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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Cait Kelly and Mostafa Rachwani (earlier)

Cruise ship ban to end; nation records 24 Covid deaths – as it happened

Scott Morrison Australia United States New South Wales Queensland Covid-19 RBA Anthony Albanese Sussan Ley Police (Organization)
Ruby Princess cruise ship
The federal government has decided to not renew the ban on international cruise ships arriving and departing from Australian ports, with the ban due to expire on 17 April. Photograph: Reuters

What we learned today, Tuesday 15 March

That is it for today, we are going to put this blog to bed. Thank you for spending the day with us!

Before we go, let’s recap the big stories:

  • Three people are dead and multiple are missing after a boarding house fire in the Sydney suburb of Newtown. Police are treating the fire “as a murder”.
  • The federal environment minister has no duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis when assessing fossil fuel developments, the federal court has ruled. The students say they are devastated.
  • The Victorian health minister, Martin Foley, says the Omicron subvariant is “slowly asserting itself” and will soon be the dominant strain in Victoria.
  • Australia’s cruise ship ban is to end on 17 April.
  • Two people have been charged over alleged threats made against Labor senator Kristina Keneally.
  • NSW recorded 10,689 Covid cases and six deaths, Victoria had 7,460 new cases and four deaths, Queensland had 10 Covid-related deaths, Tasmania had 1,376 new cases, Western Australia had 5,377 cases, South Australia recorded three Covid deaths and 2,380 new cases, and the Northern Territory had 295 new cases.

We will be back tomorrow – until then, stay safe.

Updated

A Queensland parliamentary committee has opposed a proposal to lift the age of criminal responsibility to 14 but recommended working with other states to aim for 12. AAP reports:

Queensland should work with other states and territories to consider raising the criminal age of responsibility from 10 to 12, but not pass a bill to increase it to 14, a parliamentary committee says.

After a series of hearings investigating whether the state should increase the age to 14 as proposed by a Greens bill, the committee’s report said “there is more work to be done” before any reform.

But the recommendation goes against the majority of submissions and witness testimony, the Greens MP and member for Maiwar, Michael Berkman, said in his dissenting report.

On any given day during 2021, there was an average of about five children aged between 10 and 13 in police watch houses, 76% of whom were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, the report tabled on Tuesday says.

“Queensland’s current minimum age of criminal responsibility has had devastating effects for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people,” the Queensland family and child commissioner, Natalie Lewis, told the committee.

“They enter earlier, stay longer and exit the system under positive circumstances far less often.”

But vulnerable children in regional Queensland typically don’t have access to other support services, the Queensland Police Union president, Ian Leavers, says.

“It is really saddening to me that in areas where our First Nations children are there are no services or no facilities to take them to,” he told the committee.

Updated

Some news from the protracted proceedings against Witness K lawyer Bernard Collaery.

You’ll remember that Collaery is charged with conspiring with former intelligence officer Witness K to disclose protected intelligence information about an operation targeting Timor-Leste’s government, designed to give Australia and its commercial partners an upper hand in negotiations over oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea.

The case is bogged down in the ACT supreme court, where Collaery and the federal government are fighting over how much of his trial should be held in public. Collaery looked to have won that battle last year.

Bernard Collaery arrives at the ACT courts in September 2021
Bernard Collaery arrives at the ACT courts in September 2021. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

But the government now wants to show the court new evidence it says it has about the risks of holding the trial openly. The attorney general, Michaelia Cash, is attempting to show the court that evidence in a way that is hidden from Collaery, through what is known as “court-only” evidence.

Others have dubbed it “super-secret” evidence. The ACT supreme court has just published a judgment, which it delivered last week, allowing the attorney general to use court-only evidence, despite objections from Collaery that it was unfair and inappropriate.

The court found that the use of super-secret evidence was necessary to protect national security. It ruled that a special advocate could look at the evidence and champion Collaery’s interests in relation to it.

Collaery will still not be able to see the evidence. Justice David Mossop said:

I do not accept the submission that the making of orders in the present case will erode public confidence in the court system.

Updated

Environment groups call federal government 'regional plans' 'an industry free-for-all'

Environment groups have responded to this announcement we reported earlier today about a Morrison government plan to remove the requirement for federal environmental approval for developments in some regions.

We don’t know which regions they will be, but the government is committing $62.3m to the establishment of “regional plans” in up to 10 locations.

Under national laws, the environment minister can create regional plans and exempt certain developments from the requirement to obtain federal environmental approval if they are covered by a plan.

This section of the act hasn’t been used on land before, is only loosely described and has previously only been used in marine areas.

Australian environment minister Sussan Ley
Sussan Ley says there will be ‘no step backwards’ for environmental protection under new ‘regional plans’. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

It is part of the government’s push to streamline the environmental assessment system, but the minister, Sussan Ley, says there will be “no step backwards” for environmental protection.

But Suzanne Milthorpe, of the Wilderness Society, says the plan looks like “an industry free-for-all” and attempt to get around the parliament, which has blocked legislation that would clear the way to transfer the federal government’s environmental decision making powers to the states and territories.

This new announcement is consistent with the continued attempts to get around the parliament and effectively achieve bilateral agreements by stealth.

The Australian Conservation Foundation says after the recent decision to list the koala as endangered, now would be “a reckless time to make changes that could result in more threatened species habitat being destroyed for commercial projects”.

Updated

Ben Roberts-Smith machine-gunned an Afghan prisoner to death as an “exhibition execution”, a comrade has told the federal court during cross-examination.

“He wanted people to see he was going to kill someone out there in front of everyone,” the former SAS soldier, anonymised before court as Person 24, testified during a combative, and at times emotional, second day in the witness box.

From AAP:

Queensland’s integrity commissioner says the premier’s office took no further action after a top public servant rejected her plea for mediation over his alleged bullying of her.

Integrity commissioner Dr Nikola Stepanov revealed on Monday that Public Service Commission chief executive, Robert Setter, allegedly called her “bitch on a witch-hunt” during a 2018 phone call.

Mr Setter has stridently denied that claim, while the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, suggested the pair “could sit in a room” and sort the matter out.

