What we learned, Friday 16 August
This is where we’ll close the blog for this evening but first a summary of the main events:
RBA faced a grilling over interest rates and the cost of living.
Labor doesn’t have the “political will” to pursue makarrata, a Greens senator said.
Australia and UK export controls are comparable, US said, in a boost for Aukus.
Melbourne lord mayor sparked a green plan to slash city power bills.
Shorten said Dutton risked “implying all Gazans are terrorists”.
Public demand “is not the main game” in inflation fight, RBA governor said.
Annastacia Palaszczuk was appointed to the board of Australia Post.
Google claimed in a Senate hearing it doesn’t dominate search.
First Nations communities should lead response to missing and murdered report, the human rights commissioner said.
CFMEU law delay prompted building costs warning.
Australian mpox cases are on the rise amid global emergency.
Marriage numbers rose while divorces fell, the ABS said.
A Sydney teacher was charged with more sexual offences.
Australian shares rallied for the best week of the year.
The NSW health minister said “we’re not out of the woods” on IV fluid shortage.
Have a lovely weekend.
Updated
Continuing on from that last post, AAP reports:
An application to demolish the burned home was rejected in February.
The owner denied any role in the fire and the court was not asked to rule on whether they were involved.
The home was uninsured and no claim has been made over the damage.
Judge Brady was ultimately unable to determine a motive for either of the men jailed over the fire on Friday.
He said they abandoned an earlier attempt to burn the home, but rather than reflecting and taking a different path, later returned to complete the planned arson.
Both men regretted it, had no previous criminal history and good prospects of rehabilitation, as well as compelling individual subjective circumstances, he said.
Bett suffered a traumatic upbringing, witnessing a man publicly burned alive during his childhood in Kenya.
He is eligible for release, with his non-parole period of one year, eight months and seven days expiring on Monday.
His sentence expires in March 2025.
Nassif faces an onerous time in custody due to his age and health issues.
Judge Brady said it was a tragedy to send an older man who likely has a dementing illness to prison, but the objective seriousness of the case provided no alternative.
Nassif was jailed for two years and seven months with a non-parole period of one year and four months.
He will be eligible for parole at the end of 2025 before his sentence expires in March 2027.
Men jailed over arson attack on $24m heritage home
One man has been jailed while another is eligible for release over an arson attack on a $24m, heritage-listed home built more than a century ago, AAP reports.
Steve Nassif, 70, and Adams Kipkosgei Bett, 21, were both charged with destroying property in company using fire over the blaze.
Nassif was jailed until at least December 2025 on Friday, while Bett is eligible for parole, having been in custody awaiting sentencing since both men were arrested in December 2022.
The fire at Northwood on Sydney’s lower north shore in September that year was quickly extinguished, but not before causing irreparable damage to the unoccupied Cliff Road home.
But for the quick actions of neighbours and prompt response from authorities, the damage could have been far more significant, district court judge Grant Brady said today. He said:
The fire, lit in the way that it was, with absolutely no indication there were any limitations on how the fire would spread, posed a very real danger.
In addition to threatening properties and people, the fire had also robbed the public of a heritage-listed home. The judge said:
Although reasonable minds might differ about whether a property should be a heritage-listed property or not, that is not to the point.
It was of substantial value and a substantial loss.
The six-bedroom home on 4800 sq m was marketed as “absolute waterfront estate on a double allotment” close to “some of the most exclusive private schools” before it sold for the first time in 60 years in 2021, to the neighbours.
The $24.1m sale of the 1915-built federation bungalow dubbed “Tallawalla” more than doubled a suburb record set earlier that year, far eclipsing its £16,500 sale in 1961.
It was home to Mary Rossi, one of the first women to host a show on Australian television, until her death in June 2021, aged 95.
The home was earlier added to the state heritage inventory due to its historical significance as one of the oldest dwellings in the area.
Updated
‘Not out of the woods’ on IV fluid shortage – NSW minister
Some more information on the IV fluid shortage, which federal, state and territory health ministers said in a statement was being coordinated through a national approach to distribution across the jurisdictional supply chains.
The NSW minister for health, Ryan Park, had this to say today:
While the shortage is not yet impacting on surgery, we’re not out of the woods yet. NSW Health continues to centralise management of supply.
NSW Health has a diversified supplier base and continues to work with the TGA and its suppliers to understand the nature of the supply issues that are impacting NSW and other jurisdictions.
IV fluids continue to be administered within safe clinical guidelines. I want to reiterate that the NSW government is maintaining the closest monitoring of this situation, and I continue to receive daily briefings and updates on the progress of our response.
The safety of our patients, families and staff is always our number one priority.
Updated
Australian shares rally for best week of the year
The local share market has finished a good week with a strong rally, climbing after solid US economic data dispelled fears that the world’s biggest economy was slipping into recession, AAP reports.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished Friday up 105.6 points, or 1.34%, to 7,971.1, while the broader All Ordinaries gained 106.1 points, or 1.31%, to 8,189.9.
The ASX200’s 2.49% rise for the week was its best weekly performance since mid-December.
The ASX200 has now risen for six straight days, clawing back all of its losses from its sharp 3.7% plunge a fortnight ago.
The Australian dollar was buying 66.33 US cents, from 66.21 US cents at Thursday’s ASX close.
Updated
Sydney teacher charged with more sexual offences
A teacher has been charged over further alleged sexual offences in Sydney’s south-west, NSW police have confirmed.
The 30-year-old woman was arrested by detectives at a house in Mangerton around 7am this morning.
She was taken to Wollongong police station and charged with an additional six charges: “use carriage service to solicit child abuse material, use carriage service to access child abuse material, possess/control child abuse material – use carriage service, incite person under care to sexually touch, sexually touch person under special care and sexual intercourse with person under care”, as listed in a NSW police media release.
The woman was refused bail and appeared at Wollongong local court, where she was granted conditional bail to appear at Campbelltown local court on Wednesday 2 October.
She has previously been arrested after reports a 17-year-old boy had been sexually touched by a teacher.
Updated
Mining company’s shares plummet after community’s ‘massive’ court win
Continuing from last post: The decision had immediate ramifications for Bowdens’s parent company, ASX-listed Silver Mines Limited.
Its shares plummeted 40% after exiting a trading halt, wiping $90m from the company’s value.
Greens MP and mining spokesperson Cate Faehrmann said the court victory was a “massive” win for a community that had taken on the mine for years. She said in a statement:
This is absolutely sensational news for the Lue community, who have been fighting for years to protect their beautiful village from the potentially devastating impacts of a toxic lead and silver mine.
The community should never have had to wage this battle in the first place ... Anyone with common sense would think that a massive toxic lead mine should not be built within just two kilometres of the local primary school.
The case challenged the NSW Independent Planning Commission’s approval of the planned development in early 2023.
The landcare group argued the commission failed to consider the likely environmental impacts of the required power line when considering the development for the mine.
Justice Richard White halted the mining company from carrying out any work on the basis of the initial development consent, which is now void.
He ruled the planning commission’s error could not be excused by the fact Bowdens had chosen not to provide the necessary information about the impacts of the power line.
