Three crew members rescued by Singapore-flagged bulk carrier with one now in a critical condition in Broome hospital
Six people are dead and another three are believed to have drowned after an Indonesian fishing boat capsized off the north-west coast of Western Australia.
There were 12 people aboard when the boat, named Kuda Laut which translates to Horse Sea, capsized on Sunday evening about 180km west of Ashmore Reef.
Continue reading...Labor senator Kimberley Kitching’s funeral held in Melbourne; Peter Malinauskas sworn in as new SA premier; Morrison and Palaszczuk announce infrastructure funding package; Lismore flood victims to dump debris at protest; at least six Covid deaths recorded. Follow all the day’s news
For almost four years Suzanna Sheed has started each parliamentary sitting week by moving the same motion.
The independent MP for Shepparton, a rural electorate of almost 50,000 people in northern Victoria, asks for a non-government business program to be reinstated in the state’s lower house.
They’re having a real impact on people right now, so we’ve been conscious of that. But what we do as a government is we don’t have knee-jerk reactions, we think through carefully how we can best provide the sort of support that we believe the federal government can deliver.
Continue reading...Popularity of ‘finfluencers’ providing stock tips and flaunting lavish lifestyles is rising as younger demographic looks to invest
The corporate watchdog has warned Instagram and other social media influencers that they need a licence to give financial advice and face up to five years in jail if they break the law.
In a new information sheet aimed at so-called “finfluencers”, issued on Monday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) took aim at social media stock-tippers who promise big returns or promise the investments they recommend are as good as putting money in the bank.
Continue reading...Need for damage to be serious and imminent before Facebook and Google take action means ‘chronic’ problems build, watchdog says – citing mistrust of vaccines
The code of conduct adopted by digital platforms, including Facebook and Google, is “too narrow” to prevent all the harms of misinformation and disinformation, Australia’s media regulator has warned.
The requirement that harm from social media posts must be both “serious” and “imminent” before tech companies take action has allowed longer term “chronic harms” including vaccine misinformation and the erosion of democracy, according to the Australian Communication and Media Authority.
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Continue reading...Grattan Institute report finds ‘consistent pattern’ of transport funding going to political battleground states
Victorian transport infrastructure minister Jacinta Allan has called on the federal government to provide the state with its “fair share” of funding after a report found the state was being shortchanged compared with New South Wales and Queensland.
The Grattan Institute report, released on Sunday night, found there was a “consistent pattern” of successive federal governments spending more money on transport in New South Wales and Queensland – where elections tend to be won and lost – than in Victoria.
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Continue reading...Federal government has not ruled out the use of underwater explosives and ‘bean bag rounds’ in trial off north-west Tasmania
Environment groups have called on the federal government to rule out the use of explosives and guns loaded with “bean bag” rounds to scare seals at a proposed salmon farming trial in commonwealth waters off the north-west coast of Tasmania.
Under Tasmanian laws, the companies are allowed to use underwater explosives, known as “seal crackers”, to deter predators at farms in state waters. Other authorised measures include shooting seals with fabric coated plastic shells containing lead shot, known as bean bag rounds and darts with blunt tips known as “scare caps”. Official documents show some seals have been killed.
Continue reading...Three levels of government announce ‘city deal’ plan in Brisbane to address ‘positive issue of growth’ amid population boom
Environmental and “liveability” pressures that are mounting on south-east Queensland as its population booms will be alleviated under a $1.8bn “city deal”, the prime minister, Queensland premier and Brisbane lord mayor have all promised.
The three leaders spoke on Monday morning from inside the Gabba, the stadium that will be knocked down, rebuilt, integrated into a new underground train station and will, according to the prime minister, Scott Morrison, form the heart of a deal which plans for the next two decades.
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Continue reading...People who can demonstrate they or their business have a connection to Australia will be able to purchase new domain from Thursday
Australian web addresses will soon be shorter with the launch of .au domains, allowing people to drop the .com for the first time.
From Thursday, people who can demonstrate they or their business have a connection to Australia will be able to purchase .au domains. It is the first time the .au domain has been available for purchase after auDA, the organisation that manages Australian domains, launched the product after years of consultation.
Continue reading...Recycling Modernisation Fund boost will focus on hard-to-recycle plastics as carbon credit tax cuts aim to encourage farmers to cut emissions
The Coalition will put $60m into recycling initiatives and make tax changes to encourage farmers to reduce their carbon output, in a pair of pre-budget announcements as the government seeks to beef up its environmental credentials ahead of the federal election.
It comes as the Australia Institute thinktank launches a new television campaign accusing the government of using “dodgy carbon credits” and calling the Coalition’s net zero by 2050 plan a “fraud”.
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Continue reading...Export revenues and low jobless rate combine to cut almost $90bn from projected federal budget deficit
Soaring commodity prices and a shrinking jobless rate will combine to slice almost $90bn from projected federal budget deficits out to 2024-25, although excessive pre-election promises would undermine the government’s fiscal repair efforts, according to Chris Richardson, a senior economist at Deloitte.
The predicted improvement compares with forecasts in the government’s mid-year outlook (Myefo) released last December. The current year’s deficit alone will be cut almost a third from a projected $99.2bn to $69bn as the economy’s rebound from Covid disruptions quickens, Richardson said.
Continue reading...Scientists find 6PPD-quinone in Queensland creek and call for urgent research to see if local aquatic life was harmed
A toxic chemical released from tyres as they wear down on roads and implicated in mass deaths of salmon in the United States has been found in an Australian waterway for the first time.