Stepanov revealed on Tuesday that she asked the premier’s office for mediation with Setter on 8 March, 2021.

The integrity commissioner says Setter refused later that day via email and the premier’s office has taken no further action.

“The current Director-General, Ms Rachel Hunter was aware of my request for mediation shortly after the time it was made, and was also aware of Mr Setter’s response,” Stepanov told AAP in a statement on Tuesday.

“I have had no further contact regarding mediation.”

Palaszczuk said that she couldn’t confirm or deny if Stepanov had made complaints about Setter for legal reasons.

“If a public interest disclosure has been made, then those matters cannot be discussed because by their nature they are a public interest disclosure,” she told parliament on Tuesday.

The revelations of alleged workplace bullying come as the Crime and Corruption Commission investigates multiple complaints about the PSC made by Stepanov.

Updated

NT records 295 new Covid-19 cases

The NT has recorded 295 new cases to 8pm Monday and 31 hospitalisations, including two in ICU.

Updated

It’s been 10 years since Luke Pearson set up IndigenousX on Twitter, but now is not the time for celebration. Read his words here:

Updated

We have more information about the Morrison announcement to build a large-vessel dry berth in WA, in this press release from his office:

The Morrison Government will invest up to $4.3 billion to deliver Western Australia’s first large-vessel dry berth, creating a world-class precinct at the Henderson shipyard and supporting thousands of local jobs.

The Henderson dry-dock will enable the construction and sustainment of large naval vessels in Australia and support an even stronger commercial shipbuilding and sustainment market in Western Australia.

Government-owned Australian Naval Infrastructure will oversee the design and build of this nation building infrastructure, with work to start in 2023 and initial operations to commence in 2028.

The Commonwealth will work closely with the Western Australian Government and industry to develop a comprehensive master plan for the defence precinct at Henderson to ensure this investment fully supports our national naval shipbuilding enterprise effectively.

This project is likely to create at least 500 direct construction jobs at its peak and thousands more through local sub-contracts and the national supply chain. Once completed, this infrastructure will help support at least 2,000 direct shipbuilding jobs at Henderson, particularly as continuous naval shipbuilding in Western Australia comes to fruition as part of the national naval shipbuilding enterprise.

Our video team just put together this video of the students involved in today’s climate ruling. Give it a watch:

Morrison is now getting attacked from the right for his comments on Albanese. I did not expect Craig Kelly to be a body positivity champion but here we are.

Updated

Three Covid-19 deaths recorded in South Australia and 2,380 new cases

SA Health said a woman in her 90s, a man in his 70s and a man in his 80s have died in South Australia to Covid.

Updated

Morrison is asked about his comments last night in regards to Albanese’s new look.

Last night I was having a giggle at myself. I was talking about the fact that I hadn’t lost any weight, and I haven’t changed my glasses. And I’m still wearing the same suits.

He says a new suit doesn’t mean you’re ready to be PM though.

It’s being able to make the decisions to support our defence force, it’s about being able to make the decisions to be sure we keep our economy strong. Australia has an unemployment rate of 2.4%. We have 250,000 more people in work today than we had before the pandemic.

We have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, and I want to commend Western Australia on achieving that result in the west. I mean, it was harder to achieve here because you didn’t have the same number of cases that we had on the east coast, so you had to work harder for it, and I commend WA for that, as I did the premier when we were on the call the other day.

Most importantly, here in Australia we have saved more than 40,000 lives during this pandemic. So when all of those issues it demonstrates that we have made the decisions that have kept Australia strong, kept our economy strong for a stronger future, and we have kept Australians are safe, and what we’re doing here at Henderson is all about that.

Updated

Morrison has just tried to spruik his “working relationship” with the popular Mark McGowan while slamming the federal opposition leader:

Whichever way people vote at the next federal election, I can tell you one thing for sure, that is Premier McGowan will be the premier next day. That won’t change.

WA is have made their choice about the premier. Now WA are being asked to make a choice about who they want their PM to be. Not who they want their premier to be.

Premier McGowan will tell you himself that he and I have had very productive and successful working relationship on so many projects. That will continue if I am re-elected as prime ,inister. Those projects are the ones we’re talking about here today.

And the pivot to smash Albanese while promising he is who he says he is:

I am not pretending to be someone else. People, they may not agree with everything I have done but they know what I am about. My opponent is trying to pretend to be everything from John Howard to Mark McGowan or even Bob Hawke.

You can’t present yourself to the Australian people as something you are not.

We have a leader of the opposition, Anthony Albanese, who is not being upfront with people. He is not able to walk the talk when it comes to the things he has spoken about on economic management and defence.

So leopards don’t change their spots. Even if they change their glasses and their suits, they are still the same. He is the most leftwing Labor leader we have seen since probably Gough Whitlam, if not before that.

Updated

Morrison is asked about McGowan isolating:

As a leader that has spent plenty of time in quarantine, I can send him a few tips and a few puzzles.

Like me, I don’t think he would have been having much time to be turning on Netflix or anything like that. I imagine he is remaining hard at work like I have been during periods of isolation or quarantine. I believe the premier is ensuring that he is showing there are rules here and seeking to show that example and I commend him for that. We work very closely together.

Updated

Morrison is putting his argument forward for the cost of living – saying if you are on $90k you have $50 less tax each week because of the Liberals.

Electricity prices have fallen by 8% in the last two years. We are doing everything we can to ensure that we can keep downward pressure on these increases in prices.

The inflation rate in Australia of 2.1% capacity almost 8% in the United States. Over 5% in the United Kingdom. These pressures are real. The fact that it is worse in so many other parts of the world says that, in Australia, we have handled these issues better.

We have carefully considered these issues and are still finalising arrangements for the budget in a fortnight’s time but I can assure you the treasurer and I have been keenly focused on ensuring that we can address some of these immediate pressures when it comes to the cost of living that Australians are facing.

Updated

Morrison is asked about the cost of petrol:

We are very conscious of the significant impact of the rising fuel prices on Australians all around the country.

And all Australians understand that is being caused by the terrible war we are seeing in Europe and the invasion of Russia into Ukraine. We all understand that is what is driving all fuel prices up around the world.

