What we learned today, Friday 28 June
That’s where we’ll leave things today, but first let’s recap the main events:
Meta, Snap and Google executives gave evidence at a social media inquiry in Canberra.
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young later accused Meta of “blackmailing” parliament by refusing to rule out a Facebook news ban.
Anthony Albanese teared up over an alleged violent threat to his family by a Newcastle teenager charged with terrorist offences.
The Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser said it was a “bad mistake” to set rates on single inflation number.
The housing minister, Julie Collins, said Labor was “not open to negotiation” on its build-to-rent bill.
The Labor senator Fatima Payman admitted she “upset a few colleagues” by crossing the floor in parliament this week.
Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese told media that Senate motions “do not determine Australia’s foreign policy”, when asked about Fatima Payman crossing the floor.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the ANZ-Suncorp Bank merger can proceed, subject to strict conditions.
Nine Entertainment flagged 200 job cuts.
Russia imposed sanctions against former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard among other Australians.
Loggers were more active inside areas being assessed for inclusion in NSW’s Great Koala national park than out, an analysis found.
Have a lovely weekend.
Updated
Following on from the previous post, the NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson says the government is letting its logging business trash the areas endangered koalas need to survive.
Without immediate government intervention in this intensive logging of the Great Koala national park, local extinction of koalas is a serious risk.
Premier Chris Minns must explain how this is anything other than a broken promise and political failure.
The Forestry Corporation says harvesting is not targeting any location and it is continuing standard operations. It said in a statement:
Planned operations in the indicative area to be assessed for the Great Koala national park account for less than a third of the operations planned on the north coast in the coming year.
The volume of timber harvested from the indicative area to be assessed for the Great Koala national park this year is well below the annual average harvested in the period 2012-2019.
The number of crews working in the indicative area to be assessed for the GKNP forest areas has not increased.
Updated
Loggers more active inside koala park than out, analysis finds
More than half of northern NSW’s active logging operations are in forests earmarked for the government’s koala refuge, a new analysis has found.
Conservation groups have been pleading with the Minns government to suspend logging in all areas being assessed for inclusion in the Great Koala national park.
But that has not happened and apart from 106 identified koala hubs, it is business as usual for the government’s Forestry Corporation.
On Friday, a coalition of conservation groups released an analysis showing 11 of 20 active logging operations currently going on in the north are in areas that could end up in the park.
The analysis is based on the latest data published on the Forestry Corporation’s planning portal, Forest Alliance NSW says.
– AAP
Updated
The Labor senator Fatima Payman – who has been told not to attend next week’s Labor caucus meeting over her decision to cross the floor on recognising Palestine – has told 6 News Australia:
I still have my Labor party values – and people not being overly supportive or eager to jump on board won’t derail me from continuing to vote with my conscience but also advocating for this very important cause.
Payman says she has received messages of support:
There’s been a wide range of communities reaching out to me saying, ‘I wish my local member would follow you or be able to stand for a just resolution for Gaza, for Palestine.’
But this is about justice, this is about doing the right thing, being on the right side of history, and I just implore that and hope that by me continuing within the party I can convince my colleagues to come on board.
Payman says it is “really important for me to ensure that what I’ve done isn’t just a once-off gesture but rather I know that this is part of an incremental move towards recognising Palestine”.
Updated
Fatima Payman admits she ‘upset a few colleagues’ by crossing the floor
The Labor senator Fatima Payman has admitted she “upset a few colleagues” by crossing the floor in a Senate vote this week and with her previous statement accusing Israel of genocide and using the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
But in an interview with 6 News Australia, Payman says she believes she has “been holding on to my Labor values throughout this whole entire process” and she feels she is “not alone in this”.
Asked about the response to her crossing the floor on Tuesday on a Greens motion on recognising Palestine, Payman says she has “had many welfare checks from colleagues, both in the Senate and in the House of Reps”. She says many colleagues have “shown their support for my mental health and making sure that I don’t feel alone”.
Payman says there had been “a mixed response”, adding that crossing the floor and her statement on 15 May “has upset a few colleagues of mine”.
But she says her decision to cross the floor was partly about “reinstating that hope within our communities, showing them that yes we do listen, we are representing your voices”.
Updated
Out-of-pocket expenses for people with cancer are adding to cost-of-living strain, researchers say
One in 10 Australians with cancer are spending more than $10,000 on healthcare in the first year after diagnosis, according to new research.
The study from the Daffodil Centre published today in the Medical Journal of Australia found the financial burden for people diagnosed with cancer was particularly high.
The study was based on more than 45, 000 people in New South Wales who participated in the 45 and Up Study (which recruited people aged 45 years or older during 2005–2009) who then completed the 2020 follow-up questionnaire. Their survey responses were then linked with NSW Cancer Registry data.
Analysis of the data showed that more than half of those diagnosed with cancer within the previous two years had out-of-pocket costs higher than $1,000, and almost one in 10 had costs higher than $10,000.
David Goldsbury, a statistician and lead author of the study, said the findings were especially significant during the cost-of-living crisis:
We know high out-of-pocket healthcare costs can increase financial strain, which raises equity concerns for people with limited financial resources.
Our findings highlight many concerning trends with cost-of-living pressures putting a strain on all Australians, especially people with cancer at such a vulnerable time.
Michelle Bass, the manager of client experience at Cancer Council NSW, said that in the 2023 financial year, Cancer Council’s financial support services saw a 29% rise in demand of people with cancer seeking support, with the demand continuing into the 2024 financial year:
The financial cost of cancer is significant, impacting both cancer patients and their carers who often have to face significant out-of-pocket expenses, and income loss from an inability to work.
Another study last year found financial distress was reported by patients as more severe than the physical, social or emotional distress associated with the disease:
Updated
In response to the due date glitch, South Australia’s health minister, Chris Picton, said he was thankful there had been “no adverse outcome identified so far for any mother or baby”.
He has ordered an independent review into the incident.
It will be led by Keith McNeil, the commissioner of the Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health, and is expected to take several months, with the findings and recommendations to be made public.
