PM says Dutton’s team ‘dominated by blokes’ – as it happened

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Thank you for joining us on the blog this Sunday.

ShareMan arrested after Geelong home siege

A 24-year-old man has been arrested after he barricaded himself inside a Horne Square home in the Geelong suburb of Corio, Victoria police have said.

A woman was allegedly inside the property with the man, before she left the address around 3pm, police said.

The Newcomb man was arrested without incident, and is assisting police with enquiries.

ShareSiege unfolds at Geelong home

Victoria police are currently responding to an incident at a Horne Square home in the Geelong suburb of Corio.

When emergency services arrived after receiving a report of a possible firearms incident after 11:30am, a man and woman barricaded themselves inside the address, refusing to engage with police, Victoria police said in a statement.

The woman was uninjured when she left the address about 3pm, and is assisting police with their enquiries, the statement said.

Critical Incident Response Team negotiators are on scene attempting to make contact with the man. There is nothing yet to suggest a firearms incident has occurred.

Police asked that the area be avoided, and a number of surrounding streets have been cordoned off.

ShareClean Up Australia going strong

More than 750,000 Australians have donned gloves and cleaned our beaches, rivers and parks in the nation’s largest community environment event.

Besides full garbage bags, many first-time Clean Up Australia Day volunteers will carry away a fresh perspective on waste and packaging that will resonate throughout the year.

Among the 10,000 sites across the country, volunteers are expected to pick up more than 300,000 pieces of plastic, metal, glass, e-waste and other junk.

Clean Up Australia chair Pip Kiernan told AAP:

Once you’ve done a clean up, you change the way you think about what you buy and consume.

You are also more conscious of what you leave behind when you’ve enjoyed beautiful open spaces in this country.

Gone are the days of volunteers hauling car batteries and white goods from Sydney Harbour but Kiernan and federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek found the “usual culprits” at an inner-Sydney beach on Sunday.

Plenty of soft plastics, beverage containers and “dreaded” cigarette butts.

The haul is common across the nation, with plastics of all types making up 81% in Clean Up Australia’s 2023 Litter Report.

That included an estimated 76,000 cigarette buttes.

– Australian Associated Press

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Updated at 23.30 EST

Peter Dutton’s team ‘dominated by blokes’: PM

Back to Albanese. In his opening address to the media, he hammered home that new Dunkley MP, Jodie Belyea, would be joining a “team which is majority female”. A journo asks if he is suggesting the Liberals have a woman problem.

Albanese replies:

People will make their own judgment. My government has a majority of members who are women … we also have a very diverse caucus. When you look at my caucus, you see Australia, you see people from diverse backgrounds, different faiths, different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different histories. When you look at Peter Dutton’s team, what you see by and large is [it is] dominated by blokes and they keep having preselections and putting up more blokes, including to replace women who are retiring at the next election.

He said he would be waiting to see if the Liberals tomorrow pick a woman to replace Scott Morrison in the seat of Cook. Albanese said:

They have an opportunity in Cook tomorrow to preselect a woman. We’ll wait and see if they do. If they do, then that will be a change in the pattern of behaviour that we’ve seen.

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Updated at 22.42 EST

PM: ‘Jodie Belyea is Frankston tough’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is holding a press conference in Frankston with Labor’s new representative for Dunkley, Jodie Belyea, who won the byelection overnight.

He says:

Jodie Belyea, is Frankston tough as she said last night. She’s someone who’s absolutely passionate about representing this community and I want to thank Jodie but also all of the volunteers and her campaign team who worked so hard to make sure that she can carry on and build on the legacy of Peta [Murphy].

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Updated at 21.52 EST

‘The harm has been dealt with’: Asio boss on former politician turned spy

The Asio boss, Mike Burgess, has said the unnamed person he accused of being recruited by foreign spies is no longer a politician “but this happened when they were a politician”.

Asio director general Mike Burgess Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Burgess has sat down for a small number of interviews in the wake of his annual threat assessment speech, when he alleged that a former Australian politician “sold out their country, party and former colleagues” after being recruited by foreign spies. He has not said the level of government – federal, state or local – the political party or the gender of the person involved.

In an interview with Guardian Australia’s politics podcast – released today – Burgess confirmed that the activities of the former politician were legal at the time because they pre-dated Australia’s 2018 espionage and foreign interference laws.

Asked whether Asio had confronted the person directly, Burgess said he would not divulge operational details except to say “this person knows who it is” and “the harm has been dealt with”.

In a separate interview with SBS News, Burgess said of the individual:

[They are a] former politician now – the matter is resolved – but this happened when they were a politician.

Pressed on whether this happened when they were serving in a parliament in Australia, Burgess said: “Correct.”

In the Guardian Australia podcast, Burgess explained why he was resisting calls to name the individual. Burgess also expanded on broader security threats to diaspora communities in Australia, offered to relinquish one of Asio’s questioning powers, and gave an update on a complaint raised by Australian citizen Daniel Duggan as he fights extradition to the US. You can hear the full interview here:

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Updated at 20.35 EST

Tehan: Coalition ‘not at all’ embarrassed for targeting government over arrest of immigration detainee revealed to be wrongful

The Coalition’s immigration spokesperson, Dan Tehan, says his side of politics is “not at all” embarrassed for targeting the federal government over the arrest of a man released from immigration detention – only for Victoria police to withdraw the charges.

