Summary
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
Search continues for woman trapped after Sydney townhouse explosion
Queensland government announces $500m for early childhood programs
Coalition questions use of drones to monitor released detainees
Thank you for spending part of your day with us - we will be back tomorrow to do out all again.
Until then - Cait
Updated
National Party MP Barnaby Joyce has labelled the government’s 82% renewable energy by 2030 target as “bat shit mad” and “totally crazy”.
Speaking at a conference hosted by an anti-renewable group, National Rational Energy Network, the former deputy prime minister slammed the expansion of “swindle factories” (wind farms) across regional Australia.
“They call them renewable, there’s nothing renewable about them,” he told a room of a few hundred people.
“What do you think is the biggest threat, honestly? Is it climate change or the Chinese communist party? … It’s the Chinese communist party,” Joyce said.
The meeting, held at Dee Why RSL on Sydney’s northern beaches, united a menagerie of groups staunchly opposed to renewable energy developments in their backyard, climate denialists including Senator Malcom Roberts and Craig Kelly and pro-nuclear lobby groups.
It was sponsored by right-wing think tank, the Institute of Public Affairs, which has previously claimed one-third of Australia’s agricultural land would “have to be sacrificed” for renewable energy to meet the country’s emissions targets.
One of the chief concerns raised by landowners that attended the event was a lack of consultation and available information about nearby renewable energy developments – a criticism acknowledged by Australia’s former energy infrastructure commissioner.
“Do it (the energy transition) by not running over the top of other people, just do it in a way that’s kind, a way that’s honest, a way that’s transparent,” Joyce said.
Updated
The low-pressure system off the NSW coast is expected to hit Tasmania in the coming days.
A low-pressure system well off the #NSW coast will track south-westward tonight and Monday as it moves into eastern Bass Strait and north-eastern #TAS by Monday afternoon.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) June 2, 2024
More: https://t.co/jlOoTZL1iF or the BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/Om3Pjvrr5Q
Damaging winds expected for Tasmania overnight
Damaging winds are expected for parts of Tasmania:
Damaging winds will develop overnight about #Tasmania with 90 km/h wind gusts possible about the NE and 80 km/h gusts possible about the Central North and Midlands, including #Launceston.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Tasmania (@BOM_Tas) June 2, 2024
Winds will ease later Monday morning.
For more see: https://t.co/NHL3HY0zFO pic.twitter.com/AtZ9EyJE8y
Updated
WA to seize firearms of domestic violence accused under proposed new laws
People who are formally accused of family violence in Western Australia will be stripped of their firearms under proposed legal changes, AAP reports.
The premier, Roger Cook, made the announcement on Sunday and said the update was part of a wider plan to toughen the state’s firearm laws.
Cook said:
We want to keep women safe. We want to make sure that we have a precautionary approach and that safety is our number one priority.
As a result of that these new laws will require the police to mandatorily seize guns from someone who is subject to a formal complaint in relation to domestic violence.
Now, many people will say these are too tough [but] we believe the principal aim should be to keep people safe.
The announcement comes after a Perth man gunned down his ex-wife’s friend and her daughter in a double murder last week.
Updated
Possible Frydenberg return divides Liberal colleagues
A possible Josh Frydenberg revival in Kooyong has divided Liberal colleagues as a draft redistribution that would abolish an inner-Melbourne seat sends preselections into disarray, AAP has reported.
Labor-held Higgins is set to be abolished and a new seat created in Perth.
Former cabinet colleague Karen Andrews has backed the man once viewed as a Liberal prime minister in waiting.
But some rank and file members are furious a man would come over the top of an already preselected woman as the party struggles to achieve gender balance.
Frydenberg “had ample opportunity months ago” if he wanted to run, said Charlotte Mortlock, the founder of Hilma’s Network, which helps Liberal women get preselected.
“The women who have been preselected and campaigning for months are not seat warmers for dudes,” she wrote on social media platform X.
Updated
Hello everyone – I am here to take you through the rest of the afternoon. Let’s get into it!
Updated
And with that I’ll be handing the blog over to Cait Kelly, thanks for reading.