The department has since implemented safeguards into its medical record system to ensure this issue will not happen again.
– AAP
Updated
Pregnant pause as glitch causes baby due date errors
More than 1,700 pregnant women’s due dates were incorrectly recorded by South Australia’s health department, prompting an independent review, AAP reports.
SA Health says a technical fault between November 2023 and June 2024 affected the estimated date of delivery entered into the women’s medical records.
It resulted in the file data reverting to the first day of their last menstrual period rather than any subsequent updated date from a scan during their antenatal care.
The department’s chief executive, Dr Robyn Lawrence, says 1,600 women affected by the glitch had already given birth.
She said in a statement issued on Friday:
Midwives reviewed all of the 111 women who are currently pregnant and they have not been impacted.
The department is halfway through a review of the medical records of the 1,600 women who have given birth and “no adverse impacts have been found”.
Lawrence said:
For many women, any discrepancy would have been manually updated in the system by their clinician.
All the women whose records were impacted have or will be contacted and notified of the error.
Lawrence said:
On behalf of SA Health, I apologise for the error, and any concern or inconvenience this may cause to those whose files were affected.
Updated
Thanks Emily and good afternoon everyone!
Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, Natasha May will be here to take you through the rest of our rolling coverage this Friday. Take care, and enjoy your weekend.
Sarah Hanson-Young accuses Meta of 'blackmailing' parliament by refusing to rule out news ban
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has accused tech giant Meta of attempting to blackmail parliament, by refusing to rule out a ban on all news content from their platforms should they be designated to do so under the news media bargaining code.
(Meta appeared before a parliamentary committee today, which you can read more about earlier in the blog here).
In a statement this afternoon directed at the company, Hanson-Young said:
Meta is trying to blackmail the parliament by refusing to rule out banning all news on their platforms Instagram and Facebook, should they be designated under the news media bargaining code.
It is clear that we need stronger laws that protect Australians from the predatory business models of Meta and other social media platforms. This could include requirements to carry news and information in the public interest and be taxed properly for their activities and revenue made here on Australian soil.
I’m concerned these giant tech corporations are ripping off news content, costing Australian jobs and damaging our democracy.
We need to tackle the toxic business models and secret algorithms of these social media giants with algorithm transparency reforms.
Updated
New tool to rate the energy efficiency and climate profile of Australian homes
Australia’s 11m residential properties will have their energy efficiency rated by a new tool developed by the national science agency and a data analytics company, AAP reports.
CSIRO and CoreLogic say RapidRate will give buyers and renters more information and help the finance industry better understand the energy efficiency of homes in their mortgage portfolios.
The nation’s houses and apartments are responsible for 11% of total carbon emissions and almost a quarter (23%) of overall electricity use, but well-targeted green loans could support property improvements.
Using the tool, banks and insurers will know how costly a home would be to heat or cool, the carbon footprint of its energy use, and more accurately assess loans and disclose climate commitments.
CoreLogic’s head of banking and finance solutions, Tom Coad, said continuous data collection would keep financial institutions at the forefront of the residential energy transition.
Understanding the energy efficiency of the total housing portfolio would mean they could better support customers to reduce individual carbon footprints, he said.
Updated
Minor flood warning issued for river in northern Tasmania
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a minor flood warning for the North Esk River in northern Tasmania.
Minor flooding is possible at Nunamara and Corra Linn from early tomorrow morning, the BoM said, with heavy rainfall forecast to begin tonight.
.@SESTasmania has issued a Flood Advice - North Esk River - Monitor conditions for Nunamara to Mowbray and surrounds. For more information, go to: https://t.co/j2taquUZFJ or listen to ABC Local Radio. pic.twitter.com/wGSZWcmeWX
— TasALERT (@tasalert) June 28, 2024
Updated
Police investigate after projectiles allegedly damage homes and businesses across Hobart
Tasmanian police are seeking public information after projectiles were allegedly discharged from a car across Hobart earlier this week, damaging homes, vehicles and businesses.
Sgt Greg Rogers says:
As part of the ongoing police investigation, we have determined that ball bearings were discharged from a white Mitsubishi light truck and a white Nissan Patrol utility across the greater Hobart area.
Police have received reports of the ball bearings damaging 10 homes, four vehicles and six businesses in the areas of Glenorchy, Cambridge, Hobart and Kingston on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Rogers says there is “potential for significant harm to have been caused in these incidents”. Anyone with information, dashcam or CCTV footage is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Updated
Premier refuses to be drawn on public intoxication laws after Melbourne man’s death
Back to Jacinta Allan’s press conference, where she has refused to be drawn on whether the state’s public intoxication laws are to blame for the death of a man overnight.
7News has reported the 34-year-old man was hit and killed by a car in Melbourne just hours after he was refused admission into a sobering up centre. It reported the man was found intoxicated by police in Wyndham Vale, but under the state’s new laws they were unable to arrest or transport him to a sobering up centre.
The police association says the sobering centre was unable to pick the man up, and after police left him to attend another incident, he lay down on a road, where he was hit by a car.
Allan says her thoughts are with the man’s family:
This is a terrible incident, a tragic incident. We should remember there are family members who will be grieving the loss of a loved one in really tragic circumstances. It is an incident that will be thoroughly investigated to understand exactly what has taken place. Given that investigation will commence and be undertaken independently, it would be inappropriate for me to comment or speculate … I want to understand what has led to this situation, what has led to a family grieving today the loss of a loved one.
Asked to respond to comments from the police association secretary, Wayne Gatt – who said his officers were prevented from keeping the man safe because of the government’s public intoxication laws – Allan says to do so would be “deeply inappropriate and deeply disrespectful”.
It would be deeply disrespectful to jump to conclusions about what has occurred. And we need to let that independent investigation do its work … Can I make this absolutely clear? Police maintain very strong powers to keep the community safe, to keep individuals in our community safe. But I appreciate that this has been a tragic incident and it deserves to be thoroughly investigated.
Updated
Inquiry told of concerns ‘first electric vehicle could be your last’
Soaring insurance premiums are among the challenges facing drivers who want to switch from a conventional car to an electric vehicle, an inquiry has been told.