Bowdens said it could not proceed with the project for now but did not give up hope of mining at Lue in future.
It flagged the project would create 320 construction and 220 ongoing jobs.
“Preparation and the submission of a new development application for the project, including power supply options, are being considered,” it said in a statement to the ASX.
Planning minister Paul Scully has been contacted for comment.
– Australian Associated Press
Updated
Community group delighted as court stops major NSW silver mine
A landcare group that succeeded in its last-ditch attempt to stop mining of Australia’s largest known undeveloped silver deposit says it should not have got to that point.
The NSW court of appeal invalidated Bowdens Silver’s planning approval for a lead and silver mine in the NSW central-west village Lue on Friday following community opposition and environmental fears.
The company had said the mine, 2km from a school, would operate safely and worried locals could take up free lead testing to allay fears of poisoning from dust.
But its project came unstuck over the process to approve construction of a high-voltage power line required for mine operations.
Mudgee Region Action Group said it was delighted with the court decision but felt the responsibility to act should not have rested on the community’s shoulders. The group said:
We can’t help but feel that it shouldn’t fall to community groups like ours to have to spend the time and money we do to hold the (state government and planning commission) to account.
The NSW planning legislation for state significant developments is clearly not working and it needs to be fixed.
– Australian Associated Press
More to come.
Updated
Marriage numbers rise while divorces fall
The number of marriages in Australia is up since pandemic-lows in 2020-21, and the number of divorces are down, according to data released earlier today from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
There were 118,439 marriages registered nationwide in 2023 – a drop from the record high of 127,161 in 2022 but higher than pandemic-related lows in 2020 and 2021.
The median age for men to marry is 32.9 years, while 31.2 is the median for women. (The numbers are incrementally higher than in 2022, when it was 32.5 years for men and 30.9 for women.)
There have been slightly fewer divorces nationwide, with 48,700 granted in 2023 compared to 49,241 the year prior. The median duration of marriages until divorce went up to 13 years (from 12.8 in 2022).
Updated
‘They are everyday people’: Gaza statements condemned
Palestinians fleeing war-torn Gaza are being demonised when they are in urgent need of resettlement, a human rights advocate says.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton called for a ban on visas for those fleeing Gaza, saying terrorist sympathisers have been allowed into Australia.
You can read more about that here:
Amnesty’s Occupied Palestinian Territories spokesperson Mohamed Duar says portraying Palestinians this way is misleading, discriminatory and inflammatory, and “demonises people who are genuinely fleeing a crisis”.
“It’s rooted in the racist presumptions that ultimately suggest some lives are more valuable than others,” Duar told AAP.
They are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and families ... there are doctors, engineers, nurses, journalists ... there are Muslims and Christians as well.
They are everyday people, just like you and me, who are seeking safety from the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
– Australian Associated Press
Updated
Many thanks for joining me on the blog today. Rafqa Touma will be with you for the next little while – take care, and enjoy your weekend.
Dutton says he’s not racist as MPs condemn Gaza visa ban stance
Peter Dutton has insisted he is not racist after independent MP Zali Steggall defended calling the opposition leader so in parliament and accused him of fuelling division with his political attacks over visa-holders from Gaza.
Dutton rejected Steggall’s assertion – which the speaker forced the member for Warringah to withdraw after she levelled it on Thursday – and said she was the one who was divisive. Dutton told Nine’s Today Show earlier:
I’m not a racist, and I’m not going to be standing here as a punching bag for people like Zali Steggall. I actually think, ironically, that them calling out people unnecessarily and unrealistically and unjustly as racists, they’re actually fuelling tensions.
Steggall has again rejected suggestions that her language had been inflammatory, and told Sky News “it is not inflammatory to call out behaviour that is divisive”, labelling Dutton “dangerous”.
Read the full story below:
Updated
Liberal deputy mayor ‘disappointed and embarrassed’ after nomination failure
Georgia Ryburn, the deputy mayor of the Northern Beaches council, is one of the 130 Liberal candidates unable to run in the upcoming NSW council elections following the party’s administrative bungle.
In a statement shared online this afternoon, Ryburn said that “to say I’m saddened, disappointed and embarrassed by this outcome is an understatement”.
Whilst you may not be a Liberal voter, this is a devastating outcome for our democratic process. Our community deserved a choice on September 14 … I have put my heart and soul into this role, and am devastated it will be another four years before this opportunity may arise again.
I’m so grateful to the community and relationships I’ve built over this term on council. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved together … For now, I’ve got four more weeks as your deputy mayor, so let’s do this.
Updated
Friday afternoon has rolled around, meaning its time to get stuck into the latest Weekly Beast from Amanda Meade:
Tasmanian senator urges federal government to follow scientists’ advice for saving Maugean skate
Yesterday, Adam Morton exclusively reported that fish farms in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour are the greatest threat to the survival of the Maugean skate, according to scientists advising the government.
The advice is included in a conservation report by the government’s threatened species scientific committee that says the skate – an ancient ray-like species found only in the harbour in the state’s west – should be considered critically endangered. You can read Adam’s full report below:
Tasmanian Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson has called on the federal government to implement the advice from scientists, stating:
The viability of salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour has been drastically overstated to the West Coast community by the salmon farming industry. Science has identified Macquarie Harbour as an unsuitable place for the scale of salmon farming that is currently operating there – clearly efforts should be focused on transitioning workers into more sustainable industries…
The Albanese government now has a critical moral and political decision to make: will it heed the advice of its own expert [committee], or protect the profits of foreign-owned salmon companies?
Updated
IV fluid shortage easing, health ministers say
Health ministers say the shortage of IV fluids is easing, assuring Australians that health services are continuing although shortages will still continue throughout this year.
The federal, state and territory health ministers released a statement after meeting in Sydney this morning, outlining the steps being taken to address supply in Australia and seeking to provide reassurance to all Australians that challenges are being addressed.
A cross-jurisdictional response group has been convened by all states and territories and the commonwealth, as well as the broader health system, with representation from private hospitals and primary care.
In their statement, the ministers said the response group had already taken immediate steps to address supply and distribution issues in jurisdictions agreeing to measures to improve transparency, logistics, coordination and communication:
Sharing data across jurisdictions on usage and supply, and ensuring that producers and suppliers of IV fluids in Australia are providing data on their current supply and production forecasts, to better understand the severity and duration of the shortage.
Ensuring there is a coordinated national approach to distribution across the jurisdictional supply chains.
Partnering across government to work with manufacturers and distributers to help them address supply issues
Agreeing consistent messaging across all jurisdictions to support appropriate usage while supply remains constrained.
The cross-jurisdictional response group would continue to meet on a weekly basis, or more frequently if required, while supply remained constrained in Australia, the statement said.
Updated
Australian mpox cases on rise amid global emergency
Australia is being urged to take swift protective action as mpox cases spike in the eastern states, AAP reports.
The World Health Organisation has declared the viral infection a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, with an African outbreak spreading to other continents.
Australia has recorded 35 cases in the past 15 days amid a spread in several states. Nearly 100 cases have been detected in NSW since the start of June after just one case in the prior five months. Another 110 cases of mpox have been detected in Victoria and 23 in Queensland since April.
