What we learned today, Sunday 8 September
Thank you everyone for following along with us today. We’re going to wind things up. Here are the day’s key events:
It turns out you can do not one, but two backflips, and end up in a different place. The government will add a gender identity question to the 2026 census.
The adorably named laughing frog is just one of 750 new species now recognised in Australia.
The speed of all drivers, not just truckies, will be tracked through average-speed camera zones in a NSW trial on stretches of two highways.
South Australia is aiming for 100% renewable energy by 2027.
Thousands of anti-war activists are protesting at a weapons expo in Melbourne. They already brought in extra police, and the expo doesn’t even start until Wednesday.
Women are limiting their exercising and commuting because there’s not enough lighting in public spaces.
Updated
We had a piece earlier from Karen Middleton on Labor’s attack ad on opposition leader Peter Dutton’s nuclear plans. Here it is if you’re keen to watch:
Peter Dutton won’t admit his nuclear scheme is too expensive, too slow to build and too risky. pic.twitter.com/TWUrKwgmXh
— Australian Labor (@AustralianLabor) September 7, 2024
Here are the details of that story we mentioned early about South Australia cracking down on social media giants:
Steph Harmon asks Ben Lee 10 chaotic questions and the result is a marvellous ride:
Compensation for Tasmanians affected by last week’s storms
Tasmanians are eligible for more compensation in the wake of those wild storms last week, which caused flooding, power outages and damage to homes. The state and federal government deal means payments of up to $2,000 will be available to households whose primary residence has been without power for more than a week, or is uninhabitable.
The premier, Jeremy Rockliff, said while power has been restored to many households, “the unprecedented scale of the damage means that thousands of Tasmanians are still waiting to be reconnected”.
“For households facing power outages for up to five weeks, this new payment means they are eligible for $10,000 in payments,” he said.
Emergency management minister, Jenny McAllister, said:
We know that it has been a really difficult week for families and communities, and we are committed to supporting everyone impacted by these storms, as we move from response into recovery.
People can apply here from Monday.
Updated
Point-to-point speed camera trial coming to NSW highways
The speed of all drivers, not just truckies, will be tracked through average-speed camera zones in a NSW trial, AAP reports.
But don’t expect a fine in the mail if you mess up in the early days.
Australia’s biggest jurisdiction has announced it would cease being a global outlier on point-to-point speed detection and its heavy-vehicles-only policy.
An all-driver approach will be trialled along two stretches of highway where six people have died in recent years.
Speeding drivers will receive written warnings for the first 60 days before financial and licence penalties kick in.
All other mainland Australian states and countries like the UK, Norway, Italy and the Netherlands had found average speed cameras to be effective, roads minister John Graham said:
We aim to be as rigorous as possible to be sure they will also reduce road trauma in NSW.
Legislation will be required to set up the trial, which will begin along a 15km stretch of the Pacific Highway between Kew and Lake Innes on the mid-north coast and a similar length of the Hume Highway, north of Gundagai.
Six people died and 33 more were seriously injured in the five years to 2022 at those locations.
In 2023, speeding contributed to 44% of road deaths in NSW, three-quarters of which were in regional NSW.
A comprehensive communications campaign will inform drivers about the trial.
Updated
An update on those anti-war protests in Melbourne – AAP reports interstate police have been called in to bolster law and order ahead of what could be Victoria’s biggest protest since the chaos surrounding the World Economic Forum in 2000.
Karen Middleton has rounded up everything we know (so far) about the changes to the next census:
SA considers social media ban for under 14s
A bill to ban children under 14 from social media is being considered in South Australia. The proposed legislation would also make social media companies get parents’ consent for children aged 14 and 15.
The state government will now consult on the draft bill, which would have a regulator overseeing compliance, issuing sanctions and penalties, and seeking further action through the supreme court for more serious breaches. Families of children who suffer mental or physical harm as a result of social media access would be able to sue for damages if a provider has breached their duty.