Morrison is asked why he has just come to WA now:

The reason I haven’t been here has been because the borders have been shut and I had to go to isolation because of Covid. The minute I got out of isolation, I went straight to the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, which I think all Western Australians would want me to do because of the devastation that has happened in that part of that country.

Morrison pivots to spruik the amount of money the feds have provided to WA.

The amount of GST the WA government has received because of our government, because of the deal I put in place. has continued to go up and up and up. Over $5bn in extra GST has been provided to the West Australian government since we were re-elected in the last three budgets we delivered.

WA is have done an incredibly well job with Covid and we have supported the WA state government to bring the economy through, carrying that burden equally. And in many ways, more so. Particularly when it came to the direct economic support of some $14bn.

Updated

Morrison:

This is part of the Aukus partnership, delivering early results to ensure we can keep Australia safe. And our ability to build the facilities here at Henderson will play an enormous role, enabling us to service and support naval fleets from all around the world who work with Australia, but particularly with our friends in the United States and the United Kingdom and what we will be putting in place over there at Stirling, that will ensure we can maintain those operations and play our role as part of this important partnership that is keeping Australia safe.

I want to make mention of the fact that with our submarine operations here at WA, they will remain critical to our future. That is a key reason why I wanted to come here today and make those announcements, not just about Henderson, but also about Stirling.

Updated

Morrison:

The ability of US and UK nuclear powered submarines to be here on the west coast, and ultimately, we would like to see them on the east coast as well, is all part of what our plan is as we continue to push forward our Aukus partnership.

The Australia- UK-US partnership, which we were able to form last year, and which is already underway.

We work towards the selection of the appropriate vessel which will be part of a nuclear submarine fleet that we will eventually have here in Australia, and I suspect well before 2040.

In addition to that, it is about the capability that we continue to put in place with our naval operations, and that includes the Collins class submarine, the life of type extension, the mid-cycle and the full-cycle docking occurring with the full fleet of submarines.

But in addition to that, the work we are doing in cyber, the work we are doing in AI and other critical technologies for defence, which is all part of a partnership.

Updated

Morrison:

Recent announcements about the east coast submarine base are a critical part of the puzzle in terms of our expanded national operating capacity.

But here at Stirling and Fleet Base West at the heart of our navy and our submarine fleet and we will be investing in even more. Of course, we have already committed more than $1.5bn in improvements to naval infrastructure at Stirling in Henderson.

But we will do more at Stirling. To that end, I announced the government has directed to commence studies into what infrastructure and services are needed right here in the west to support the more frequent presence of the United States and United Kingdom nuclear-powered submarines right here in Western Australia. We expect the results of that work to come back later this year, and to get moving as quickly as possible.

Updated

Morrison says construction will start in 2023.

We expect construction to commence in 2023, 2024, with initial operational capability by 2028 and a final operating capability by 2030.

500 jobs in the construction of this world-class shipyard to put a larger vessel drydock in place, and around 2,000 jobs for the ongoing work that is taking place right here in Henderson, which will make and transform this precinct once again.

$1.5bn worth of infrastructure investments going on both here and at Stirling, and there is also the support of some $90m in a regional maintenance centre, and the $30bn I have mentioned when it comes to this shipbuilding project going ahead here in Western Australia.

In addition, I want to touch on another announcement in relation to HMS sterling and Fleet Base West. HMAS Stirling will remain home to Australia’s current and future submarines. This is a recognition of the enormous expertise that is here in the west, along with the strategic reality of our region and the Indian Ocean.

Updated

Morrison is announcing a $4.3bn of investment to establish a large vessel drydock and associated infrastructure at the Henderson shipyard.

This will be used to build and sustain large naval vessels and other commercial vessels, it provides redundancy, importantly, nationally, to the Captain Cook graving dock in Sydney.

There is up to $30bn worth of shipbuilding projects planned right here in Western Australia, out to 2040, and this will be delivered through the Australian naval infrastructure and government business enterprise that is delivering the Osborne shipyard in South Australia.

This work will ensure we can maintain our sovereignty, our flexibility, and offer long-term value for money outcomes for the Australian public.

Updated

The PM is speaking now from Perth.

Updated

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has landed in Perth for a three-day visit for the first time since the state reopened its borders.

Morrison is due to make a major announcement for a $4.3bn drydock shipbuilding facility at the Henderson shipyard.

Speaking to Perth radio, Morrison was asked about the cost of living pressures, his performance in the polls and his handling of the pandemic.

On the issue of petrol prices, Morrison said that the government was considering the cost of living pressures with more details to be announced in the federal budget to be held on 29 March.

However, he poured cold water on the idea that the tax on draught beer could be cut, saying it was the normal speculation that occurred before budget day.

I don’t know why this is being reported. I haven’t been going around saying that’s what we’re going to be doing, I haven’t been hinting at anything like that. Other people are talking about that so that’s for them to justify their speculation.

Just because someone writes it in the newspaper or says they believe it’s true doesn’t mean it is.

When the host, Liam Bartlett, said it seemed a “bit ridiculous” that the government could potentially cut beer taxes but not the fuel excise, Morrison said:

Well that’s a very good point so I don’t understand the speculation.

Morrison said the government was very conscious of the cost of petrol and how it was affecting the hip pocket of voters, and was asked if Australia would follow the lead of New Zealand and cut the fuel excise.

Well their fuel prices are far higher than they are in Australia for a start, excessively more, but the budget’s at the end of this month and we’re looking at a whole range of issues.

Morrison was also asked about jobkeeper and whether the government had wasted money by giving the payment to companies whose profits increased.

Jobkeeper saved the Australian economy, it kept people in work and it actually kept people alive.

Bartlett said, “we know there are a lot of people that didn’t need it and there were billions wasted prime minister, and those billions would be very helpful now”.

Morrison said the program had given people certainty and “you don’t go and pull the rug from the economy in the middle of a pandemic”.

The prime minister was also asked about the latest Newspoll which showed Morrison as lagging in the polls and not trusted, with people thinking he is more arrogant and less caring than Labor leader Anthony Albanese.

The polls, you know, they’ll say what they’ll say, but Australians are the ones who get to make the choice.