CSIRO virologist Nias Peng said the emergence was similar to the one in 2022, which he said saw the infection “neglected” in causing a global outbreak.
The declaration of a public health emergency of international concern is timely to allow health authorities of respective nations to reinforce measures in order to curb the spread. It is now time for us to act quickly to prevent history from being repeated.
The virus is transmitted chiefly through prolonged physical or intimate contact with an infected person. A rash, lesions or sores, fever, chills, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes and sore throat are among the common symptoms.
NSW Health recommended sexually active gay and bisexual men (cis and trans) and their sexual partners, as well as sex workers and their sexual partners, get mpox vaccinations and watch out for symptoms.
Updated
The Bureau of Meteorology has published its weekend weather update, with rains and storms forecast in Western Australia and showers for the country’s south-east.
Weekend Weather Update: Rain and storms for WA, cool and showery for south-east Aus.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) August 16, 2024
Video current: 12:00 pm AEST Friday 16 August 2024.
More: https://t.co/jlOoTZLz8d or the BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/GJCl0K68MF
Updated
Blue Mountains Greens seek votes for ‘more balanced council’ amid no Liberal candidates
The Greens have begun shifting their messaging ahead of the upcoming NSW council elections, following the Liberal party’s failure to nominate more than 130 candidates.
The administrative bungle has seen eight local councils – including several in party heartland – without a Liberal candidate on the ticket.
The Blue Mountains Greens are positioning themselves as the “only party that is in a position to … hold Labor to account”, as the Liberal party will not be running local candidates.
Responding to the administrative failure in a post to social media, the Blue Mountains Greens said:
This is not healthy for democracy and we understand this is a shock to those who would have voted for them. This is a huge disappointment for those candidates who are now not able to run for council.
Labor has six seats on council and now stands to gain more. The Greens stand for a more balanced council. With a major party unable to run, the Greens is the only party that is in a position to bring community views to the table and hold Labor to account.
For the first time since 2016, the Greens are standing candidate teams in all four Blue Mountains wards.
Updated
CFMEU law delay prompts building costs warning
A failure to place the CFMEU into administration would lead to escalating building costs and flow through to other parts of the economy, housing groups warn.
As AAP reports, a parliamentary inquiry has been told any further hold-ups in passing laws to place the union into external administration will lead to the construction sector going further into jeopardy.
Attempts to grant ministerial powers to place the construction division of the CFMEU into administration fell through yesterday after the Coalition and the Greens voted down the proposal.
Master Builders Australia deputy chief executive Shaun Schmitke said delays to the bill created greater uncertainty for the industry. He told the inquiry today:
At the moment, everyone’s very tense, but I can tell you that the industry needs that certainty. They need to know that they will be able to move forward in a period where they’re going to be able to deal with the union in administration or otherwise, which is responsible, lawful and sensible.
The longer the bill is delayed, the greater the concern amongst industry participants, and the bigger the pressure that is mounting.
Updated
Protest to ‘bring back the ban’ on greyhound racing scheduled for Sydney tomorrow
Community leaders and animal welfare advocates are due to gather in Sydney tomorrow to protest against greyhound racing.
The “Bring Back the Ban” protest will take place at 11am on Saturday at Martin Place in Sydney’s CBD.
The state government last month announced its industry watchdog would lead an inquiry into Greyhound Racing NSW after the release of a veterinary report that alleged widespread animal abuse.
Kylie Field, the NSW director of the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds, said it had been almost eight years since former premier Mike Baird’s backflip on a ban of the industry.
The latest revelations have incensed the community. We’ve heard allegations about a rehoming disaster, under-reporting of greyhound deaths, serious animal welfare breaches, and the biggest increase in injury rates in the history of NSW dog racing.
Speakers will include Animal Justice party MLC Emma Hurst, Greens MLC Abigail Boyd, independent MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich and Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore.
Updated
First Nations communities should lead response to missing and murdered report, human rights commissioner says
The Australian Human Rights Commission is calling for action on the findings of a new report on murdered and missing First Nations women.
The landmark inquiry’s final report was tabled on Thursday and found there has been “little, if any, justice” for many First Nations women and children who have been murdered or disappeared.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, Katie Kiss, said the report would play a “vital role” in improving the safety and rights of First Nations women and girls.
Violence against First Nations women and children is a major problem, and we need to be clear-eyed not only about the nature and extent of this violence, but also about the root causes of this violence, and that’s prejudice, gender inequality and discrimination against women, lack of opportunity, personal trauma, intergenerational trauma and systemic racism.
Systemic failures not only drive the violence but also affect the provision and quality of care and support for women experiencing violence, and this includes failures by police, healthcare workers and other service providers.
So, it’s a very complex issue which requires a multi-faceted response, and this has been recognised by the comprehensive nature of the report’s recommendations. But that response must be led by First Nations communities. We know what will work to protect our women and help our communities thrive, and governments and service providers need to give our communities the respect and resources we need to make this happen.
Updated
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has shared some photos from his meeting with New Zealand’s prime minister Chris Luxon in Canberra today.
Welcome back to Australia, Prime Minister @chrisluxonmp. Australia and New Zealand are closer than friends – we are family. 🇦🇺🇳🇿 pic.twitter.com/NfLil5TFOP
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) August 16, 2024
Google claims in Senate hearing it doesn’t dominate search
Google has rejected suggestions from Australian senators that it is the dominant player in search in Australia.
The Labor chair of the AI adoption Senate committee, Tony Sheldon, pointed to the US federal court ruling this month that Google illegally monopolised search and questioned whether Google dominated search in Australia.
Google’s Australian government affairs and public policy director, Lucinda Longcroft, told the committee Google did not agree with the ruling and would be appealing and refused to say Google dominates search, instead saying that Google has a popular search product but the search market was diverse and highly competitive.
Longcroft didn’t accept figures comparing Google to other search engines like Bing and compared Google to people using Amazon to find products or Seek to find jobs.
Updated
Google fronts AI adoption Senate inquiry
Google has been probed over the high energy consumption of generative AI after it was revealed the company’s emissions jumped nearly 50% in five years due to AI.
At the AI adoption Senate inquiry, the Greens’s David Shoebridge questioned what Google was doing to make sure users were aware that responses to generative AI prompts, such as images or video, use much more energy than a standard Google search.
Google’s director of government affairs and public policy in Australia, Lucinda Longcroft, said the information is contained in the company’s publicly available environment report and Google was working to meet its targets, noting that emissions from AI are reducing as investment in the technology increases.
Shoebridge pointed out that people aren’t alerted when entering into a prompt how much energy it might use.
Are they going to be referencing the state of the environment report when I do that? Is Google thinking that as a responsible global player, that some kind of … real-time acknowledgement of the energy use, feedback and response might be useful?
Longcroft said it was an interesting idea and she would take the question on notice. The company also said it would look to provide information on the relative energy use for a Google search versus image or video generation using AI.
Updated
Jo Haylen weighs in on NSW Liberals council election fiasco
The New South Wales transport minister, Jo Haylen, says she can understand why Liberal council candidates affected by the party’s local government election fiasco would be disappointed and angry.
