Politics live updates: Anthony Albanese admits he was ‘not correct’ about $6m Marrickville golf club grant

David Shoebridge has side-stepped questions about Jordon Steele-John’s deleted social media post which detailed a confidential letter.

The Senator has been accused of harassment.

Mr Shoebridge said the best way to get to the bottom of the allegations was an independent inquiry.

“It is not in anyway assisted by social media posts, it’s not in anyway assisted by ongoing media commentary and back-and-forth in the media,” he said on ABC News Breakfast.

The Greens leader said an independent inquiry was necessary to get to the bottom of it.

“The answer to this is an independent, fair, and timely inquiry,” he said.

“I’m glad that the WA Greens are establishing that and meeting all those principles, I’m glad that Senator Steele-John has referred himself over to that and he’s going to cooperate with that.”

When asked if he had made efforts to determine if the previous Greens leaders had been made aware of any allegations against the Senator, he reiterated his support for the independent inquiry.

“It’s not my job to run some kind of parallel inquiry to that,” he said.

Mr Shoebridge did not directly answer when asked if he knew whether his predecessors knew about the allegations.

The leader of the Greens has defended his Party’s proposal to add $1092 to income support and a $21 tax cut per week for all taxpayers.

David Shoebridge said the proposal would “re-instate fairness” in an appearance on ABC News Breakfast.

“For the life of me, I can’t work out why the system is taking tax from somebody who’s earning only up to $26,000, because obviously you’re going to need every dollar that you earn up to that point to deal with the cost of living,” he said.

He said many on income support payments were “living in chronic poverty”.

Mr Shoebridge said the changes would be funded by gas and mining sectors, including an export gas tax.

The Greens would need 75 defections to get the proposal through the Lower House.

Mr Watt said he agrees with calls to greater protect elected representatives in the wake of the alleged attack on Helen Haines.

He said many offices of politicians have duress alarms, but not all.

“The attack that happened on Helen Haines is an absolutely dreadful thing that shouldn’t happen to anyone in their work,” Mr Watt said on ABC News Breakfast.

“Right now, today, there are going to be shop assistants, child care workers, nurses, teachers, who get abused in their workplace and that shouldn’t be happening either.”

Like many politicians, he reiterated his support for “turning the temperature down”.

Mr Watt said that, while politicians have an important role to play, so, too, do the media, and social media users.

Murray Watt has defended the Prime Minister admitting he was “not correct” about a $6 million grant to his local golf club.

“When the original announcement was made, sewerage works were part of the proposal that had been put forward by the council,” he said in an appearance on ABC Breakfast on Wednesday.

“After that time, after the announcement was made, the NSW government recognised this was a serious matter that needed urgent attention and made a contribution themselves towards the sewerage work.”

He said the government was working with the council to determine what the final design of the project would look like.

“It will include works that are complementary to that sewerage work, so, as I say, the Prime Minister was correct in saying the original announcement included sewerage work to remove pollution going into the Cooks River,” he said.

“Obviously the situation changed.”

Thousands of homes could be built in Sydney’s eastern suburbs under a plan by NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane to redevelop Long Bay Correctional Complex into a mini metropolis.

The Liberal Leader vowed to deliver more than 12,000 new homes in Sydney’s

East through the creation of the Long Bay Delivery Authority within her first 100 days, if elected into government in March.

She said the authority would oversee master planning and infrastructure to deliver new homes and community facilities.

It would also be tasked with working with Corrective Services NSW to coordinate the relocation of correctional facilities to regional and metropolitan centres, including Goulburn Jail.

“Long Bay is one of the biggest urban renewal opportunities in NSW, why should prisoners have a

coastal home, when this land could be made available for more affordable homes, close to the city?” she said.

“The Authority will have a clear job: bring the agencies together, work through the barriers and get this land ready for new homes.”

Shadow Planning spokesman Chris Rath said 30 per cent of the homes would be affordable and social housing.

“We need to plan the transport, infrastructure and public spaces alongside the homes, so this

becomes a community that works for the people who live there.”

NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully criticised the proposal for housing to replace cell blocks at Long Bay when the opposition first floated the concept, arguing the government’s plan to redevelop Edgecliff and Woollahra was the better option.

That proposal would see as many as 9400 homes surrounding the dormant Woollahra Station site in towers ranging up to 34-storeys high.

The Prime Minister has been forced to backtrack on claims he made about a $6 million grant received by a golf club.

Anthony Albanese repeatedly said the money given to Marrickville Golf Club was to be used to fix its sewerage problems.

However, in Question Time on Tuesday, he admitted that he was “not correct” and that the state government was covering those repairs.

“The funding was going to be for sewerage, the NSW government have stepped in which is appropriate given that NSW runs water and sewerage,” Mr Albanese said.

“During election campaigns, people make commitments – I have said it was not correct. It was not correct.

“The state government had moved in and are funding the project.”