”, and that while in the context of 118,000 voters it seems very small, it would still be unlikely to shift much with the odd ballot being challenged here and there.
He continued:
So pending any form of error in the fresh scrutiny process, which was our mandatory second count we did count during the standard count, you would think it would be relatively difficult [to change the margin substantially] but absolutely it is important to go through this legislative process.
Daniel did request a full recount, Ekin-Smyth said, but the AEC did not accept that request.
We think a partial recount [is warranted] because of how confident we are in our distribution of preferences, that process finalised on Saturday was very thorough, we’re just going one step further to ensure there is confidence for us and the candidates and voters. The public enjoys the fact the AEC is thorough when it comes to the count and that is what we are doing.
Adeshola Ore
Erin Patterson named suburbs where she might have bought dried mushrooms, court told
More from Erin Patterson’s trial: Sally Ann Atkinon says that during a phone call with Patterson on 3 August, the accused mentioned the suburb Glen Waverley for the first time when trying to determine where she had purchased dried mushrooms for the beef wellington.
The Department of Health official says Patterson named the suburbs Oakleigh, Clayton or Glen Waverley while trying to narrow down where the Asian grocer was located.
Atkinsons says previously Patterson had mentioned Mount Waverley but not Glen Waverley.
The court has adjourned for the day. The trial will resume at 10.30am on Tuesday.
Lisa Cox
Kean wants ‘ambitious’ and ‘achievable’ emissions targets
The Climate Change Authority has been commissioned to advise the government on a 2035 target and plans to cut emissions from electricity and energy, transport, industry and waste, agriculture and land, resources and buildings.
In a consultation paper released last year, the authority nominated a 65-75% cut compared with 2005 levels based on an initial assessment of scientific, economic, technological and social evidence.
Kean said on Monday he wanted to make sure the target the authority recommended to the government was “science aligned”, “ambitious” and “achievable”. He said:
Energy and electricity will do the bulk of the heavy-lifting towards the ambition that we desire to have.
So on any scenario, any number – and we’ve consulted on between 65% and 75% – energy and electricity is the swing arm to getting those deep cuts into our emissions.
Matt Kean says election was ‘win for rational policy’
Lisa Cox
The chair of the Climate Change Authority, Matt Kean, has said the federal election was a “win for rational decision-making and rational policy” and the authority has been consulting on a potential 2035 emissions reduction target of between 65% and 75%.
Kean, a former NSW Liberal energy minister, told a webinar organised by news website the Energy that “the Australian public clearly chose the rational path, which is also the cheapest path, and also the path that lets us decarbonise the economy”. He said:
This election result was a win for rational decision-making and rational policy.
And clearly there was a fork in the road when it came to the choices that Australians were presented with when it came to the energy transition and the transition of our broader economy.
Under one path, one party was saying we’re going to delay the transition to net zero until 2048 when we might install some nuclear reactors.
He said the election outcome was a “win for evidence, engineering and science” and “I think clearly the government has a mandate to get on with this energy transition”.
Adeshola Ore
Health official says Patterson denied foraging for mushrooms, court hears
A Department of Health official says Erin Patterson denied foraging for mushrooms when questioned about the fateful beef wellington lunch.
Sally Ann Atkinon has recounted to Patterson’s triple murder trial a conversation she had with the accused on 2 August while a child protection worker was conducting a home visit.
She says during the conversation Patterson told her water, tea and coffee were the only drinks served at the lunch. Patterson said the milk was from Woolworths in Leongatha, Atkinson says.
Atkinson says Patterson told her the Asian grocery store where she had purchased the dried mushrooms was likely to be in a shopping strip, rather than a shopping centre, in Oakleigh or Clayton.
She says Patterson told her the mushrooms had not been used in a previous pasta meal because they had a “funny” smell. Atkinson says this is different to what Patterson had previously told her in the initial conversation. Atkinson says:
The initial conversation seemed to indicate she’d use some of them in the first dish.
