What we learned, Tuesday 28 April
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
The RSL has announced it will review its guidance on welcome to country addresses at Anzac Day services after Indigenous leaders were booed at three dawn services on Saturday.
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, says a Coalition government would double fuel reserves in Australia to at least 60 days, and spend $800m to build a new storage facility. Announcing a new policy alongside the Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, Taylor said the Albanese government should lift baseline stockholdings from 1 January next year, to get Australia closer to the 90-day minimum reserves required by the International Energy Agency.
The White House has nominated David Brat, a former Republican member of the US House of Representatives, to be the next ambassador to Australia. Brat represented Virginia in Congress and served two terms before he was defeated by a Democrat in a close race in 2018.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said he may not move to ban the contested phrase “globalise the intifada” if a constitutional challenge over a similar ban is successful in Queensland.
The search area for missing five-year-old Sharon has grown to about 20 sq km around the Old Timers camp in Alice Springs, with about 60 people searching for the young child. Sharon has not been seen since around 11pm on Saturday night after she was put to bed in her family home.
The New South Wales government will spend $820m to upgrade the state’s public transport ticketing system, including a new Opal app and the introduction of a digital Opal card.
Anthony Albanese confirmed growing speculation that his Japanese counterpart, Sanae Takaichi, will visit Australia next week. In office since October, Takaichi will visit Canberra amid sensitivity about energy exports stemming from the Iran war and the closure of the strait of Hormuz.
Mouse numbers have exploded to plague proportions across Western Australia’s grain belt, with experts warning the outbreak is among the worst the state has seen.
Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We will be back tomorrow to do it all again.
Updated
Mouse numbers hit plague proportions across WA’s grain belt
Mouse numbers have exploded to plague proportions across Western Australia’s grain belt, with experts warning the outbreak is among the worst the state has seen, AAP reports.
CSIRO researcher Steve Henry says surveys in key cropping regions have found up to 4,000 burrows per hectare, particularly around Northampton, north of Geraldton, and between Albany and Esperance near Ravensthorpe.
On conservative estimates of one mouse per burrow, that equates to about 4,000 mice per hectare.
Mouse plagues are a well‑known hazard for grain growers in New South Wales and South Australia, but historically have been rare in WA.
Henry said the current outbreak was one of the worst in recent years, with truck drivers telling CSIRO researchers that travelling the outback roads was “like driving across rice bubbles”.
Updated
