Goodnight from us
We’ll be wrapping up the live blog for the day now. Thanks for staying with us on this brisk Sunday. The blog will be back tomorrow morning. Goodnight and stay safe
Updated
More funds for Kimberley, flood rebuild to take years
An extra $144m has been allocated to Western Australia’s flood-hit Kimberley region with the rebuild expected to take up to two more years.
Premier Roger Cook said the joint state and commonwealth disaster relief funds would ensure the necessary resources were available for recovery efforts after January’s devastating floods.
Cook and minister for emergency services Stephen Dawson on Sunday travelled to Fitzroy Crossing where some of the worst of the damage occurred, marking six months since the destruction.
Close to 40 homes and 40 businesses were destroyed across the region, with another 121 dwellings suffering some damage.
Flooding also caused significant damage to infrastructure and the Great Northern Highway, including a major bridge at Fitzroy Crossing.
This money will go towards rebuilding both government-owned and privately owned homes.
We want to get life back to normal as quickly as we can.
Cook said the once-in-100-year flood event was devastating for the Kimberley region but the state government was determined to ensure it came back better and stronger.
– AAP
Updated
Search continues for missing Belgian woman
Police are continuing the search for missing Belgian woman Celine Cremer, who was reported missing on Monday 26 June.
Tasmania Police Search and Rescue personnel together with Tasmania SES will conduct further ground searches today focusing on a track offset search of Butlers Road.
Police continue to investigate Cremer’s movements from 17 June 2023 after her white Honda CRV was located in the car park of the Philosopher Falls walking track on 27 June 2023.
Tasmania Police Search Controllers will commence a review of the search areas today.
The Philosopher Falls walking track at Waratah remains closed to the public.
Man’s arm severed in fireworks mishap
A man has had his arm severed in a fireworks mishap south of Darwin, one of a series of incidents as revellers marked Territory Day.
The St John ambulance service said the 23-year-old was taken to Royal Darwin hospital on Saturday night with an arm amputated below the elbow.
He was understood to have undergone surgery in a bid to have the arm reattached.
For more on this story, read the full report:
Updated
Australia’s first public egg and sperm bank opens in Melbourne
Australia’s first public egg and sperm bank has opened in Melbourne, giving thousands more Victorians the chance to start a family.
The new facility opened at the Royal Women’s hospital this week as part of the state government’s $120m public fertility service program.
It’s estimated up to 5000 Victorians will start their family through the scheme each year.
The sperm and egg bank is currently focused on recruiting donors to grow the service’s stock.
Eligible Victorians seeking to access the public fertility care service, including the use of donated sperm and eggs, will need to be referred by a GP or specialist.
The bank will also accept altruistic donations from Victorians who meet certain criteria and want to give someone the opportunity to start a family.
Premier Daniel Andrews said:
Public IVF is already helping hundreds of Victorians make their dream of having a baby a reality.
Helping someone start their family is one of the most generous gifts you could give someone and our new public egg and sperm bank will help even more Victorians do just that.
– AAP
Updated
One-off payment for customers without building insurance
Porter Davis customers who missed out on government support after the building company collapsed are now eligible for a one-off payment.
The Victorian government on Sunday extended the support scheme to those who paid a three per cent pre-deposit for tender agreements but did not receive the mandatory building insurance.
Those customers will be eligible for a one-off payment of up to $50,000.
Clients of other builders who have gone into liquidation in the past 12 months can also receive the payment if they were left without the mandatory insurance.
Treasurer Tim Pallas said that to be eligible, a person’s builder must have entered liquidation between 1 July 2022, and 30 June 2023.
Dreams turned to nightmares for people who should have been protected by their builders and that’s not acceptable.
We’ve backed the original Porter Davis families and now other hardworking families who have similarly suffered over the past 12 months will have the certainty and confidence they deserve to move ahead.
About 1700 homes across Victoria and Queensland were left in limbo when Porter Davis went into liquidation in March, while 560 families nearly lost their home deposits because the company did not file insurance for them.
The state government first announced in April a $15m scheme to pay back Porter Davis customers who put down a deposit but never had insurance filed.
– AAP
Updated
Omegle: the sites popular with kids but horrifying parents
“In less than 30 seconds I saw a man clearly masturbating on camera,” Kirra Pendergast says, describing a visit to the website Omegle.
