Daniel Andrews backs federal plan to boost migration – as it happened

Labor’s plan to tackle skills shortages would lift the annual migration cap from 160,000 to between 180,000 and 200,000. This blog is now closed

Bowen says climate reforms will help Australian industry avoid carbon tariffs

Bowen says how this will work has yet to be determined and gives a nod to an upcoming discussion paper, with the details to be hammered out in consultation with industry. But he raises some interesting points that this needs to happen as there is a growing risk Australian industry will be exposed to carbon tariffs if nothing changes.

This will help us avoid these, by showing the EU and the rest of the world, you don’t need to slap tariffs on our manufacturers and our producers because Australia is working with industry to get emissions down in a very sensible way.

The safeguard mechanism is taking the 315 biggest emissions and working with them to reduce emissions, because if we don’t, we will continue the 10 years of no reductions from those facilities and it won’t cut the mustard.

Any facility which emits more than 100,000 tonnes … whether it is new or existing, which is just increasing its activity, we are not having the same architecture. They will be put on a trajectory to net zero, facility by facility. We have designed this in a very sensible way.

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At least 89 Covid deaths; Littleproud tells Nationals he’ll bring pragmatic policies to jobs summit – as it happened

Nationals leader outlines vision for party at federal council meeting. This blog is now closed

White whale calf seen off NSW coast

There’s one newborn hogging all the attention off the NSW coast – a southern right whale calf born whiter than usual, AAP reports:

Southern right whales are mostly very dark, although some have splashes of white called a blaze.

Its white areas will darken to grey as it ages. It’s one of around one-in-30 southern right whale calves born with brindle colouring.

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Nationals leader says party must rebuild trust with women but rejects quotas

David Littleproud says regional Australians should be considered at Labor’s jobs summit as he outlines vision to party faithful

The leader of the Nationals, David Littleproud, has said his party will make rebuilding trust with women a top priority, but rejected quotas for his party.

“I don’t believe in quotas,” he said.

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OK boomer: the generational change that could shake up Victorian politics

Analysis: with Millennials and Gen Z outnumbering baby boomers, attention turns to the ‘youth vote’

Much has been made about voters shifting away from the major parties and towards independents and Greens candidates.

But a lot of the analysis from this year’s federal election didn’t consider one important aspect: it was the first in which baby boomers were outnumbered by Millennial and Gen Z voters.

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Selling Covid antivirals over the counter a ‘recipe for disaster’ – as it happened

The Pharmacy Guild has pushed for the drugs to be made available without a prescription at community pharmacies due to national GP shortages. This blog is now closed

Peter Dutton pressed on voice to parliament

Opposition leader Peter Dutton appeared on ABC’s 7.30 last night and it is worth revisiting for the exchange with host Sarah Ferguson about whether he will commit his party to supporting the voice to parliament.

SARAH FERGUSON: Let me move back into the domestic realm. At the start of parliament, you participated in the smoking ceremony, you allowed your face to be painted and then in your speech you quoted Noel Pearson and seemed to endorse Pearson’s call for constitutional recognition. What would prevent you now from taking the next step and backing the referendum on the voice?

PETER DUTTON: Well, I quoted Noel Pearson for whom I have a great deal of respect, and you can go back and look at the quote and there are many elements to that because there were several paragraphs that I quoted him on.

If we could get that to 60 per cent, then already you would go a long way to addressing part of the supply shortage of teachers.

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Australian education ministers agree to draft national plan to combat teacher shortages

Proposed plan will tackle workload, pay structures and attracting and retaining teachers, but does not address increased school funding

Education ministers have agreed to a national plan to consider better pathways into teaching, new pay structures and a decreased workload as means to combat the teacher shortage.

After a meeting in Canberra on Friday, state and territory ministers said the new federal education minister, Jason Clare, offered a “breath of fresh air”, but the commonwealth remained tight-lipped about increasing schools funding.

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Clive Palmer ordered to pay part of Mark McGowan’s legal costs; 87 more Covid deaths – As it happened

Federal court orders Palmer to pay undetermined sum in half of defamation proceedings between the pair; Senator Jim Molan calls for National Press Club not to host Chinese government officials. This blog is now closed

ACT warns of scam health texts

ACT Health says it has been made aware of scam text messages claiming to be services such as HealthDirect or Medicare.