The Liberal party is grappling with the fallout from its catastrophic administrative error that resulted in it missing the noon Wednesday deadline to lodge the necessary paperwork to nominate more than 130 candidates for the 14 September local government elections.
Speaking to reporters earlier this morning, Haylen said:
Communities have been let down and candidates have been let down. I can understand why there is great anger and disappointment, not only within the Liberal party, but across many communities in Sydney today.
People deserve a choice. The Liberal party has failed to deliver that opportunity for people across Sydney.
Haylen, who served as Marrickville’s Labor mayor before she entered state parliament, said councils were a “pathway to state politics” for many MPs.
There are many reasons why people within the Liberal party are very angry about what has occurred.
Updated
Albanese says discussions taking place on PNG NRL team
Asked whether PNG would be getting an NRL team, Anthony Albanese responded:
We are working through those issues. I can confirm we are in discussions with the Australian Rugby league, with the New Zealand government and the Australian government.
We see this not just being about sport, but being about economic development and about cementing the relationship that our two great countries have.
Updated
Albanese and Luxon agree cyber-attack could trigger treaty provisions
A reporter asks what Anthony Albanese means when he talked about a cyber-attack potentially triggering article four (see earlier post).
Chris Luxon responded that if New Zealand should come under a severe cyber-attack, “both countries would invoke the arrangement under our arrangements and it is pretty simple.”
We can see warfare has changed and cyberwarfare is a large part and we are making sure that is modern and reflective of the environment we operate in and how warfare is undertaken.
Anthony Albanese added that the assessment would be made on a case-by-case basis.
A cyber-attack can have as great an impact as an attack from traditional means. The way we have viewed warfare is changing. An attack on the economy can bring down the operation of an entire society … so we need to prepare for all of these issues and modernise and make sure the agreement we have reflects modern issues.
Updated
Albanese says Aukus will have opportunities for NZ participation
Asked whether New Zealand should join pillar two of the Aukus deal, Anthony Albanese said there would be “opportunities” for them to participate on a case-by-case basis, as Japan had been invited to do so.
Just as interoperability between our two defence forces is a priority and an objective, it makes sense therefore when we are considering pillar two of the Aukus agreement to engage like-minded countries…
Given we’re actually about exchanges of … one star and two star senior defence personnel being embedded in each other’s defence forces, so we want to make sure there is as much cooperation as possible because that will make the combined objective we have much more effective.
Updated
Luxon says joint procurement one possibility from interoperable defence ties with Australia
Chris Luxon said he doesn’t have any concerns about the recruitment of New Zealanders into the Australian defence force.
It is early to presuppose the outcome of that defence capability plan … But those are good examples of areas where we should be collaborating and doing joint procurement as much as possible. And when I say interoperable that is what we mean.
Updated
‘Commonsense approach’ being taken on deportation policy: Albanese
The leaders are now taking questions from reporters.
Anthony Albanese is asked about the 501 deportation policy and concerns from NZ that, under direction 110, Australia would send people back to NZ with little connection to the country. The reporter said:
How do you justify contributing to New Zealand’s crime and gang problem with what effectively are Australian-grown criminals?
Albanese responded:
Notwithstanding the provocative nature of the tone of the question, what we have is an understanding that while we have common purpose, we do not have uniform positions, but we respect each other’s position.
Australia’s job is to look after our national interest. We say the safety of Australians is the No 1 consideration in the ministerial direction 110, but it also continues to apply commonsense. A commonsense approach … is all we try to bring to this and that is understood.
Updated
NZ prime minister Chris Luxon addresses reporters in Canberra
Circling back to the press conference in Canberra, where New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Luxon, is now speaking to reporters. He highlighted some of the key areas the two leaders discussed, and said:
We already had some productive talks and we look forward to continuing up this afternoon as well.
On defence, he said they had invited Australia and NZ’s defence ministers to update and renew closer defence relations at their next meeting.
I commend [Albanese] and thank him deeply for the changes he announced last year to create a direct to citizenship for New Zealanders in Australia. That is life changing, turning hard-working Kiwis into your very best Australians.
We also discussed 501 deportation with a focus on the commonsense approach deportations that addresses people whose formative experiences were nearly all in Australia, and Prime Minister Albanese and I agreed to engage closely on this.
Updated
Annastacia Palaszczuk appointed to board of Australia Post
The former Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has been appointed to the board of Australia Post.
Palaszczuk, who retired from politics in December after almost nine years as premier, will serve a three-year term as a non-executive director. She replaces Tony Nutt, the former federal director of the Liberal party.
In a statement, the federal government said Palaszczuk’s experience in government relations, delivering services in a decentralised state, and managing the logistical challenges of the Covid pandemic were “highly applicable” to a role with the national letter carrier.
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said:
Palaszczuk brings a wealth of experience in service delivery to regional and rural communities to the Australia Post Board.
Palasczuk will be paid $107,000 a year in the new role.
Updated
Albanese flags benefits of ‘interoperability’ on defence with New Zealand
Speaking specifically on defence, Anthony Albanese said the two PMs “committed to working in lockstep like never before” to ensure “prosperity”.
New Zealand is going through a defence review a bit like what we did [with the] Defence Strategic Review, so we talked about [how we] can assist while New Zealand work through those issues.
We worked through, as well the benefits, of interoperability – the exchanges that we have between senior defence personnel that are so important for us.
We also discuss increasingly important role that cyberspace plays to enhance cooperation in tackling cyber [attacks]. We reaffirmed that international law applies in cyberspace and that a cyber-attack on either country could, depending on its nature, constitute an attack under article four of the treaty.
Updated
Albanese speaking to media following talks with NZ counterpart
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to the media following his meeting with NZ counterpart, Chris Luxon.
Just a moment ago, Albanese’s office released a statement on what was discussed during talks – including Aukus technology opportunities, climate change, the need for an “immediate ceasefire in Gaza” and a denunciation of Russia (for the invasion into Ukraine) and China (for “provocative behaviour in the South China Sea”).
Albanese told reporters:
Our ties are older than our democracy, [our] connection so strong we regard ourselves as family. Our history speaks for our common commitment to peace, prosperity and security … Ours is more than a bond of old affection, it is a partnership … recognises that together, we are stronger than just individual countries and that will work together not just in our relationship between each other, but as well as part of the Pacific family and as good global citizens as well.
Updated
Abuse claims to cost Tasmanian budget an extra $571m
Compensation for survivors of child sexual abuse is forecast to cost Tasmania $571m more than expected, AAP reports.
The island state, which has the only Liberal premier in the country, was expected to record a budget deficit of $298m in 2023/24. But that figure will balloon to $1.5bn, according to a preliminary outcomes report.
The state’s liability for future abuse redress and civil claims was assessed to be $647m at 30 June, an increase of $571m from one year prior.
The state in June agreed to pay $75m to 129 former detainees at the still-operational Ashley youth detention centre who had launched legal action. Tasmania is also implementing 191 recommendations from an inquiry that examined sexual abuse suffered by children in state care over decades.
The state’s treasurer, Michael Ferguson, will deliver the 2024/25 budget on 12 September. He said the increased deficit was a result of investment in cost-of-living relief measures, recruitment of frontline workers and funding for claims of child sexual abuse over 40 years.