The premier, Peter Malinauskas, discussed the proposed move at national cabinet on Friday.
He said there was clear evidence social media was harming children:
And my intent is clear, we are going to do something about it.
We now have a pathway forward to implement a ban on social media platforms allowing children under the age of 14 to have accounts, and to require parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds.
When we see products doing children harm, whether it be drugs, cigarettes or alcohol, governments have a role to play. The addictive nature of social media is no different.
Ultimately, we want to see a legal framework in place across the country and to that end, I took the opportunity to brief the prime minister and other state and territory leaders on Mr French’s considerable work while in Canberra this week.
Updated
Liked the cute turtles? You’ll love the laughing frog! And the ghost sand dragon, and all the others Lisa Cox has rounded up here:
Man in critical condition after car collides with pole in Sydney's west
A man is in critical condition after a crash in Rydalmere in Sydney’s west.
NSW police said emergency services were called to Pike Street and found a Mazda vehicle had collided with a pole and “split in half”. The statement said:
The driver, a man believed to be in his 20s, was trapped for a short time before being released by Fire & Rescue NSW.
NSW Ambulance paramedics treated the man at the scene before he was taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition.
Pike Street is currently closed in both directions and is expected to remain a crime scene for a considerable amount of time. Motorists are area urged to avoid the area.
As inquiries continue anyone with information about the incident – or has any available dashcam, mobile or phone footage – is urged to contact Ryde Police Station or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online.
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When conservationists devised a plan to fence a fox-proof haven for endangered eastern quolls in Booderee national park, they realised this could create a problem for the area’s eastern long-necked turtles.
Graham Readfearn has written about the solution they came up with – turtle tunnels filled with water:
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More wild weather in Australia’s south-east
After a week of record flooding in Tasmania, wild weather in Victoria and New South Wales, and temperature surges in other parts of the country, the Bureau of Meteorology says there will be gusty winds and showers in Australia’s south-east later on Sunday. The bureau is warning of more damaging winds in north-east Tasmania and the alpine regions of NSW.
Gusty winds & showers later Sunday in south-east #Aus. Damaging winds about north-east #TAS & #NSW alpine region. Flooding continues for parts of TAS. Severe thunderstorms possible for far north-east NSW Monday, storms & showers for southern #QLD. More: https://t.co/jlOoTZL1iF pic.twitter.com/guvUVYeGsb
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) September 8, 2024
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Adeshola Ore has taken a look at the imminent scrapping of a donor-linking service, and how it will affect donor-conceived people:
The donor-linking was the thing I held on to as a safety island in this complete chaos. To know there was a safe way to meet the donor that was a mutually agreed location and to have a counsellor there.
Police prepare for 25,000 protesters at Melbourne weapons expo
AAP reports as many as 25,000 protesters are expected to cause chaos ahead of a weapons expo to be held in Melbourne with some already vandalising hotels and blocking traffic.
Protests kicked off earlier than expected on Friday night, despite the Land Forces expo not starting until Wednesday.
Melbourne hotels were vandalised with red paint and traffic blocked during protests held on Saturday.
On Sunday morning, a small group of protesters from Extinction Rebellion blocked Montague Street near the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre where the expo is being held.
Victoria police said on Sunday they would have a significant presence during and in the lead up to what will be their biggest operation in decades.
Hundreds of police have been diverted from regional areas to provide support and numerous officers can be seen in and around the building, including at all exit and entrance points.
Police also erected a ring of steel around the event.
XR Vic are Slow Marching as part of Disrupt Land Forces to say we want Earth Care NOT Warfare.
— XRVicAus (@XRVicAus) September 8, 2024
Land Forces is a one stop genocide shop.
War crimes start in corporate boardrooms.@wagepeaceau #StopArmingIsrael#StopTheGenocide#EarthCareNotWarfare pic.twitter.com/dcfNmQtnLJ
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Census update ‘sensible, pragmatic and moral’: Equity Australia
Including a question on sexual and gender orientation in the census is the “sensible, pragmatic and moral course of action”, Equality Australia says.
