What we learned: Monday 24 February
Thanks for reading our blog today. Have a great evening, wherever you are.
Here were today’s major developments:
NSW police have said the “very experienced” fisher who went overboard on Sunday is believed to have become entangled in fishing gear while retrieving a shark, before he fell off the boat and failed to resurface.
Brisbane’s bus drivers have delayed industrial action to the end of the week due to what their union described as “more productive negotiations” with Brisbane city council.
The Climate Change Authority has analysed the opposition leader, Peter Dutton’s, nuclear energy policy and said it would add huge amounts of extra climate pollution to the atmosphere and make it “virtually impossible” for Australia to reach net zero by 2050.
Senate estimates heard that Australia will meet a request by the UN’s top climate official to have countries submit by September this year their climate targets for 2035.
Dutton and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, both held press conferences today. Dutton claimed to be the election “underdog” despite a boost in the polls.
Albanese was out talking up a Labor election promise of investing $8.5bn to fund an extra 18m bulk-billed GP visits a year. Albanese said the government was “very confident” about reaching a 90% bulk-billing rate under the new Medicare plan
And the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has said her government will strip planning powers from local governments that don’t get serious about approving more homes. Allan said she intended to “shake things up” to address the housing crisis as she released the final local government housing targets drafted last year.
Updated
Buses carrying schoolchildren crash in Queensland, no injuries reported
Two buses believed to be carrying schoolchildren have crashed in Caboolture, north of Brisbane.
The Queensland ambulance service said paramedics responded to the collision at the corner of Morayfield Road and Stringfellow Road just before 3pm.
The ambulance service said no one was injured.
Updated
