Strict new security rules for Adelaide nuclear submarine-building facility in bid to protect military secrets

Operators of Osborne naval shipyard ordered to guard against ‘deliberate or accidental manipulation’ of critical components

The Australian government has imposed strict new security rules at the Adelaide site where nuclear-powered submarines will be built, moving to reassure allies that sensitive military secrets will be protected.

The new rules require four operators at the Osborne naval shipyard, including those building the Hunter-class frigates and offshore patrol vessels, to guard against espionage and foreign interference.

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Dementia now causes greatest burden of illness, injury and premature death in older Australians

Condition overtakes coronary heart disease with 62% rise in number of healthy years lost since 2011, report finds, causing significant impact on carers and families

Dementia has now overtaken coronary heart disease as causing the greatest burden of illness, injury and premature death in older Australians, according to a report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

Among people aged 65 years and older, dementia was responsible for almost 230,000 years of healthy life lost – a figure that has increased 62% since 2011, the report found.

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Australia news live: defence pursuing joint patrols with Philippines in South China Sea, Marles says

It comes as Anthony Albanese grilled on balance of power under Aukus after press club address. Follow the day’s news live

Chalmers highlights importance of sustainability of superannuation

Treasurer Jim Chalmers isn’t ruling in or out whether there will be any changes on superannuation tax concessions in the May budget.

I’ll tell you what I think. I gave a longish speech about this on Monday, where I said the priority [of] super is and should be nailing down the objective. For too long, the lack of an agreed objective has meant that our predecessors could mess with superannuation when it came to all kinds of ideological pursuits. We want to take that out of the system.

Ideally, we’d want to get some kind of broad agreement amongst the industry in the community … about what super is for, so that we can build from that. And as part of that speech, I pointed out the fact … that the cost of superannuation tax concessions will overtake the cost of the pension. That’s a fact.

Not necessarily.

I just think as part of a broader assessment of where our superannuation system is at and how we locked down the objective of super so that we can provide more certainty and security around its purpose, as part of that I acknowledged earlier in the week, that these concessions in the superannuation system, they’re not cheap. I don’t think it’s especially controversial to acknowledge that.

Well, as I keep saying, we haven’t changed their view. We haven’t taken any decisions.

We haven’t determined that.

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Wage growth surprise: slower-than-expected gain eases RBA rate rise fears

December quarter wage index rose from 3.1% to 3.3%, but 7.8% inflation indicates a 4.5% decrease in real wages

Australian salaries increased at a faster pace in the December quarter in a tight labour market, but not enough to prevent the gap with inflation widening to a record level.

The wage price index (WPI) for the final three months of 2022 came in at 3.3%, an increase on the 3.1% pace in the September quarter and the highest since the end of 2012. Economists had forecast a 3.5% increase.

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Former Craig Kelly staffer tells court groping by Frank Zumbo left her ‘done with life’

Court shown texts between woman and friend in which she disclosed alleged behaviour of adviser, who is pleading not guilty

A young woman who was allegedly sexually touched by Frank Zumbo felt “done with life” and told a friend she had worn a specific item of clothing hoping to avoid being assaulted, a court has heard.

Zumbo – chief of staff and senior adviser to the former federal MP Craig Kelly – would regularly grope the young female staff member when they were alone in Kelly’s office, she told Sydney’s Downing Centre local court.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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‘Recipe for disaster’: Queensland bail law that overrides children’s human rights won’t work, experts say

Legal groups also criticise the push to override the state’s Human Rights Act to create the offence

Experts say there is zero evidence to support Annastacia Palaszczuk’s controversial decision to pursue criminal charges against Queensland children who breach bail.

Human rights organisations have also delivered scathing criticisms of the government’s bid to override the state’s Human Rights Act to legislate the offence for children, warning that it likely won’t reduce offending.

