Key events
Sydney archbishop Anthony Fisher has said US cardinal Robert Prevost’s “missionary heart” would hold him in good stead as new pope:
Like the late pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV will bring to the church the experience of being part of a religious order with an emphasis on simplicity and community.
It was very moving that the Holy Father opened his first address to a watching world with a greeting of peace, and repeated the central truth of the gospel, that God loves all of us “without any limits or conditions”.
– Australian Associated Press
We must ‘do the hard work to reconnect’, Tehan says
In Dan Tehan’s announcement that he will not be contesting the Liberal leadership, he said the party needs to have “an honest look” at the election outcome, and “deep into the heart of the party itself”:
The Australian people want a Liberal Party that speaks to their lives, their families and their hopes for the future. They want small businesses and farmers to thrive. We must create a political movement that can provide that vision.
That means an honest look at the 2025 election, our history and the future. We must also look deep into the heart of the party itself.
We must do the hard work to reconnect Liberal values and the Australian people.
Dan Tehan rules himself out of Liberal leadership race
Shadow minister for immigration Dan Tehan is not standing for leadership of the Liberal party, he has just confirmed:
I love the Liberal Party, and I want to help reconnect us with the Australian people, but after careful consideration and conversations with my colleagues, I have decided not to stand for a leadership position.
I will work hard and serve in whatever capacity I am asked to rebuild our party.
Australian bishops hail pope’s election
Australian bishops have welcomed the “momentous” election of US cardinal Robert Prevost as new pope.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said:
The election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV is yet again a sign of the wisdom behind the Italian saying that “those who enter the conclave as a pope inevitably emerge from the conclave as a cardinal”.
Cardinal Prevost brought to his most recent role as Prefect of the Dicastery for bishops an approachability and willingness to listen which were no doubt developed throughout his many years as an Augustinian missionary in Peru.
Recent popes have sought ways to be of service to the wider Christian family and we can expect that Pope Leo XIV will follow this same path. The growing sense of unity and common purpose, already evident among Christians, can be a powerful countersign to the fragmentation we see in so many societies and communities.
Global News Corp mastheads suffer sharp revenue drop
Jonathan Barrett
News Corp’s global mastheads have suffered a sharp fall in revenue after lower advertising income cut into revenue streams.
Revenue at the conglomerate’s news media unit, a division that includes the Sun and the Times in London, the New York Post and the Australian, fell in the quarter to US$514m, down 8% from a year ago, according to results published today.
The company, part of Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling empire, attributed the slide to lower advertising income and lower circulation and subscription revenues.
Members of the Murdoch family have been involved in a court battle over the future control of News Corp as well as Fox News.
While News Corp has increased digital subscriber numbers at its Australian operations, online readers for the Sun and New York Post have plummeted. The declines have previously been linked to changes in referrer platforms.
The conglomerate, which also owns book publishers, real estate advertising assets and the business information unit Dow Jones, reported a slight lift in overall revenue to US$2bn for the three months to 31 March.
The company profited from higher audiobook sales and robust revenue generated from the Dow Jones unit, which includes the Wall Street Journal as well as business resources such as economic risk analysis services.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price defends defection to Liberal party room
Krishani Dhanji
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has defended her defection to the Liberal party room but wouldn’t confirm if she’ll run for deputy leader on a ticket with Angus Taylor.
Speaking to 2GB, Price said she was “disappointed” in the reaction from Matt Canavan, who said her move was “why people are sick of politicians” and compared it to Lidia Thorpe’s defection from the Greens.
Price said she had consulted with colleagues before the move, and also seemed to suggested that she had wanted to sit in the Liberal party room from the start:
I wanted to do it in a respectful way. So I did speak to my colleagues. I even spoke to Sussan Ley as well. So there are many that I had spoken to into the lead-up to this being announced.
The decision I have chosen, which is something I can do as part of the Country Liberal party, is which party room I sit in in federal parliament, to be quite honest, it is something that I wanted to do from the first time I was elected.
Asked whether she would join Taylor’s ticket, she remained coy, saying she’d already undertaken a “huge step”.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese says the election of US Cardinal Robert Prevost as new Pope “comes at an important time for the Catholic Church and the world”.
His statement says:
Today is a momentous day for Catholics around the world and faithful in Australia, and I join them in congratulating their Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, Bishop of Rome, on his election overnight.
As the first North American Pope, Pope Leo XIV’s leadership comes at an important time for the Catholic Church and the world.
Australia will invite His Holiness Pope Leo to Australia for the International Eucharistic Congress being proudly hosted in 2028. My government looks forward to continuing Australia’s strong relationship with the Holy See under Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate.
May the papacy of Pope Leo advance the cause of peace and social justice for all humanity.
Liberals trapped in ‘Rupert Murdoch-owned rightwing entertainment echo chamber’, Malcolm Turnbull says
Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has appeared on the US Political Gabfest podcast, saying Donald Trump is “making the centre left great again” and the Liberal party is “living in a Rupert Murdoch bubble”:
In many ways, Donald Trump is making the centre left great again. All around the world, the parties of the right, particularly those that channel Trump, or are seen to be channelling Trump, have been set back.