The organisation’s chief executive officer, Anna Brown, says it will “ensure vital data about some of the most vulnerable populations in Australia is collected nationally for the first time”:
Service providers, health entities, government departments and businesses rely on the census for baseline population data.
They need a complete picture of who we are as a nation, including where LGBTIQ+ people live, what our jobs are, our health issues, where we go to school and what our families look like.
Rainbow parent April Long, who brought a human rights complaint about the exclusion of sexual orientation questions, says the announcement was “deeply personal”:
For the first time, I feel like we are truly seen.
As a parent, this also means the world to me. When our son starts school, we’ll know how many other kids, just like him, have two mums or two dads. It’s about recognition – it’s about saying to every family, ‘You matter.’ Every child should be seen, and every family should be counted.
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Ah, South Australia’s statewide blackout, fodder for renewables sceptics (PS, it wasn’t the windfarms). And look at us now!
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More on that census question (or topic) from the assistant health minister, Ged Kearney, who was part of the push to reverse the initial decision to can a question on sexuality (that sentence is quite convoluted, apologies). She says:
Earlier this week I visited the Rainbow Families Youth Council. These amazing, brave young people are why we need this kind of inclusion in our society.
Never forget you are loved, you matter, and you will be counted.
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Helen Sullivan spoke to Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate, Tim Costello, for this piece:
We have the most lax regulation of anywhere in the world. That’s all there is to it.
Running safe
This is very interesting from Elias Visontay. It feels as if it’s only just gotten light enough in the mornings now, but daylight saving time will scotch that soon enough. But also think of the poor nocturnal animals!
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Foreign bribery laws come into effect
New laws against foreign bribery come into effect today. Companies that fail to prevent foreign bribery activities by their employees, external contractors, and so on could face penalties of tens of millions of dollars.
In a statement, the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said:
Foreign bribery is corruption and an insidious problem across the world. It harms communities, impedes economic development and undermines the rule of law.
The Albanese government has no tolerance for corruption of any kind – whether in the public sector or the private sector.
The Combatting Foreign Bribery Act enhances Australia’s response to foreign bribery and demonstrates this government’s commitment to combatting foreign bribery and ensuring our laws are effective in detecting, investigating and prosecuting foreign bribery.
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‘Currently, you can flat-out lie’: Pocock on AI-generated political advertising
Independent senator David Pocock is on the ABC talking about a little trick he played, creating a deep fake of the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to highlight the risks of artificial intelligence. He links it to moves to ensure truth in political advertising:
This is something that is incredibly important to protect our democracy. We have to ensure that, when people see electoral material, when they see something put out there by political parties, by politicians, that they can actually trust what is being said, to an extent. Currently, you can flat-out lie.
You can read Jordyn Beazley’s story about it here:
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Government’s critics would like to see a recession: Chalmers
Chalmers has been asked about commodity prices again, and his startling warning that a potential scenario could see $4.5bn come off. He says:
A lot of global economic uncertainty which is combining with persistent price pressures here in our own economy and the impact of higher interest rates to slow our own economy quite considerably. It also has an impact on the budget. When commodity prices weaken, it has an impact on our economy but also on our budget.
And he’s repeating his claim that the government’s critics would have liked to see Australia plunge into a recession. And that’s it for now!
Updated
Government wants to do the right things ‘for the right reasons’ on census: Chalmers
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is up again. He’s holding a press conference about that move mentioned below to introduce a new topic in the 2026 census. He says the government has listened to the community and worked with the ABS to “get it right” and that it wants to do the right thing “for the right reasons”. He says:
The government provides the topics to the ABS and the ABS writes the questions. And that’s what we expect to see here.
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More details on new census gender question
Here are some more details on that new question in the census, which has caused somewhat of a brouhaha. Treasury assistant minister, Andrew Leigh, has just put out a statement confirming there will be a new topic of “sexual orientation and gender” in the 2026 census. According to the statement:
These questions will only be asked of people aged 16 and over, and the ABS has told the government that people will have the option not to answer.