Wet, stormy summer blamed for drop in Australian gold production
Heavy rain has impacted the operations of Australia’s gold mining sector, with cyclones across swathes of the nation blamed for a drop in production, AAP reports.
Production at Australian gold mines fell to 70 tonnes in the first quarter of 2024 compared with 77 tonnes in the December quarter of 2023.
This was due to a series of cyclones moving inland and dumping massive amounts of rain across Australia’s main gold producing regions.
Consultancy Surbiton Associates said almost two dozen mines in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory reported production problems due to rain and flooding.
“Wet weather makes haul roads dangerous and greasy. Wet ore ‘hangs up’ in ore bins, is difficult to crush and sticks to conveyor belts,” director Sandra Close said.
“In this quarter, some open pits were flooded and mining ceased.
“At some underground mines, where the workings are accessed by decline from near the base of an existing open pit. It was impossible to haul ore to the treatment plants.”
Fuel oil supply was disrupted at some mines while others reported power outages due to high rainfall damaging power grids causing electricity supplies to fail.
Operations reporting lower gold output included Tropicana, 330km east of Kalgoorlie, which is down 59,000 ounces, and Tanami in the central NT which is down 46,000 ounces.
Production increased at Cadia in NSW, up 25,000 ounces compared with the previous quarter and Bellevue in WA, where production increased by almost 22,000 ounces.
However, most companies are maintaining production forecasts for 2024 overall, with losses aimed to be made up over the remainder of the year.
Australia’s largest gold producers for the first quarter of 2024 were Newmont’s Boddington, Cadia and Tanami projects, the Northern Star Resources-owned Super Pit and Evolution Mining’s Cowal mine.
Updated
WA teenagers rescued after writing ‘HELP’ in sand
Three teenagers have been rescued from the Hutt Lagoon / Pink Lake area in Gregory in Western Australia after they spelled out “HELP” in the sand.
At around 3pm yesterday a pilot saw the message and alerted authorities.
Officers from Kalbarri police and Mid West-Gascoyne traffic were deployed to the area to establish the nature of the emergency.
About half an hour later a second report was received, advising a person on board another plane had seen the same distress message. In total, they were stranded for six hours.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority helped rescue efforts through the use of a Perth-based Challenger jet that was in the area.
The jet flew over the area and was able to establish a vehicle was bogged, but did not appear to be damaged.
The GPS coordinates of the stranded vehicle were provided to the police officers heading to the area.
The three teenagers were uninjured and rescued by officers who attended on foot, taken to Lucky Bay, where they were reunited with family and friends.
Updated
Economists expecting more subdued figures in March quarterly accounts
Another lacklustre result is expected when the Australian economy gets its quarterly performance review, AAP reports.
Wednesday’s March quarter national accounts – compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics – includes the gross domestic product gauge and other useful information, such as productivity growth.
The Australian economy expanded by a meagre 0.2% through the final three months of 2023, which took annual growth to 1.5% over the year.
With interest rates still high enough to be slowing the economy and weighing on demand for goods and services, countering price pressures, economists are anticipating another subdued outcome.
Household consumption, which represents around half of all economic activity in Australia, is expected to drag on the headline measure, reflecting the interest-rate pain felt by mortgage holders.
Economists will firm up their forecasts following datasets on Tuesday that feed into the GDP figure, including balance of payments, business indicators and government spending.
Following a run of hotter-than-expected inflation data, the Fair Work Commission’s minimum and award wage decision is likely to be of interest to Reserve Bank watchers.
The industrial umpire, due to hand down its annual wage review on Monday, will be balancing the need to support worker wages eroded by rising living costs without adding to inflationary pressures.
The Reserve Bank’s impression of the wage decision and its implications for interest rates will likely feature when senior central bankers face questions from senators in a hearing on Wednesday.
The deputy governor, Andrew Hauser, is also due to make his first public appearance in the role on Friday at an “Australia’s economic outlook” event in Sydney.
Updated
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has suggested this week that Australia should resist ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders should they be issued, and a Howard-era law could help him.
You can read more from Daniel Hurst’s analysis below:
Updated
Olympic setback for Matildas as Caitlin Foord injures hamstring in China friendly
The Matildas face a potentially huge blow to their bid for Olympic glory after Caitlin Foord suffered a hamstring injury, AAP has reported.
