What we learned; Thursday 20 February
Thank you for joining us on the blog today. If you missed it, here are your main takeaways:
The government committed to increase Defence’s funding in the 2024-25 federal budget by $11.1bn over the next decade to “ensure the enhanced lethality surface combatant fleet is funded”. (And some back and forth between minister for defence industry Pat Conroy and shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie ensued.)
Over 3,000 Victorians were without power as a result of destructive winds that lashed the state last week. Victoria’s premier, Jacinta Allan, said Energy Safe Victoria had already begun an investigation into the six towers that went down at Anakie, while the energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, commissioned another independent review.
Katarina Carroll has stood down as Queensland police commissioner amid the state’s heated youth crime debate. She says said raised intentions with the police minister early due to “heightened speculation and commentary”.
Three bodies were found in two seperate locations in Sydney’s north-west – a man believed to be in his late 30s in Baulkham Hills, and a woman believed to be in her early 40s and a young child in North Parramatta. Police are treating the seperate locations as linked, and homicide squad detectives are investigating.
Virgin Australia announced its CEO, Jayne Hrdlicka, will move on after almost four years leading the airline. A global search is commencing shortly for her replacement.
Six more sites in Sydney tested positive for asbestos contaminated mulch, with that mulch potentially at hundreds of locations across Sydney and regional New South Wales.
See you tomorrow!
Updated
AI brings opportunities and challenges for agriculture
Producers must take advantage of artificial intelligence to feed a growing global population.
Addressing a major agrifood tech conference AI expert Nina Schick said the world is at a unique turning point because of the pace at which exponential technologies are being developed.
Schick delivered a keynote speech at the evokeAg event:
Food production and efficiency needs to go up at the same time when the limits of our planet are being reached.
The biggest opportunity is can we leverage AI and other associated technologies to be able to deliver better on that promise for sustainable and productive food.
- Australian Associated Press
