Poll finds 28 of 30 economists expect central bank to keep cash rate steady at 4.35%. Follow the day’s news live
Good morning, and happy Tuesday.
I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be with you on the blog today – many thanks to Martin for kicking things off.
Continue reading...The British government has told Commonwealth Games organisers that the UK will not step in to rescue the event again after the Gold Coast withdrew its bid for the 2026 event.
Substantial UK government support allowed Birmingham to ride to the rescue of the 2022 Games after Durban was stripped of the event in 2017.
Continue reading...Peak arts body Creative Australia agrees to extraordinary acknowledgment and six-figure payment in settlement with Casey Jenkins
A performance artist who had federal government funding cancelled after a backlash against a work involving their self-insemination says the national arts advisory body is still being run by the people who led the “ridiculous charge” against them.
Casey Jenkins has settled a federal court case against the Australia Council, now known as Creative Australia, for withdrawing $25,000 in funding for the exhibition Immaculate, in which they intended to livestream their monthly attempts to become pregnant.
Continue reading...‘The fact that we’re still having to attend meetings – four years down the track – is just a disgrace. It is so depressing,’ says one local
At times, the stench has roused Nicole Power from her sleep. The St Albans resident likens it to the smell of burning chemicals.
“It get rights down in my throat,” she said.
Continue reading...Environmental groups allege some of the supermarkets’ salmon is from Tasmanian farms reportedly having ‘catastrophic’ impact on ancient Maugean skate
Major supermarkets may be misleading consumers that their salmon products are responsibly sourced as some is produced in Tasmanian farms that are “far from sustainable”, environmental groups say.
The Environmental Defenders Office, acting on behalf of four environmental groups, has made a complaint to the consumer watchdog, urging it to investigate whether “responsibly sourced” labelling on seafood products and promotional material used by Coles, Woolworths and Aldi have broken consumer law by misleading consumers.
Continue reading...Diplomats for Climate group says if government wants to use that defence ‘it needs to be the dealer who takes their clients to rehab and supports them off their habit’
The Albanese government should do more to leverage its relationship with Japan – arguably the world’s most important energy partnership – to help its trading partner move away from gas and towards a rapid and ambitious decarbonisation, former diplomats say.
Diplomats for Climate, an organisation supported by more than 100 former Australian officials, says “the future of gas lies in the ground”, but that a ban on new fossil fuel developments – the focus of a growing community campaign backed by scientific evidence – would not cut global emissions unless international demand was reduced.
Continue reading...Frontbenchers Paul Fletcher and Bridget McKenzie part of group of nine MPs who will be in Dubai funded by Coalition for Conservation and Environmental Leadership Australia
A significant contingent of Coalition MPs – including federal opposition frontbenchers Paul Fletcher and Bridget McKenzie – will fly out to the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai funded by two ginger groups.
Despite Peter Dutton last week making fun of the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, during an interview on 2GB for travelling to the United Nations-led international climate change conference and “incurring all those emissions” – a significant delegation of Coalition MPs will also attend the summit and associated events.
Continue reading...Follow the day’s news live
Assistant climate change minister asked whether Australia ‘can be taken seriously’ without fossil fuel phase-out promise
The assistant minister for climate change and energy, Jenny McAllister, was also making the rounds this morning amid the Cop28 summit.
We, of course, are working towards transforming our national electricity system to incorporate 82% renewables by 2030. This is a really ambitious transformation, but one that we believe will lay the foundations for a cleaner and more affordable energy system for Australians.
If you think about what it means to take our energy system from 33% renewables to 82%, that does mean that our fossil fuel use within our own energy system at home is changing very dramatically over the course of a decade.
We know that globally, we need to see similar changes and similar investments in the new technologies to drive low emissions power, not just here in Australia, but actually, right across the world.
… or any electorate around the country where it is proven to be technologically feasible, has a social licence and it is going to get prices down.
We have to be humble enough at these conferences at Cop to say what are other countries doing? What peer countries are doing is they are saying we are looking at nuclear energy as part of the balanced mix.
We must in Australia be driven not by ideology, but by economics and engineering and learn from those countries and that includes consideration for zero emissions nuclear energy, and people may be arguing all they like, but we will be very open and transparent as we always have been.
Continue reading...Advocates say territory government choice to only consult directly with fossil fuel companies before walking away from emissions laws is ‘bitterly disappointing’
Northern Territory community members say they feel “betrayed” and unheard after revelations the Fyles government quietly consulted the gas industry before walking away from a net zero emissions requirement for new onshore gas projects.
Guardian Australia revealed on Monday that the NT government abandoned a proposal to set net zero rules for direct emissions from new onshore gas projects after companies including Santos and Inpex objected, according to documents released under freedom of information.
Continue reading...A report by the national broadcaster found the prominent no campaigner ‘did not agree to a single interview on a major broadcast program’
High-profile no campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price turned down interview requests from the ABC to discuss the voice referendum more than 52 times, according to the national broadcaster’s referendum coverage review committee report.
