Sky News host Chris Kenny slams the Victorian government for announcing public servants will receive a $5,600 bonus paid for by the taxpayer. “Public servants in Victoria are getting a cash bonus … everybody is feeling the cost-of-living crunch, but taxpayers have to shunt more to state government so they can give a bonus to their very securely employed public servants,” Mr Kenny said. “Outrageous, irresponsible and reckless, isn’t it? The Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock was calling out government spending just the other week.”

Former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s “central problem” is he promised “well beyond his capacity to deliver.” “He promised everything to the Aboriginal community,” Mr Kroger told Sky News host Andrew Bolt “He promised the Jewish community things, he promised the Islamic community things, he promised the whole country he had a cost-of-living plan."

US Vice President Kamala Harris made a campaign stop in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Sunday. The Democratic nominee visited and spoke in front of a crowd of Democrat staffers, volunteers, and supporters at a Beaver County campaign field office. Harris addressed the crowd and presented herself as a better leader than Trump saying the "strength of a leader is based on who you lift up." “The real and true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up,” she said. Kamala Harris, without mentioning Donald Trump, appeared to attack the former president by calling him a "coward." “Anybody who's about beating down other people is a coward,” she said.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says the multicultural framework is an “important document” following a “long period of consultation”. Mr Burke said it “starts with a simple view that we are better together”. “That the fact that we need quite properly to have rules around making sure everybody is safe does not disqualify us from also making sure people feel welcome,” he said. “I put to those who are in a similar position to me … neither you nor me … will experience racism at any point in our lives in Australia, but our neighbours will, and our friends will.” “Words can be bullets, and what might seem like a great way to a headline, none of us should underestimate the harm it does not just to those individuals, but to the fabric of the nation.”

Journalist and Commentator Brad Polumbo has hit out at Planned Parenthood for offering free vasectomies and medication abortion to Democratic National Convention attendees in Chicago. It comes as Planned Parenthood Great Rivers of St. Louis revealed on X that a mobile health clinic is headed to the DNC in Chicago on “Aug. 19-20 providing FREE vasectomies & medication abortion". Mr Polumbo claimed the move by Planned Parenthood Great Rivers to offer free services at the DNC was "weird". “That's kind of weird to me. I have friends that come down on either side of the abortion issue, and I understand it's a complicated moral debate,” Mr Polumbo said. “But you shouldn't be getting abortions like you're going through the McDonald's drive-through. “This isn't something glib. This isn't something funny that we should just be doing. “As a political statement, it should be taken much more seriously than.”

Journalist and Commentator Brad Polumbo has slammed Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic agenda rollout labelling it “ridiculous”. Ms Harris during an event in North Carolina outlined her plans to push for a federal ban on price gouging, expanded child tax credits and increased housing supply. “She really is going full Bernie Sanders and you never go full Bernie Sanders and embracing what our border basically communist price controls,” Mr Polumbo said. “The government deciding what grocery stores should be charging for loaves of bread and punishing them if they charge too high a price. It's ridiculous.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles on Monday announced a defence export deal between America, UK and Australia. “On Thursday in Washington, President Biden completed the last step on the establishment of a licence-free defence export … between America, the United Kingdom and Australia,” Mr Marles said during Question Time on Monday. “This is the achievement of a generational dream. “It will open the door for more Australian companies to participate in the American defence supply chain.”

The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is expecting tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protesters in Chicago this week as US Vice President Kamala Harris will officially become the Democratic Presidential nominee. A coalition of primarily left-wing and Arab groups are planning two protest marches on Monday ahead of Joe Biden's appearance and Thursday ahead of Kamala Harris' speech The first Chicago pro-Palestine protest took place on Sunday ahead of the convention beginning on Monday. Several downtown Chicago businesses have boarded up their properties because of concerns over political unrest. Sky News contributor Brad Polumbo slammed the Democrats for allowing potential "violent protest behaviour" ahead of the DNC. “When you enable and allow this kind of violent protest behaviour to go in major cities from extremists in your party, they're going to keep doing it,” he said. “Kamala Harris has tried to make her campaign about joy.“ “But I don’t know what about … boarded up buildings screams joy to you.”

Journalist and commentator Brad Polumbo says Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign appear to have “lost the plot” after outsourcing their campaign strategy to “woke TikTok Gen Z'ers”. Applicants applying for jobs in the Harris campaign can choose among nine pronoun options. “She's lost the plot, they've lost the plot at the Kamala Harris campaign,” Mr Polumbo said. “I promise you Republican, Democrat, moderate, independent, 99 per cent of Americans have never heard of Fae/faer pronouns and would find such a thing ridiculous. “But the people behind the Kamala Harris campaign subscribe to this bizarre ideology. That's a really alarming sign that they really are out of step with the people they're hoping to.”