He said the government had been upfront about the impacts of implementing the inquiry’s recommendations:
It will hurt the budget, and this will be expensive, but we will need to do it. I am prepared to cop any and all criticism that results from doing the right thing in our budget responses.
Updated
Revenue surges at Domain amid strong property listings
Property portal Domain Holdings has recorded a 13% lift in full year revenue to $391m, after a robust property market continued to drive strong listing numbers.
The digital real estate company, majority owned by the Nine Network, recorded net profit of $49.4m, up 27.9%.
Domain’s chief executive, Jason Pellegrino, said in results released today that national “for sale” listings increased by 3% over the financial year.
Sydney and Melbourne led the market up as is typically the case.
Earlier this week, the News Corp-backed rival REA Group also enjoyed strong returns, which helped offset weakness in the media company’s news division.
Profits at digital property portals tend to follow the real estate market, with strong listing numbers usually equating to increased revenue.
Updated
Market power not a ‘causal factor’ to higher inflation, Bullock says
Many have wondered whether the CBA’s near-$10bn annual cash profit reported this week and a few other bumper results, such as Origin Energy’s and AGL’s, might be contributing to inflation.
Michele Bullock, though, is sticking to the RBA’s long-held view that – excluding the volatile mining industry from the picture – “there hasn’t been a lot of change in profit margin at an aggregate level in Australia”.
That view might not sit well with specific industry sectors – think duopolised supermarkets or much of the aviation industry – but the RBA “done some work on this”, she told an economics committee.
I’m sure that there are individual businesses that have had cost increases and just said, ‘I’m just going to pass all that on, or I might pass a bit extra on if I can’.
The reason they can do that might be just that the demand for their services or goods is really strong, so they can do that. So that might be that as demand pressures ease, they won’t have as much ability to do that.
It’s not a causal factor. It’s actually more evidence that demand has been stronger than supply, and businesses have been able to take advantage of that with their putting up their prices to account for their costs.
Updated
Earth science satellite to track methane from space
The world’s biggest methane producers could be identified from space after a climate group created a satellite to detect and track greenhouse gas “super emitters”.
As AAP reports, non-profit organisation Carbon Mapper plan to launch the satellite, which is smaller than a bar fridge, on a SpaceX rocket in California early Friday morning.
The satellite will be one of two tracking methane, which is the second most-common greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and makes a significant contribution to global warming.
We’re gearing up! 🛰️
— Planet (@planet) August 15, 2024
Our first hyperspectral satellite, Tanager-1 and 36 SuperDoves are set to launch Friday, August 16th on @SpaceX’s Transporter-11 rocket ! 🚀
Learn more about our work with @carbonmapper and @NASAJPL to make this mission a reality: https://t.co/UJYh8qJpIG pic.twitter.com/TqlRI3954V
The group will make the satellite data publicly available for policymakers and businesses. It’s hoped the satellite will provide more specific data about methane sources across the world, Carbon Mapper’s chief executive, Riley Duren, said.
The first satellite will allow Carbon Mapper to scale up global data on super-emitters across the fossil fuel, waste and agriculture sectors and unleash transformative visibility and action.
Governments from 158 countries, including Australia, signed a global methane pledge at COP26 to cut 30% of 2020 methane levels by 2030.
Updated
Insolvencies on the rise but not back to pre-pandemic levels, RBA officials say
Both the RBA’s governor, Michele Bullock, and assistant governor, Brad Jones, have also sought to downplay another popular media (and political) theme about insolvencies soaring. As Bullock noted, the recent increase was against “absolutely historically low levels” during the pandemic:
If you take it as a proportion of the number of businesses, which is growing over time, [the increase in bankruptcies was] not at historical highs. And in fact, if you look at the trend of insolvencies over time, we’re not even back to where we were trend-wise, pre pandemic.
Jones chimes in to note that the construction sector was “front and centre” to the rise in firms going bust, but they were typically very small enterprises with “low single digit number[s] of employees”.
In the past six months there had been “some leveling out in the stress in the construction sector”, but a buildup has been seen in the arts, hospitality and some segments of the retail space, he said.
This increase in insolvencies is occurring from an incredibly low base.
Updated
Public demand ‘is not the main game’ in inflation fight, Bullock says
Circling back to RBA governor Michele Bullocks’ appearance before a House of Representatives economics committee (you can read more earlier in the blog here):
A key issue of debate – both within parliament and much of the financial media – is whether the RBA and governments (state and federal) are at cross purposes when it comes to fighting inflation.
(One somewhat hackneyed comment is one having the foot on the brake [RBA, via the interest rate] and the other having theirs on the accelerator [ie governments spending up].)
Public demand, for instance, was forecast by the RBA to rise at an annual pace of 4.3% by December and 4.1% by next June. That compared with projected 1.5% and 2.1% clip respectively in the RBA’s forecasts in May. Many have taken that acceleration to be unhelpful for the inflation fight.
Bullock has hosed down concerns that government spending was necessarily at odds with the central bank’s goals. Retaining the recent employment gains was one area where interests were “aligned”.
“I want to be clear that public demand is not the main game,” she said. Instead, uncertainties around consumption, residential construction, and trade were “the big swing things that are going to impact us over the next year or so”.
Perhaps positively surprised by the comments, committee chair (and Labor MP) Dan Mulino responded with a short “yep, great,” in response.
Updated
Cape York Land Council sacks its CEO
The Cape York Land Council has terminated its CEO with immediate effect following a meeting last night.
A statement released this morning says the tenure of Dion Creek would be terminated, effective immediately, “due to the serious nature of charges he is facing”.
It’s been reported that Creek has been charged with 15 domestic violence and stalking offences alleged to have been committed over the past five years.
Updated
Amazon fronts parliamentary inquiry on AI adoption
Amazon has told a parliamentary committee on AI adoption it is not using AI to surveil workers in its warehouse, but when asked to rule it out in the future, the company’s Australian representative took the question on notice.
The company also faced questions about its subsidiary Audible’s use of AI voices and why the company had refused union attempts to include a clause in contracts for voice actors to prevent their voices being synthesised.
Amazon’s head of public policy in Australia, Matt Levey, said it was a fairly nascent and fast-moving technology and conversations were just beginning with professional narrators.
It’s something Audible is clearly invested in in terms of continuing to hire professional narrators for their works ... my understanding, as I say, is that they continue to work through these issues, but that at this stage, Audible isn’t planning to make changes to their current contracts.
You can find out more on the fears Australian voice actors are facing below:
Updated
Shorten says Dutton risks 'implying all Gazans are terrorists'
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, who was also on the Today show earlier, said there was “a whole heap of stuff” to address from Peter Dutton’s claims because “if I don’t address it, it just distorts the debate”.
You can see our earlier post here for Dutton’s comments. In response, Shorten said:
1,300 people are here from this war-torn zone, 7,100 have been rejected. The government is following the procedures. No one, doesn’t matter where you’re from, gets to this country without being checked against the movement watch list and being vetted.
If Peter thinks that one of the 1,300 people here is a security risk, he should come forward with his evidence.
