The last question in the prime minister’s press conference was what the Australian government was doing to pressure Israel into following humanitarian law, now it has (officially) broken the ceasefire.

Early estimates are that 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in the days since Israel restarted its relentless bombing campaign of heavily populated civilian areas, including the largest massacre of children in one day (on top of the thousands of children who have already been killed by Israel’s military.)

The Gazan population is starving, with Israel having formally blocked food, water, petrol and medicine from entering the strip for three weeks ahead of its bombing campaign, for a population which was already on the brink of starvation given Israel’s previous blockades on basic supplies during its assault on the Palestinian population.

Australian doctor, Dr Mohammed Mustafa who is volunteering in Gaza, has pleaded with the Albanese government to take action.

Albanese did not offer anything new:

“We have maintained our same position, which is to – we want to see the ceasefire be continued. We want an end to hostilities. We want to see hostages released. We want to see peace and security in the Middle East. It’s something that my government is very focused on. We will remain focused on but we’re not major players in the Middle East that’s just the truth of the matter. So, we remain incredibly concerned about the innocent loss of life that we’ve seen since October 7, whether that be in Israel or whether it be in Gaza.

Surely people have a look at that innocent loss of life, including children and people who have done nothing wrong but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They deserve protection and I want to see that occur, as I’m sure most people who have a look at what is occurring, whether they be people in Gaza, or indeed, people in Israel, who are saying that as well.”

There is a theme that has emerged this year as we get closer to the inevitable election, where Peter Dutton and the Coalition trash every Labor policy – and then immediately adopt it.

Dutton called the energy rebate a “ponzi scheme” on Sunday – but the Coalition has also said it will support it. So now it is in the position of supporting something it is slamming as a ‘ponzi scheme’ (which makes no sense even on the face of it – Dutton’s complaint is that the government is using tax payer money to pay for the rebates, which using that logic makes everything governments do a ‘ponzi scheme’. I mean just wait when he learns about fossil fuel subsidies!

Dutton’s answer by the way, for lowering power costs is to bring more gas into the system. Which is also laughable, given the cost of has has TREBLED. Why is it three times the cost? Because we made the stupid decision to export most of it, which means the cost of gas has now based on the international market, which is terminally volatile.

If you need any further indication of where the entire gallery’s brain is at, at the moment, here is one of the questions and answers from this morning’s press conference with the prime minister, where he and Queensland premier David Crisafulli were announcing a new school funding deal:

Q: Some believe that you have a sense of momentum and you might call the election as soon as you can after the sitting period is over and people want to head back to their electorates quickly. Do you want to seize the moment call the election as soon as you can after Thursday. And you’ve had time to speak to Peter Dutton now that you’re in the job. Do you have any more confidence in the nuclear plan now that you’ve had a chance to look at it?

Albanese:

“On the first, I’m told by my office that when we called the press conference, some thought that we were about to call the election the day before the budget!

So I say consistently, as I have said privately and publicly, three years is too short. I can now confirm the election will be in May. I’ve been saying that for a year. I was advised this time last year in order to stop tax cuts going forward, that we should call an election. And I ignored that call by Mr Dutton, and I continued to govern. We’ve got a budget to hand down tomorrow night. It’s an important budget that will set Australia up on the path to a better future. And I look forward to that.

I look forward to some policy besides the three that have been announced – nuclear plans, the $20,000 lunches and the cuts that we don’t know about, coming out sometime between now and May. But we’re very clear about our agenda and it’s one of governing. And what I’m doing today is governing – putting in place these important reforms.”

Tanya Plibersek suffered through her weekly humiliation of having to ‘debate’ Barnaby Joyce on national television this morning, but first we were gifted this little gem.

The Seven network producers had the hosts likening the Coalition’s bitch and fold policy of adopting everyone of Labor’s policy announcement, even when they don’t like them to the ‘I’ll have what she’s having’ line in when Harry Met Sally.

Joyce says he has never seen the movie.

“Well, I have to admit I’ve had a deprived childhood. I haven’t seen When Harry Met Sally.”

Joyce was 22 when the movie came out. Which says a lot about what Joyce considers his ‘childhood’ and maybe explains why the former deputy prime minister never appears to have grown up.

If you are looking for a break from all the budget news and horrors, there is this from Josh Black on Arts funding – and why it is so important to defend it.