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Media companies lose bid to name high-profile man charged with Queensland rape

Toowoomba magistrate rules media will have to adhere to Queensland laws that prevent naming him before he’s committed to stand trial

A media application seeking to name a high-profile man charged with raping a young woman in Toowoomba in 2021 has been adjourned by a magistrate who deemed the bid “premature”.

Queensland media law prevents identifying people accused of serious sex offences until they are committed to stand trial, legislation that magistrate Kay Philipson on Wednesday described as very specific.

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Labor MP calls on government to widen Covid anti-viral eligibility in Australia

Exclusive: Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah says strategy is letting Australians down but medical groups back regulatory approach

A Labor MP and doctor says the nation’s strategy on responding to Covid infections is “letting Australians down” and is calling for an overhaul oof eligibility for powerful anti-viral drugs to allow far greater access for more people.

Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah said she had paid more than $1,100 from her own pocket this week on a private script for Covid anti-virals for a sick family member who was not eligible for subsidised access to the drugs. She called on her government to open the treatments to all people aged over 12, labelling the rules “daft”.

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NRL cancels annual season launch amid ongoing pay dispute with clubs

  • NRL did not want to risk players boycotting high-profile event
  • But new CBA terms have been finalised

The NRL’s glitzy annual season launch has been cancelled, clubs have been told, amid the ongoing dispute between the clubs and the governing body.

The NRL’s decision averted any embarrassment for the governing body if the players had decided to boycott the high-profile event following the ongoing collective bargaining agreement dispute.

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‘Hive of spies’ trying to steal sensitive information removed from Australia, Asio chief says

Security organisation’s latest threat report says foreign agents targeted government officials, bank workers, doctors, police and journalists

Australian security officials say they have “removed from the country” a major spy network – including some members working undercover for years – that was trying to steal sensitive information.

Mike Burgess, the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, boasted of the removal of what he called a “hive of spies” as he declared his agency was taking a “more aggressive counterespionage posture”.

Warned of a “discernible and concerning uptick” in foreign spies targeting Australian reporters – online and in person – and said Asio had “uncovered a plot to exploit and potentially recruit senior Australian journalists”.

Said the online targeting of Australian defence industry insiders had increased since the Aukus announcement a year and a half ago.

Disclosed that Asio had been tracking attempts to exploit Australian military training and expertise “for several years now”.

Confirmed Asio believed the Wieambilla shootings in Queensland in December were “an act of politically motivated violence, primarily motivated by a Christian violent extremist ideology”, backing the Queensland police assessment.

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MP tells Folbigg inquiry son may have died from undiagnosed neurogenetic disorder

Monique Ryan, a paediatric neurologist before entering parliament, says Patrick Folbigg’s death could be linked to epileptic seizures

Kooyong MP Monique Ryan has told an inquiry into Kathleen Folbigg’s convictions for killing her four children that one of her sons may have died from an undiagnosed neurogenetic disorder.

Ryan, a paediatric neurologist before entering parliament in 2022, said Patrick Folbigg’s February 1991 death at 36 weeks could be linked to epileptic seizures.

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Allowing Indigenous man early access to pension could have ‘enormous’ consequences, court hears

Lawyer says the landmark case is about ‘correcting historical disadvantage’ embedded structurally in Aboriginal society

Allowing an Indigenous Australian man to access his aged pension early would lead to “enormous” consequences in other areas of the law, the federal court has heard.

The full federal court on Monday commenced hearings in a landmark case brought against the commonwealth by 65-year-old Wakka Wakka man, Uncle Dennis, who is seeking to access the pension three years early on the grounds that Indigenous Australians have a shorter average life expectancy than the non-Aboriginal population.

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Byron Bay faces housing crisis as short-term rentals such as Airbnb surge, residents say

The thriving tourism industry is ‘undermining the fabric of our society’, one local tells public hearing into proposed cap

Byron Bay residents have voiced their outrage at the impact short-term rentals have had on the region, with some claiming the area has been invaded.