Shorten suggested Dutton’s approach implied “that all Gazans are terrorists … [that] is what you’re effectively doing”.
I’m sure there are plenty of people in Gaza who are Hamas supporters, and Hamas is terrible. But please don’t tell me – and look, I’m a middle of the road sort of person – please don’t insult the intelligence of Aussies and say that everyone from that area is a bad person.
Updated
Bullock says inflation is ‘too high’ and its decline ‘has been slow’
Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has just begun her appearance before a House of Representatives economics committee.
Bullock is leading off with an update of the economy. Inflation remains “too high” and its reduction from a 7.8% peak at the end of 2022 “has been slow”.
So far, she’s recapping the arguments she made when the board left the RBA cash rate at 4.35% for a sixth meeting in a row. Bullock notes again that the RBA doesn’t expect to cut the cash rate in the near term.
As we saw with yesterday’s surprisingly strong labour market figures for July, the economy is still generating a lot of new jobs. That’s why investors expectations of a rate cut soon (a 30% chance in September, and almost 100% by December) seem a bit optimistic.
The economy is not served by allowing inflation to stay above the RBA’s 2% to 3% target range “indefinitely”, Bullock said.
We’ll probably hear more of these themes over the next three hours.
Updated
‘Disgraceful’ Raygun petition has been taken down
That “disgraceful” petition about Raygun appears to have been removed. The link now says it “isn’t available”.
Either the URL is incorrect, it violated our community guidelines, or the starter removed it.
The anonymous Change.org petition was replete with falsehood about how B-girl Rachael “Raygun” Gunn scored the Olympics gig.
Australian Olympic Committee chair, Matt Carroll, said it amounted to bullying and harassment. He said:
It is disgraceful that these falsehoods concocted by an anonymous person can be published in this way. It amounts to bullying and harassment and is defamatory.
It’s important that the community understands the facts and that people do not form opinions based on malicious untruths and misinformation.
Guardian Australia has gone to Change.org for comment, we’ll let you know what they say.
Melbourne lord mayor sparks green plan to slash city power bills
Residents and business owners could have their electricity bills slashed by hundreds of dollars each year in a radical plan proposed by Melbourne’s lord mayor, AAP reports.
The lord mayor, Nick Reece, has pledged to implement Australia’s largest community-led bulk purchasing scheme for renewable energy across Melbourne if he is re-elected.
Under the M-Power initiative, the City of Melbourne would use the collective buying power of households and small businesses to secure the lowest possible rates for renewable electricity – in what Reece says could save Melburnians hundreds of dollars each year.
The initiative wouldn’t just benefit City of Melbourne residents but would include other inner-city councils; Darebin, Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Merri-bek, Moonee Valley, Port Phillip, Stonnington, and Yarra. Reece said:
The MPower initiative will give more than 1 million Melburnians the chance to save money on their energy bills and help make the switch to renewable energy.
Bulk purchasing works and we know that it can reduce power bills by hundreds of dollars a year, while also delivering big cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
The scheme is expected to cost the City of Melbourne up to $2m in addition to staffing costs, with the funding to be reallocated from within its existing budget.
Updated
NZ PM Luxon arrives at parliament house
The ABC is broadcasting live footage of the New Zealand prime minister, Chris Luxon, arriving at Parliament House in Canberra, alongside the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
As we flagged earlier, Luxon is in Canberra today for the annual Australia New Zealand leaders’ meeting.
(No word if a translator is in attendance for us “incredibly simple” Australians, though.)
Updated
NAB warns of ‘challenging’ economy as arrears jump
The National Australia Bank chief executive, Andrew Irvine, has warned of a “challenging” economic environment that is leading to increasing numbers of customers falling behind on mortgage repayments.
In a quarterly update released today, Irvine said:
While most customers are proving resilient, not unexpectedly we have seen asset quality deteriorate further in [the quarter].
He said the “economic environment, including persistent inflationary pressures, is challenging for our customers”.
NAB booked an impairment charge of $118m due to the deteriorating asset quality, which refers to potential losses linked to assets like loans. The bank referred to higher mortgage arrears, but does not disclose the quantity in quarterly trading updates.
Data from rival Commonwealth Bank shows that mortgage holders are spending well over 20% of their pre-tax income on their loans, representing one of the highest levels on record.
NAB reported cash earnings of $1.75bn for the quarter, which is flat on the previous three-month period.
Updated
Dutton doubles down on criticism of Zali Steggall
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was on the Today Show earlier and questioned on the Coalition’s push for a ban on Palestinian visas. He was asked: “You’ve been accused of having no heart. Has anything changed overnight?”
Dutton responded: “I just think if you’ve got no substance to your argument, you throw out those sort of lines.”
In parliament yesterday, Steggall accused the Coalition of whipping up fear and told Dutton to “stop being racist” in the chamber before withdrawing the comment. This morning Dutton echoed sentiments from yesterday, accusing her of “extreme views”, and said:
I mean the nonsense and the rhetoric, you’ve heard from the hard left and zealots like Zali Steggall, who are just hard Greens, it’s just a nonsense.
The host noted that 7,000 visas had been rejected – so isn’t this a sign the system is working? Dutton claimed:
They’ve brought people in without doing interviews from a warzone that’s controlled by Hamas … [On the ground] there are between 40% and 70% of people [that] have … sympathy for this listed terrorist organisation.
As Amy Remeikis noted in yesterday’s blog, 44% of voters in Gaza voted for Hamas in 2006 and there has not been an election since.
Updated
Sophie Wang remembered as ‘thoughtful, bright girl’
The principal of Emmanuel College, Dan Brown, has been speaking to the media this morning after one of the school’s students, 10-year-old Sophie Wang, was found dead in a Gold Coast unit on Tuesday.
Wang’s mother Yingying Xu, 46, has been arrested and charged with her murder.
Brown said that Wang would be remembered as an “intelligent, thoughtful, bright girl that loved her academics, loved reading [and] loved to sing.”
She was caring and compassionate and was a really great friend. Those memories will live on. At this particular point in time, the school would like to express our sincere condolences to the family and those loved ones in the family and her close friends.
Asked if there are plans to memorialise Wang, Brown said the immediate attention is on providing support to students and staff and those conversations would occur in due course.
On a personal level, Brown said he has been feeling “devastation” amid the news.
As a principal of a school, there’s probably nothing harder that you deal with in the loss of a student but particularly around the tragic circumstances of this particular loss. I am human too. It hits me hard as well …
Updated
Forrest on job cuts: ‘clearly going to be redundancies when you make something more efficient’
Andrew Forrest was asked about the recent announcement that Fortescue would slash 700 jobs from its global operations as part of a major restructure, which you can read more on below:
He said there is “clearly going to be redundancies when you make something more efficient.”
Don’t confuse that with the fact that we’re growing our company rapidly and we are growing it into green energy, growing it into green metal … We cannot keep going down the oil and gas path just because we know it, because we’re too lazy to do anything else!
Forrest later added he would “like to be employing 7,000 or 70,000” people but can’t do that amid the “gyrations” in energy policy and the current nuclear debate.