Omegle is a type of video and chat roulette, with the tag line: “Talk to strangers!” There’s no need to register, or log in, and you don’t need an app. Just go to the website, tick a box saying you’re 18 or above and you’re away – even if you’re not 18.
Parents tell Guardian Australia that “playing” on Omegle is something kids do at parties, at sleepovers. It just takes one of the group to have a screen with internet access and before long they are chatting to strangers all over the world.
Pendergast says it’s like a prank phone call – an illicit thrill, but this one’s dangerous.
When Guardian Australia tried it, it was a whirlwind of man after man in darkened room, waiting. You clock the stranger then chat or click and move on. Click, another man, click, another man. Click, three young girls sitting on a bed in their pyjamas.
Pendergast, the founder and chief executive officer of cybersafety program provider Safeonsocial.com, was horrified when she tried it.
“I felt like I had to bleach my eyeballs,” she says.
For more on this story read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Tory Shepherd:
Updated
Apprehension mounts ahead of RBA interest rate decision
Mortgage holders will be feeling uneasy ahead of another close interest rate call that could see their monthly repayments blow out even further.
The Reserve Bank has been battling high inflation with higher interest rates since May last year and has so far handed out 400 basis points of increases.
The board is due to meet on Tuesday for the July cash rate decision.
Inflation may be moderating but economists worry the slowdown is not fast enough to guarantee the end of the central bank’s tightening cycle.
The headline inflation number fell sharply over the month of May, from 6.8 per cent to 5.6 per cent, but Westpac economist Bill Evans said the slowdown across consumer prices was less convincing when volatile items were stripped out.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is also set to release a bunch of noteworthy data this week, including building approvals and lending indicators on Monday.
Home price data from CoreLogic will round out a big start to the week for housing data.
On Thursday, the national statistics bureau will release international trade data for the month of May.
- AAP
Victorian drugs campaigner laments political culture costing lives
Sam Biondo knows drugs can kill people. But he knows bad politics can too.
As he prepares to leave after 16 years at the helm of the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association (Vaada), Biondo has revealed his immense frustration at having watched thousands of people die unnecessarily because governments fear “being crucified” by the media and opposition.
In Victoria alone on an annual basis we have more than 500 people dying from overdoses. That’s like an A380 going down every year.
In the time I’ve worked here … it’s probably about 7,000 people who have died of overdoses. It does your head in when you know many of those deaths are preventable.
According to Biondo, the “war on drugs” – as it was coined by US president Richard Nixon – has been an “abject failure” on severals fronts: people with addiction have been stigmatised and criminalised, millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted and the use of legal drugs such as alcohol and prescription painkillers has grown, with pharmaceuticals the state’s biggest cause of fatal overdoses.
For more on this story, read the full feature by Guardian Australia’s Benita Kolovos:
Updated
EU offer trade deal ‘not good enough’
A trade deal with the European Union remains a way off as the Australian government pushes back on the latest offer.
The agriculture minister, Murray Watt, says the terms put on the table by the EU are “just not good enough”.
Speaking to the ABC on Sunday, Watt said Australia was not asking for anything unreasonable and its demands aligned with agreements brokered between the EU and other countries.
But unfortunately, the EU hasn’t been prepared to come to the party at the moment.
The minister had been meeting with EU officials ahead of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation conference in Rome.
The federal government has been working on a free trade agreement with the EU for around five years. It would give Australian producers greater access to a market of more than 450 million people.
But negotiations have broken down over the conditions attached to a range of agricultural commodities, including beef, sheep, sugar and dairy products.
The agriculture minister said the latest round of meetings had allowed the government to reiterate its position.
A lot of the European agriculture ministers were of the view that the deal was nearly done and that Australia was quite happy with what was being offered.
So it’s obviously been very useful to make clear that that’s not the case.
- AAP
Updated
Conditions calmer after windy airport flight chaos
Flights departing Australia’s busiest airport are mostly back on schedule after two chaotic days of cancellations and delays caused by poor weather and a lack of staff, although Sydney airport is still facing some cancellations, according to the AAP.
Updated
Government celebrates budget surplus
A larger-than-expected surplus for the last financial year will take pressure off inflation and is due to responsible budget management, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said.
