What we learned today, Monday 25 November
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Here are the main stories:
The deputy prime minister’s chief of staff, Jo Tarnawsky, is suing her boss and the government after it failed to resolve the employment stalemate that has seen her locked out of her office since May.
The independent senator David Pocock called Labor “gutless” for delaying gambling ad reform. A recovering gambling addict who testified before a parliamentary inquiry into gambling harm also criticised the government’s decision to delay advertising reforms.
At the short hearing on the federal government’s social media ban bill, mental health groups and experts were asked whether the good outweighs the ban on social media for under-16s.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, made a speech in the House of Representatives calling for the parliament to give “unanimous” support to his government’s bid to ban under-16s from social media, saying world leaders were “applauding” the push.
The government also said its digital ID won’t be used to assure ages on social media, but when pressed could not point out in the under-16s ban legislation where it was specifically prohibited.
Elon Musk’s X warned the bill to ban under-16s from social media may not be lawful, and the company is reserving its legal rights.
Julie Inman Grant, the Safety Commissioner said it was her role to “enforce the laws”, not endorse, and the under-16 social media age ban was a matter for the parliament.
The Greens said they would wave through Labor’s housing plan so they can “focus on campaigning for renters and against Peter Dutton at the next election”.
The expected power crunch has shifted to Thursday as a heatwave lingers over eastern Australia.
The NSW Council of Civil Liberties says an “extraordinary” number of people were arrested at the Riding Tide climate protest in Newcastle yesterday, because of “draconian anti-protest laws” in the state.
A man has been charged after cars and buildings were damaged or vandalised with anti-Israel graffiti in Sydney’s east last week.
Updated
Mayors blindsided by NSW housing proposal
Mayors of the areas home to Sydney’s supersized housing precincts have been left “blindsided” after the NSW government announcing major zoning changes without first telling them.
Six precincts were up for consideration and all had at least 1,000 additional homes added to their expected housing density in new zoning announced on Monday – except for the Kellyville and Bella Vista area, which had its total cut by three-quarters.
The premier, Chris Minns, told reporters he thought that was a “reasonable compromise”:
The number of new homes being built in the Blacktown local government area is massive, far, far higher than Macquarie Park and Hornsby.
The mayor of Blacktown, Brad Bunting, said the decision was “a win for common sense” and praised the government’s decision.
However, that precinct also reaches into the Hills shire, where the mayor, Michelle Byrne, was unhappy to have learned about the rezoning via morning media reports:
It’s disappointing that the minister has steamrolled council with this announcement. There are a lot of issues with this half-baked proposal that need to be addressed.
Byrne said the finalised proposal had wiped housing growth from Blacktown and put all of the increase into the Hills.
The City of Ryde initially issued a statement thanking the government for its consultative approach but in a subsequent statement said staff had been “blindsided by today’s announcement” and had found “major discrepancies” between the government’s announcement and departmental master-planning documents.
The North Sydney mayor, Zoë Baker, also said she had not been notified ahead of the announcement for the Crows Nest precinct, slamming the ruled 3% minimum for affordable housing as “wholly inadequate”, while a Hornsby shire council spokesperson said the new development plan included a number of changes made without consulting the council.
Updated