He said he was “not pretending to be someone else” while criticising Albanese’s recent “makeover”.

Updated

Two people charged over alleged threats against senator

The Australian federal police has issued a statement revealing two people have been charged over alleged online threats to an Australian senator.

Kristina Keneally is appearing on Sky News, confirming that the senator is her.

The AFP said:

Following an AFP investigation a 29-year-old man from Harrington Park in Sydney’s west and a 41-year-old woman from Maitland have been served court attendance notices following threats made against an Australian Senator via a social media messaging service.

The man and woman are expected to face Sydney Central Local Court on 13 April 2022.

It will be alleged in court that the man and woman were responsible for sending two separate threatening messages on 21 and 22 November 2021 which threatened or advocated violent acts.

AFP investigators executed search warrants at their respective homes today (15 March 2022) and seized a mobile phone for further examination from the man’s Harrington Park residence.

The charges are:

  • The man has been charged with threatening to cause harm to a commonwealth public official, punishable by up to seven years in prison.
  • The woman has been charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence, punishable by up to five years’ in prison.

Asked what was said in the messages, Keneally said the matter is “before the court” so she will “not go into the content or circumstances” of the messages. She thanked the federal police for taking threats to parliamentarians “seriously”.

Updated

Police treating Sydney boarding house fire 'as a murder'

NSW police say they are treating this as suspicious.

From all independent examinations thus far, and also witnesses, it was an explosion ... Without going into the scientific evidence so far, it would be fair to say that some type of accelerant has been used.

We are treating this as a murder. We are treating this as a maliciously lit fire. To that end, we have police from the inner west, from the Newtown police station, and all around the region who have come together, and this investigation will be ultimately led by the arson squad of state crime command.

Updated

NSW police say the man who jumped out of the second flood of the building had a heart attack when he got to the hospital and now is in a critical condition. They have tried to reach out to the owner of the building and cannot get hold of him.

We have not been able to clearly get a manifest of the tenants in this building. We understand that it is clearly a place which is transient with people coming and going and, of course, there is no guarantee that the 11 that was supposed to be there last night were in fact there and not even other places.

So, it is making confirmation of the identity of those who perished extremely difficult at the moment, but clearly that is a priority for investigators over the next day or so.

Equally a priority, and a callout for the owner of the place – we know who he is. We have reached out to his a series of addresses in Western Sydney, and as yet, we have not been able to make contact with him.

It is a privately owned boarding house, and we would like that gentleman to come forward as a matter of priority, not only to talk to us – particularly to talk to us about who was inside and the tenancies.

Updated

NSW police say they have found three people dead and they are calling on help to identify them.

What we can say is that there are three people that we have found deceased. It is a house which houses up to 11 if not more men, middle-aged men, anything from their 40s to the 80s.

We understand is that three people who we have found dead are men that, we have not been able to identify them as of yet. We are working with people inside, other tenants inside the house, who know them, but certainly their first name or potentially other particulars.

But what we are calling for is for members of the public who do know that someone they love or know lives in this house. There are people who were able to get out. Five came out unscathed.

Another three are in various states of injury, albeit two with minor injuries –smoke inhalation, minor grazes and so forth. However, there was an 80-year-old man who jumped from a second story – from the first story window, and he suffered some serious leg injuries.

Updated

NSW police are currently addressing media about the fatal fire in Newtown. They say 11 people normally live at the house.

In the early hours of it this morning, 15 March, there was an explosion here at Newtown. It is unclear exactly at this stage what the cause of it is, but investigators in Fire and Rescue New South Wales as well as NSW police have responded immediately and have continued here today and will continue here through the night and, most probably, over the next two to three days, to try and piece together.

I thank all the emergency services who responded so promptly to care for the people and the occupants of the house ... and also the nearby neighbours.

What we understand is that it is a boarding house that houses at least 11 guests if not potentially more. The problem that has confronted us so far is the structural damage to the house on both levels, which has restricted us from having a full entry and fully exploring all of the rooms.

Updated

National Covid-19 update

Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 24 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

  • Deaths: 1
  • Cases: 786
  • In hospital: 40 (with 4 people in ICU)

NSW

  • Deaths: 6
  • Cases: 10,689
  • In hospital: 1,032 (with 38 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

  • Deaths: 0
  • Cases: 295
  • In hospital: 31 (with 2 people in ICU)

Queensland

  • Deaths: 10
  • Cases: 5,589
  • In hospital: 246 (with 19 people in ICU)

South Australia

  • Deaths: 3
  • Cases: 2,380
  • In hospital: 129 (with 10 people in ICU)

Victoria

  • Deaths: 4
  • Cases: 7,460
  • In hospital: 197 (with 24 people in ICU)

Western Australia

  • Deaths: 0
  • Cases: 5,377
  • In hospital: 112 (with 5 people in ICU)

Updated

Queensland reports 10 Covid-related deaths while WA records 5,377 new cases

Updated

Here we have an emergency service update on the floods in NSW:

There is a potential for renewed flooding to occur in the north-western parts of NSW as floodwater travels down river systems from Queensland into NSW. The NSW SES is monitoring this situation and planning for the impacts of potential flooding in these areas which were previously impacted by flooding late in 2021.

A ridge of high pressure along the NSW coast will remain slow moving and bring a few showers to coastal parts for the coming days. Meanwhile, a trough near the South Australian border is bringing showers and thunderstorms to inland NSW. This system is forecast to weaken a little midweek and then
move east later in the week.

  • 0 evacuation orders are current
  • 0 evacuation warnings are current
  • 95 “Return Safely” notices have been issued for 140,524 persons
  • 15 recovery centres are open (as of 10am, including assistance points).
  • The NSW SES has received a total of 24,979 requests for assistance (RFAs) since the commencement of this event. This is an increase of 143 RFAs since last update.
  • NSW SES has received 2,100 flood rescues since the commencement of this event. This is an increase of 34 since last update.
  • 18,728 damage assessments were undertaken.

Updated

WA police have said the bodies found in a burnt-out car in Coogee, in Perth’s southern suburbs, yesterday belong to a woman in her 40s and two children.

It is believed they belong to the same family.