The New South Wales Independent Planning Commission held its first day of a public hearing into a proposal by the local council to drop the number of days available for short-term rentals from 180 to 90 a year.

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China is carrying out ‘blatant’ influence operations in Australia, Malcolm Turnbull says

Former prime minister likens covert operations to famous scene in Casablanca and warns influence register should be more than ‘box ticking’

Australian security agencies know China is carrying out “blatant” influence operations despite the lack of listings on the country’s transparency register, the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has told an inquiry.

Turnbull said on Tuesday he was “puzzled” the legislation his government introduced was not more rigorously enforced and that officials should not treat it as a “robotic box-ticking exercise”.

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MP gives first speech to parliament – as it happened

This blog is now closed. Follow our next Australia news live blog here when it launches

Energy ministers to meet on Friday as regulator updates forecasts

Summer is almost done (according to the calendar) and we managed to get through it without significant electricity shortages. A heatwave building across southern Australia in coming days will add some extra demand.

I mean, yes, in nine months have we fixed every single reliability gap for the next decade? No, there’s more work to do.

Am I pleased with what we’ve done? Yes. Am I yet satisfied? No.

You know that this report normally comes out once a year or so, this is a report which has been put out in a much more rapid timeframe because Aemo has reached the view that the guidance they provided last August is out of date because we’ve seen a lot more investment coming through with renewable.

So the sorts of decisions we are making across the board are making a difference on that sort of a timeframe, I expect Aemo will provide further updates.

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Papua New Guinea police launch rescue operatin to find Australian professor

The academic, who was conducting studies in the highlands, was taken hostage along with three other researchers

Police in Papua New Guinea have launched a rescue operation to find an Australian professor and three local researchers who were taken hostage in the country’s remote highlands, the Pacific island nation’s police commissioner has announced.

An armed gang had demanded a ransom for the captives, commissioner of police David Manning said in a statement, describing the gunmen as “opportunists” and the situation as “delicate”.

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Upholding Qantas’s decision to sack staff would weaken workplace rights, union warns

The airline is seeking to overturn in the high court a finding that it illegally outsourced 1,700 ground handlers jobs

Upholding Qantas’s decision to sack staff ahead of industrial action would create “uncertainty” about accessing workplace rights and water down protections against other forms of discrimination, such as sacking workers before they accrue parental leave.

That is the submission of the Transport Workers’ Union in the airline’s high court case seeking to overturn the finding that it illegally outsourced 1,700 ground handlers jobs.

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Victorian child protection cases to consider past Aboriginal mistreatment under reform of landmark bill

Exclusive: Amendment will ‘stop the cycle of higher rates of Aboriginal child removal’ says Aboriginal child care agency chief

Victorian judges and child protection workers will have to consider the past mistreatment of Aboriginal families when dealing with cases involving Indigenous children, under an Australian-first bill to be introduced to parliament.

The children and health legislation amendment (statement of recognition, Aboriginal self-determination and other matters) bill will be introduced to parliament on Tuesday after it lapsed last year due to the state election.

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Guardian Essential poll: most think RBA rate hikes an overreaction as shine comes off Albanese

Majority believe government at least partially to blame for rises but don’t assume Coalition would manage them better

A majority of voters believe the Reserve Bank of Australia has overreacted in jacking up interest rates to tame inflation, and people worry economic conditions will get worse over the next 12 months, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.

The latest survey of 1,044 voters demonstrates cost-of-living pressure is starting to bite in the community after nine consecutive cash rate hikes.

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Australia at risk of electricity supply shortages as renewable projects lag behind coal plant closures

Successive La Niñas have eased demand but with many renewable and storage projects now delayed, the energy market operator has revised its projections

Australia’s main electricity grid will probably avoid major supply shortages next summer, but risks escalate in later years as ageing coal plants exit potentially faster than new renewables and storage projects come on line.

The projections are contained in the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (Aemo) updated Electricity Statement of Opportunities (Esoo) report, released on Tuesday.

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