The underlying cash balance for the 12 months to May was $19bn, well above the $4.2bn surplus flagged for the 2022/23 financial year in the last federal budget.
Official Department of Finance monthly figures released on Friday showed surging company and personal taxes driven by strong commodity prices and the robust labour market.
Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Saturday his government had worked to turn a deficit into a surplus, but the opposition said it was due to “dumb luck” as the government received more tax dollars.
The fact that we’ve turned a $78bn deficit that was forecast under the Liberal National party government just over a year ago into a surplus that’s in excess of $4bn is a positive thing.
I believe that Australian families will look at the federal budget and say it is good that we have a government that is putting in place responsible budget management in order to put that downward pressure on inflation.
They know that responsible economic policy from the federal government is important and has a flow-on impact that is positive for families.
The shadow climate change and energy minister, Ted O’Brien, disputed the government’s reasoning behind the surplus.
Labor might be licking its lips with a budget surplus but Australian households are on their knees in pain. Labor should not confuse dumb luck with good policy.
Where there’s a surplus, it’s because the government is receiving more tax dollars.
They are taxing companies, they are taxing the Australian people.
- AAP
Updated
Companies eye opportunity in Australia psychedelic legislation
Australia’s world-first legalisation of psychedelic treatments for mental health conditions has companies pursuing a market opportunity to do well while doing some good.
From this weekend, specifically authorised and trained psychiatrists will be able to prescribe MDMA - also known as “ecstasy” or “molly” – to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
They will also be able to prescribe psilocybin - the active ingredient in so-called “magic mushrooms” - for treatment-resistant depression, under the rule change announced by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in February.
Scott Edwards, the executive director of Mind Medicine Australia, said under the TGA’s new scheme a psychiatrist who has been trained in administering psychedelic-assisted therapy can apply to be an authorised prescriber.
Becoming an authorised prescriber is a substantial process and applications will take some time to process, but Edwards is optimistic patients will be legally accessing mind-altering substances within months.
Melbourne could get Australia’s first dedicated psychedelic clinic, with a joint venture involving ASX-listed Incannex Healthcare and three Australian psychedelic experts set to open a riverfront premises in Abbotsford in August.
Treatments nationwide may be expensive at first, with figures around $10,000 or more being suggested as the starting price for several psychedelic “trips” guided by trained clinicians.
Because the TGA’s rule change was unexpected and occurred relatively quickly, the initial supply of psilocybin and MDMA used in the Australian market is expected to be imported.
- AAP
Updated
Questions mount over Australian company hoping to revive Britishvolt
The Australian offices of Scale Facilitation, the company in charge of resurrecting the UK’s electric vehicle battery-making aspirations, were unusually quiet when the federal police used a search warrant to access its financial systems.
On 23 June, many employees at the Geelong premises, south-west of Melbourne, had the day off. The company had fallen behind in staff payments and offered several days off as a gesture of goodwill.
The near-vacant offices at Scale, the umbrella company for Recharge Industries, which recently took over the collapsed UK battery company Britishvolt, was not the first sign that the company was under financial stress.
It had started to rely on one-off payments, such as a tax refund in the UK owed to Britishvolt, to catch up on payroll. Australian employees are still allegedly owed significant backpay.
Scale said in a statement to the Guardian that it would fully cooperate with authorities over tax fraud allegations. It did not respond to questions about the state of its finances, or money owed to staff.
The company denies any wrongdoing and is working with legal and other advisers to defend any matters arising from these discussions.
As this is an ongoing matter, we cannot and will not be providing any additional comment to the media at this time.
For more on this story read the full feature by Guardian Australia’s Jonathan Barrett:
Australia no credibility on human rights if voice vote fails: Dodson
Labor senator Pat Dodson says Australia will lose its credibility on human rights if the voice referendum fails.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the Indigenous elder said the voice referendum offered Australians an opportunity to engage on the international stage with “clean hands” in a break with the checkered past of its colonial history.
The nation stands to lose if this fails. It’s not just the first peoples: our nation, in the eyes of the international community, will lose.
Our integrity with our neighbours will certainly be undermined – that’s the Pacific. We will give ammunition to our enemies in other places, or people that are opposed to us internationally.