On Thursday Victoria police said a 44-year-old Richmond man who had been released as a result of the high court ruling on indefinite detention had been charged with sexual assault, stalking and two counts of unlawful assault.

Just hours after the Coalition made the alleged assaults the centrepiece of its pursuit of the government in parliamentary question time on Thursday, Victoria police revealed they had cleared the former detainee and now allege another man – who there is no reason to believe was released from immigration detention – was involved in the incident.

The ABC’s David Speers asked Tehan whether the developments were “a bit embarrassing for your colleagues who with ripped into the government over a wrongful arrest. Tehan replied:

Not at all. The facts were the facts at that time.

And it’s a warning to the government that sadly – and none of us hope for this, none of us hope for this, and that’s why want the government to take action – it is likely we are going to see reoffending unless they’re keeping the community safe and on the ball.

Pressed on whether the Coalition should be more careful on specific cases, Tehan said the Coalition was “perfectly entitled to go after the government” on the basis of a Victoria police statement.

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Updated at 19.37 EST

Labor, Liberals look for positives after Dunkley swing

Labor and the Liberals are lauding local campaigns during the Dunkley byelection as both sides look for the positives after the Albanese government retained the seat against a swing, AAP reports.

Community leader Jodie Belyea held the Victorian seat for Labor despite a nearly 4% swing away from the government in Saturday’s byelection triggered by the death of MP Peta Murphy in December.

But despite pulling up short, the Liberals say the swing against the government has put them in good stead at the next election – due by May 2025 – with the seat’s margin cut from 6.3% to 2.5%.

Liberal frontbencher Jane Hume told Sky News:

6.3% isn’t marginal in anyone’s language, but this morning, it definitely is a marginal seat, in fact, is one of the most marginal seats in Victoria.

It was a really good campaign, we had a fantastic candidate, we left nothing on the field … so I think the Liberals should be proud and they should be really optimistic about our chances of the next election.

Hume also pointed to the fact the Liberals’ primary vote was the highest in a decade.

I want to make sure that we not overcook it here, there’s work to be done but at this stage in the electoral cycle, I think that we can take this as a very positive sign.

(More to come on this in the next blog posts)

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Updated at 18.32 EST

Coalition’s Tehan calls for reduced intake of international students

On immigration policy, the shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, tells David Speers:

The intake of foreign students does need to be reduced, absolutely.

But Tehan won’t say to what level the intake should be reduced – he says the government is also trying to reduce the student intake:

Well, we’ve got to wait and see.

Obviously there’s a lot of conditions that you’ve got to look at, there are a lot of policies the Labor party have now in a very kneejerk reaction put in place – we have got to see what happens there but David, I guarantee you, one thing can I guarantee your viewers, there will be an immigration policy that will be announced before the next election and it will be very different to Labor’s immigration policy.

The interview quickly turns to farce:

Q: Do you want a bigger or a smaller population?

What I’ve said is we don’t want Labor’s big Australia. Labor are pursuing a big Australia.

Q: So you want a smaller population?

What we want is a better Australia. We will announce what our better Australia will look like in the lead-up to the election.

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Updated at 18.03 EST

Voters’ focus is on cost of living, Jason Clare says

The federal education minister, Jason Clare, spoke to Sky News this morning about Labor’s victory in the Dunkley byelection, and continued to add to expectations of a further cost of living package in the May budget.

Clare said the result showed people were “not interested in political campaigns” but wanted to know what the government could do to help them with the cost of living:

I guess I hesitate to draw too many conclusions out of a byelection, but we did see the Greens vote go down, One Nation and Palmer weren’t in the field [this time] and that contributed to the Libs’ primary vote going up.

But the big issue for all Aussies, whether they’re in Dunkley or right around the country, is the cost of living. That’s what’s on everybody’s mind, whether they’re paying bills at the supermarket or paying down their mortgage. The tax cuts will help with that, inflation going down will help with that, wages going up will help with that.

We’re very conscious that that’s the big issue that Aussies face right now.

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Updated at 17.39 EST

Good morning

Welcome to another Sunday live blog.

Peter Dutton’s Liberal party won a modest swing in the Dunkley byelection on Saturday night but fell short as Labor’s Jodie Belyea triumphed in the seat vacated by the death of the popular local MP Peta Murphy.

Sydney Mardi Gras celebrations continue as clean-up begins after Saturday night’s parade. Revellers made space to honour the memories of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies, who were allegedly murdered less than two weeks ago, as the parade passed near an inner-city home that has become a memorial.

And Jeremy Rockliff’s Tasmania Liberals have promised to upgrade state hospitals, as the party formally launches its election campaign.

We’ll be bringing you live news updates throughout the day – stay tuned.

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