What we learned: Monday 15 January
And that’s where we’ll leave you this evening. Here’s our Monday wrap:
Santos’s $5.8bn Barossa offshore gas project has taken another step forward after the federal court dismissed a legal challenge by a group of Tiwi Islanders to the construction of a pipeline.
Two homes have been destroyed in a fire raging 60km north of Perth which has since been downgraded to a watch and act warning.
The combined wealth of the three richest Australians – Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest and Harry Triguboff – has more than doubled since 2020 at a staggering rate of $1.5m an hour, according to new analysis from Oxfam.
Several Teneriffe residents have blamed “grandstanding” opposition leader, Peter Dutton, for pro-Australia Day vandalism at the local Woolworths, after his calls for a boycott of the company.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, spoke to the media from Adelaide this morning as she prepares to depart for Israel, Jordan, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the United Arab Emirates. Wong reiterated that while Australia isn’t a “central player in the Middle East”, it is a “respected voice” and she will be advocating for a pathway out of the conflict.
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has defended the millions of taxpayer dollars given to Tennis Australia during the pandemic after the government yesterday confirmed it forgave a $43m debt to Tennis Australia; while the Age this morning reported a payment of up to $64m.
The mystery source of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine is yet to be found as bricks of the drug continue to wash up on New South Wales beaches and police scour the coastline for clues.
An audit report has found the climate change department is “not well placed” to measure the effectiveness of the federal government’s 2030 and 2050 emissions reductions targets.
A nine-year-old boy is in a critical but stable condition after he was attacked by a crocodile in the Northern Territory’s Kakadu national park on Saturday.
The Department of Home Affairs has been unable to determine who attacked the department’s website in October last year, bringing it down for five hours at the time.
Regional train workers in Victoria will stage industrial action next week, with the rail union locked in negotiations over a pay dispute.
Sydney recorded its wettest 24 hours since last April with 62mm of rain.
Updated
Explanation for asbestos in mulch at Sydney’s Rozelle parklands will ‘come out in due course’, supplier says
The construction boss who runs the company that supplied garden mulch containing asbestos to Sydney’s Rozelle parklands says an explanation for the contamination will “come out in due course” as the environmental watchdog continues its investigation.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was on Monday analysing samples from in and around Rozelle parklands after testing found bonded asbestos in 13 locations in mulch provided by Greenlife Resource Recovery.
Transport for NSW said it had analysed 85 samples from the park and surrounding sites “related to” the $3.9bn Rozelle interchange project in the inner west after a child brought home mulch containing bonded asbestos from a playground last week.
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