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Energy ministers’ reforms to Australia’s electricity market could be path to a carbon price, experts say

Federal, state and territory ministers are set to make emissions reduction a priority for the national electricity market

Australia’s main electricity market will prioritise cutting emissions as part of its objectives for the first time since its creation a quarter of a century ago, a shift that could set up conditions for a carbon price, experts said.

Federal, state and territory energy ministers are scheduled to meet in Canberra on Thursday for a dinner before holding formal talks on Friday. It will be the first gathering since the national electricity market (NEM) was suspended in June after the market operator had to resort to whiteboards and spreadsheets to order generators online.

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GPs ditching bulk billing as costs rise and Medicare rebates lag, survey shows

Nearly a quarter of doctors surveyed said they recently changed billing model, as peak body calls for higher rebates

Doctors are increasingly scrapping bulk billing, according to a survey of almost 500 GPs, with stalling Medicare rebates and the costs of running a practice cited as key reasons.

HealthEd, a private professional education company for doctors, surveyed 477 GPs on 2 August and found more than one in five – 22% – had recently changed their billing model.

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Australia news live: GPs warn against over-the-counter Covid treatment as nation records 133 deaths from virus

New South Wales recorded 11,356 new Covid cases in the last reporting period and 30 deaths. There were 2,212 people in hospital and 55 in intensive care.

Bulk-billing statistics dishonest, minister says

The former government was not honest with Australians about the true state of bulk billing in Australia by selectively quoting only this [88%] figure

Primary care is in its worst shape since Medicare began. Across the country we hear stories of Australians not being able to get in to see a bulk-billing doctor, or GPs changing from bulk billing to mixed billing.

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Chinese ambassador to Australia says Beijing will use ‘all necessary means’ for Taiwan ‘unification’

Xiao Qian says reset of China-Australia relationship is possible and suggests Washington had turned Canberra against Beijing

China’s ambassador to Australia has warned Beijing is prepared to use “all necessary means” to prevent Taiwan from being independent, saying there can be “no compromise” on the “one China” policy.

Xiao Qian on Wednesday repeatedly blamed the US for the recent escalation in tensions. China’s decision to launch ballistic missiles in live-fire exercises in response to speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was “legitimate and justified”, he told the National Press Club in Canberra.

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David Pocock to use Senate balance of power to push for waiving of ACT’s public housing debt

Independent calls for $100m debt to be wiped as part of negotiations over Labor’s $10bn housing policy, which also faces Greens resistance

The new independent senator David Pocock will use his balance of power position in the Senate to push for the ACT government’s $100m public housing debt to be waived as part of negotiations over Labor’s new housing policy.

Legislation for the government’s new $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund also faces resistance from the Greens, with the party’s housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather saying the proposal is not “good enough” to secure support in the Senate.

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SES and Resilience NSW ‘failed’ to lead flood response, inquiry finds – as it happened

New threatened species listings include south-eastern glossy black-cockatoo

Two Australian species that were badly affected by the 2019-20 black summer bushfires have been officially listed as threatened.

The damage caused by the black summer bushfires is still being felt today and can be seen reflected in these listings today.

The fires had an immense impact on our environment, from a small reptile found in the mountains to a bird that is at home on the coast. There is still a lot of work to do.

It seems as though these positions are being offered around almost like lolly bags to senior members of the New South Wales government rather than what they’re intended to be, which is senior positions funded by the taxpayer. We shouldn’t operate like that in New South Wales. We’re slowly but surely finding out the contours of what is an absolute scandal.

There’s many questions to be asked. At the end of the day we’re expected to believe of the 8 million people who live in New South Wales, John Barilaro was independently chosen to represent our interests. I think that ... stretches credibility.

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‘Inhumane detention’: doctors for Australian jailed in Iraq warn Albanese government of his dire health

‘I fear that Australia will in short time be repatriated with the corpse of Mr [Robert] Pether’, say doctors of imprisoned engineer

Doctors for an Australian engineer jailed in Iraq have privately warned the Australian government of fears that Australia will be repatriating “a corpse” if his condition continues to rapidly deteriorate.