As AAP reports, insurers are “opting for write-offs rather than repairs” as costs rise because of limited access to spare parts and a shortage of mechanics, the national president of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association, Christopher Jones, said in Canberra today.
Bans on charging electric vehicles in apartment car parks are another hurdle, with the association advocating a “right to charge” for everyone.
Stalling the development of a second-hand market, many EVs are passing in at auction because the lack of certification of battery health is putting potential buyers off, the first public hearing of a parliamentary inquiry into the transition to EVs has been told.
The Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association chief executive, Stuart Charity, says servicing and repairs are being overlooked by governments who are focused on the price and supply of new vehicles.
He says 14% of workshops are EV-ready, and almost a quarter (24%) are planning to be ready in the next 12 months.
But the cost and lack of training – and lack of trainers – is creating a barrier for EV servicing, particularly in regional and rural areas, he says.
Updated
Victorian health minister says ‘no direction’ to hospitals to cut services
Meanwhile, Mary-Anne Thomas says there has been “no direction” from the government to cut services.
We want our hospital services to prioritise the delivery of care and we want them to do that within an environment where there’s certainty about the funding that they receive … [and] in return … they [have been asked] to stop waste and duplication, that they take a hard look at some of the expenses that are being incurred at the moment. That includes overseas training opportunities, it includes expenditure on marketing and communications, it includes the expenditure on bureaucracy and executive positions.
I want hospitals right now to be taking a very hard look at ensuring that the taxpayer money that they are charged with spending is committed to the delivery of frontline care to Victorians who need and deserve the health services that our hospitals offer.
Updated
Circling back to the Victorian premier’s press conference
Both Jacinta Allan and the health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, deny that hospitals are being forced to close beds and sack staff due to tightening of their budgets.
The latest hospital to announce cost-cutting measures was The Alfred hospital, whose chief executive wrote to staff urging them to exercise financial discipline and only recruit staff to critical roles, control rosters to minimise overtime, review supply contracts and reduce transport costs.
Allan repeats what she said yesterday – such measures haven’t been introduced because hospitals are yet to submit their draft budgets to the health department. She says the government has invested $8.8bn into hospitals in the last budget:
No final decisions have been made by hospital services or by government in terms of the rollout of that funding and support to our hospital system. No final decision has been made – to say otherwise is simply wrong.
Updated
Russia imposes sanctions against Abbott and Howard
Russia has imposed sanctions against 27 Australians, including the former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard.
In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said the sanctions were “in response to politically motivated sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities”, which it argued was “part of [a] Russophobic campaign by the collective West”.
Abbott and Howard make the list, as well as the former NSW premier Barry O’Farrell, pollster and strategist Mark Textor, air force chief Robert Chipman, national secretary of the retail union Gerard Dwyer, plus federal court judges Geoffrey Kennett and Michael O’Bryan.
The former ambassadors to Ukraine Bruce Edwards and Doug Trappett were sanctioned, as well as former Russian ambassador Robert Tyson.
Earlier this year, Australia used its new cybersanctions powers for the first time against a Russian citizen, Aleksandr Ermakov, in connection with the Medibank Private data breach.
Updated
Dr Emma Haugh, a GP at Kyneton Health who will be working in the hub, says she has heard of women travelling hours to access an abortion:
The stories that I hear from women who’ve attempted to access [services] or have called lots of places or have seen people and it hasn’t been in a non-judgmental manner – there are a lot of barriers. I think this can only improve things.
Updated
Victorian government unveils final six locations for women’s health hubs
Victoria’s premier, Jacinta Allan, is holding a press conference in Kyneton today to announce the final six locations of the 20 women’s sexual and reproductive health hubs the government promised at the last election.
Speaking from Kyneton Health, Allan says a hub will be located there, as well as in the regional towns of Ararat, Horsham and Stawell and the outer Melbourne areas of Melton and Wyndham.
At the 2022 election, Labor committed to opening 20 of the clinics to deliver specialist care for conditions including endometriosis, pelvic pain, polycystic ovary syndrome, perimenopause and menopause. They will also offer medical abortions and referrals for surgical abortions.
The health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, says she is hopeful the hubs will address concerns around lack of access to abortion services in the country. She says:
We will address this very real concern that women and girls in country Victoria are unable to access timely abortion care … Our sexual and reproductive health hubs will deliver this service and it will be delivered in an environment where people are treated with care and respect, and there will be no judgment. We also know that here in Victoria, indeed around Australia, we have a reduced take-up of the long acting reversible contraceptives that are very, very effective.
Updated
Albanese tears up over alleged violent threat to his family
Earlier this morning, Anthony Albanese teared up when asked about an alleged violent threat made against himself and his family by a Newcastle teenager charged with terrorist offences.
Speaking in Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport, the prime minister was asked about a manifesto allegedly written by the 19-year-old, found after his arrest on Wednesday during an alleged attempted attack on the NSW Labor MP Tim Crakanthorp.
The 200-page document allegedly contained details of planned attacks against Crakanthorp and plans against Albanese, his family and other Labor MPs, which do not form part of the charges.
Albanese said:
[This] person should face the full force of the law. There’s no place for extremism in Australia. That documentation that was made is very concerning, including [alleged] threats not just to Labor MPs, but to others, to my family. It’s another reason why families should be off-limits from the media, frankly. It’s something that is of concern … I applaud the security agencies and police for their swift action that they undertook.
Updated
Independents call for action on online gambling review, one year on
It has been one year since an inquiry, led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, recommended that online gambling should be banned across the country.
Known as the Murphy Review, it included 31 recommendations – most notably the call for a phased, comprehensive ban on online gambling advertising within three years.
The 31 recommendations are yet to be implemented.
The independent senator David Pocock wrote on X there had been “crickets” from the government, and said:
This is one of the worst examples of vested interests and political cowardice stopping urgently needed reform.
His fellow independent Andrew Wilkie also weighed in, and said that “it’s way beyond time to get the job done”.
Meanwhile, the independent Kate Chaney said “the clock is ticking” and “every day, people experiencing problems with gambling are bombarded with ads”.