We will go through a process of wondering why a simple matter could not be achieved in such a sophisticated nation as ours.
Asked whether Australia could continue to criticise China over its treatment of Uighurs and Tibetans, Dodson said: “We’d have no integrity, absolutely no integrity”:
Under this Labor government, we’re showing we are engaging with the Pacific, we’re not frightened by the atrocities that are going on in Ukraine.
We’ve got to go to the international forum with substance, not just with intellectual ideas and strategies, as a people of substance – and that’s what will happen with a yes vote.
Because people will say: ‘You as a modern democracy have faced your legacies, your worst fears, and you’ve worked your way through it, and you’ve stood the challenge’.
On the ongoing debate within the yes campaign about whether to emphasise constitutional recognition, or the voice, Dodson said both were important.
I think you’ve got to link both matters. I don’t think selling people half a chocolate is the thing to do.
This is about the recognition, and giving people the capacity to make representations that are advisory to our parliament and executive.
Updated
Voice referendum a chance to ‘honour and repay’ elders, says Megan Davis
Prof Megan Davis, a Cobble Cobble woman and co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue, said the voice referendum was an opportunity to “honour and repay” elders. She said:
The Uluru Dialogue pays tribute to our elders – past and present – and their nation-building efforts in every sector, across every facet of society. For generations, they have fought with courage and dignity to improve the lives of their communities, families and descendants.
Their efforts have helped create a better Australia, and the referendum provides an opportunity for all of us to honour and repay them.
Davis said the referendum was a once in a generation chance “for Australians to finally walk side by side with First Nations people”.
Updated
Possible shark sighting at Blackman’s Bay
Tasmanian police have reporting a sighting of a possible shark about 50m off Blackmans Bay Beach.
The sighting occurred between the northern end and the blow hole.
No further details were provided about the size or type were provided but the reports involved sighting of a fin in the water.
PwC referred to new federal anti-corruption watchdog
The tax leak scandal that embroiled consultancy firm PwC has been referred to the national anti-corruption body which has just opened its doors.
Greens senator Barbara Pocock has formally referred the matter to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, which is independent and has the authority to compel witnesses.
The consultancy firm has come under fire following revelations staff shared confidential tax information from the Treasury department to drum up new business.
The Australian Federal Police is already investigating the leak.
Senator Pocock said there were still many unanswered questions and the anti-corruption body would have the power to uncover key details.
The PwC tax leaks scandal has been airing in public for the past five months and so far we know too little about who was at fault, who benefited and what consequences there will be.
The senator also said there were questions to be answered by government agencies including the role they played in uncovering the incident.
While we welcome the AFP investigation to prosecute appropriate criminal charges, there are wider issues that need to be addressed to ensure that our systems of government are not open to corruption.
The federal anti-corruption commission became operational on July 1.
- AAP
Updated
Residents living near Cadia goldmine demand answers on dust pollution
Alison Simmons has started buying bottled water for her grandchildren. The farmer and retired nurse has lived at her property near Forest Reefs, about 8km from Cadia Hill goldmine in central west New South Wales, for 30 years. She has always relied on rainwater and never felt any ill-effects.
But when the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) announced an investigation into the Cadia goldmine regarding its management of “emissions of dust and other pollutants”, she decided she could no longer risk it.
Until the results are in on this, it seems to me imprudent to let any young children drink the water or clean their teeth in it.
I’ve been drinking the water for years. I’m a sole occupier, so my water consumption is not high and I wouldn’t have great disturbances of the sediment at the base of my tank … But whatever is sitting at the base of my tank, I won’t know until I test it.
The Cadia Hill goldmine has been under intense scrutiny since March, when testing of water collected in residential rainwater tanks in communities surrounding the mine, conducted on behalf of Cadia Community Sustainability Network, found that of the 70 samples collected more than a third contained more than 10 times the level of lead listed in NSW health guidelines.
For more on this story read the full feature by Guardian Australia’s Fleur Connick:
Tasmanian man charged
A 23-year-old Tasmanian man has been charged after allegedly firing a gun into the roof of a home on Saturday night before fleeing the scene, police say.
Police were called to a home on 9.20pm following allegations a firearm had been discharged.
After the man fled, a search was conducted with both the man and the firearm found a short time later, according to police.