Foord lasted just 15 minutes of play after being brought on as a substitute in the first of their two-game series against China, leaving the Matildas coach, Tony Gustavsson, worried about her availability for the Paris Games.
Gustavsson has yet to rule Foord out of the Monday night friendly at Accor Stadium, saying an update on her fitness would be provided later on Sunday.
Sam Kerr has already been ruled out for Paris due to a knee reconstruction.
Updated
Frydenberg reportedly considering future Kooyong run
Josh Frydenberg is reportedly considering contesting Kooyong if the Victorian Liberal party holds another preselection for the Melbourne seat he lost to independent Monique Ryan.
The Liberal party has already preselected a Kooyong candidate for the next election, Amelia Hamer, who has already started campaigning.
On Friday it was announced that the seat of Higgins (currently held by Labor) in Melbourne’s inner-east is set to be abolished at the next federal election, with Kooyong eating up many of its booths in the redistribution.
More to come.
Updated
Man arrested after woman found dead at Darwin home
A man has been arrested in Darwin after a woman was found dead at a house in Coconut Grove on Saturday.
Emergency services were called to the home at around 12.30pm yesterday, after receiving reports of an unresponsive woman at the residence.
Police and St John Ambulance attended and the 36-year-old woman was declared deceased at the scene.
A 43-year old man presented himself to police and he was arrested. He remains in custody.
Police said in a statement that “the two parties are believed to be known to one another”.
A crime scene has been declared and investigations are ongoing.
Updated
Coalition questions use of drones to monitor released detainees
The Coalition has questioned why the government is using drones to monitor people released from immigration detention.
Cabinet minister Murray Watt confirmed on Insiders earlier that “drones are being used as part of this operation, but more in the sense of monitoring the accommodation that people are living in, in for example ensuring that it’s not too close to schools or other areas that they’re not supposed to be living close to.”
Host David Speers questioned why, noting “you could use Google Maps to find out whether someone’s house is too close to a school. Are drones seriously being used for this?”
It came after the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, made the surprise revelation on Sky News last week. It had not been previously announced that drones were part of that monitoring program, which includes electronic bracelets and curfews.
On Sky News this morning, the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, said the government still had questions to answer.
Paterson said:
There’s a couple of issues here. One, either Andrew Giles accidentally and casually disclosed a previously secret drone surveillance program operating domestically in Australia in a Sky News interview with your colleague Kieran Gilbert. Or he made it up and it’s not actually happening at all.
And in a fresh statement provided by the Department of Home Affairs to SBS, I understand yesterday afternoon, they refer to using aerial surveillance to look at people’s locations and other buildings in the area.
You don’t need a drone to do that. That sounds like satellite imagery. It sounds like, frankly, something a 12 year old would get on Google Earth. So no questions have been answered here.
Paterson noted that agencies like the federal police and other state police bodies said they weren’t using drones. It is unclear exactly which agency is operating them. Giles’ office declined to confirm today.
“So really, what on earth is going on here?” Paterson asked.
“And why won’t Andrew Giles be upfront about whether or not he just made this up or he accidentally revealed a secret drone program?”
Updated
A week after the New South Wales government signed a deal with Origin Energy to extend the life of the giant Eraring power station, we headed up to the Lake Macquarie region to look at how the decision was received by the local community.
Here’s the story about a region arguably still very much in limbo:
Updated
Richard Marles raises concern with Chinese counterpart over ‘unsafe incidents’ at sea
The defence minister, Richard Marles, said he raised concern in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart over recent “unsafe incidents” between Chinese and Australian military forces.
Marles, the deputy prime minister, is in Singapore for the Shangri-La dialogue. In a speech overnight, he raised issue with some of China’s actions in the Pacific, including military exercises “that practice attacks and blockades of Taiwan”. Marles also raised concern about interactions with Australian forces, including allegations of divers being targeted with sonar pulses and a helicopter being tailed by a fighter jet.
Marles met with the Chinese defence minister, Dong Jun, overnight. Speaking with Sky News, Marles said he raised both those issues directly with Dong, but declined to say exactly what the response had been.