Updated
Federal budget surplus tracking at $18.2bn so far this financial year
The Albanese government says the surplus for the current 2023-24 year is running at $18.2bn, as of the end of May.
Now it seems treasury is not so confident that the pace will be maintained, and reckon the end result will be a bit closer to the $9.3bn for the whole year once June’s outgoings and incomings are tallied.
Either way, it’s now a given that the Albanese government will register back to back surpluses, the first such federal result since 2007-08.
Updated
Anthony Albanese tried to restore control of the narrative about the Senate vote.
He highlighted that Penny Wong had moved an amendment to the Greens’ motion on recognising Palestinian statehood. The Labor government had been prepared to support the motion if the Senate had accepted an amendment specifying that recognition of Palestine occur “as part of a peace process in support of a two-state solution and a just and enduring peace”.
Albanese told reporters today:
It is beyond my comprehension why it is that the Greens, the Liberals and the Nationals voted against Senator Wong’s position, as put forward as Australia’s foreign minister, which called for a two-state solution and called for long-term peace and security in the region.
Albanese said the Labor party’s position was clear:
The Labor party’s position is we support ceasefire, and we support President Biden’s initiative which seeks to secure that ceasefire and then move towards how we can secure peace in the region. That requires in the long term a two-state solution, that is something that has been in the Labor party’s platform.
For more on the Labor party’s internal fallout, see this story from yesterday:
Updated
Senate motions ‘do not determine Australia’s foreign policy’, PM says
Anthony Albanese has said Senate motions “do not determine Australia’s foreign policy” as he responded to questions about the Labor senator Fatima Payman’s decision to cross the floor.
Payman crossed the floor on Tuesday to vote for the Greens’ urgency motion on recognising Palestinian statehood, saying she had walked with “the rank-and-file Labor party members who told me we must do more”.
During a press conference in Canberra today, the prime minister reiterated what he had said on Wednesday (Payman will not attend next week’s caucus meeting):
I’ve made my position clear to Senator Payman … I made clear to her that she won’t be attending the caucus for the rest of this [parliamentary] session.
Asked if he had sought assurances that Payman would not vote with the Greens on any further motions, Albanese said:
We expect that people will participate in our caucus processes and comply with [them]. The important thing to note about this week is that Senate motions do not determine Australia’s foreign policy, and the Greens political party engaged in stunts, not in looking for solutions.
Updated
Severe weather forecast for parts of Victoria on Saturday
A severe weather warning for damaging winds has been issued for parts of Victoria from early tomorrow morning.
The Bureau of Meteorology says damaging wind gusts, with peak gusts of about 100km/h, are likely to develop from early Saturday morning and clear from the west throughout the day.
The warning area includes East Gippsland, North-East, West and South Gippsland, central, south-west and north central forecast districts.
Locations which may be affected include Apollo Bay, Dargo, Gelantipy, Mt Baw Baw, Falls Creek, Mt Hotham and Omeo.
The SES urged people to prepare, secure loose items around their home and park their vehicle under cover away from trees.
Severe Weather Warning for damaging winds.
— VicEmergency (@vicemergency) June 28, 2024
For people in East Gippsland, North East, West and South Gippsland, Central, South West and North Central Forecast Districts.
Stay informed: https://t.co/T05ONtwAm3 pic.twitter.com/SbPwHcAVXA
Updated
Train repair blitz set to save costly commute delays in NSW
NSW’s faulty and ageing train fleet is set for a makeover with the aim of preventing breakdowns that bring the public transport network to a grinding halt, AAP reports.
Train faults spiked 28% in the past year, causing 2,445 delays and 595 service cancellations, the state government said.
To tackle the problem, officials today launched the state’s largest coordinated maintenance program, spending $35m to upgrade carriages – equivalent to 372 full trains.
The premier, Chris Minns, admitted dodgy trains were causing major headaches for the millions of commuters who used them every day.
A fleet of South Korean-built Mariyung intercity trains are on track to be delivered by the end of the year, which will allow the government to retire 50-year-old “V-sets”.
The new trains, which will service routes from Sydney to Newcastle, the Blue Mountains and the south coast, were originally due to enter service in 2019, but the date has repeatedly been pushed back due to union safety concerns.
The latest upgrade program for existing trains is targeting the removal of 2,037 defects, upgrading all 11 models of trains and cleaning and painting 1,622 carriages.
Updated
TikTok claims less than half of 1% of content consumed in Australia produced by news organisations
Chinese social media giant TikTok has claimed less than half of 1% of content consumed on TikTok in Australia is produced by news organisations.
The company’s director of public policy in Australia, Ella Woods-Joyce, told the parliamentary committee on social media that there were 8.5 million users in Australia and that news was just a small amount of what people consume on the platform.
This comes despite TikTok’s own economic report released earlier this year finding 27.5% of users come to the app for current events and social causes.
Woods-Joyce suggested that people on TikTok “may have a different view on what news actually is for them” than what media outlets might be producing.
She also suggested news publishers on the service were producing non-news content:
The type of content that they’re making that does relatively well is typically more entertainment styles. So one good example might be there was a piece of user generated content last year, it was a sun bear at a zoo waving and there was a lot of conjecture about whether that was a human in a suit or whether it was, in fact, a bear.
That piece of content went really well because it’s entertaining and it’s amongst a range of different pieces of content and styles of content that news publishers might be making and putting on our platform.
Woods-Joyce said she couldn’t speculate on how the company might respond if forced to pay for news.
Updated
Nine Entertainment flags 200 job cuts
The Nine Entertainment chief executive, Mike Sneesby, has told staff Australia’s biggest locally owned media company will cut 200 jobs due to “economic headwinds”, with the biggest cuts to come from legacy mastheads the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age.
Sneesby said in an email to staff:
Today we will announce measures in our Publishing business to offset the loss of revenue from the Meta deal and challenges in the advertising market.
Internal messages have identified 90 jobs will be cut from the publishing division which houses the newspapers once owned by Fairfax.