Police have charged the man with a range of offences including firearms and family violence offences.
He is due to appear in the Hobart magistrates court at 11am on Sunday.
Updated
SA university merger ‘historic’, Malinauskas says
Peter Malinauskas has described as “historic” the decision by two universities to merge under a plan by the South Australian premier to create a new super university in the state.
We have signed an historic Heads of Agreement with @UniofAdelaide and @UniversitySA to support the creation of a new University for the future.
— Peter Malinauskas (@PMalinauskasMP) July 1, 2023
The new Adelaide University will be the largest educator of domestic students in Australia. pic.twitter.com/0e8u01QzDd
It will have the scale and resources to be sustainably positioned in the top 100 in the world.
— Peter Malinauskas (@PMalinauskasMP) July 1, 2023
This is an idea which has been talked about for years and years.
Updated
Yes campaign launches nationwide voice events
Two dozen major referendum events nationwide this weekend will be a “gamechanger” for the voice, says the director of Yes23, who is confident support will keep rising once grassroots campaigning fully activates in coming weeks.
On Sunday Yes23 hosts its Come Together For Yes events, unofficially launching the next phase of its campaign at the start of Naidoc Week; from smaller gatherings at community centres and local markets, to a football tournament in Darwin and major events in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
For more on this story, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Josh Butler:
Updated
Rachel Perkins says yes campaign is gaining momentum
Film-maker Rachel Perkins says the yes campaign for an Indigenous voice to parliament is gaining momentum as dozens of events are scheduled to be run across the country on Sunday.
It’s finally got outside of parliament and now it’s out of the Canberra bubble and it’s coming to the back yards, which is terrific. It’s where it should be discussed.
Perkins, co-chair of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition and winner of the NAIDOC week talent award, told the ABC on Sunday morning that the communities she had been speaking to want a mechanism to have input on issues affecting them.
I’ve just actually come back from the Kimberley. I’ve been travelling from Kununurra to Halls Creek, Derby, Fitzroy Crossing, having conversations with people in little town halls and going out to meet people on the ground, grassroots Indigenous people who say they want this because they have solutions to how to change the situation.
Like in Fitzroy Crossing, there’s this amazing early childhood education centre that’s run by an Aboriginal woman, Emily Carter, and it’s making huge changes in her community. They’ve limited the flow of alcohol into the Fitzroy Valley. It’s had huge results. These are the sort of solutions and people whose voices that no one gets to hear about but should be heard in Canberra.
Perkins also said many Indigenous people have faced racist abuse particularly on social media and called for people to “have a respectful dialogue.”
Updated
Government playing ‘funny games’ over robodebt attacks: Dutton
The government is playing “tricks … and funny games” attacking the opposition over the robodebt inquiry,” opposition leader Peter Dutton said on Sky News this morning.
He was referring to criticisms of MP Stuart Robert, who oversaw the system that has been linked to suicides, stress and anxiety.
Robert is retiring, and the byelection in his seat of Fadden is on 15 July. Labor has been hounding him over both the robodebt scandal and other allegations.
He has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
Dutton says it’s “no coincidence” that Labor is attacking Robert with the byelection looming.
Asked whether the national anti-corruption commission (Nacc) should look at Robert, Dutton said “everybody should abide by the law”. He said:
Nobody’s above the law. And if there are credible allegations or suggestions, then they should be properly investigated by the police or by the integrity commission. If people have information, instead of trawling it for political purposes through the press, they should refer it to the proper authority, in this case, the integrity commission.
It’s a different story on the NSW corruption commission’s findings on former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, though, according to Dutton.
“If matters are to be tested, they should be tested in a court of law,” he said, adding that he doesn’t know of “anyone with higher integrity”.
Read Paul Karp’s analysis on the Robert allegations:
Updated
Mental health to be long term issue for Ukrainians, says Myroshnychenko
Myroshnychenko says mental health will be a long-term issue for Ukraine whose 44 million people have been “heavily traumatised by what they see, what they read.”
It’s live, it’s on your Google, it’s on your phone, it’s real. It’s not a show, it’s live. And every day there are more and more funerals of people. People you knew … somebody’s friends or relatives, and this is what we live through.
The ambassador said he just spent three weeks in Ukraine and that watching events unfold is “really heartbreaking”.