One of the things that we need to be doing in our relationship with China, as you said at the start, is to be speaking with clarity and to make sure that we are, as we say, disagreeing where we must. But that means making clear where we have differences and where there are issues that need to be raised and need to be highlighted. And certainly those two incidents in the last six or seven months warrant that.
Marles said Australia had a “complex relationship” with China, and that it was “requiring skill”.
“We really want to have the most productive relationship that we can have with China. We want to be sensible, professional, respectful about the way in which we engage with China,” he said.
We definitely do not want to gratuitously antagonise China, that’s not what we’re trying to do. But at the same time, it is important that we speak to our national interests, that there is never any question about that, and that when there are matters that need to be said, we say them and we say them with a clear, articulate voice, and that is what we’ve done in relation to these incidents.
Updated
Wild winds batter south-west WA
In south-west coastal WA, emergency services received more than 200 calls for help since 10am on Saturday after roofs were ripped off and trees fell on homes and cars.
Wind gusts of more than 100km/h were recorded in North Island and Rottnest Island, while Wilyabrup, in Busselton, recorded almost 30mm of rain in 30 minutes.
An evacuation centre has been set up at South West Sports Centre in Bunbury, and take action warnings are in place for South West, South Coastal and Lower West districts, particularly Albany, Bunbury, Busselton, Mandurah, Margaret River and Walpole.
“A gusty west to southwesterly airstream is expected to persist about the coastal strip south of Mandurah and the South West and South Coastal districts into this evening,” Emergency WA said in a statement.
Dangerous winds are expected to ease in most districts by mid-morning on Sunday, but, damaging wind gusts along the coastal strip south of Mandurah and in the south-west and south coastal districts could persist into the evening.
“This weather is not unusual for this time of year, but could damage homes and make travel dangerous,” Emergency WA said.
– AAP
Updated
Sydney hit by month’s worth of rain in a day
Sydney has been inundated with more than a month’s rain in less than a day while storms along Australia’s west coast have sparked hundreds of emergency calls.
Persistent, moderate-to-heavy rain on Saturday drenched Sydney with 143mm of rain, topping the city’s June average of 132mm on the first day of winter, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Rose Bay recorded more than 170mm.
“A lot of our eastern suburbs of Sydney saw a month’s worth of rain in just 12-to-18 hours,” senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said.
The rain was largely localised to eastern Sydney, with western suburbs of Penrith and Richmond receiving between 20mm and 30mm, while falls in the Hunter region ranged between 25mm and 50mm.
Showers are expected to continue in the Hunter on Sunday, but was expected to clear by Sunday night.
A hazardous surf warning remains in place for Sydney Coast, Illawarra Coast, Batemans Coast and Eden Coast.
– AAP
Updated
Queensland government announces $500m for early childhood programs
The Queensland government will set aside more than $500m for a series of new early childhood health and education initiatives, but advocates say kids from regional and remote communities will continue to fall through the cracks until the state addresses a critical shortage of care and support workers.
The premier, Steven Miles, says the state’s strategy, Putting Queensland Kids First, aims to better coordinate support for children in their early years.
Funding will go towards hearing checks for children aged under five, developmental support services in priority areas, family support coordinators in about 200 primary schools, and a partnership fund for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community organisations.
Miles said:
Health outcomes start to be determined from the moment of conception, so we will increase efforts directed at keeping mums and bubs healthy during pregnancy.
Once babies are born, we will make sure they get the support and healthcare they need by sending dedicated nurses to their homes.
The measures were broadly welcomed by Thrive by Five, an alliance of child developmental and support groups backed by Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo foundation, but came with warnings that funding might be ineffective without measures to bolster the regional and remote workforce.
Tom Allsop, the alliance spokesman and CEO of PeakCare, said the announcement was a “massive day” for campaigners who had called for a dedicated state plan “for years”.
“However, if the … plan is to be successfully implemented, it must include a dedicated workforce plan to assist in the delivery of these programs,” Allsop said.
Too many families – particularly those in regional and remote Queensland – are missing out on vital early learning and allied health services due to severe workforce shortages.