Unfortunately, this will result in some of our colleagues leaving us in the coming months. It is not something we want to do but it is something we need to do to continue to build on a successful platform of high-quality journalism and digital subscription growth.
We are also in the process of identifying further savings including in our Digital and Broadcast businesses. An operational review of these businesses is underway and we will update you with further details about what this means for you and your teams in the coming weeks.
Updated
Police operation outside Sydney Jewish Museum ends
A police operation outside the Sydney Jewish Museum has now ended and the roads are open after police found there was no threat.
Emergency services arrived on the scene outside the museum, which is located in Darlinghurst, at 9.50am this morning.
Police would not confirm what the initial reported threat was, but said during the operation that there was no threat to the public. Police had urged the public to avoid the area.
Fire trucks and several police cars were behind police tape on Darlinghurst Road outside the multistorey building during the operation. The section of road between Burton Street and Liverpool Street was closed to foot and regular traffic.
Updated
Big spike in motorbike fatalities across Victoria, six months into 2024
Thirty-five motorcyclists have died on Victorian roads so far this year, an increase of 75% from the same time last year, AAP reports.
Police are concerned about the spike, which represents a 56% increase above the five-year average of 22.6 deaths, just six months into 2024.
Cooler weather typically leads to a drop in motorcycle activity, but Victoria police said that was not the case this year:
It was the deadliest May for motorcyclists in 10 years.
Eight rider fatalities were recorded in that month alone, compared to none the previous May. And there have been five motorcyclist deaths so far in June, compared to three at the same time last year.
Motorcycle deaths on regional roads have more than tripled to 16 this year, while most rider deaths continue to happen on metropolitan roads, up to 19 from 15 last year.
Two in five riders killed on the roads were aged between 18 and 35.
Updated
Meta’s appearance at social media inquiry wraps up as senator calls for more transparency
As Meta’s evidence before the social media inquiry wrapped up, the deputy chair of the committee, Sarah Hanson-Young, put it to Meta’s director of public policy in Australia, Mia Garlick, that the company had deprioritised news in order to suit its argument that news wasn’t used on Facebook.
Hanson-Young:
Isn’t it for you to deprioritise [news], use your algorithms to push down this content, to suit your argument [not having to] pay for it, and you’re in control?
These are your algorithms. You have the most targeted, effective technical targeting technology. That’s why you’re the biggest advertising company on the globe. The power is in your hands to downgrade the information, regardless of whether users want it or not.
Garlick:
Well, senator, I think there are a lot of statements in that question, but obviously, for us to be providing a service that Australians find useful, we need to be responsive to their feedback, and just to make sure it’s clear on the record that none of the deals that we did to support the Facebook news product related to payment for content.
So there’s no financial interest there in terms of how the ranking occurs for us, and we’ve got clear transparency around all of the different signals that we take for us. It’s about making sure that we’re giving people the content that they find useful, and we look at that in different ways, including by actually surveying them for what they’re finding helpful and relevant.
Hanson-Young called for Meta to be more transparent.
Updated
Snow expected in alpine areas
The Bureau of Meteorology says alpine areas can expect to see wind, showers and snow this weekend as a strong front moves across the south-east.
About 15cm to 30cm of snow is expected, the Bureau said, with strong winds likely across resorts and surrounding areas for Saturday and Sunday.
Alpine areas will see wind, showers & #snow this weekend, thanks to a strong front forecast to move across SE #Australia. About 15-30 cm of snow is expected. Strong winds are likely across the resorts and surrounding areas for Saturday & Sunday.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) June 28, 2024
Latest: https://t.co/4W35o8iFmh pic.twitter.com/cWl5s8ue5v
Updated
Greens respond to Labor’s comments on build-to-rent bill
The Greens housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, has responded to comments from housing minister Julie Collins earlier this morning.
Earlier, Collins was discussing Labor’s build-to-rent bill, which was knocked back in the Senate, and said: “We’re not open to negotiation and we want to get this done.”
In a post to X, Chandler-Mather responded to this and said:
So the housing minister claims the ‘sector’ i.e. property developers told Labor they can only afford to provide 10% ‘affordable’ housing in exchange for tax handouts. Then said Labor would refuse to negotiate with parliament. So Labor answers to developers, but not parliament?
Newsflash for Labor – you don’t have a majority in the senate. As much as they’d like to ram through tax breaks for property developers to build unaffordable apartments, that’s not how democracy works. You don’t solve the housing crisis by doing what developers tell you.
He said the Greens are “willing to negotiate” but their starting positions is that “100% of any apartments built under Labor’s scheme should be genuinely affordable”.
Overpriced apartments no one can afford will not fix the housing crisis, they will make it worse.
*An earlier version of this post incorrectly suggested the Greens were not open to negotiation in the headline.
Updated
Meta backs age verification by app store or operating system
Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, has said it supports age verification for users at the app store or operating system level, rather than requiring social media companies to verify ages.
Meta’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, before a parliamentary committee today, echoed the comments made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg before US Congress earlier this year that age verification is best done at operating system or app store level. She said:
That level within the ecosystem is sort of the gatekeeping level for the entire ecosystem, and it provides a way to ensure the least privacy intrusive approach to collecting that information and then utilising that across the ecosystem.
The challenges with doing age verification at an individual app level, for example, is it creates additional privacy intrusions. It will move people from one place that asks for age to other apps that won’t, that don’t ask for age.
And so if you’re trying to really solve that problem and ensure that people can deliver age appropriate experiences and that they have accurate, or more accurate, age information. That seems to be the best approach. We think that’s the best approach.
While the government and opposition have indicated support for age verification on social media – with the Coalition proposing to ban teens under 16 from social media – there is no detail yet on how either party would achieve this.
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More from the parliamentary committee on social media
Meta has confirmed its algorithm change in 2018 to deprioritise news is why the company now says just 3% of content consumed on its service is news.
The Facebook parent company’s director of public policy in Australia, Mia Garlick, told the parliamentary committee today that the 2018 change “reduced the amount of public content on our services, which included news content, and then it dropped down to 3%”.
