Exclusive: Michael McCormack says island nations want Australia to shut down industry ‘so they can survive’
Pacific island nations affected by the climate crisis will continue to survive “because many of their workers come here to pick our fruit”, Australia’s deputy prime minister has said.
Michael McCormack’s comments were made after critical talks at the Pacific Islands Forum that almost collapsed over Australia’s positions on coal and climate change.
Continue reading...Deputy prime minister of Australia Michael McCormack says people in the climate threatened Pacific islands will ‘continue to survive because many of their workers come here and pick our fruit’.
Continue reading...Killer fled with body while tourist’s Canadian partner ran several kilometres to get help
A man has been charged over the murder of Australian surfer Sean McKinnon, who was shot in a random attack while camping in New Zealand.
The 23-year-old man will face Hamilton district court on Saturday charged with murder, aggravated robbery and threatening to kill, New Zealand Police said.
Continue reading...Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison came under fire from Tuvalu’s leader Enele Sopoaga
Critical talks at the Pacific Islands Forum almost collapsed twice amid “fierce” clashes between the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, and Tuvalu’s prime minister, Enele Sopoaga, over Australia’s “red lines” on climate change.
Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s foreign minister, who was part of the drafting committee of the forum communique and observed the leaders’ retreat, said there was heated discussion over the Australian delegation’s insistence on the removal of references to coal, setting a target of limiting global warming to below 1.5C and announcing a strategy for zero emissions by 2050.
Continue reading...Labor accuses government of being ‘complacent’ about economy as ASX200 falls amid fears of a global recession
The Australian stock market has suffered its worst day in almost 18 months after $63bn was wiped off the value of shares amid mounting fears of a global recession.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index on Thursday tumbled 187.8 points, or 2.85%, to 6,408.1 points, while the broader All Ordinaries shed 186.7 points, or 2.8%, to 6,490.8 points.
Continue reading...Sources say Canberra has softened language, getting rid of all but one reference to coal
Australia has succeeded in removing all but one reference to coal on the draft communique of the Pacific Islands Forum, and is expected to be able to get that removed on Thursday as Pacific leaders including Scott Morrison meet to debate the text.
Sources familiar with the negotiations on the communique, which is used for regional policy making, told Guardian Australia that Australia has been working hard during negotiations to soften the language on climate change and has succeeded in many mentions.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern has declared that ‘Australia has to answer to the Pacific’ on climate change, saying that New Zealand is doing what it can to limit global emissions and expects other nations to do the same. Pacific leaders have this week been urging Australia to commit to urgent action to reduce emissions
Continue reading...The family of the 24-year-old woman, whose body was found in a Clarence Street unit after Tuesday’s rampage, asked for privacy
The woman murdered in a vicious knife attack in Sydney has been named as Michaela Dunn.
The 24-year-old was allegedly killed at an apartment on Clarence Street in city’s CBD on Tuesday by Mert Ney, a 20-year-old who police say had a history of mental health issues.
Continue reading...Two men from GD Pork pleaded guilty in WA to breaching biosecurity laws to gain ‘unfair’ breeding advantage
Two pig farmers in Western Australia will be jailed after being convicted of illegally importing Danish pig semen concealed in shampoo bottles.
Torben Soerensen has been sentenced to three years in prison, while Henning Laue faces a two-year sentence after pleading guilty to breaching quarantine and biosecurity laws.
Continue reading... Police say 21-year-old suspect from western Sydney was carrying information on extremist ideologies when arrested
A man who allegedly stabbed a woman to death in Sydney’s central business district before attacking others on a busy city street with a butcher’s knife was arrested carrying information about terrorist attacks and extremist ideologies on a USB drive.
But police say the man did not have any known links to terror groups, and that he acted alone. The attacks are not being treated as a terrorist attack, the New South Wales police commissioner, Mick Fuller, said on Tuesday night.
Continue reading...The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, has released a list of food products the EU wants protected as ‘geographical indicators’
Australia is gearing up for a fight with the European Union over the naming of hundreds of products including feta, gruyere and scotch beef as negotiations continue over an “ambitious” free trade agreement.
