What we learned, Monday 21 July
We will wrap up the live blog here for the evening. Here’s what made the news:
$14m in one-off funding was announced by environment minister Murray Watt to support the response to South Australia’s algal bloom crisis.
Mark Latham’s portrait will remain on the wall of the federal Labor caucus room in parliament house, but with added text, amid debate in the party about Latham in recent weeks.
Former Liberal prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has rejected Coalition criticisms of Labor prime minister Anthony Albanese’s trip to China, saying it was “absolutely the right thing to do to go to China”.
Ahead of parliament sitting tomorrow for the first time since the May federal election, Albanese has told the Labor caucus to “repay the faith” voters put in them at the election.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has said the opposition won’t simply “get out of the way” of the government in the new term.
Australian Greens leader, Larissa Waters, has backed the expulsion of her party’s co-founder Drew Hutton over claims he fostered debate the party deems transphobic, saying the move reflected “good governance”. Hutton is considering his legal options.
Another childcare centre in Melbourne has confirmed it terminated alleged sex offender Joshua Dale Brown’s employment.
Peter Ryan, a Walkley Award-winning journalist who worked in the field for 45 years, died in Sydney after a battle with cancer.
We will be back with the Australian politics live blog bright and early tomorrow for the first sitting day of the new parliament. Until then, enjoy your evening.
Australian Conservation Foundation welcomes ‘overdue’ algal bloom funding
Darcie Carruthers, the South Australia-based nature campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, has welcomed environment minister Murray Watt’s funding announcement to support the response to the algal bloom crisis but says it is overdue and more needs to be done:
It is long overdue and very welcome assistance. But I would say that the federal government needs to focus on the causes of this economic and environmental disaster to prevent it from happening again.
A marine heatwave and the water from the disastrous 2023 Murray Darling floods are both factors that have allowed the algae to take hold and both warming waters and floods are supercharged by burning fossil fuels.
If Minister Watt is serious about protecting nature and businesses he’ll stop approving coal and gas and create nature laws that protect them from climate pollution.
Carruthers said she also believed it was “reasonable to declare this a national disaster when tens if not hundreds of thousands of animals are dying and local businesses and communities are struggling”:
Declaring this a national disaster could render them more assistance.
Updated