She indicated that the experience on Facebook for people who work in a media space compared to everyone else, and people in media would likely see more news on Facebook than others:
If you live and work in a space that’s highly dominated by media, and you might be engaged by a lot of journalists and might be liking a lot of media pages, and therefore feel like your experience is very media driven, and so therefore [think] everyone else’s was.
So it’s trying to provide an insight into the average experience for the majority of people.
‘All options on the table’ about pulling news from Meta in Australia, public policy director says
Meta’s director of public policy in Australia, Mia Garlick, said “all options are on the table” when asked whether the company will pull news from its platforms in Australia, should it be designated under the news media bargaining code to pay for news.
Speaking at a parliamentary committee on social media this morning, Garlick said it was still a largely hypothetical proposition given the government has not announced its plans, but said “compliance would look somewhat different” if the law was applied to Meta.
Garlick said what people do on Instagram and Facebook had changed in the past few years, with 50% of the time spent on Instagram now spent on the company’s short video product, Reels. She said there was a hope in the Facebook news product that people would be interested in seeing news on there but “this represents a minority of people who use our services”.
For the vast majority of people using Facebook, less than 3% of their feed is news links. So while there were some promising early signs about Facebook News when it was first rolled out in the US and Europe in 2019 over time, there’s been a massive shift that’s occurred with consumer preferences.
People are now primarily engaged in short-form video and primarily with the non-news content. So overall, we’ve seen an 80% drop in the use of Facebook news, and the poor performance of this product led to our announcement that we would deprecate it here in Australia in February of this year.
The news product was a dedicated – and often hard to find – tab on the app, rather than the news users see in their feed along with updates from friends and family.
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Man jailed for tricking wife into leaving Australia under false pretences
A Western Sydney man who deceptively convinced his wife to leave Australia, also taking steps to prevent her return, has been jailed for up to two years and one month.
This is the third conviction for exit trafficking in Australia, the Australian federal police said in a statement.
An Afghani woman living in Australia on a partner visa, now aged 35, had claimed in 2018 she had been deceived by her husband into travelling into Afghanistan.
The court heard the man, an Australian citizen, asked his wife to accompany him on the false premise that he would be undertaking charity work in Afghanistan.
The man, now 44, booked return flight tickets for himself from Australia to Afghanistan, however booked a one-way ticket for the woman. He returned to Australia alone on 1 February 2018 before writing to the department of home affairs to withdraw sponsorship of the woman’s visa.
The woman eventually returned to Australia on 5 February the same year, with the assistance of her relatives.
AFP officers executed a search warrant at the man’s Merrylands home and he was arrested and charged at a later date, pleading guilty last October to one count of facilitating the exit of a person from Australia by using deception.
He was sentenced last Friday to two years and one month, with a non-parole period of 12 months’ imprisonment.
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Man charged for allegedly running ‘evil twin’ fake wifi networks to obtain personal data
A West Australian man has been charged after allegedly established fake free wifi access points to capture unsuspecting people’s personal data.
The 42-year-old man is expected to appear before Perth magistrates court today to face nine charges for alleged cybercrime offences, a statement from the Australian federal police says.
AFP analysis allegedly identified dozens of personal credentials belonging to other people on devices seized from the man, as well as fraudulent wifi pages.
Police charged the man last month after launching an investigation in April, when an airline reported concerns about a suspicious wifi network identified by its employees during a domestic flight.
The man’s baggage was searched when he returned to Perth airport from an interstate flight on 19 April. After an initial examination of devices, a search warrant was executed on his Palmyra home on 8 May, which resulted in his arrest and charges.
Police will allege the man used a portable wireless access device to create “evil twin” free wifi networks, which he used at multiple locations to lure unsuspecting users into believing they were legitimate services.
The AFP alleges when people tried to connect to the free wifi networks, they were prompted to sign in with their email and social media logins, which were then allegedly saved to the man’s devices.
The analysis is ongoing to determine the extent of the alleged offending, the AFP said.
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Queensland’s new victims’ commissioner feels ‘profound responsibility’
Rebecca O’Connor has been appointed as Queensland’s first victims’ commissioner, AAP reports, in a role designed to advocate for the rights of vulnerable people and provide a platform for their voices to be heard in the justice system.
Its creation was a recommendation from the women’s safety and justice taskforce’s Hear Her Voice report after the stark rise in violence against women and girls in Queensland.
O’Connor is the chief executive of domestic violence support organisation DVConnect and sits on multiple councils and foundations for victims of crime. She said:
Being appointed as the first victims’ commissioner is both a privilege and a profound responsibility.
I am deeply committed to elevating the voices and concerns of those with lived experiences, ensuring our systems prioritise the rights and recovery of victim-survivors.
Statistics reveal there have been nearly 4,600 sexual offences reported to police so far in 2024. There were 8,442 victims of sexual assault in 2023 – a 14% rise from 2022. The majority of victims were women and two-thirds knew their offender.
O’Connor will have the power to undertake systematic reviews and investigate whether additional rights should be added to the charter of victims’ rights. Almost $20m has been provided to the commissioner’s office.
Lifeline: 13 11 14
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Union welcomes measure to protect regional bank branches
The president of the Financial Sector Union, Wendy Streets, said the conditions imposed as part of the ANZ-Suncorp merger would ensure regional banks and finance jobs were protected:
This gives our finance workers greater job security during what is a challenging process. Importantly, vital banking services will be protected in regional communities, something that is desperately needed amid the slew of regional bank closures we’ve seen take place.
According to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority there was a 23% decline in the number of regional bank branches, from 2,500 to 1,900, between June 2017 and June 2021.
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The ANZ-Suncorp merger conditions
Lending commitments
$15bn of lending and other commitments for Queensland renewable energy projects and to support infrastructure development in preparation for the 2032 Olympic Games.
$10bn of new lending to support energy projects in Queensland, including bioenergy and hydrogen projects over the next decade.
$10bn of lending to support Queensland businesses over the next three years.
Substantial home lending commitments in Queensland, including house lending targets of 3,000 homes and $350m in housing-related lending.
Presence commitments
No changes to the total number of Suncorp Bank branches in Queensland for at least three years.