Prince William does not want his “disloyal” brother Prince Harry at his coronation, according to the Sunday Times. The Times article, published on Saturday, revealed Williams' coronation after the death of King Charles III will “look and feel different". Friends of the Prince of Wales have said, as of now, William does not want the Duke of Sussex at the coronation. “They are estranged, which is dreadfully sad,” friends of Prince William said. Friends of Prince William added he and Prince Harry have not spoken in two years. A close friend of the Duke of Sussex criticised Prince Harry’s decision to leave and betray the Royal Family. “I can’t believe he’d stoop so low. It’s outrageously disloyal. Oprah, Netflix and then the book? Three strikes and you’re out,” they said.

A women's rights demonstration held in Melbourne over the weekend collapsed into chaos after it was crashed by Transgender Liberation protesters. Eggs and water balloons were thrown at speakers involved in the Women Will Speak rally. Women's Forum Australia Rachel Wong joined Sky News host Danica De Giorgio and James Macpherson to discuss the Women Will Speak rally. “The police presence was absolutely insane, and thank god because the violence that we saw was just incredibly ugly, and these women were out there regardless standing up for all of us, so it was very encouraging,”

Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan has blasted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as “gutless” because he “won’t come in here and defend himself”. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has argued Mr Albanese misled parliament by quoting selectively from the ABC’s interview with ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess last week in terms of security checks on the Palestinians who came here. “I’ve got a feeling that the PM won’t turn up,” Mr Tehan said in the House of Representatives on Monday. “He’ll stay in his office watching on the television because he’s gutless. “He won’t come in here and defend himself. “That is weakness at its worst, and that is why he stands condemned today.”

Nationals Leader David Littleproud has clashed with Sky News host Laura Jayes over Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s call for an outright ban on all refugee arrivals from war-torn Gaza. Mr Dutton argued Prime Minister Albanese misled parliament by quoting selectively from the ABC’s interview with ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess last week in terms of security checks on the Palestinians who came here. “Those 1,300 visas, many of those were done in a matter of a couple of hours,” Mr Littleproud told Sky News Australia. “All, on average, were done within 24 hours. “We have serious concerns about whether the criteria was hit because of the process the government took in place in terms of making those concerns.”

Writer and broadcaster Esther Krakue has claimed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been used as “pawns” during their controversial Colombia trip. The couple touched down in Bogota on Thursday local time for a four-day tour at the invitation of Colombia’s glamorous vice president Francia Márquez. “Prince Harry and Meghan have sort of found themselves in a situation where they're being used as pawns, basically,” Ms Krakue told Sky News host Caroline Di Russo. “This tour of Colombia that they've been doing, it seems a bit rudderless and seems a bit pointless and the reality is it is the vice president of Colombia invited them. “The vice president knew what she was doing, and she's using this couple as a distraction from her own sort of domestic political woes.”

Curtin University Dean of Global Futures Joe Siracusa says the Democratic National Convention will be a “hotspot” for over 30,000 protesters. US Vice-President Kamala Harris will accept her party’s nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention this week. “It’s going to be a hotspot,” Mr Siracusa told Sky News Australia. “There are probably 30,000 to 40,000 protesters there and most of them are aimed against the war in Gaza.”

Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes has clashed with Assistant Defence Minister Matt Thistlethwaite over Zali Steggall calling Peter Dutton “racist”. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is seeking legal advice after Independent MP Zali Steggall called him a “racist” in Parliament last week. “Who’s called out Zali, Matt?” Ms Hughes said. “Will you call her out for her language?”

Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes has urged Zali Steggall to apologise over her “personal smear” of Peter Dutton. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is seeking legal advice after Independent MP Zali Steggall called him a “racist” in Parliament last week. “I think she should absolutely apologise, but it’s so typical of those of the left when they have nothing left in their argument – they go for personal smears,” Ms Hughes told Sky News Australia. “We see it time and time again.”

For the second month in a row, the Coalition is leading the federal government in two-party preferred polling, according to the Australian Financial Review. The 51 to 49 per cent polling marks the worst result for Labor since entering office and threatens to send Labor into a minority if repeated on election day. Both parties have risen by one point in the primary vote, with the Coalition ahead 41 to 32 per cent.

The newly appointed South Australian Opposition Leader has backed his prediction of a Liberal win in the next state election. Vincent Tarzia was appointed 18-4 by the Liberal caucus last week. “Someone once said to me you always end up where you aim, so you’ve got to aim for success,” Mr Tarzia told Sky News Australia.

Miners are warning of potential risks associated with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s override of a proposed gold mine in New South Wales. Tanya Plibersek partially vetoed the Regis McPhillamys gold mine near Blayney, citing concerns from the local Wiradjuri people. Mining groups say such declarations threaten investor confidence in Australia.