The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, has released a list of names the EU wants protected as part of the new trade deal – known as “geographical indications” or GIs – which are aimed at protecting European products.
Continue reading...Panellists debate whether Australia ‘turning a blind eye’ to China’s rising power
As demonstrators shut down Hong Kong’s airport on Monday in protest against police brutality, Chinese official said “terrorism” was emerging in the city.
Meanwhile, on the ABC’s Q&A program, the “people’s panellist” guest suggested he shared China’s view, prompting one of the more cautious political discussions ever held on the show.
Continue reading...Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky were wanted over the killing of three people and the subject of a weeks-long manhunt across Canada
Canadian police say they believe two fugitives suspected of killing an American woman and her Australian boyfriend as well as another man died in what appears to be suicides.
The Manitoba Medical Examiner completed the autopsies and confirmed on Monday that the bodies found last week were indeed 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky. Both were found in dense bush in northern Manitoba.
Continue reading...Couch surfing 50-year-old says welfare agency told her she wasn’t in financial hardship
A Melbourne woman battling homelessness says her entire $3,500 tax return was swiped by Centrelink last month, despite the fact she disputes the alleged robodebt.
But when Sue Prgic, 50, complained to the agency that the money had been taken without her knowledge, she said staff had asked to know what she would do with the cash if it were returned.
Continue reading...Frank Bainimarama appeals to larger neighbour to ‘more fully appreciate’ climate risks and reduce carbon emissions
The prime minister of Fiji has warned Australia to reduce its coal emissions and do more to combat climate change as regional leaders prepare to gather in Tuvalu ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum this week.
Speaking in Tuvalu at a climate change conference ahead of the forum on Monday, Frank Bainimarama appealed directly to Australia to transition away from coal-powered energy and asked its government “to more fully appreciate” the “existential threat” facing Pacific nations.
Continue reading...Judges call Kurdish Iranian writer and refugee’s memoir an ‘astonishing act of witness’
The Kurdish Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani has continued his sweep of the Australian literary prize landscape, winning the $25,000 National Biography award on Monday – yet another award the refugee was unable to accept in person, as he enters his sixth year of detention on Manus Island.
Boochani’s autobiography No Friend but the Mountains tells of his journey from Indonesia to Australia by boat, and his subsequent imprisonment on Manus Island by the Australian government, which continues to refuse him entry.
Continue reading...Climate crisis is more than a meeting agenda item in a host country that could be left uninhabitable by rising sea levels
As the leaders of Pacific countries step off their planes at Funafuti airport this week for the Pacific Islands Forum, they are being met by the children of Tuvalu, who sit submerged in water, in a moat built around the model of an island, singing: “Save Tuvalu, save the world.”
The welcome sets the tone for a Pacific Islands Forum meeting that will not only have climate change at the top of the agenda – as it has been for many years – but is being hosted by a country that the UN says is one of the most vulnerable to rising sea levels, which could render it uninhabitable in the coming century.
Continue reading...NSW government wants to be ready to increase water supply if the drought worsens
The New South Wales government has begun preliminary planning to boost output at Sydney’s desalination plant, in a bid to secure the city’s water supply as dam levels continue to drop.
The Kurnell plant, which can currently supply drinking water for up to 1.5 million people in Sydney, returned to operation in January for the second time since 2012.
Continue reading...Plea agreement means Negar Ghodskani, whom Iran offered to swap for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, faces five years’ jail and $369,000 fine
An Iranian mother at the centre of a legal and political tussle between Australia, Britain, the US and Iran has pleaded guilty in a Minneapolis court to being part of a conspiracy to evade US sanctions and “illegally export controlled technology”.
Negar Ghodskani, 40, was pregnant when arrested on a US warrant in Australia in 2017.
Continue reading...Strong and gusty winds to bite parts of New South Wales as frosty temperatures sweep Victoria
Wild weather conditions are predicted to lash parts of New South Wales on Sunday afternoon, with conditions in Victoria expected to remain icy as the state is swept by another cold front.
The Bureau of Meteorology forecast weather conditions in NSW would ease on Sunday morning before picking up again with strong and gusty winds in many areas of the state for the rest of the day.
Continue reading...