People [are] arguing over where ought to go when it’s clear we should go to the cheapest form of energy the world has ever had, and that’s green energy.
Fortescue begins work on Pilbara ‘green metal’ iron ore project
Mining magnate Andrew Forrest spoke to ABC News Breakfast just earlier, as his Fortescue group is set to begin work on a green iron metal project in the Pilbara today – which aims to use renewable energy and green hydrogen reduction technology.
He spoke from Christmas Creek in WA, standing in front of the “world’s first green hydrogen truck”, and said:
If we can capture making green metal here with trucks which produce absolutely no carbon emissions from fuel we make right here in Australia, we capture the sun and the wind which is available in enormous quantities, we combine it with the rock which we have in enormous quantities here in Australia called iron ore and we produce green metal – and the world needs green metal.
Almost 10% of the carbon emissions which are destroying our planet comes from the making of that metal. Now, if we can switch it to entirely green, if Australia can lead that, then we have one of the biggest industries, if not the biggest industry Australia has ever had in front of us. If we can get our policy settings right we should, as a nation, go for this.
Updated
Australia and UK export controls comparable, US says, in boost for Aukus
The US State Department has told Congress that Australia, Britain and the United States now have comparable export-control regimes, a significant step needed to facilitate technology sharing and allow Aukus to move ahead.
As Reuters reports, the sharing of closely guarded technology – which is governed by strict US international trafficking in arms regulations (Itar) – has been a hurdle for cooperation between the nations.
The 2024 US National Defense Authorization Act required President Joe Biden to determine whether Australia and Britain had export control regimes “comparable to the United States” and thereby qualify for Itar exemptions. The State Department said:
Today, the Department of State submitted to the Congress a determination that Australia and UK export control systems are comparable to those of the United States and have implemented a reciprocal export exemption for U.S. entities.
It said it would publish an interim final rule on Friday to amend Itar and implement export licensing exemptions for Australia and Britain effective from 1 September.
The final rule will include a list of sensitive technologies excluded from Itar exemptions and analysts say this will probably mean that significant bureaucratic hurdles still need to be overcome to realise the Aukus projects.
You can read more on Australia’s side of the new treaty arrangements below, from Daniel Hurst:
Updated
Raygun receiving support amid ‘pile-on’, Australian Olympic Committee chief says
The Australian Olympics Committee is supporting breakdancer Rachael Gunn – known more commonly as Raygun – who said the backlash she has received since competing at the Paris Olympics has been “devastating”.
Raygun released a video on Instagram late last night, making some of her first comments since going viral. AOC chief executive Matt Carroll was on ABC News Breakfast earlier and said an online petition against Raygun had been taken down:
Rachel is an athlete, an Olympian. She was legitimately selected to the Australian Olympic team with the full support of her sport in a process that was covered by the international world dance federation, by the local dance sport in Australia and all legitimately done. This pile-on and petition was a fabrication of mistruths, made up …
Most people don’t understand the judging process of breaking. I have to admit I am not across it either but, as Rachel said this morning in her post, go to Olympics.com and you can see how the system works and the way she approached it was the way you do this particular sport.
Carroll said Raygun would be taking some time off and, when she returned to Australia, would be supported by the AOC.
Updated
Indigenous affairs would ‘no longer exist in this country’ under Dutton, Cox says
Dorinda Cox has argued that if opposition leader Peter Dutton were put in charge, “Indigenous affairs will no longer exist in this country” – amid the conversation surrounding whether bipartisan support for makarrata can be achieved. She told ABC RN:
I think that the Coalition continue to put forward a position that we are just the same as everyone else, which is in fact not true. Indigenous people in this country are the first peoples, and it was why the constitutional recognition has been many, many decades in the making …
We, as the first Australians, want to be recognised and should be recognised. But under Peter Dutton and his leadership, he’s made it quite clear, and that’s not a new thing. Remember, this is a man who walked out of the 2008 apology to First Nations people in this country, so he’s got a track record, and he’s not willing to come to the table to have a conversation about Indigenous affairs, and that’s the reality of the situation.
Cox said the government needed to “wisen up” and find other ways to progress the Indigenous affairs portfolio “because there’s an expectation” after their 2022 election promise to implement the Uluru statement from the heart in full:
So they’re breaking their election promise by now crab crawling or walking back, watering down the definition of makarrata. They should just own that, breaking a promise, instead of using the issue of bipartisanship as a weak excuse.
Updated
Labor doesn’t have ‘political will’ to pursue makarrata, Greens senator says
Wrapping up the interview, Dorinda Cox is asked about comments made by the new minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, that a makarrata commission – or truth-telling inquiry – would be hard to pursue without bipartisan support.
Cox says she disagrees with McCarthy on this:
I think that the government could absolutely pursue makarrata if there was political will to do that. What I don’t hear from them is the political will.
They have a majority of numbers in the house, and they have a crossbench who are one of the most progressive crossbenches – and that includes us – and the numbers in the Senate.
So I’m not buying any of that from the minister. If their timetable dictates that they don’t want to pursue makarrata, they should just be honest about that and tell the Australian people that they’re not going to do that.
Updated
‘We have to have a constant reminder’
The committee also called for a culturally appropriate and nationally significant recognition and remembrance of murdered and disappeared First Nations women and children. Dorinda Cox said this would be “significant” if the government accepted the recommendation:
It would … have some permanent features to remind us the role that history has played for missing and murdered or disappeared women and children and First Nations women and children in this country, because there’s a story there that needs to be told, and we have to have a constant reminder.
Like we do … with the Australian war memorial of the safety that we have as a country, but also that this part of our history – this is now ingrained in and sketched into. And if we want to continue to work on this and continue to maintain safety for women and children and the most vulnerable, which is First Nations – as we know, we’re in an emergency for all women, but First Nations women and children are at the front of that – we have to have some permanent features, otherwise we become invisible.
Updated
Cox bemoans lack of change
Asked about that recommendation the attorney general should task the police ministers council to review and “harmonise” police practices in each jurisdiction, Dorinda Cox said approaches to addressing gendered violence against First Nations women needed to be harmonised:
What we hear too often is that this is a state and territory problem. States are responsible for their police forces, in particular … We have to centre our approaches and our outcomes in [addressing these issues] and we have to look at the culture of the organisations, such as police.
There’s lots of reporting on the media in relation to the attitudes of police across Australia, and that has to get better, but we have to have a measure against that – we can’t just put in the attorney general [to] have a chat to the police ministers, and nothing changes … Because if we don’t look at this in a way of wanting change, nothing ever changes.
Updated
Cox highlights lack of data on murders of First Nations women and children
Greens First Nations spokesperson and senator Dorinda Cox has also been speaking to ABC RN this morning, after the two-year Senate inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and children has handed down its final report.
As Lorena Allam and Kate Lyons reported, Cox had said she was “gutted” by the report, arguing that it does not do enough to address the “absolute crisis levels of violence” that families and advocates spoke of.
The report made 10 recommendations, including that the attorney general should task the police ministers council to review and “harmonise” police practices in each jurisdiction by no later than 31 December 2025. You can read more on this below:
Speaking this morning, Cox said there was a “serious disconnect between the heartbreaking stories” heard during the inquiry, and some of the recommendations:
It is a start, and I welcome an extra boost in funding, particularly to our family violence and legal services – a good start in commemorating and honouring the memory of missing and murdered First Nations women and children, but … the recommendations could have been much more ambitious.