The report found the yes campaign had about twice as much coverage overall as the no campaign. The reasons for that, according to the report, included a lack of people willing to come on to discuss the no side, time taken up by government press conferences which often argued for the yes vote, and a decision to focus on First Nations voices, who were predominantly arguing for yes.
Continue reading...‘It was so true to Peta’s character that she channelled her personal battle with breast cancer into public policy’, PM says
Anthony Albanese has confirmed that Labor MP Peta Murphy, 50, has died from breast cancer. The prime minister struggled to hold back tears as he confirmed Murphy’s passing in a short statement from parliament house on Monday afternoon.
Murphy, the member for Dunkley, attended the final sitting week of the House of Representatives last week before returning home for palliative care. The MP died at home in the company of her parents and siblings and her husband of more than two decades, Rod Glover.
Continue reading...Judicial inquiry reviewing convictions of group jailed in 1981 over alleged terror plot to blow up Sydney targets
The testimony of a key witness and actions of a corrupt New South Wales police officer will be probed during an inquiry into the 1981 terror plot convictions of a group known as the ‘Croatian Six’.
The judicial inquiry, which began on Monday, will examine the possibility that Crown witness Vico Virkez may have been working for Yugoslavian intelligence services.
Continue reading...Foster parents of missing William Tyrrell facing court on assault and intimidation charges of another child who was in their care
William Tyrrell’s foster father rejects claims he grabbed a child by the neck as his lawyers argue he applied medium force to push the youngster down as they tried to get out of a timeout.
The 56-year-old foster father and 58-year-old foster mother returned to Parramatta local court on Monday.
Continue reading...Labor hopes to push new laws through parliament this week to allow courts to order the re-detention of migrants or refugees freed after the landmark NZYQ high court ruling
People freed from immigration detention will be re-detained if a court agrees they pose an unacceptably high risk of committing a “serious violent or sexual offence” under proposed new Australian laws.
After a landmark high court ruling that indefinite immigration detention was unconstitutional, the Australian government will this week seek urgent passage of a proposal to allow some of the released migrants or refugees to be re-detained for up to three years at a time.
Continue reading...Dave Lee, principal of the newly rebuilt Mullumbimby public school, vividly recalls the emotion of his first visit to assess the flood damage
“My first memories were just the silt and the mud,” says Dave Lees, summoning back his impressions from the day he returned to the Mullumbimby public school campus, the day after it was swallowed by flood waters.
“It was just a brown, smelly, clay-laden, dirty space. It looked like another planet,” the school principal says.
Continue reading...Bill Shorten is due to release a review of the NDIS but says things won’t ‘change overnight’ amid resistance against moving some disability support services responsibilities to states
Bill Shorten is seeking to defuse a growing row with state and territory governments over funding for the NDIS, insisting the federal government does not want to “change things overnight”.
But with a showdown looming at national cabinet this week, disability advocates have urged leaders not to treat the community as “political footballs”.
Continue reading...The journalism foundation board did not say it would withdraw Seven’s shortlisting for the 2023 scoop of the year award for Liam Bartlett’s interview with Lehrmann
The Walkley board will review its rules on “chequebook journalism” after it emerged that the Seven Network paid Bruce Lehrmann’s rent for a year to secure an interview that was later nominated for the 2023 scoop of the year award.
But a statement released on Sunday by the foundation, which oversees Australia’s most prestigious journalism awards, did not reverse or retrospectively invalidate the nomination. As of Sunday evening, Seven’s interview was still listed on the Walkley website as a shortlisted finalist.
Continue reading...Also on Sunday, families and friends of hostages taken by Hamas addressed a gathering at a Sydney synagogue
Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters have gathered in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, pledging the rallies will not stop until “freedom and justice prevails”.
For the eighth week in a row, supporters for a free Palestine marched through the Sydney central business district, Melbourne CBD and in Logan, south of Brisbane.
Continue reading...Adrian Schrinner says controversial plans for Brisbane’s Gabba stadium were the final straw and accuses Palaszczuk government of ignoring stakeholders
Brisbane’s lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, has quit the Brisbane 2032 Games delivery forum, saying the Palaszczuk government had “completely lost its way” on the road to the Olympics.
The Liberal National mayor has also withdrawn his support for a $2.7bn Gabba rebuild, insisting there must be better options than demolishing and rebuilding the inner-city venue.
Continue reading...Adrian Schrinner says the Palaszczuk government has ‘completely lost its way’ on road to event as he quits Brisbane 2032 Games delivery forum. Follow the day’s news live
Australia backs COP28 renewables, energy efficiency vow
Now for some more detail on Australia – along with 118 nations - signing a pledge at the COP28 climate summit to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030.
“We know that renewables are the cleanest and cheapest form of energy - and that energy efficiency can also help drive down bills and emissions,”
Australia has the highest penetration of rooftop solar in the world and has a plan to get to 82 per cent renewables by 2030 to deliver cleaner, cheaper and more reliable energy.
It’s clear that the games have become more about over-priced stadiums rather than the promise of vital transport solutions.
The state government’s ham-fisted and foolish attempt to extort Brisbane ratepayers for tens of millions of dollars for a new RNA stadium was the final straw.
Continue reading...