“Blue Poles changed a nation because it embroiled political leaders in an argument about Australia’s commitment to the arts and cultural sector.” Here’s my take on Pollock, Blue Poles and arts policy today @australiainstitute.org.au @theconversation.com theconversation.com/blue-poles-a…

[image or embed]— Joshua Black (@joshuablackjb.bsky.social) March 24, 2025 at 8:44 AM

Anthony Albanese is announcing that Queensland has signed up to the school funding deal – Queensland premier David Crisafulli is in Canberra for the announcement, so both are feeling pretty chuffed with themselves.

The agreement means (per the release)

As part of the Heads of Agreement signed today, the Commonwealth will provide an additional 5 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) to Queensland.
 
This will lift the Commonwealth’s contribution from 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the SRS by 2034.
 
This will see an estimated $2.8 billion in additional Commonwealth funding to Queensland state schools over the next 10 years.

This agreement will see the biggest injection of funding ever delivered for Queensland state schools.
 
As part of the Agreement, Queensland will remove the provision allowing them to claim 4 per cent of state school funding for indirect school costs such as capital depreciation and replace it with 4 per cent of recurrent funding on eligible expenses.

So what does Queensland have to do?

The Agreement signed today will be followed by a Queensland Bilateral Agreement, which will tie funding to reforms that will help students catch up, keep up and finish school, such as: 

• Year 1 phonics and early years of schooling numeracy checks to identify students in the early years of school who need additional help.
• evidence-based teaching and targeted and intensive supports such as small-group or catch-up tutoring to help students who fall behind.
• initiatives that support wellbeing for learning – including greater access to health professionals.
• access to high-quality and evidence-based professional learning, and
• initiatives that improve the attraction and retention of teachers and reduce teacher and school leader workload.

Ahead of this budget being delivered, it pays to remember that every decision the government makes is a choice.

Always remember – budgets are about choices www.theguardian.com/business/gro…

[image or embed]— Greg Jericho (@grogsgamut.bsky.social) March 20, 2025 at 10:19 AM

The decision to fund something or not comes down to priorities. And governments tell us what their priorities are in every budget they hand down.

Asked why the government is focusing on extending the energy rebate for everyone, rather than raising welfare for the most financially vulnerable, Katy Gallagher told RN Breakfast:

The budget has to do a lot of things, and you’ve seen payments on Jobseeker increase in every budget that we have handed down, including additional payments on top of indexation.

We’ve increased single parenting payment and eligibility for that. We’ve made sure that bulk billing is funded properly, including for concession card holders.

So we’ve had to come at this cost of living challenges from a number of different ways, but one of them has been to make sure that we are supporting households who rely on income support, essentially, to get through.

But the budget is under pressure, and I don’t think the treasurer and I have ever pretended otherwise we’ve got a lot of calls on the budget, a lot of pressures on the budget from various areas, whether it be defense or health or aged care or NDIS or the debt that we’ve managed to get down, or the interest payments on that debt that we’ve managed to lower.

And so, you know, when you see a budget, a budget is, you know, hundreds and hundreds of decisions that are layered upon each other and certainly responding to people who are on income support payments has been a feature of this government.”

The vast majority of the increases to welfare has been the automatic increase to payments as a result of indexation to CPI. So high inflation means higher indexation. It has not been through a mechanism or decision of government (other than it didn’t stand in the way of the indexation).

This is not very well understood – even by some journalists. At one point, someone was running the line that lower inflation wouldn’t be good news for people on welfare, as it would mean lower indexation for the payments. Often, you can tell who has once had to rely on these payments for survival, and who hasn’t, just by how they report on them.

Finance minister Katy Gallagher has been doing the rounds this morning – she spoke to RN where she was asked about the size of the public service:

I think what we’ve tried to do is look at the public service and say, what is the right size for the public service to be to deliver the outcomes that we want, and that is better outcomes for veterans, better outcomes for people engaging with Services Australia, better outcomes for people processing their Medicare claims.

And we’ve been through a pretty methodical process in this, in each budget, we’ve kind of tried to deal with various departments. And so I think the public service is roughly the right size.

A snap election has been called for Canada – the Canuck’s will go to the polls on 28 April.

Unlike Australia, Canada has a first past the post voting system (as opposed to preferential voting) which means that Mark Carney, who is the (new) leader of the governing Liberal party, has made up ground against the Conservative’s Pierre Poilievre who until recently was the shoo-in – but it is still neck and neck.

Donald Trump’s threats are proving key in this election – voters are looking to who will stand up to Trump the most. Elbow’s up, which is a hockey term, has become a rallying cry for Canadians preparing to fight.

Anthony Albanese has called a press conference for 8.30am.

It’s in the fancy press conference location – the PM’s courtyard, which means it is a fancy press conference.

The budget sell and pre election blitz is officially underway.