Major Crime Division Detective-Inspector Quentin Flatman said it was “very unlikely” there was a third party involved in the deaths.

Updated

Three bodies found after the Newtown boarding house fire

Police will address the media soon as investigations continue into a fatal fire at a boarding house in Sydney’s inner west overnight.

About 1am (Tuesday 15 March 2022), emergency services were called to a building on the corner of Probert and Albermarle streets, Newtown, following reports of a building fire.

Fire and Rescue NSW attended and extinguished the blaze, that caused significant structural damage.

Officers attached to Inner West Police Area Command established a crime scene and located a body inside the building soon after.

An additional two bodies have since been located, with serious concerns held for a fourth person believed to be inside.

The bodies are yet to be formally identified.

Eight residents were able to exit the building with three people taken to hospital, including a man, aged in his 80s, taken to Royal North Shore Hospital where he remains in in a critical condition.

The other two people were taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital for treatment.

Access to the building is restricted as a result of the damage caused by the fire, with structural engineers onsite to conduct a safety assessment.

A number of neighbouring properties were also evacuated with no other reports of injuries.

An investigation is now underway into the circumstances surrounding the fire and police are appealing for anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Updated

The Reserve Bank has released the minutes of its 1 March board meeting.

Not a lot of surprises, with the references already made public about the central bank being “prepared to be patient” before raising the official cash rate, and being concerned about the “uncertainties” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The bank, though, remains keen to see wages growth in line at least with inflation, and for that rate to be “sustainably” within its 2%-3% target range.

Notably, there was no mention of an emerging “inflation psychology” that RBA governor Philip Lowe talked about in a conference last week. Perhaps he’d seen more proof of the worrying spike in global fuel, food and most other commodities than was evident at the March 1 meeting.

The CBA, which is forecasting the RBA will lift its cash rate in its June meeting, views today’s minutes as reinforcing their bullish take.

“The RBA is now acknowledging that ‘the risks to the outlook for wages growth [are] skewed to the upside’ (CBA’s emphasis),” economist Stephen Wu said in a note.

“Previously they had only noted the elevated uncertainty around wages growth; the recognition of upside risks to wages growth represents a shift in the RBA’s communications.”

The RBA had some words about another issue of angst or glee to many Australians: housing prices.

The growth in prices “had moderated over recent months, with conditions varying across the country”, the RBA opined. “In the established housing market, new listings in Sydney and Melbourne had picked up and prices had levelled off in recent months.”

The RBA’s comments would have taken into account January and February auction action.

As it happens, the ABS today released its December-quarter and 2021 data on house prices in the eight capital cities. Respectively, the increases were 4.7% and 23.7%.

On a quarterly basis, house prices didn’t show that much moderation, at least as the year came to a close:

Although the RBA was right about quite a range of increases across the nation:

As the ABS notes, the total value of residential dwellings in Australia rose $512.6bn during the quarter to just over $9.9tn. Given the rises so far this year, it’s a fair bet the $10tn mark has been passed.

Meanwhile, the ABS said in that last quarter of 2021, the mean price of residential dwellings rose $44,000 – or close to $500 a day – to $920,100. Pretty mean, indeed.

Updated

Save the Children Australia’s comment in response to the federal court ruling that the environment minister does not have a duty of care to protect children from the climate crisis.

Save the Children Australia acting CEO Mat Tinkler said:

Whether or not the court sees it as a duty of care, governments have a clear responsibility to protect children everywhere from the climate crisis. This responsibility should absolutely sit front and centre when governments make decisions that have long-term consequences for our children and our planet.

We are already seeing the devastating impacts of climate change on children in Australia. The disastrous recent flooding in New South Wales and Queensland forced children from their homes, closed schools and disrupted their education.

The science tells us that extreme weather events will only become more intense and frequent, irreparably reshaping our world, unless global leaders drastically change course.

Children and young people are demanding urgent action to address this grave threat to their future. They have a right to be heard, and all adults must sit up and listen.

Updated

From AAP:

Australia has some of the world’s lowest petrol and diesel taxes, potentially throttling federal efforts to provide cost of living relief.

Liberal premiers Dominic Perrottet, Steven Marshall and Peter Gutwein have asked for fuel excise cuts.

In New Zealand, petrol excise duty and road user charges have both been cut for three months, effective immediately, along with April 1 income increases for most households.

The Morrison government has said Australia’s state governments could cut vehicle registration fees.

Consumer watchdog chair Rod Sims says the world was already experiencing high crude oil prices, and the shocking events in Ukraine have forced prices even higher because Russia is a major supplier.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s latest price report found daily average retail petrol prices hit eight-year highs in the five largest cities in February.

Australia is one of the lowest-taxing countries for both petrol and diesel, keeping its prices among the lowest amongst developed economies, according to OECD data.

In the December 2021 quarter, that tax component made up of excise and GST was just more than a third (36%) of the average retail price of petrol, the ACCC says.

Petrol prices have since surged past $2 a litre. Across the ditch, petrol has already broken $NZ3 ($A2.81) a litre.

Updated

The Australian National Imams Council has released a statement to commemorate the Christchurch massacre, where 51 people were murdered.

ANIC spokesperson and advisor Bilal Rauf said: This was a massacre committed by an Australian very close to home. The massacre was preceded by ignorance, hate and a pervading and publicly stated anti-Muslim sentiment which was left unaddressed and allowed to fester and be shared.

Ramia Abdo Sultan, ANIC community relations advisor, said: 15 March 2019 is a constant reminder that Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment is real, particularly for Muslim women who are readily identifiable by the religious attire they choose to wear. Vilification is real. Discrimination is real.

ANIC calls upon the Australian government to acknowledge Islamophobia and anti-Muslim prejudice as being a real threat and danger to our society. We ask that Islamophobia and bigotry be addressed on a legislative level so that minority communities can be better protected.

ANIC extends its prayers and support to the brothers and sisters affected by the Christchurch tragedy and extends its sincerest gratitude to the people and organisations who continue to commemorate this sad tragedy and show their support.

Updated

Namoi Valley farmers and their supporters remain resolved to fight new fossil fuel projects slated for the farming district despite today’s overturning on appeal of the climate change duty of care established by the Sharma ruling.