Robert Pether’s family have repeatedly raised fears about the 47-year-old’s health since he was jailed over a business dispute relating to the construction of a new headquarters for Iraq’s central bank, which Pether’s firm was working on.

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Australia news live: no colleagues raised concerns about job application, John Barilaro tells inquiry

The former NSW deputy premier is appearing this morning at a parliamentary inquiry into his appointment to a US trade job

Queensland commits $22m for livestock biosecurity taskforce

Queensland will set up a taskforce to help protect the state’s livestock from “unprecedented biosecurity risks” amid the threat of foot and mouth disease on Australia’s doorstep, AAP reports.

David Elliott was never promised a job outside of politics. That is deeply offensive and wrong. People will always say from time to time, discussions will be had in relation to when someone retires what they would like to do, that is normal.

From time to time, members of parliament – when they’re seeking to leave politics – will talk to colleagues in relation to what they might want to do next.

At that time, minister Elliott did not want to recontest the next election, but was interested in being part of the team going forward.

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Push for wider Barilaro appointment probe; state funeral for Judith Durham – As it happened

Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro is expected to appear at the parliamentary inquiry on Monday to answer questions about his appointment to a US trade job. This blog is now closed

Hastie ‘open-minded’ about visiting Taiwan

Hastie is asked if Australia could be doing more to help Taiwan.

We should be talking with everyone, we should be maintaining good relationships with everyone, and that’s true of Taiwan, as it is of China.

I’m open-minded to going there. I have a very full dance card... with a young family and enough travel as it is, but certainly I’m on the record that I would like to visit Taiwan at some point.

They have invited me... I will wait and see.

The advice I received from Defence as assistant minister for defence was that we were going to cover that gap with the life of type extension for the Collins class. They are still a regionally superior submarine.

The question is how quickly can we deliver a nuclear submarine or several of those boats to the Royal Australian Navy. That’s why I’ve said again, several times over the last month that Richard Marles as defence minister needs to be focused on delivering those submarines as quickly as possible. Every single day he should be thinking about it. When he wakes up he should be thinking about submarines. When he goes to bed, when he is asleep, he should be dreaming about submarines. We need political focus on delivering these submarines for our country.

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Veteran Australian political journalist David Barnett dies aged 90

Barnett spearheaded the first official Canberra bureau of Australian Associated Press more than 50 years ago

Veteran federal political journalist David Barnett, who spearheaded the first official Canberra bureau of Australian Associated Press more than 50 years ago, has died aged 90.

Barnett became the national newswire’s first bureau chief in 1971 overseeing two journalists in what is now called Old Parliament House.

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NSW Liberals pass preselection reforms to prevent repeat of election fiasco

Senator Andrew Bragg praises party for ‘modernising its mechanics’ after the state branch adopted his motion

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Senator Andrew Bragg has heralded the passage of reforms by the New South Wales Liberal party as important to avoid a repeat of its preselection fiasco before the 2022 election.

The state party’s annual general meeting on Saturday adopted the NSW senator’s proposed reforms requiring the party to publish and follow a timetable for preselections within 12 months of an election.

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Opposition calls for Australia to develop missiles, warning ‘lucky country’ era is over

Shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie warns of ‘bleak’ outlook in region as Chinese embassy condemns Australia’s ‘finger-pointing’

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The shadow defence minister, Andrew Hastie, has called for Australia to develop and operate its own missiles, warning the era of the “lucky country” is over.

On Sunday, Hastie argued Australia needs greater deterrents given the “very bleak” strategic outlook, with a “rising China” displaying “revisionist and expansionist ambitions”.

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Labor to advocate for ‘significant’ pay rise for Australia’s aged care sector, Anika Wells says

Albanese government says it is committed to pay for any increase ordered by Fair Work Commission, with unions calling for 25%

The Albanese government will advocate for a “significant, meaningful” pay rise for workers in the aged care sector, according to the aged care minister, Anika Wells.

The comments on Sunday come ahead of a submission from the federal government to the Fair Work Commission case considering unions’ call for a 25% pay rise to reflect the increased value of aged care work.

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