They could have given us the thing that we started this inquiry for, and that was about nationally harmonising data so we could get a better picture at the magnitude of the problem we’re dealing with.
Updated
RBA faces grilling over interest rates and the cost of living
The Reserve Bank of Australia will have a chance to defend its interest rate decisions as households and businesses battle stubborn inflation and mortgage stress, AAP reports.
Governor Michele Bullock and her team will face the House of Representatives economics committee for a twice-yearly roasting. The RBA board opted to keep the cash rate unchanged at 4.35% when it met in August, and warned inflation was still too high to warrant rate cuts any time soon.
The central bank continues to calibrate its decisions with a target of 2% to 3% inflation in mind, despite global uncertainty and domestic cost-of-living pressures. The unemployment rate, another key measure for the board, edged up slightly to 4.2% in July but record workforce participation was expected to keep it wary of cutting rates.
The RBA is closely watching the strength of the labour market as it tries to strike the right balance between taming persistently high inflation and further stalling a slowing economy. The central bank also views the pace of wage growth as being above sustainable levels, given little improvement in productivity.
To prevent wage gains adding to inflation, they need to be accompanied by productivity improvements to keep the cost of labour contained. But as deputy governor Andrew Hauser warned, the chance of forecasts being precisely correct is “zero”.
The latest wage price index showed a rise of 0.8% in the three months to June, down from a 0.9% rise in March but still “very encouraging” for workers, according to treasurer Jim Chalmers. The annual growth in wages was higher than the annual inflation rate of 3.8% in June, representing a gain in worker pay in real terms.
Updated
Dutton ‘trying to create doubt and sow seeds of division’, Marles says
Q: The coalition is calling for a parliamentary committee to investigate the definition of what constitutes support for a terrorist organisation. Would Labor support that, to “put any doubts to rest”?
Richard Marles:
I don’t think there are any doubts. And I don’t think, to be honest, Peter Dutton has any doubts. He actually knows what the situation is here, and he knows that the processes that are in place are unchanged …
I think the system in relation to listed terrorist organisations is utterly clear, and that very much includes Hamas, and we have been very robust in the way in which we have condemned the actions of Hamas and condemned those who are associated with Hamas.
And what our processes that we have in place do is ensure that people who are associated with Hamas do not pass a security check, and Peter Dutton knows that.
So again this, I think, is about trying to create doubt and sow seeds of division, which is in fact the last thing that we should be doing here when we need to be bringing the country together in this moment to reassure people that the very robust systems that we have to protect Australians do work and do keep Australians safe.
Updated
Commentary in parliament over Palestinian visas ‘disgraceful’, Marles says
Deputy prime minister Richard Marles just spoke to ABC RN about the Coalition’s push for a Palestinian visa ban after opposition leader Peter Dutton escalated his rhetoric on Wednesday.
Asked if this would have real-world consequences, Marles said it did – pointing to the warning Asio chief Mike Burgess gave when raising Australia’s terror threat level, that everyone needs to be careful with their words while engaging in public discourse:
To be frank, I think what we’ve seen in the parliament over the last 48 hours has been a disgrace from the leader of the opposition and the Liberal party. I think we can look at those words and know what the leader of the opposition is doing here.
We all know that the security assessment process is utterly unchanged to that which was applying when Peter Dutton himself was the minister for home affairs, responsible for immigration. Those checks are rigorous, and they remain in place, so that’s what’s applying to anyone who is coming from Gaza.
Updated
Google, Meta and Microsoft to weigh in on Australian AI
Four of the world’s biggest companies will be questioned about the risks and benefits of adopting AI tools in Australia as part of a national inquiry into the technology, AAP reports.
Representatives from Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon will appear before the adopting artificial intelligence inquiry in Canberra today in its fifth public hearing.
The firms, which are responsible for AI tools including Gemini, Meta AI and Copilot, are expected to face questions about how businesses could deploy the technology but also ways in which it has been misused.
Microsoft is also the largest investor in OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, although the firm operates independently.
The inquiry was called in March and is tasked with examining AI trends, errors, bias and opportunities, as well as its impact on elections and the environment. Previous hearings have heard calls for restrictions to be issued for the use of AI tools in fields such as healthcare, media and art.
The parliamentary committee is expected to release its findings in September.
Updated
New Zealand-Australia talks to revisit deportations spat
Deportations, migration and closer defence partnership will be on the agenda when Anthony Albanese meets his New Zealand counterpart Chris Luxon in Canberra today.
As AAP reports, the two prime ministers are meeting for the annual Australia New Zealand leaders meeting.
Cooperation between the two governments is already broad, with more than half of the New Zealand cabinet visiting Australia since Luxon’s government took office last November. But one issue – deportations – continues to cause friction.
New Zealand has long protested against Australia’s practice of deporting criminals with NZ passports but with stronger ties to Australia. Once in New Zealand, deportees have allegedly joined gangs in huge numbers, and New Zealand argues they stand a better chance of rehabilitation in their adopted communities.
New Zealand won a concession from Albanese last year when he agreed to consider these concerns but earlier this year it was revealed that a number of deportees who won the right to stay in Australia allegedly committed heinous crimes, prompting a reversal of the policy concession.
Luxon said it was back on the agenda and he would be raising it “pretty directly” on Friday:
Because we’ve got trust and friendship, we can actually talk about those things and have differences of opinion.
Updated
NSW Liberal party state director sacked over administrative disaster
NSW Liberals state director Richard Shields has been sacked after the party’s failure to nominate more than 130 candidates for local government elections, AAP reports.
In a statement issued at the conclusion of an emergency meeting late last night, the party’s state president Don Harwin said its executive had unanimously decided to terminate Shields’ employment over the fiasco:
The state director was given the opportunity to explain the circumstances to the state executive. This failure to meet such a fundamental responsibility has rendered his position untenable.
As a result the state executive has unanimously resolved to terminate the state director’s employment with immediate effect.
Earlier in the evening, Shields labelled as “premature” calls for his resignation. Shields had said:
There must be a proper review of the nomination process to establish the full facts.
Eight local councils – including several in party heartland – will go to upcoming statewide elections without a Liberal candidate on the ticket.
You can read more on this below:
Updated
Welcome
Good morning and happy Friday – welcome back to the Australia news live blog after an eventful sitting week. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage today.
Making news overnight: NSW Liberals state director Richard Shields has been sacked, AAP reports, after a failure to nominate 140 candidates for local government elections. We’ll bring you the full statement from the party’s state president Don Harwin in a moment.
Anthony Albanese is set to meet his New Zealand counterpart Chris Luxon in Canberra today for the annual Australia New Zealand leaders meeting. Also in Canberra today, four of the world’s biggest companies will be questioned about the risks and benefits of adopting AI tools in Australia as part of a national inquiry into the technology.
We’ll bring you more on both of these stories in a moment.
As always, if you see something that needs attention you can reach out via X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
Let’s get started.
Updated