No regional ANZ branches closed Australia wide for three years.
No regional Suncorp Bank branches closed Australia wide for three years.
Arrangements with Australia Post: Suncorp Bank to renew its current agreement with Australia Post for the provision of Bank@Post services for a minimum of three years; and ANZ to make best endeavours to join Bank@Post on commercial terms for a minimum of three years.
Employment commitments
No net job losses across Australia in Suncorp Bank and ANZ, as a result of the transaction, for three years.
Provide employees affected by the acquisition with specialist support and maximise opportunities for redeployment and external placement.
Work with consumer advocates, community stakeholders, and the Finance Sector Union to minimise community concerns about the acquisition.
Physical office for an ANZ Queensland managing director.
Create a tech hub in Brisbane to employee at least 700 individuals for five years and at least 450 after five years.
Enter into an agreement with Google for ANZ and Google to: work with Queensland universities on curriculum initiatives; strengthening the focus on women in technology; create a cloud digital leader program for ANZ Queensland employees; and partner on reskilling initiatives.
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Treasurer says ANZ-Suncorp merger can proceed, subject to strict conditions
Jim Chalmers has announced that ANZ bank’s proposed takeover of Suncorp, worth more than $4bn, can proceed “subject to enforceable conditions”.
The treasurer said the decision came after “careful consideration [and] much deliberation” and follows nearly two years of scrutiny from stakeholders:
Following this lengthy and robust process, I received clear advice from Treasury, incorporating views from APRA, ASIC, the ACCC and Department of Home Affairs, that it would not be in the national interest to prohibit this transaction.
Chalmers said he “took seriously the competition concerns” from the ACCC but the tribunal “ultimately concluded it would not be likely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition”.
The treasurer said he was approving the proposal “subject to strict conditions”, and said:
The conditions I have imposed are legally-binding and ensure Australians continue to have access to vital banking services, employees aren’t left behind, and Queensland and Australia benefit from the transaction.
The conditions prohibit regional bank closures for three years, require ANZ to make every effort to join Bank@Post, ensure no net employment losses across Australia for three years due to the transaction, and insist on proper engagement with employees and the Finance Sector Union.
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‘How do we get more homes on the ground?’
Housing minister Julie Collins was asked about David Pocock’s view that housing should be a human right – and what obligation that puts on the government to escalate measures?
Collins said the states have primary responsibility for housing under the constitution:
That’s one of the difficulties … in the framework in which we’re working, which is why we need to work with states and territories.
They are also all lifting, they’re also all investing, and what we’ve been doing with our housing ministers meetings is making sure that our effort is coordinated. That’s what the prime minister has got through national cabinet, agreement about how do we lift housing in this country, how do we get more homes on the ground? And all of the states and territories are lifting and the commonwealth is lifting, and as I said [there has been] $32bn in new investments since we’ve come to office.
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Housing minister on the build-to-rent bill: ‘We’re not open to negotiation’
Housing minister Julie Collins is speaking to the ABC RN about Labor’s build-to-rent bill which was knocked back in the Senate yesterday, with the Greens and the Coalition combining to delay it:
What we want to do is get this done. We’ve already been consulting, we announced it in the previous budget. Any delays will actually stop the pipeline of construction and the certainty for the sector.
What we want to do is get more affordable homes and more homes of every type on the ground as quickly as we can.
Q: How many of the 150,000 or more rental homes this scheme is set to deliver would be affordable, could it be as few as 15,000 over a decade?
We’re saying they have to have a minimum of 10% to be eligible for the tax concessions that we’re talking about for each development.
Q: Is 10% really the highest you can go for these affordable versions of the properties without it falling over?
That’s what our consultations and our discussions with the sector have done and, as I said, this is not the only thing we’re doing for affordable homes … My point here is that they continually delay and block housing up every time by coming together and having this unholy alliance between the Liberals and the Greens in the Senate, because they’re more interested in votes than they are about people.
She added:
We’re not open to negotiation and we want to get this done.
As we reported yesterday, the bill will now be sent to an inquiry to report by 4 September.
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Chalmers to announce ‘conclusive view’ on ANZ-Suncorp banking merger shortly
Moving to another topic, Jim Chalmers was asked whether the ANZ-Suncorp banking merger is going to be approved.
I’ll have more to say about ANZ and Suncorp quite soon, actually later this morning, but I need to do that the right way and issue a statement.
I have come to a concluded view on the proposal from ANZ … This has been running for almost two years now since the proposal was first floated by ANZ. We’ve done a lot of work in the interim, a lot of consultation and consideration. It’s been through a tribunal process, the regulators have looked at it. We’ve spoken to the relevant union, industry and other stakeholders, and they have come to a conclusive view and I’ll make that through the course of the morning, hopefully quite soon.
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Treasurer says it ‘remains to be seen’ whether headline inflation will remain below 3% by end of year
Treasurer Jim Chalmers spoke with ABC AM just a moment ago, taking questions on whether a budget surplus can still be expected (we had a few posts about this earlier in the blog, too).
Asked whether headline inflation would still be under 3% by the end of the year, given the inflation figure released this week, Chalmers said:
It remains to be seen, and our forecasts and the Reserve Bank’s forecasts expect that to be the case.
But I think what we saw in that monthly figure, which is still more than half or less than half what it was in the peaks in 2022, what we’ve seen here – what we’ve seen around the world in other countries where inflation peak higher and earlier than it did in Australia – is that inflation often doesn’t moderate in a straight line. It can zig and zag on the way down …
Q: So you don’t think the fundamentals of the economy and inflation have changed since the start of the year? According to the trend, inflation is ticking up after it had been coming down sine January.
Chalmers:
The trend is important and the most important trend is that we’ve gone from inflation with a six in front of it when we came to office, with quarterly inflation with three in front of it, and that shows the progress that has been made over the last couple of years.
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Queensland firefighters battle blaze at storage facility overnight
Queensland firefighters remained on the scene of a large structure fire in Logan overnight, with an exclusion zone established by police and an evacuation centre set up.