Right from the time he started this tariff war, the you’ve seen the centre right party, the Liberal party … you saw its numbers started to decline.
The problem for the Liberal party has been that it has essentially been living in a largely Rupert Murdoch-owned rightwing entertainment echo chamber, and so they have been running policies and lines that appeal to that audience. But when played out in a general election, when you’ve got to win everyone or you’ve got to win the centre ground, they have backfired spectacularly.
You had a cost-of-living election, that’s that was the big issue. But the Liberal leader, [Peter] Dutton, was more often than not talking about woke issues, basically copying things that were being done in Washington, you know, decreeing that all federal public servants would no longer be allowed to work from home.
It’s that kind of agenda that that fires up the rightwing base on Fox in your country, or Sky News in Australia, which belongs to Rupert. And it’s it’s really a terrible trap.
Mark Butler welcomes election of new pope
Health minister Mark Butler says the election of US cardinal Robert Prevost as new pope is “terrific news”.
He was speaking on ABC News Breakfast earlier this morning:
It was terrific news that I read when I first woke up, really quick election to the first American Pope in history and he takes his name from Leo XIII, who was a pope very well-known for his commitment to social justice. The billion or so Catholics around the world, the one in four Australians who identify as Catholics, will be overjoyed today after a period of grieving and mourning for the much-loved Pope Francis.
Angus Taylor confirms he will stand to be Liberal leader
Angus Taylor has confirmed to the AFR that he’s running for leader of the Liberal party.
The shadow treasurer didn’t confirm widespread rumours that he wants Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as his deputy. He said she was an “extraordinary addition” to the party.
Bridget McKenzie lashes out at Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s defection
Krishani Dhanji
The fallout from Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s decision to defect from the Nationals party room to the Liberals continues, with Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie calling the move “disappointing” and saying loyalty is “essential” in politics.
McKenzie joined Sky News a moment ago, and couldn’t hide her disappointment, pointing out that, while the Liberal party was decimated on Saturday, the Nationals held all of their seats.
She seemed to put the blame for the defection on both Price and the Liberal party:
The Liberal party has got a lot of deep thinking to do. We wish them well with that, but they shouldn’t be seeking to damage us in the process of trying to rebuild themselves.
Asked if she felt betrayed, McKenzie said:
Loyalty is a rare commodity in politics, but it’s an essential one and, out in the bush, it’s worth everything … I was disappointed [but] ultimately, that’s a decision for Senator Nampijinpa Price to resign from our room.
Yesterday on X her fellow Nationals senator Matt Canavan said Price’s “decision to put her own ambition over the will of the voters is exactly why people are sick of politicians”.
McKim targets PM for ‘lack of grace’
Nick McKim says prime minister Anthony Albanese has conducted himself with a “distinct lack of grace” post-election win.
The acting Greens leader said preferences from parties like One Nation in the seat of Melbourne ultimately resulted in Labor winning the seat over the outgoing Greens leader Adam Bandt:
There’s an awful lot of Labor MPs who owe their position to Green’s preferences around the country, which makes Mr Albanese’s distinct lack of grace over the last few days – in particular, deciding to punch down on Max Chandler-Mather the other day – which makes it all the more surprising, because he’s punching down with one hand, and on the other hand, he’s clasping a whole bunch of MPs who owe their positions to Green preferences.
‘We will always call out war crimes’
Asked whether the Green’s stance on Gaza damaged the party’s performance, Nick McKim firmly disagreed, saying it was “not about some kind of political calculation”. The acting Greens leader is speaking on ABC RN:
Let’s be really clear about why we took the stance we have on Gaza. This was not about some kind of political calculation. There’s a genocide under way in Gaza.
There are tens of thousands of innocent people who are being burned to death. They are being dismembered. They are being buried alive, including children and babies, and that sort of thing has to be called out, no matter where it’s happening and no matter who is doing it.
We will always call out war crimes. We will always call out ethnic cleansing, and we will always call out genocide, and we’ll continue to call out and tell the truth about what is happening in Palestine.
Nick McKim rules himself out of Greens leadership race
The Greens acting leader Nick McKim says he is not throwing his hat in the ring for leadership of the party. He is speaking on ABC Radio National:
It’s an immense privilege to lead the Greens, and I’ve bene the leader of the Greens in Tasmania, but that also means I know what the job is.
I have had a fair bit of self-reflection over this over the last few days, and I’ve always believed, if you can’t give the job 120% then you shouldn’t be doing it. And I don’t want to let my party room colleagues down. I don’t want to let our party down. I don’t want to let the movement that we represent down. So I’ve decided not to take that job.
‘I am the right person to lead the party forward’
Asked about the Liberal party’s “woman problem”, Sussan Ley says:
I’m putting my hand up. I’m determined and convinced that I am the right person to lead the party forward at this time and I think my appointment would send a strong signal to the women of Australia, but it’s about much more than that. It is about the policy offering. It is about what modern Australia expects of us as Liberals. It is about working collegiately across our party and it is about a strong work ethic, something that I’m known for in our party and in our country.
I’m not going to take a backward step. We can be successful. We can win the next election. And this is a moment to look forward and really bring the Australian people with us on this journey.