She says when asked if she had foraged mushrooms, Patterson said “no”.
Adeshola Ore
Patterson said it was ‘hard to pinpoint an exact day I bought this or that’, court hears
Atkinson also texted Patterson on 2 August at 1.44pm asking what time of day she bought the ingredients on Friday before the lunch. Atkinson wrote:
Councils are looking at when the supermarket receives deliveries and storage etc, time of shopping would help with their investigation.
Patterson replied on 2 August at 2.44pm.
Hi Sally. I’m not sure exactly what time of day. I went a few times last week and I know I got some of the ingredients on maybe Wednesday or Thursday (I know I bought some discounted eye fillet steaks one time on one of those two days) and then I went back one either Thursday or Friday and bought a couple more but they weren’t discounted, just normal price. And I bought the rest of the ingredients at one of those shopping trips. I often go daily or every second day to pick up a bag or two and get what I need as I go so it’s hard to pinpoint an exact day I bought this or that but I know I bought all of it at some stage last week on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
Atkinson says Patterson had previously told her she bought the ingredients for the lunch on Friday.
Health official asked Erin Patterson for details on lunch, texts show
The jury in Erin Patterson’s murder trial have been shown text messages between the accused and a Victorian Department of Health official.
Sally Ann Atkinson,, the official, was investigating a potential death cap mushroom poisoning after guests at Patterson’s lunch fell ill, the court has heard.
Jurors are shown a text message Atkinson sent Patterson on 1 August – three days after the beef wellington lunch – at 3.50pm after making unsuccessful attempts at reaching her.
In the message, Atkinson says she requires information about what drinks were served at the lunch, the types of shallots purchased and a “basic description of the packaging of the mushrooms from the Asian grocer” including weight and size of packaging.
Atkinson also asked Patterson to think of the names of the roads she parked on or near when she purchased the dried mushrooms.
The court is shown text messages between Atkinson and Erin.
Patterson replied the same day, 1 August, at 4.08pm:
Hi Sally. Sure I will try to get that information all to you as soon as possible. I’m just dealing with trying to manage and look after the kids in the hospital here and a bit snowed under trying to manage that. I’ll get this info to you as soon as possible but I’ve just been in a couple of meetings with people at the hospital when you’ve been trying to call.
Stephanie Convery
Liberals need to focus on ‘vast middle of Australia’ – Leeser
Asked if the Liberal party has lurched too far to the right, Liberal MP Julian Leeser says his view is that the party should focus on “the vast middle of Australia”.
I think we need to constantly keep in mind: who are the people we represent and we want to represent?
I think key to that is families in the suburbs and small-business people, among others, and when we are focused on the needs and concerns of families and small businesses – based on our enduring values of individual freedom, of personal responsibility, of strong defence, strong families – I think these are the sorts of values that can guide us well in the future.
Leeser said it was easy in opposition to “get distracted” and the party needed to focus on “the things that unite us and connect us with the voters we need to win”.
Julian Leeser says Liberals had ‘false sense of confidence’
Stephanie Convery
Liberal MP Julian Leeser has said his party lost the federal election because it “did not produce a suite of policies that address the fundamental concerns they had about cost of living”.
Speaking to ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today, he said the party had developed a “false sense of confidence” around Anthony Albanese’s poor performance on some issues, including the voice to parliament and on responding to antisemitism in Australia.
The party’s failure to address young people, women and multicultural communities also contributed to their loss, he said.
Leeser said:
We have fundamental lessons we did not take from the previous campaigns, outlined in a report, which talked about the need to focus on young people, on women, multicultural communities, and I don’t think we did enough to focus our policy offerings on that. And the third key thing is I don’t think we have necessarily our campaign structure, our campaign professionals and activists on the ground, as developed as they could be.
