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