The new topic reflects consultation with the ABS’s LGBTIQ+ expert advisory committee, including key peak bodies in the sector.
The ABS did not recommend a topic on variations of sex characteristics (intersex status) in the census, and it will not be included.
Leigh says the government will continue working with the intersex community on gathering information through other ABS surveys. He says:
We value every Australian, regardless of their faith, race, gender or LGBTIQ+ status. The government’s position follows further engagement with the community and additional discussions with the ABS.
The government will make a legislative instrument to implement these changes, and will introduce this instrument before the end of the year.
Updated
3D-printing off-planet habitats from local ‘soil’: a space architect’s dream to realise
Here’s a fascinating story from AAP about robots “spraying lava-like mud for a landing pad and base camp” on the moon or Mars:
Space architect Melodie Yashar, from American technology firm Icon, will soon visit Australia to showcase off-planet habitats that are 3D-printed from local “soil”.
But rather than a “plan B” for a damaged planet, she sees space as the ultimate frontier to explore technologies and bring back tips for better ways of living on Earth.
“Space exploration is an intrinsic part of what it means to be human,” she says
Icon is working with Nasa on space projects. Yashar said:
The reason why it’s so appealing to Nasa and other space agencies is that you can send up one construction robot and use the local materials that are already on the planet.
Moon dust, or regolith, on the surface could be used as feedstock to create structures, instead of shipping in tonnes of materials from Earth.
“Essentially we’re fusing the material onto itself and it creates a lava consistency and once it’s hardened it becomes a ceramic material,” she explained.
She said exploration would be an essential part of any long-term settlement on the moon, first setting up a base camp and supporting short stays.
Eventually, there could be habitats that are certified for human occupancy and the possible use of underground cavities, such as the moon’s lava tubes, to protect against deep-space radiation.
Updated
A guard assaulted a prisoner, and private prison operator Serco responded by locking all 175 inmates in a section of the northern NSW prison. That’s led to calls for sanctions, Catie McLeod reports:
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ABC’s Green predicts swing away from teal independent in Kooyong
Continuing from our previous post: The lineup does not include the former deputy Liberal leader and treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who previously said he would not recontest Kooyong – the seat he held from 2010 to 2022.
Teal independent Dr Monique Ryan currently holds the seat of Kooyong and when she won it in 2022, this marked the first time since federation the seat had not been held by the conservative side of politics.
As ABC election analyst Antony Green reports on his personal blog, the strongest Liberal voting parts of Higgins have now been transferred to Kooyong. He predicts that Ryan’s margin will be reduced from 2.9% to 1.8% with the changes. Green also estimates that Labor’s margin in Chisholm will halve from 6.4% to 3.2% amid the transfer of strong Labor voting areas to Menzies.
Updated
Liberals reopen nominations for Melbourne seats of Kooyong and Chisholm
The Liberals have reopened nominations in the federal seats of Kooyong and Chisholm in Melbourne, Sky News reported on Saturday evening.
This comes after Victoria’s new federal electoral boundaries were released on Thursday, decreasing the number of divisions from 39 to 38 after Higgins was abolished. Sky reported that during an administration committee meeting scheduled for Sunday in Victoria, the Liberal party would be looking to speak with three candidates about two seats.
They are Amelia Hamer, who has already been endorsed as the candidate for Kooyong, and Katie Allen, the Liberals’ endorsed candidate for now-abolished Higgins. The third is Theo Zographos, the Liberal’s endorsed candidate for Chisholm – currently held by Labor MP Carina Garland.
Sky reported that Allen would be focusing her efforts on the seat of Chisholm.
Updated
Labor launches attack ad on Coalition’s nuclear energy plan
Labor has launched a new attack advertisement targeting the Coalition’s plan to build nuclear reactors, alleging it would cost $600bn and push up power bills by $1,000 a year.
