Thursday: Joe Biden signs a raft of climate-related executive orders to unwind Trump-era changes. Plus: is the AFLW still being undervalued?
Good morning, here are the lead stories this Thursday – not that you can count on them showing up in a Google search. The federal government faces fresh conflict-of-interest questions, Anthony Albanese stares down factional ructions, and Joe Biden continues to dismantle the Trumpian legacy.
A major military technology supplier that was awarded $98m worth of Australian government contracts by former defence minister Christopher Pyne has formally engaged the lobbyist firm Pyne and Partners to represent its interests. Government ministers are prohibited from lobbying in relation to their portfolio for 18 months after they leave office. Pyne and Partners managing director, Pyne’s former parliamentary chief of staff, Adam Howard, informed Guardian Australia that the exclusion period finished 29 November last year, and that Pyne did not commence lobbying for the company, Elbit, until December. It’s the latest of a string of post-politics roles the former MP for Sturt has taken connected to his former portfolio area.