The federal court today ruled in favour of Sussan Ley’s appeal against the Sharma decision that found she had a duty of care to consider the harm of climate change to Australian children when making decisions about new coal mining projects.

The first instance decision established, on the basis of scientific evidence, that the carbon emissions expected from Whitehaven’s Vickery extension project near Gunnedah posed a real risk of personal injury and death to today’s children due to climate impacts.

Namoi Valley farmer Sally Hunter said the decision changed little for the communities on the ground.

“Communities in the Namoi remain resolved to protect our region from new Whitehaven Coal projects,” she said.

“Whitehaven is a notorious environmental and social vandal – this company has been warned, fined and prosecuted so many times over illegal activity committed at its Namoi Valley projects it makes your head spin.

“We do not want to see any more land or water lost to this company. Today’s decision is disappointing but we are as committed as ever to stop Whitehaven’s new coal proposals.”

Updated

Hello everyone, this is Cait Kelly! A big thank you to Mostafa who as always leaves big blog shoes to fill, but I will try my best!

If you want to contact me at all – you can find me on Twitter: @cait__kelly or via email: cait.kelly@theguardian.com.

First up I have this from AAP:

The design for Australia’s largest art gallery has been unveiled in Melbourne, set to open in 2028.

The National Gallery of Victoria Contemporary, designed by Angelo Candalepas and Associates will have 13,000 sq metres of display space, a rooftop sculpture terrace and restaurant.

“As the Eiffel Tower is Paris the NJVC will be to Melbourne,” the creative industries minister, Danny Pearson, said on Tuesday.

“It’s going to put us on the global stage as being a destination for the finest art in the world.

“You’ll be able to come here and see works of art you can’t see anywhere else in the country.”

Updated

And with that I will hand over the blog to the ever-capable Cait Kelly. Thanks for reading.

A public review will be held into the Queensland government’s response to the floods in the state’s south-east amid some criticisms.

The emergency services minister, Mark Ryan, announced the review today, saying that it would be led by Queensland’s Inspector-General of emergency management, Alistair Dawson.

Ryan said the review will look into whether or not the government or its agencies could have better reacted to the disaster that affected parts of Brisbane, Ipswich, Gympie, the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast and the Lockyer Valley.

Whenever there is a major natural disaster like the devastating flooding event we have just witnessed in south-east Queensland, we will call upon the Inspector-General to conduct an independent review.

The unfortunate reality is that Queensland is the nation’s most disaster-prone state, and while we get a lot of practice responding to these kinds of events, we are always looking to see if we can do things better.

That is the Inspector-General’s job, to examine the response to the floods, and see if there are any lessons that can be learned, or improvements that can be made to the way we deal with these events.

Updated

Cruise ship ban to end on 17 April

The federal government has decided to not renew the ban on international cruise ships arriving and departing from Australian ports, with the ban due to expire on 17 April .

In a statement from ministers Greg Hunt, Karen Andrews and Dan Tehan, the annoucement was coupled with a series of measures being introduced to reduce the risk of infection, including “enhanced” pre-arrival reporting and identification, stress testing of the emergency response system and requiring passengers to be double vaccinated.

Hunt said the decision to allow ships to return is based on “medical advice”.

On the basis of medical advice and with the agreement of national cabinet, lifting the cruise ban is consistent with the reopening of Australia’s international border and shows that we have successfully navigated Australia’s emergency response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The minister for trade, tourism and investment, Tehan, said the news was an “important milestone”.

This is great news for the cruise industry, tourism, the broader economy and the Australians who love to take a cruise holiday.

The resumption of cruising is another key step forward in the tourism sector’s recovery from Covid-19.

Updated

Foley says Omicron subvariant 'slowly asserting itself'

The Victorian health minister, Martin Foley, has said the Omicron subvariant has been “slowly asserting itself” in Victoria, and will soon be the dominant variant.

Foley said he had so far received advice that the subvariant is more infectious than the original Omicron strain, without being more resistant to vaccinations.

We do have advice that it is more infectious, but what I don’t have is specific advice as to the rate of that.

Updated

I just wanted to return to the report by the Islamophobia Register Australia (IRA) that found a four-times increase in incidents of anti-Muslim hate since the Christchurch massacre.

Incidents recorded include that of a patient in the chair of a Muslim dentist calling all Muslims “terrorists”, a family physically assaulting a woman at the zoo, and a pregnant woman being punched repeatedly by a stranger in a cafe – a case that made news at the time.

The report’s lead researcher, Dr Derya Iner told Stephanie Convery that the incidents were only “the tip of the iceberg”:

We are not saying that this report represents everything in Australia, but this is a good sample to show manifestations of Islamophobia across Australia.

I think this is the impact of online far-right groups. To bring people to that level of intense hate, you need to have a good excuse, and the best excuse is associating Muslims with terrorism and portraying them as killers.

Muslims are attacked, harassed, among people in crowds. There is not enough social pressure on perpetrators to deter them, to prevent them doing it.

You can read more on the story at the link below:

Updated

Students 'devastated' by court decision

Some of the students who took environment minister Sussan Ley to court have expressed their disappointment at the decision taken by the full federal court today.

In a statement, 17-year-old Anjali Sharma said she was “devastated” by the decision, but that it wouldn’t “deter” her continued efforts.

We’re proud of representing young people in Australia and fighting to hold people in power responsible for their actions.

Climate change is already wreaking havoc on the lives of Australians. Two years ago, Australia was on fire. Today, it’s underwater. Burning coal makes bushfires and floods more catastrophic and more deadly. Something needs to change. Our leaders need to step up and act.

Izzy Raj-Seppings, 15, said in her statement that there was at least some good news from the findings:

The court accepted that young people will bear the brunt of the impacts of the climate crisis.

The Court’s recognition that extraction and burning of fossil fuels will cause future climate impacts is an important step in the fight for climate justice in the courtroom.

Regardless of today’s outcome, the ground is shifting.

Updated

A little more on the reasons for the federal court’s decision to overturn a judgment that the environment minister has a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis.

