Anthony Albanese criticises ‘very strange’ question on whether voice will have input on energy policy

Prime minister says people shouldn’t look for ‘distractions’ on voice to parliament’s ability to advise executive government

The government has criticised questions over whether the Indigenous voice to parliament will have input into energy policy and Reserve Bank decisions, with Anthony Albanese saying people shouldn’t look for “distractions” in the debate.

The prime minister last week unveiled the wording of the proposed amendment to the constitution, confirming the advisory body could make representations to both parliament and executive government, meaning it could have input into administrative decisions, the development of laws and the work of public servants.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia politics live: Howard says Labor’s dominance won’t last long; emissions bill haggling down to the wire

The government is yet to strike a deal that will get its safeguard mechanism bill through the upper house. Follow the day’s politics live

Paul Fletcher won’t answer the question of whether or not he will run again in Bradfield.

He is dancing around this question like he is auditioning for the new Fred Astaire biopic. (Tom Holland has the role, and anyone who has seen his Umbrella dance will know why.)

I continue to consider serving the people of Bradfield to be an enormous privilege and … any rational politician always considers what they’re going to do as you come to the end of each term.

I’ve done that before the end of each past term, but what I can tell you is it’s an honour to serve the people of Bradfield. I continue to be committed to it, energetic in doing, so I spent most of Saturday across a whole range of polling booths engaging with my constituents. I enjoyed it. I found it energising, and I believe that the Liberal party has a very important role in serving the people of Australia and certainly in serving the people of Bradfield and that’s something I’m committed to.

I think the first point is that after three terms and 12 years, inevitably, it becomes harder to win a fourth term.

It’s the nature of our democracy of Australian democracy that the electorate starts to look for alternatives.

Continue reading...

Anti-trans activist Posie Parker leaves New Zealand after chaotic protests

Gender-critical activist was booed and heckled in Auckland and cancelled event in Wellington

The anti-trans activist known as Posie Parker cancelled a planned event in Wellington and left New Zealand, after chaotic and at times violent protests curtailed an appearance in Auckland before she was able to speak in public.

Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull had been due to speak in Auckland on Saturday morning. The British activist was met by crowds of pro-trans rights counter-protesters estimated to be in the thousands, substantially outnumbering the speaker’s supporters. She left the event after being booed, heckled and doused with tomato juice.

Continue reading...

Rwanda scheme would ‘completely erode’ UK’s standing on world stage

New Human Rights Watch head Tirana Hassan says UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers is ‘cheap politics’

The UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda would “completely erode” Britain’s standing on the world stage, the new head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

Tirana Hassan, who takes over as HRW’s executive director on Monday, also said other conservative governments in Europe were considering following Britain’s lead and looking at African states as an offshore dumping ground for asylum seekers, potentially dealing further blows to established refugee protections.

Continue reading...

NSW election trends: a decisive Labor win, uneven swings and a large crossbench

Progressive shift in upper house possible while vote for minor parties and independents reaches record levels in election more definitive than expected

The New South Wales state election result was a resounding defeat for the Liberal-National Coalition government, and a clear victory for Labor. Yet this victory occurred in an environment of an increasing minor party and independent vote, and the largest crossbench in modern NSW history.

In some ways there were a lot of parallels with last year’s federal election result. A slim parliamentary majority alongside a large crossbench, with the outgoing government badly defeated. But this Labor victory was bigger than last year’s federal election result, and Labor managed to pick up a number of regional seats in addition to gains in urban areas.

Continue reading...

Majority of Australians support banning gambling advertising on TV, study finds

Concerns raised about links between ads, increased betting and risky behaviour, as well as prevalence of chances to gamble

Australians predominantly support greater restrictions and bans on gambling advertising, which a new study has found to have influenced young and vulnerable people to start betting, place “impulse” wagers or escalate their gambling behaviour.

The research, by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, found that 38% of the adult population gambled at least weekly. Three in four Australians gambled at least once during the past 12 months and, of those, almost half (46%) were classified as being at some risk of harm from wagering.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘Unprecedented’: domestic violence shelters reach capacity amid Queensland housing crisis

Women escaping violence are staying in refuges for years due to a lack of alternative social housing, providers say

Domestic violence shelters in Queensland say they are struggling to make space for new arrivals, with the housing crisis seeing women staying in some refuges for years .