In large parts of Australia there is not a presence of our party and [that] makes the opportunity of winning seats with excellent candidates – even if you have an excellent policy platform – much harder. And we don’t have a good pipeline, like the Labor party does, for activists and campaigners, and I think those are real structural issues we need to address.
More than 12,000 people still isolated after NSW floods, SES says
There are thousands of workers and volunteers on the ground today with the NSW State Emergency Service after the devastating floods.
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The SES has responded to more than 7,700 incidents, including 794 flood rescues.
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More than 5,000 damage assessments have been completed.
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SES officials are working to get critical supplies to more than 12,000 people who remain isolated by the extreme weather.
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Sixty-nine warnings remaining place across the region, but officials are working to de-escalate those as they can to allow people to return home.
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Helicopters and high-clearance vehicles have been dropping off grocery supplies and medical needs to flooded communities today.
“Locally led groups assisting in clean-up operations like this will ensure communities are resilient into the future and can support each other in the long-term recovery,” Jihad Dib, the minister for emergency services, said in a statement.
Adeshola Ore
Back to Erin Patterson’s trial
A Department of Health official says Patterson told her she wanted to make something “fancy” for her guests at the deadly beef wellington lunch.
Sally Ann Atkinson is giving evidence in the courtroom in Morwell. At the time of the lunch, she was working in a department team focused on gastro-type illnesses.
On 31 July 2023 – two days after the lunch – Atkinson received a possible disease notification about suspected death cap mushroom poisoning via Dr Conor McDermott at the Austin hospital, the court hears.
Atkinson says she spoke to Patterson while she was in hospital on 1 August – three days after the lunch. She said Patterson told her it was beef wellington with mashed potatoes, beans and gravy from a packet.
She says Patterson told her she had not cooked a beef wellington before and wanted to make something “fancy”.
Patterson told Atksinon the majority of ingredients were bought from Woolworths while dried mushrooms had been purchased from an Asian grocer in April 2023, the court hears.
Atkinson says Patterson told her the mushrooms from an Asian grocer had been purchased dried and were then stored in a Tupperware container.
Josh Butler
Dfat assisting Australian detained in Bali on drug charges
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing assistance to an Australian man arrested in Bali on drug charges. In a brief statement, a spokesperson for the department said it couldn’t say much more at this stage.
News Corp reported that an Australian man had been arrested in Bali for allegedly trying to smuggle 1.8kg of cocaine into Indonesia, after allegedly receiving packages in the mail.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to an Australian detained in Bali,” the spokesperson told Guardian Australia via email.
Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.
Home auctions spiking already after RBA rate cut
Auction clearance rates jumped immediately after the Reserve Bank’s second interest rate cut of the year, in a sign home buyers are regaining confidence, the Australian Associated Press reports.
The volume of auctions held in capital cities surged more than 40% to 2,512 last week, with 71.3% reported as sold, according to property data analytics firm Cotality.
That’s the second-highest preliminary clearance rate in 2025.
Strength in the Melbourne market underpinned the recovery, with almost three-quarters of homes under the hammer recording a successful auction. Meanwhile, Sydney’s preliminary clearance rate passed 70% for the first time in 10 weeks.
While buyer confidence improved, sellers’ expectations are in many cases still above what the market is willing to pay.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
PM sends army to help NSW floods clean-up
Seventy Australian defence force personnel will be deployed to the New South Wales mid-north coast to assist with the cleanup from the devastating floods.
The troops will be on the ground from Tuesday alongside the veteran-led Disaster Relief Australia, helping to clear debris, reopen roads and conduct welfare checks on residents in the flood zone.
Anthony Albanese announced the ADF deployments as the massive cleanup operation began for communities across the region.
“Unfortunately we are getting far too much experience in dealing with extreme weather events,” the prime minister told a press conference inside the national situation room in Canberra.
Read more:
Elias Visontay
I’ll now pass over the blog to my colleague Nick Visser. Have a good afternoon!