We look forward to continuing to work with the government on ways to address these workforce shortages in the lead-up to this year’s state budget and the October election, ensuring we can guarantee the best possible outcomes for children, families, educators and other critical sector workers.
Additionally, we urge all other political parties in Queensland to come to the table and commit to an early years plan ahead of October’s state election to ensure all children are provided with the best possible opportunity to thrive.
Updated
Drones being used to ensure released detainees are not living near schools, Watt says
Watt went on to say again that drones are being used to monitor immigration detainees released under the NZYQ high court verdict. There had been confusion last week after the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, said drones were being used in the government’s response to that court judgement, but police and security agencies told SBS that they weren’t the ones operating the drones.
Watt said:
My understanding is that drones are being used as part of this operation, but more in the sense of monitoring the accommodation people are living in, for example, ensuring that it’s not too close to schools or other areas that they’re not supposed to be living close to.
So drones do form part of the operation that’s involved in monitoring these offenders, but more being done in an operational sense like that.”
The Insiders host, David Speers, questioned this activity, saying “you can use Google Maps to find if someone’s house is too close to a school.”
Watt responded by repeating his understanding that drones were being used in that way. He didn’t note which department or agency was operating those drones.
Watt’s name has been whispered as a potential new minister for home affairs, if there was to be a ministerial reshuffle. He shrugged off a question about whether he would like to switch jobs, saying he was happy in his current role as agriculture and emergency management minister, and supported the work of his colleagues.
“I think that Andrew Giles and [home affairs minister] Clare O’Neil have both performed incredibly strongly in a really difficult portfolio area,” Watt said.
“We need to remember the mess they inherited when we came to office. I mean, basically, they inherited a massive battleship that was off-course and had been torpedoed full of holes. They had to patch that up over the time they have been ministers.”
Updated
Rewritten ministerial direction 99 to make community safety priority ‘absolutely crystal clear’, Murray Watt says
A rewritten ministerial direction on deporting foreign-born criminals will prioritise “community safety” over their ties to Australia, cabinet minister Murray Watt has said.
The agriculture minister was on the ABC’s Insiders this morning, explaining more about the government’s moves to rewrite ministerial direction 99, the immigration rules at the heart of recent controversies where criminals have been allowed to stay in Australia.
Watt said the administrative appeals tribunal had interpreted direction 99 in a way the government hadn’t intended, and that a criminal’s ties to Australia had been considered highly. He said the government didn’t mean for “for community safety to be relegated below that as a priority. It was always our intention that community safety would be a primary consideration.”
What we’re doing now is making it absolutely crystal clear for the AAT and departmental officials interpreting it that community safety is to be the number one priority, more than anything else.
What would have been a mistake is if the government had said that we want to put duration of stay above community safety, and we didn’t do that.
The new direction is yet to be shared publicly.
Updated
Search continues for woman trapped after Sydney townhouse explosion
Authorities are searching for a missing person among the rubble of an explosion at a home in Whalan in Sydney’s west.
The blast on Waikanda Crescent levelled most of the two-storey home just before 1pm on Saturday, blowing out windows and damaging a neighbouring townhouse.
Rescue teams are still sifting through the remains, with one woman feared to be in the rubble.
NSW Fire and Rescue commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said crews were hopeful to safely retrieve the person trapped.
“This is still well within the window for someone to survive,” he told reporters on Sunday morning.
The focus of effort is to really be exploring the building as thoroughly as we can try and make access to either physically inspect or, with the use of our tools, to inspect each possible area.
Fewtrell also said the rescue teams were hampered by a series of setbacks as the search continued through the night.
He said:
There’s been a range of complications throughout the operation.
The job of rescue (teams) is to work their way through and try and find spaces in that collapse area where someone might have been caught.
And so part of that work involves this sort of very manual labour of piece by piece, picking up the debris and moving that away.
Complications included a gas leak, safety concerns about how much work could happen at the site and fire underneath the rubble in the collapsed area.
Firefighters have been unable to directly reach the fire because of the debris, according to Fewtrell.
“But we are able to apply water onto that, the water obviously then drains down and suppresses the fire,” he said.
– with AAP
Updated
Good morning
Good morning. Mostafa Rachwani with you to take you through the news this Sunday – let’s dive in.
Updated