The added strain on the sector has created a bottleneck , with shelters having to place some women in hotels or refuges far from their support networks.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Matt Kean rules himself out of NSW Liberal leadership amid speculation about federal move

Widely touted frontrunner to replace Dominic Perrottet says he wants to spend more time with family after NSW election loss

The outgoing treasurer and leading party moderate, Matt Kean, has ruled out contesting the New South Wales Liberal leadership, amid speculation he is considering a federal move.

Kean’s announcement on Sunday evening leaves Alister Henskens, the sports minister and member for the blue ribbon seat of Wahroonga, as the current frontrunner for the leadership.

Continue reading...

Australia news live updates: Minn vows to ‘govern for everybody’ after NSW election win; arrest at Sydney anti-abortion protest

Labor win marks Coalition’s declining power around the country; woman held for breaching the peace at rally that began at St Mary’s Cathedral. Follow all the day’s news

Speers asks what will happen if the voice feels like its advice has not been sought out – will it be able to go to the high court?

Dreyfus says it is a possibility.

Again, I point to the third paragraph of these words, David, which puts beyond doubt the power of the parliament to regulate how that is to happen. And the reason why those words are there are to make sure that we’re going to have certainty, we’re going to know how this is going to operate.

I‘m hoping that it does. I’m hoping. Because we’ve seen from experience that when members of parliament, government departments, do listen to Aboriginal communities, we get better outcomes.

… You can point to examples right across the board where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are listened to, we get better policies, we get better laws. When they’re not listened to, we end up wasting a great deal of money and we end up with failed policies, and it is all too many failed policies that we can point to over recent decades.

That’s a misunderstanding of what this constitutional provision does. What this constitutional provision does is to set up permanently an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to parliament at executive, and the power that’s given to the voice is to make representations.

Of course we’re going to need to make sure that there’s, at a mechanical level, the ability for the voice to make representations, but it’s not that – as has been suggested and as your question suggested – there will be some requirement for government departments to be going off and seeking that advice.

Continue reading...

South Australia becomes first state to enact Indigenous voice to parliament

Premier hails ‘momentous legislation for our First Nations people’ while acknowledging it does not have unanimous support in state parliament

South Australia has become the first state to legislate for an Indigenous voice to parliament.

The Labor government’s bill passed the House of Assembly in a special sitting on Sunday.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Daniel Andrews to travel to China this week to discuss education, trade and cultural issues

The Victorian premier will leave on Monday night for the first visit to China by an Australian state or national leader since the pandemic began

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, will travel to China to meet with senior officials on education, trade and cultural issues.

The premier will leave on Monday night, visiting Beijing and the Jiangsu and Sichuan provinces before returning to Melbourne on Saturday morning.

Continue reading...

Australian teenagers urge government to help them break vaping addiction

Submissions to the TGA include comments from 13-19-year-olds who want restrictions in place to help them with nicotine addiction

Teenagers have urged the Australian government to help them break their nicotine addiction, submissions to a major consultation on vaping reforms reveal.

A submission to drug regulator the Therapeutic Goods Administration from South Australia’s commissioner for children and young people, Helen Connolly, included comments from some of the 950 teenagers aged 13-to-19 surveyed by her office about vaping.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Daniel Duggan: investigation launched into imprisonment of Australian accused of training Chinese pilots

Duggan is fighting a US extradition request from prison, over allegations he trained Chinese aviators

Australia’s inspector general of intelligence and security has launched a formal investigation into the ongoing incarceration of Daniel Duggan, the Australian pilot fighting a US extradition request from prison, over allegations he trained Chinese aviators.

Duggan’s legal team has called for his extradition proceeding to be immediately abandoned. The 54-year-old has been incarcerated – much of it in isolation – for 157 days since being arrested in Orange in New South Wales last October.

Continue reading...

Twitter loses bid to throw out complaint by Australian Muslim group over ‘hateful’ content

Queensland Human Rights Commission disagrees with assertion complaint is ‘lacking in substance’ and refers matter to tribunal over jurisdiction

Twitter has lost a bid to have a complaint by an advocacy group for Australian Muslims thrown out after they accused the platform of failing to take action against accounts that incite hatred.

The Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (Aman) lodged a complaint to the Queensland Human Rights Commission (QHRC) last June. They argued that, as a publisher, Twitter Australia and Twitter Inc are responsible for content posted by a far-right account that has been referred to in the manifesto of a white supremacist and mass murderer.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

NSW election 2023 live results: polls have closed and votes are now being counted after Dominic Perrottet and Chris Minns made final pitches – latest news

Premier casts vote in seat of Epping and Labor leader says he is ‘feeling optimistic’ as party hopes to return to power after 12 years in opposition

Dominic Perrottet has given some more expansive comments after voting a short time ago in his seat of Epping. He and Labor leader Chris Minns spoke last night, exchanging text messages and wishing each other good luck.

Here’s some more from the premier:

It’s a real honour to serve the people of New South Wales. There’s a lot at stake in this election. I will be working hard all day.

It’s not about the Liberal or National party. Ultimately, elections are about our people. My team has the plan to deal with the challenges of today, but we’re all wanting to set up the state for the children.

Our party has been here for 12 years, it’s transformed New South Wales. We were the worst performing economy, the state had stalled. We’ve turned that around. We’ve built schools and hospitals, the motorways have transformed people’s lives. But it’s all about the future and where we go from here. I believe my team has the plan, the experience, energy and ideas to take the state forward.

Continue reading...

Lions coach Chris Fagan believes Gabba power outage gave Melbourne ‘unfair advantage’

  • Brisbane 14.9 (93) v Melbourne 13.4 (82)
  • Play halted in final quarter after stadium blackout

Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan believes Melbourne were given an “unfair advantage’ as the AFL scrambled to restart their round-two game after a power outage.

The Lions’ 40-point lead was slashed to 11 when Friday night’s contest resumed after a long delay, with the Demons booting five unanswered goals once the lights were turned back on.

Continue reading...

At Menindee, the lifeblood of the people has turned to bitter sludge

The fight for a healthy Darling-Baaka River is becoming a ‘recurring nightmare’ for the communities that depend on it

The massive fish kills of 2019, which saw a million fish float to the surface of the Darling-Baaka River, are no longer just a catastrophic ecological anomaly but a sustained and “recurring nightmare” for far-west New South Wales.

That’s what one Menindee resident, Dick Arnold, told me this week, as we waited around the town of 551 people for the state government to respond to the crisis. For the second time in four years the community has been smacked in the face with blatant evidence that the river they depend on is painfully sick. It is usually hard to stop people talking about water in Menindee, but for many the recent fish deaths mark a tipping point in the ongoing struggle for a healthy river that is too painful to discuss.

Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter

Continue reading...

Guardian Australia wins Quill award for investigation into concussion and the AFL

Judges commended the ‘exemplary’ work of the journalists who ‘helped to trigger further inquiries and an apology’ from the league

Three Guardian Australia journalists have won the Grant Hattam Quill award for investigative journalism at the Melbourne Press Club awards for their investigation into concussion and the AFL.

Melissa Davey, Stephanie Convery and Emma Kemp picked up the award for their work on “the gaping hole in sport’s concussion policies” with judges describing it as “exemplary investigative journalism”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia’s aquaculture industry looks beyond fishmeal to improve sustainability

Bottom trawling associated with the feed product depletes oceans more than wild-catch fishing, expert says

Australia’s growing aquaculture industry is trying to end its reliance on fishmeal in order to become more sustainable.

Fish farms have traditionally been reliant on fishmeal, a feed made from small fish such as anchovies which is often fished unsustainably in developing countries. The practice has jeopardised the industry’s environmental credentials, says Ian Urbania, a pulitzer prize-winning journalist and founder of the non-profit journalism organisation The Outlaw Ocean Project.

Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter

Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter

Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community

Continue reading...

‘Spectacular’ spiny crayfish samples rec amid Lismore floods key to mapping species

Australia Museum says 20-year-old collection will help understand and conserve threatened animals, which are sensitive to climate change

As floods devastated Lismore, a group of ecologists waited anxiously for a break in the weather so they could move an important scientific collection of “spectacular” spiny crayfish to a new home at the Australian Museum.

The samples of the crayfish were collected more than 20 years ago from deep within the rainforests of north-eastern NSW and southern Queensland by Dr Jason Coughran, a freshwater ecologist.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...