Scientists detected the compound – known as 6PPD-quinone – among a cocktail of chemicals and hundreds of kilograms of tyre particles washed into a creek from a motorway during storms.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Only last month, the school apologised to students over enrolment contracts that described homosexuality as ‘immoral’
Teachers at Brisbane religious school Citipointe Christian College are being asked to sign employment contracts that warn they could be sacked for being openly homosexual.
The school says the wording of staff employment conditions is “under review” but one former teacher, who refused to sign the document last month, says he has now effectively lost his job for taking a stand.
Continue reading...At last election, just one of 71 Coalition promises worth $100m or more based on approved business case, says Grattan Institute
The government’s controversial urban congestion fund is pumping tens of millions of dollars more into marginal and safe Coalition seats than strong Labor electorates, a new report has found.
The Grattan Institute on Sunday released a damning report examining the way successive governments have used transport spending promises to further their political interests.
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Continue reading...Scott Morrison says Russia must pay ‘high price’ for Ukraine invasion as further measures announced; Steven Marshall steps down after losing South Australia election to Labor and Peter Malinauskus; Josh Frydenberg says federal budget measures won’t ‘overheat’ economy; four Covid deaths in NSW and three in SA. Follow all the day’s news
The federal finance minister, Simon Birmingham, is appearing on ABC’s Insiders now, and of course, has been asked why the Liberals experienced a landslide loss in the state election there overnight.
Birmingham says that a number of voters were potentially tricked by “misleading statements” about Labor’s ability to stop ambulance ramping.
I think always when an election is lost, there are a number of factors at play. I think that history will judge Steven Marshall’s government for its policy achievements and management more kindly than the electorate did yesterday. The economic confidence he delivered to South Australia, the ongoing growth in what will be higher-paying, more highly skilled [workers] in SA for many years to come, the transformation of schooling SA, investments in hospitals, these will be positives which he will be marked up for but clearly a disappointing day for the Liberal family in SA to have that result.
The campaign was one in which we saw the Labor party run a very targeted, very singularly focused campaign around hospitals and ambulances. I think there were many misleading aspects to that campaign and even the Electoral Commission found so in the last day or so, but that again is a reminder to all of us that we can’t underscore the potential for Labor to run these types of scare campaigns just like they did with mediscare back in 2016, particularly when they can roll out the public sector unions to devastating effects.
So is that your take on this election result, the electorate was tricked?
No, not entirely. I do think that Labor’s campaign was effective, but I also think, as the Electoral Commission found, that it was based on misleading statements and that of course is something that does mean that some voters potentially were tricked but equally I think Covid did play a very difficult role for Steven Marshall.
When he opened the borders from SA to the rest of the country on 23 November, it was 24 November, the very day after that Omicron was first reported to the World Health Organization as a variant of concern. You couldn’t have had perhaps more unlucky timing than Steven Marshall faced in that regard and that the carefully calibrated plans he had for reopening were clearly blown out of the water at that time and that did create real challenges for the Government through the run-up and lead-up to the election, and, of course, in terms of what the narrative of their campaign was.
Continue reading...Expanded sanctions seek to limit Russia’s ability to produce aluminium which is critical to arms and munitions manufacturing
Australia has banned the sale of alumina and aluminium ores to Russia in response to what it described as “unrelenting and illegal aggression” towards Ukraine.
Also on Sunday, prime minister Scott Morrison announced Australia would donate coal and further military equipment to Ukraine to “support the brave and courageous resistance” as part of a new aid package that also includes $30m in emergency humanitarian assistance.
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Continue reading...Late cricketing great’s family and friends attended the service at the St Kilda Football Club
Shane Warne’s family and friends have held a private funeral in Melbourne, with about 80 guests gathering to say their goodbyes to the cricketing great.
Warne’s three children, Jackson, Brooke and Summer, and parents Keith and Brigette, along with close friends including retired Test captains Mark Taylor, Allan Border and Michael Clarke and former England skipper Michael Vaughan, attended the service.
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Continue reading...Scott Morrison dismissed state and federal comparisons, saying ‘Anthony Albanese is not Peter Malinauskas’
The South Australian election result should have Scott Morrison’s Coalition “trembling” ahead of the federal poll, Labor says, after Peter Malinauskas became the first opposition leader to defeat an incumbent government since the start of the pandemic.
The outgoing premier, Steven Marshall, announced on Sunday he would step down as Liberal leader after the landslide loss to Labor, saying he “takes full responsibility for the result” and accepts “the will of the people”.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Multiple families who evacuated during the NSW floods left with no choice but to move back home in recent days
Residents in Lismore have been left with no choice but to move back into their houses that have been deemed uninhabitable, with some sleeping on swags in mouldy rooms without electricity, as they are unable to find safe accommodation three weeks after floods devastated the town.
In South Lismore – a low-lying part of the town that bore the brunt of historic flooding this year and an area well known for attracting residents seeking affordable housing – Guardian Australia spoke with multiple residents who had evacuated town following the floods but had returned to their homes in recent days.
Continue reading...Peter Malinauskas to become state’s 47th premier as Liberal government deserted by voters after just one term
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Labor has won the South Australian election, with the premier, Steven Marshall, conceding defeat to the opposition leader, Peter Malinauskas, on Saturday night.
The Labor party was on track to win 25 seats and form a majority government after it recorded a 7.3% swing in its favour.
Continue reading...Australia are through to the Women’s World Cup semi-finals after a thrilling record run chase saw them squeak past India’s 7-277 in Auckland.
Beth Mooney produced last-over heroics and Meg Lanning led from the front, scoring a superb 97 to give Australia a rare win at the All Blacks’ “house of pain”, Eden Park.
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