The decision was unanimous, but the three justices who made it had, in their words, “different emphases as to why this conclusion should be reached”.

A key point is that the chief justice, James Allsop, said that nobody involved in the case disputed evidence that was heard about climate change and the “dangers to the world and humanity, including to Australians, in the future from it”.

The environment minister, Sussan Ley, had submitted in her appeal that some of the initial findings by justice Mordecai Bromberg were incorrect and reached beyond evidence. The full court unanimously found that this was unfounded, and that all of Bromberg’s findings were “open to be made” based on the uncontested evidence he had heard.

But the three justices that heard the appeal also unanimously found that a duty of care should not be imposed on the minister.

Allsop said this was because court processes were unsuitable to determine matters of high public policy, that imposing a duty of care would be inconsistent with national environment laws and that the minister’s level of climate-related liability in approving a project was indeterminate.

Justice Jonathan Beach found a duty of care should not be imposed as there was not “sufficient closeness and directness” between the minister’s decision to approve the coal mine extension and the risk of harm to the teenagers and other young people, and that her level of liability could not be determined.

Justice Michael Wheelahan found national environment laws did not recognise a relationship between the minister and the teenagers to support the case she has a duty of care. In particular, Wheelahan said, “the control of carbon dioxide emissions, and the protection of the public from personal injury caused by the effects of climate change,” were not responsibilities of the minister under the legislation.

Wheelahan also found it would not be feasible to establish what an appropriate standard of care meant, and that it was not “reasonably foreseeable” that the approval of the coal mine extension would cause personal injury to the teenagers or to the future generations they represent.

Updated

Coffee could increase in price in the coming months, as overheads and supply chain challenges bite.

The Cafe Owners and Baristas Association of Australia president, David Parnham, told the ABC the average price of a flat white could jump to $7 by the end of the year.

What’s happening globally is there are shortages obviously from catastrophes that are happening in places like Brazil with frosts and certain growing conditions in some of the coffee-growing areas.

The cost of shipping has become just ridiculous.

It’s nearly five times the container prices of two years ago due to global shortages of containers and ships to be able to take things around the world.

Updated

Tasmania records 1,376 new Covid cases

Tasmania is reporting 1,376 new cases overnight, a jump up from yesterday’s figures. There are currently 14 people in hospital and three in ICU.

Updated

As noted in the tweet earlier, the full federal court has overturned a judgment that the environment minister, Sussan Ley, has a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis.

To recap: Eight teenagers and an octogenarian nun last year sought an injunction to prevent Ley approving a proposal by Whitehaven Coal to expand the Vickery coalmine in northern New South Wales, arguing the minister had a common law duty of care to protect younger people against future harm from climate change.

Justice Mordecai Bromberg found the minister had a duty of care to not act in a way that would cause future harm to younger people. But he did not grant the injunction as he was not satisfied the minister would breach her duty of care.

The full court today found all of Bromberg’s findings were open to be made, but the duty of care should not be imposed on the minister. There’s more to come on the different reasons the three justices each gave for their decision.

The initial judgment last year was hailed by lawyers and the teenagers who brought the case as a world first.

Updated

Environment minister found to have no duty of care to children

The full federal court has found that the environment minister, Sussan Ley, does not have a duty of care to children to protect them from any harm that comes from climate change.

Updated

Consumer confidence has taken another hit, according to the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan survey that’s just landed.

The gauge of sentiment sank another 4.3% last week to be well below the 100 mark that is considered neutral. Everywhere was down except Western Australia.

Of particular concern is the run-up in inflationary expectations. Consumers are reminded of the rising cost of living every time they fill up at the bowser, or go shopping. That gauge jumped 5.6%, the highest since November 2012.

The head on ANZ’s Australian economics division, David Plank, noted that the RBA governor, Philip Lowe, has lately warned of an altered “psychology” of inflation that the central bank would be watching closely.

Plank said:

The surge in inflation expectations heightens the risk of a shift in the ‘psychology’ of inflation that requires more aggressive action from the RBA. Though, if the recent fall in oil prices is sustained, we would expect inflation expectations to ease.

Oil prices have come off their recent highs but with little sign of Russia’s war against Ukraine ending soon, you’d have to be brave to rule out further surges above the $US100 a barrel mark.

More of the RBA’s thinking on rates will be revealed at 11.30am this morning, when the bank releases the minutes of its March board meeting. (Markets, meanwhile, are still leaning towards June as the month for the RBA to start raising rates.)

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (Actu) is keen to highlight that workers have been going backwards, particularly last year, at least when it comes to real wages. As we reported, the Actu president, Michele O’Neil, will argue in a speech to the Australia Institute today that the average worker’s wages once inflation was taken into account slid more than $800 last year.

To the extent the Actu is right, it’s probably no wonder consumer confidence is dimming.

Updated

Over in Victoria, opposition and business groups have questioned how Daniel Andrews’ government will fund the newly announced sick pay scheme for some casual workers.

Some have suggested imposing a levy on businesses, with Labor MP Ingrid Stitt telling RN Breakfast it was still too early to speculate on how the scheme would be funded beyond a trial.

I think there’s time to have those really detailed conversations.

An industry levy is one option. But we’re not there yet. All of that work has to be done and I don’t want to preempt what some of the outcomes of the trial will be like.

Updated

Pressure is growing on the prime minister to do something about rising fuel prices, but Queensland senator Matt Canavan has urged the government not to cut the fuel excise.

Appearing on Sky News, Canavan said the government should avoid “panicked reactions” and instead focus on other levers such as rebates and tax relief.

Overnight oil has fallen to around $100 a barrel, which is about 30% below its peak just a couple of weeks ago … if it’s maintained at that level we will see easing on petrol prices.

It is very important at volatile times like these we don’t take panicked policy reactions. The reality is here if we cut fuel excise, how would it ever go up again in the future?

There’s lots of options … but providing rebates, offsets, tax relief to low and middle income families because it goes beyond the petrol pump.

Updated

The government has decided to withdraw a women’s network logo that was widely mocked online for its phallic shape.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet issued a statement today saying the logo had been removed from its website “pending consultation with staff”:

The women’s network logo retained a ‘W’ icon which staff had been using for a number of years.