About 10.02pm last night, emergency services were called to a storage facility on Kingston Road by reports of a fire. An 80m by 20m steel building was “well involved in fire” when crews arrived, QFES said.
The fire is now under control but crews remain on scene and large amounts of residual smoke may affect the surrounding area in the coming hours. QFES warned:
Residents should close windows and doors and, if needed, keep their respiratory medications nearby.
Queensland police made an emergency declaration in relation to the fire before midnight last night, with an exclusion zone established and traffic diversions in place.
Police were evacuating properties along Kingston Road, Juers Road, Skyline Drive, Jacaranda Avenue and Hibiscus Street. An evacuation centre was established at the Kingston Butter Factory.
A traffic alert remains in place for Kingston Road, with drivers urged to proceed with caution.
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Record funding boost for Australia’s Olympic hopefuls
Australia’s prospects of striking Olympic and Paralympic gold have been given a healthy boost, AAP reports, with the nation’s biggest investment yet in high-performance sport.
The country’s elite athletes, coaches and support staff will receive an additional $283m in funding over the next two years, the federal government has announced.
That brings total investment over the period to $489m, with the government saying the new money would create more opportunities and better development pathways for aspiring Olympians.
The funding includes an uplift in direct sport funding, access to more domestic and international competitions, training, and wellbeing and preparation support.
There is also $17.6m in grants for athletes to meet cost-of-living pressures. The announcement comes as athletes make their final preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which begin in late July.
Meanwhile, funding for Australia’s Paralympians will more than double, with an additional $54.9m enabling better access to fit-for-purpose training environments along with specialised coaching and performance support.
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Good morning
And happy Friday – welcome back to the Australia news live blog, and thanks to Martin for kicking things off for us. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be taking you through our live coverage.
See something that needs attention? You can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites, or you can send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
Let’s get started.
Budget surplus still expected, Chalmers will say
More on that Jim Chalmers speech expected today.
A federal budget surplus of $9.3bn was forecast in the May budget for the 2023-24 financial year – the second in a row – and Chalmers says it’s still on track to stay out of the red, AAP reports.
With inflation proving persistent, the federal government is under pressure to prove it’s doing its bit to combat price growth and the treasurer says another surplus will be viewed favourably by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Previewing today’s update on the government’s financial position as of May, Chalmers will manage expectations about the final number with a month to go. He will say in a speech to the Citi A50 Australian Economic Forum in Sydney:
The high figure you’ll see published today isn’t necessarily where we’ll end up.
Some softness in our tax take, when compared to payments, might still result in a surplus that’s a bit smaller or a bit bigger than we forecast in the budget.
His remarks will follow a higher-than-expected 4% rise in inflation in the 12 months to May, which had markets pricing in a 37% chance of an interest rate hike at the next meeting.
For financially stretched borrowers, much is riding on the quarterly inflation print at the end of July, with another strong reading to push easing further into the distance, and possibly even prompting a hike.
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‘Bad mistake’ to set rates on single inflation number, RBA deputy govenor says
The public comments by a Reserve Bank official after Wednesday’s surprising jump in May’s inflation would appear to be aimed at dousing some of the expectations that another interest rate hike is a certainty.
The RBA’s new deputy governor Andrew Hauser used a speech in Sydney on Thursday night to the Citi A50 Australia Economic Forum to mostly talk up his new digs after transferring from the Bank of England this year.
Australia, as far as he can tell so far, has a lot going for it beneath the ground, on it and above it (particularly solar energy-wise).
He chosen his comments in the Q&A section carefully as you might expect (especially with treasurer Jim Chalmers sitting at his table) when asked about inflation. He noted the “partial” nature of the monthly inflation figures (unlike in the UK), and that the bank would receive other important data such as labour market figures for June and the June quarter inflation figures before the RBA had to decide on the cash rate (at its 5-6 August board meeting.
But the key takeaway was: “It would be a bad mistake to set policy on the basis of one number [the May CPI] and we don’t intend to do that.”
That chimes in with our earlier piece that argued there was a glimmer of hope the RBA might yet avoid another rate rise – the 14th – in the current cycle. Here it is, in case you missed it:
Meta, Snap and Google executives to give evidence at social media inquiry
Executives from Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta, along with TikTok, Snap and Google will face a parliamentary inquiry on social media in Canberra on Friday morning from 9am.
The companies are expected to be grilled on everything from age limits on social media, misinformation and disinformation, as well as the news media bargaining code, and Meta’s announcement in March that it would not enter into new contracts for the payment of news.
In the two hearings so far, the committee has mostly focused on the code, with news media bosses last week calling on the parliament to pass laws to force social media companies to pay for news.
A notable absence from Friday’s hearing is Elon Musk’s X but, given that the company has no staff based in Australia any more, that is not hugely surprising.
The committee will also hear from Crikey’s parent company, Private Media, as well as Andrew Forrest’s investment company Tattarang, among others. The latter will no doubt focus on the scam ads bearing Forrest’s likeness on Meta’s platforms.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer with some of the top stories this morning before Emily Wind hosts the blog for the bulk of the day.
There have been more than 1,000 in New South Wales, more than 500 in Queensland and it’s a similar pattern in other jurisdictions: police are fielding hundreds of complaints about misuse of confidential information. A Guardian Australia investigation has found that police forces around Australia have fielded hundreds of complaints about misuse of information, and in particular unauthorised access of internal police databases, since 2020.
It’s another interesting day for economy-watchers as the Treasury releases an update on where it stands with the federal budget. Treasurer Jim Chalmers is due to give a speech at a conference today in which he will say that the budget is still on track for a surplus but a softer tax take might whittle it down a bit. Meanwhile, RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser addressed the same A50 Economic Forum in Sydney last night and played down mounting fears that the bank might have to hike rates again this year because of higher inflation. More coming up.
Four of the internet’s biggest names are expected to face tough questions in parliament about the impact of social media. Executives from Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat are scheduled to appear before the social media and Australian society inquiry in Canberra today. Questions are expected to focus on harmful and illegal content on digital platforms, age verification proposals and deals to compensate Australian media outlets for news content. More coming up.