I was just there when they deliberately destroyed Kakhovka dam which has large parts of Ukraine, creating one of the biggest human-made environment ideal disasters. We hear they have mined the nuclear power plant and they may use nuclear as blackmail. Radiation does not know no borders. The contamination which can happen would be devastating for entire Europe. We need to stop it.
And that’s a wrap.
Updated
Myroshnychenko says Ukraine war can’t get any worse
On the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his wagner mercenary group, Myroshnychenko says he is reluctant to get into speculation about “palace intrigue” in Russia.
We haven’t seen any major impact in the battlefield as the mutiny was unfolding, Russians sent on shelling Ukrainian cities sending missiles, heavy battlefields on the frontlines. Definitely the reputation of Vladimir Putin was dented. His leadership was challenged. And in a country like Russia is really extraordinary to see it happening. Putin is running the country as a thug so pretty much a gangster country and all these thugs and somebody revolts all of a sudden, this is already kind of bizarre.
The ambassador also says he doesn’t see how things could get worse.
I don’t think anything can be worse, right? Can it get any worse? Look, Russians have deployed 150,000 people in Ukraine – occupied 20% of the land. They just shell us on a continuous basis, killing and raping and murdering people. Can it get any worse? I don’t think so.
Myroshnychenko says Putin has “stolen the future of the Russian people” and that the war Ukraine is fighting would precipitate Putin’s regime.
Updated
Myroshnychenko says it would ‘make global headlines’ if Australia supplied tanks to Ukraine
Asked whether Australia could supply provide Ukraine with a cash payment so the country may buy military hardware of its choice, Myroshnychenko says there are “many different forms support can take”.
He also says it would “make global headlines” if Australia agreed to supply Ukraine with M1 Arbams tanks, 59 of which are due to go out of service next year.
I think any support for Ukraine will be very good investment into the restoration of the rules-base international system.
Something which is so important for every Pacific nation because if you can allow a bigger power to curse a smaller power – and you don’t fight back and you let that happen, that sends a wrong signal especially to your neighbours, to countries that depend so much on your support to be sovereign and to make their own decisions and not to be influence bid bigger powers.
Updated
Bushmasters have been ‘a symbol of Australian support’, says Ukraine’s ambassador
Myroshnychenko says the Hawk-Eye air defence systems have “captured the imagination” in Ukraine because it is a “unique” piece of defence equipment. He says the number of Russian rocket attacks against Ukraine make it a valuable piece of equipment that can be “rolled out for different missions”.
Could be used for recognisance, used for electronic warfare. Once integrated with air defence systems it could be very handy air defence systems and as you see, Russians are seconding so many missiles at Ukraine so air defence systems are in high need.
He also says the supply of Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine has been a “symbol of Australian support” with 90 vehicles having been committed.
They’re saving lives, they’re getting wounded people from the frontlines. That’s a huge contribution that you made and sending more will be very helpful.
Updated
Ukraine’s ambassador says Australia has benefited from the war
Myroshnychenko says he would “be delighted” for the foreign minister, Penny Wong, to visit Kyiv and that while “she does understand Ukraine very well” being on the ground “gives you a different angle”.
Russia aggression in Ukraine has undermined global security. It’s an issue which has affected everybody. It has undermined security in the Indo-Pacific. We are seeing what’s happening with food crisis, with energy crisis, how many countries become exposed and vulnerable to these shocks. And of course we have to deal with that. Ukraine is one of the biggest providers of food on the global markets and we’re not able to deliver that food to the countries in need, in Africa, in South of Asia, who suffered because of that.
Myroshnychenko noted that Australia was one of a number of countries – including Canada and Norway – that has inadvertently benefited from the Russian invasion of Ukraine through high prices.
I just get back from Kyiv. I was there three weeks ago … every day Kyiv is under attacks and kids who play out on the playground and then you see them running into shelters when there is a siren, because you know it’s going to hit. This is what we have to go through every day, being traumatised, being out there, and the support we get from our partners, this is the resilience of the international coalition if this is what is important because only together when we are stronger together because, look, if Australia were invaded or at war, we’ll be out there for you to help you. More so there’s so many lessons which would be learned from this war.