The rebrand was completed internally, using existing resources, and designs were consulted on widely. No external providers were engaged for this work.

The prime minister and the prime minister’s office were not part of this logo design.

You can read more from Paul Karp’s story at the link below:

Updated

Victoria records 7,460 new Covid cases and 4 deaths

And Victoria has reported 7,460 new Covid-19 cases and four deaths.

Updated

NSW records 10,689 Covid cases and 6 deaths

NSW has reported 10,689 new Covid-19 cases and 6 deaths overnight.

Updated

The former Labor leader, Bill Shorten, is hoping the upcoming federal budget will ease the pressure on cost of living, and that there will be measures that will encourage the uptake of electric vehicles.

On the Today show Shorten said: “Poor people can’t get electric vehicles and I blame the government.”

[Fuel is] north of $2 a litre. I understand that in part it’s because of the conflict in Ukraine, but petrol prices were going up earlier.

One thing I definitely hope to look for in the budget is, are they going to encourage more electric vehicles?

At the moment I’m driving an electric vehicle, and the price of filling up my vehicle with electricity is so much cheaper than petrol, we’re long overdue to do something about it.

Updated

According to Newspoll results reported by the Australian this morning, voters believe Anthony Albanese is a fraction more trustworthy than Scott Morrison.

Only 40% of voters polled believed Morrison was trustworthy, while 44% believed Albanese to be trustworthy. The result means Morrison remains the least trusted prime minister in more than a decade.

About 60% of voters believed Morrison was arrogant, compared with 38% for Albanese, with 48% believing Morrison was decisive and strong, a 22-point dip from his peak at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

That is the lowest score for a prime minister since the attribute was first listed.

Albanese meanwhile, was considered experienced by 59% of voters polled, and was considered more in touch with voters than Morrison. He was also rated as more caring than Morrison, with the poll showing voters believed he has more understanding of the major issues facing Australians.

Finally, Albanese was considered more likeable than Morrison, by 51% to 44%.

Updated

The federal finance minister, Simon Birmingham, is making the rounds this morning, discussing rising cost of living.

Birmingham was on ABC News earlier and was asked about the fuel excise in light of the New Zealand government cutting that tax, but Birmingham was reluctant to commit to anything, repeating Morrison’s lines from yesterday:

We have a federal budget we’re handing down two weeks from today. In framing that, we’re working very carefully in terms of managing all the different issues there. Those issues are of course a complex global environment, the war in Europe as we were just discussing, the continued challenges of recovering from Covid-19, the inflationary pressures right around the world.

When it comes to fuel prices, Australians understand and know it’s been driven by Russia’s horrific actions again Ukraine and the disruptions that’s caused globally. It’s not a factor caused here in Australia ...

I’m not going to give speculation to any particular measure. We need to weigh a complex global environment. We need to make sure we do nothing that jeopardises that continued jobs growth in Australia, 1.7m extra jobs created under our government.

On the Today show, Birmingham was similarly dismissive of any specific ideas to lower fuel prices:

If I start talking about what is or isn’t on the table for the budget in two weeks, it ignites all sorts of speculation.

We’re taking into account all of the economic advice we can about how we make sure we balance all of the difficult international factors, the war we face in Europe right now, the continued pressures of Covid recovery [and] how we manage the international inflationary environment.

Updated

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, was on Sky News last night speaking with Paul Murray, saying he is “happy in his own skin,” and referencing a 60 Minutes interview with the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese.

Morrison was referring to an exchange between Albanese and interviewer Karl Stefanovic, where Albanese discussed making changes to his life after a life-threatening car accident, including losing weight.

But Morrison elicited laughs from the audience when he said he hadn’t changed and still “enjoyed Italian cake”:

I’m not pretending to be anyone else, I’m still wearing the same glasses, sadly the same suits, and I weigh about the same, and I don’t mind a bit of Italian cake either.

So, I’m happy in my own skin, I’m not pretending to be anyone else.

Updated

NSW Fire and Rescue superintendent Adam Dewberry was on 2GB earlier this morning saying authorities were still unsure how the fire at the Newtown boarding house started:

It took about two hours to get this fire under control.

[Firefighters] found a very, very intense fire, very intense flames coming out of the first and second levels.

There are some people unaccounted for and that’s yet to be determined as the morning unfolds. Being a boarding house we are not too sure who was home, who wasn’t home. That will be part of the investigations through today.

Updated

One dead, multiple missing from Newtown boarding house fire

One person has died and multiple people are unaccounted for after a fire at a boarding house in Newtown in Sydney’s inner west.

Firefighters were called to the double-storey house at about 1am after reports it was burning.

NSW Police found a body inside on arrival, with five people taken to hospital with injuries.

Police said in a statement they had begun an investigation into the fire, which is now a crime scene.

Officers from inner west police area command have commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the blaze and are appealing for anyone with information to contact crime stoppers.

Good morning and welcome to another day on the blog, Mostafa Rachwani with you today to take you through the day’s news.

We begin in Sydney, where the federal government will today learn if it has won its fight to overturn a legal decision that found it owed Australian children protection from harm caused by climate change.

Eight high school students took the environment minister, Sussan Ley, to court in 2020 looking to block the expansion of the Vickery coal mine.

A federal court judge initially found Ley had a duty of reasonable care to not cause children personally injury due to her decisions. Ley appealed, with a decision due to be handed down at 10:15am, with protests expected outside the court this morning.

It comes as the federal government announced it will remove the need for developments in some areas to receive project-specific approval under national environment laws, to make it easier to approve projects without consideration of their impacts.

Pressure is increasing on the prime minister, Scott Morrison, as fuel prices continue to soar. Yesterday Morrison implied he would lean towards tax cuts as opposed to cutting the governments fuel tax, although reiterated a decision will be made with the budget.

Today also marks three years since the Christchurch massacre, with a report from the Islamophobia Register Australia recording a fourfold increase in reports of in-person incidents of anti-Muslim hate since.

Elsewhere, eyes will be on rising daily case numbers, amid calls for people to raise the lagging booster rate and the Omicron BA2 subvariant spreads.

There is still much going on, so let’s dive in.

Updated

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