Australian politics live: NSW One Nation leader clarifies anti-abortion comments; Joyce compares Hanson’s Indigenous comments with melon-gate

Follow the day’s news live

• Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast

Sports precinct funding report reveals a ‘pattern of behaviour’, Wilson says

Tim Wilson says there are questions for Labor to answer over an ABC report which says health minister Mark Butler’s office asked an Adelaide council to put forward a $6m sports precinct upgrade for federal funding before any detailed costings or formal planning had been done.

I think what we’re now seeing is a pattern of behaviour. The prime minister gave a grant to a golf course in his electorate just around the corner from his home, of which he was a member, which he failed to declare. Now we have the health minister, the next wannabe prime minister, doing exactly the same thing.

That’s a difficult thing to do. However, I think one way to do it is to ensure that Muslim leaders are at the centre of any such discussion and guide that discussion in a way that Australian Muslims as a whole do not feel targeted.

Because there is a real risk when you have a discussion about extremist Islam, you have a real risk that Muslims as a whole feel under pressure. Equally, if you don’t have that discussion, you play into the hands of extremists at the other end of the spectrum.

Continue reading...