Updated
Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia invites Penny Wong to Kyiv
Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko has told ABC Insiders Ukraine is “incredibly grateful” for the military support that has been provided by Australia to date but says that support should continue to help bring the conflict to a decisive end.
Myroshnychenko told the story of a Russian ballistic missile strike on the popular pizza restaurant Ria in Kramatorsk last week that killed thirteen people and wound many others. He said this was an example of the daily horrors Ukrainians have to live with.
Look, we appreciate what’s coming, and I personally like to thank prime minister Anthony Albanese for travelling to Ukraine last year. He could see with his own eyes what Russians have done in Ukraine
There is a continuous dialogue between other ministers of defences that recently met in Singapore. It would be wonderful to have minister Penny Wong visit Kyiv. I’m in constant contact with defence department and the defence minister’s office and see what else could be done to help Ukraine.
Updated
Dutton says companies backing Indigenous voice ‘lack a significant backbone’
Opposition leader Peter Dutton was asked on Sky News this morning about BHP, Rio Tinto and Wesfarmers tipping millions into the yes campaign for the voice referendum.
He said “many corporates … lack a significant backbone”.
There’s a lot of people who are just craving popularity and trying to please people in the Twittersphere.
He added that they should “reassess where they are on some of these debates”.
Dutton also hinted there may be some disingenuity at play. He said:
There are a lot of CEOs and chairs who have very diff conversations with you in private than what they say publicly.
Updated
Ukrainian ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko will be speaking to ABC Insiders this morning which is broadcasting live from the National Press Club.
Meanwhile opposition leader Peter Dutton spoke to Sky this morning.
We will bring you the latest as it happens.
Stranded humpback whale dies
A humpback whale has died after becoming stranded on a section of the New South Wales northern coastline, despite dozens of people working for hours to return it to the water.
The NSW Department of Environment and Heritage tweeted late on Saturday urging people to avoid Seven Mile beach at Lennox Head, a coastal town located just south of the tourist mecca of Byron Bay in northern NSW.
The 30-metre animal had washed ashore at the northern end of the beach on Saturday morning, where it was seen by a member of the public.
Marine experts and volunteers worked through the day to help keep the animal calm, covering it with water before high tide came.
Despite tunnels and grooves being dug into the sand to attempt to help the whale back into deeper water when the tide rose, it died at about seven o’clock on Saturday night.
The animal had no obvious signs of injury before it became beached.
Whales will sometimes become beached for a variety of reasons, with experts believing this particular whale may have suffered from a disease.
People are being asked to avoid the area on Sunday as authorities work to dispose of the carcass.
- AAP
Updated
South Australian university merger a ‘transformational moment’
Two South Australian universities have announced they will support a state government push to merge them into one institution.
In a statement published late Saturday night, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia (UniSA) announced they will enter into a “Heads of Agreement” to support the State Government in the creation of a new university”.
The University will be named “Adelaide University” and will combine the resources of both institutions to create a super university.
UniSA Prof David G Lloyd said in a letter to alumni on Saturday night that: “Australia’s higher education funding environment makes it challenging to remain as we are” and that the merger represented “a transformational moment” for the two institutions.
We have a unique opportunity to create a new institution with innovation and scale to make transformational investments in teaching and global research. With the significant financial backing of the State Government and ongoing support from the Federal Government, we will shape a comprehensive, future-focused university that is connected to priority industries for both our state and nation.
Updated
Good morning
And welcome to another Sunday morning Guardian live blog.
A humpback whale has died after becoming stranded at Seven Mile Beach at Lennox head on Saturday. Marine experts and volunteers worked into the night to save the whale by digging grooves to help the whale back into deep water with the high tied, but the animal died at 7pm on Saturday night.
Two South Australian universities have backed in a state government plan to merge two of the state’s three institutions to create a super university named “Adelaide University”. The University of South Australia and University of Adelaide announced on Saturday night that both institutions will enter into a “Heads of Agreement” to support the state government in the creation of the new institutions.
And Naidoc week is officially under way and carrying extra significance this year as the Indigenous voice to parliament campaigns ramp up.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs, taking the blog through the day. With so much going on out there, it’s easy to miss stuff, so if you spot something happening in Australia and think it should be on the blog, you can find me on Twitter at @RoyceRk2 where my DMs are open.
With that, let’s get started ...
