What we learned today, Tuesday 29 October
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Thank you for spending part of your day with us. Before we go let’s recap the big headlines:
Anthony Albanese announces two more clean energy-related projects in New South Wales and Victoria aimed at transitioning Australia’s energy production and workforce away from fossil fuels.
The pace of property price growth is slowing, with Domain recording a 0.8% growth in the quarter and slightly more for units. Experts say homebuyer budgets are finding a ceiling.
The Victorian Greens are called on the state government to enter the property development game, saying Labor’s plan to get more millennials into the housing market will not work without such an intervention.
Robbie Katter, the Katter’s Australia party leader, says babies deserve representation in parliament. He wants to wind back abortion rights.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, criticised new Israeli laws restricting the UN relief agency Unrwa’s access to Gaza, saying that Unrwa “does life-saving work”.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said he hasn’t had to declare flights taken on the private jets of billionaires, answering questions on reports he sought free Qantas flight upgrades directly from Alan Joyce while serving as transport minister.
Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services in New South Wales are set to receive $4m in funding over four years from NSW Fair Trading.
Journalist and academic Stan Grant took shots at “political elites” in the United States, saying neither Donald Trump or Kamala Harris were the answer to the “existential crisis of America”.
Australians lost trust in governments as the Covid pandemic went on, particularly due to poor communication of the reasons for lockdowns and other restrictions, an inquiry found.
Mark Butler announced $251m to establish a Centre for Disease Control.
And a group of children were injured after a car crashed through a fence at Auburn South primary school this afternoon and collided into a bench.
Updated
BoM confirms prospects for a La Niña event continue to subside
As we flagged way back at the start of today’s blog, the Bureau of Meteorology’s main model only gave a 4% chance of a La Niña forming in December.
The bureau this afternoon updated its fortnightly climate drivers report to provide a bit more detail. Conditions in the Pacific Ocean remain in neutral and look like remaining so, even though the BoM is maintaining its “La Niña watch” rating.
The bureau noted only one of the international models it compares its ACCESS model to is forecasting its La Niña threshold is likely to be breached throughout November to February.
As expected, the chance of a La Nina this year continues to ebb, according to @bom_au. The bureau's model is no longer the outlier, too, with Europe's ECMWF model giving a La Nina event even less of a chance of forming over the coming summer. pic.twitter.com/D9wctt7Nee
— @[email protected] (@p_hannam) October 29, 2024
As for the Indian Ocean, the negative phase of that basin’s dipole (which compares sea-surface temperatures between the west and the east) looks likely to be exceeded next month. A negative-IOD, as it is known, typically contributes to wetter than usual conditions for much of the country.
But BoM notes the background warming from global heating means past experiences may not be such a good guide to what’s happening now.
“Global [sea surface temperatures] remain at near record levels, with temperatures since July being just short of the record temperatures observed during 2023, yet above all other years since observations began in 1854,” BoM said.
“The sustained nature of this significant global ocean heat suggests that climate indicators such as [El Niño southern oscillation in the Pacific] and IOD may not behave or evolve as they have in the past.”
Updated