Education minister, Jason Clare, said as the next election approached, Australians needed to focus on what the opposition is offering as well as what the government is doing.
“This is going to take forever to build,” Clare said of the coalition’s proposed nuclear reactors at seven identified sites around Australia:
It’s going to cost a bomb, and then it’ll only produce less than 4% of the energy that we need as a country. It shows that this is not a serious outfit with a serious set of policies to put to the Australian people at the next election means they’re not ready to govern.
Shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, dismissed the argument, saying Labor had “no credibility” on energy policy issues.
“This is the Labor party that promised $275 [in energy] price reduction, and there’s no sign of that,” Taylor told Sky News Sunday Agenda program. “... So their energy policies have failed. There is a better pathway, and that is exactly what we’re pursuing.”
Taylor said the coalition’s nuclear-power-focused policy would cost less than Labor’s renewable-focused policy, which he alleged would cost $1.2tn. He accused prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the government of acting more like an opposition.
“That’s where Albanese is happy – fighting Tories,” he said. “But frankly, we’re focused on policies that will bring down prices and make sure that we have a reliable grid, not just in the short term, but over the long term as well.”
He said the coalition would unveil its energy policy costings before the next federal election.
Updated
Census to include questions on gender and sexuality, Chalmers says
Speers finishes up by asking Chalmers about the ongoing census questions palaver.
He says there will be a new question covering both sexual orientation and gender for the first time (first there were going to be no questions, then there was going to be one on sexual orientation but gender was going to be left out, now it looks like it’s in):
We have listened to the community. We worked very closely with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. LGBTIQ+ Australians matter. They have been heard and they will count in the 2026 census.
Chalmers says the treasury assistant minister, Andrew Leigh, will make a statement about this later today. And he says:
Really the message that we want to ensure that Australians hear from us today is that we understand the feedback that we got, we listened to that, we took it very seriously, we listened very genuinely.
We said we would find the best way to do this and I believe that we have and we will and the ABS will continue to refine the actual wording of the questions now that this additional topic has been add.
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‘A lot at stake and a lot to gain’ with China: Chalmers
The treasurer is off to Beijing in the last week of September, the first visit by an Australian treasurer in seven years. He says it’s about recognising there is “a lot at stake and a lot to gain” from the relationship:
We want to make sure that we are maximising this really important economic relationship with our key trading partner. It’s a relationship which is full of complexity, but also full of opportunity and I want to help the government maximise that opportunity for the Australian people, workers, businesses, employers, investors.
Updated
Drop in commodity prices could cost $4.5bn: Chalmers
Speers moves from spending to the other side of the budget – revenue – and in this case commodity prices and the billions dropping off there. It could be $4.5bn coming off, Chalmers says:
One of the scenarios that Treasury has provided us is, if we continue to see that kind of drop in some of our key commodities, it could cost the budget something like $4.5bn. So that’s one scenario that we’re looking at.
The oil price has also been “quite incredibly volatile”, he says, and “this is a real sign of weakness in the global economy, uncertainty and volatility and risk in a global economy and we’re not immune from it”.
Updated
Chalmers calls for bipartisan solution to aged care funding
Chalmers says they’ll have more to say on aged care reforms “quite soon”. He says they want to provide “better services for more people in a more sustainable way without introducing a new tax or changing the treatment of the family home”:
We need to change the way that aged care is funded because it’s a huge medium-term and long-term pressure on the budget. We have said we like to do that in a bipartisan way given the long time frames that we’re talking about here.
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‘We need to be realistic’: Chalmers on Medicare including dental
There were reports this week that some Labor MPs are agitating for Medicare to be extended to dental care. “It’s not something we’re announcing today,” Chalmers says, but it doesn’t sound hopeful:
We’ve got pretty severe budget constraints, we made that clear privately and publicly. There’s way more good ideas than there are capacity to fund them. As the architects of Medicare, we have spent billions of dollars already this parliamentary term strengthening Medicare for the future.
