What we learnt today, Tuesday 8 August
Thanks for joining us on the liveblog today – that’s where we’ll leave our rolling coverage.
Here is what made headlines today:
Doctors and parents from the Northern Territory rallied outside parliament and urged the government to drop its $1.5bn funding of the Middle Arm gas and industrial hub in Darwin amid health concerns for children and local communities. The protest is being supported by crossbench MPs and the Greens will be attempting to get an inquiry into the federal funding.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, defended the projects during question time, arguing the federal investment is needed “to develop clean energy industries to get to net zero” and dismissing health concerns.
Western Australia’s premier, Roger Cook, confirmed his government’s decision to overhaul cultural heritage laws introduced just over a month ago, saying they “went too far”.
Jumping on this decision, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, argued WA’s law could be “undone”, unlike a prospective Indigenous voice in the constitution which would be “permanent” and could have “unintended consequences”.
This comes as new polling revealed more Australians are planning to vote no in the referendum than yes – a first for Guardian’s Essential poll.
Albanese fielded numerous questions on the voice during parliamentary question time. Liberal MP Colin Boyce asked about claims the Uluru statement from the heart is “actually 26 pages long”, which Albanese shot down as a “conspiracy, [a] QAnon of a theory”.
The black box from the Taipan helicopter crash has been recovered from the wreckage site, Defence announced.
The government will reinstate the term “Occupied Palestinian Territories”. The Liberal MP Julian Leeser argued the “hard left” of Labor is responsible for this decision and that Albanese is “a weak prime minister” for being “unable to stare down [his] own people”.
The government will set up a new parliamentary committee to oversee defence issues but won’t reform the law to give parliament a binding vote on joining armed conflicts. The Greens senator Jordan Steele-John argued that “no other democracy in the world has an executive government that holds such unilateral power to send troops to war”.
The government today published the first update to its international development policy in 10 years.
The Reserve Bank noted that Australian investment in clean energy will need to triple from current levels by 2030 and keep rising after that to reach net zero emissions goals.
And the numbers are in – the sensational 2-0 win by the Matildas in the Fifa Women’s World Cup has drawn spectacular TV ratings, becoming the biggest audience of 2023 so far and eclipsing State of Origin I’s 1.98m metro.
Have a lovely evening and as always, we will see you back here tomorrow morning.
Updated
Climate activists push to legislate climate change duty of care for government
Teenage climate activist Anjali Sharma is continuing to push for the government to legislate a duty of care to young people to protect them from the impacts of climate change.
This comes as doctors and parents today protested at parliament over the government’s $1.5bn investment in the Middle Arm gas and industrial hub in Darwin.
Weighing in on the Middle Arm project, Sharma said on Twitter:
The Labor government has a duty of care to young people to protect us from the climate crisis. With every decision it makes, it seems to colossally fail to uphold this duty.
She wrote, “Is the future of young people just collateral damage in this government’s pursuit of profit” and argued if there was a legislated duty of care, the decision to fund Middle Arm “would likely be a lot harder to make”.
if the government had a legislated duty of care to young people to protect us from the impacts of climate change. this decision would likely be a lot harder to make. they’re lucky that they don’t - but our fight has just begun. sign the petition https://t.co/wWYmNbQ8Tu
— anjali sharma (@anjsharmaaa) August 8, 2023
Sharma was a high school student when she led a federal court case against the government for failing to consider the impacts of climate change. The proposed duty of care bill, introduced by the independent senator David Pocock, builds on this case.
Updated