We get all kinds of suggestions from colleagues and others about how we might be able to do more of that … we will work with the states and territories on dental care to see if more can be done. But we need to be realistic about that in the context of these pretty serious budget constraints.
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‘It’s better to avoid a recession rather than clean up after one’: Chalmers
Speers asks about the government’s plan to spur on productivity and growth. Chalmers says there are three phases – cost-of-living relief in the short term, “building more houses … boosting renewables … training people for the jobs and opportunities where we can adapt and better adopt technology” in the medium term, and “making the economy more competitive and dynamic with our competition policy reforms”.
On the mid-year budget update, he says they’ll “factor in challenges as they find them”. He says:
We think it’s better to avoid a recession rather than clean up after one and that’s where we differ from our political opponents.
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Inflation needs to come down more: Chalmers
Chalmers says inflation has come down considerably, but needs to come down more. He says if the government had cut harder in the last budget, Australia would be in a recession. He says the government’s critics “desperately want us to be in recession for political reasons”. He also says it’s “self-evident” why the economy is slowing:
And it’s just self-evident and not specially controversial to say that the reasons why our economy is slowing considerably including in those numbers that we got last Wednesday is a combination of global economic uncertainty, persistent price pressures and inflation and higher interest rates. That’s not a specially controversial point.
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‘We’ve got slightly different responsiblities’: Chalmers on government and RBA
Chalmers says his and Bullock’s interests are “aligned”. “We’ve got the same objectives, we got slightly different responsibilities,” he says:
But we’re making good progress together. When we came to office, when I came to office, inflation had a six in front of it under the Liberals. It’s now got a three in front of it and we expect it to moderate further.
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‘I don’t second-guess the Reserve Bank’: Chalmers
The sluggish economy, reinforced by this week’s GDP figures, sparked a blame game between the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and Reserve Bank governor, Michelle Bullock. Chalmers said high interest rates were smashing the economy, while Bullock says a cut is not on the cards in the context of persistently high inflation.
Insiders host, David Speers, starts this morning’s interview with Chalmers asking about the former treasurer Wayne Swan’s comments (he said he was disappointed in the RBA’s approach).
Chalmers says Swan went further than he had. He says:
I choose my own words … on my own views. I’ve got my own priorities, my own focus and that’s working with the governor of the Reserve Bank in this fight against inflation and we’re making progress.
You know, I was making a factual point this time last week and it’s a fact – borne out in the national accounts that higher interest rates are slowing the economy considerably. I have been making a similar point for some months. Now, Wayne went much further than I have. I’m making a factual point borne out by the national accounts. I don’t second-guess the Reserve Bank in the way that Wayne has.
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Welcome
Good morning, regulars and irregulars! Welcome to your Sunday on the blog. It’s Tory here trying to fire up the grey cells and bring you today’s news.
There’s a slightly alarming story from AAP about the fight against bird flu: Australia’s ability to fight off a deadly strain of avian influenza will be put to the test in a bid to keep a global outbreak ripping through animal populations overseas at bay, the report says.
There have been no cases of H5N1 in Australia yet – we’re the only continent without an outbreak. But there are fears it could cause significant damage to native wildlife and poultry.
On Sunday, leaders in emergency management, health, the environment, animal welfare and poultry producers are joining forces for a series of exercises examining how the nation would act on a rush of local cases.
The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, described the situation as “dynamic” as she highlighted concerns about the impact to wildlife, threatened species and agriculture.
“While we can’t stop the natural migration patterns of wild birds that may be sick, we can prepare ourselves if that does occur by ensuring we are working together in this national effort to protect Australia,” she said.
We’ll bring you more details on this story later.
If you want to kick off with something a little chirpier, Graham Readfearn has some turtles with cute grins and some quolls for you.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is coming up on Insiders. It’s been a biggish week in economics – read this thorough take by Peter Hannam if you need to catch up.
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