A 10-year-old girl and two boys, aged seven and five months, found dead inside a house fire in the Western Australian town on 19 July
A woman has been charged with the murder of her three children after their bodies were found in a house fire in the Western Australian town of Port Hedland.
A 10-year-old girl and two boys, aged seven and five months, were found dead inside the Anderson Street property by firefighters who responded to the blaze on 19 July.
Continue reading...Tanya Plibersek’s department gave green light despite state of environment report finding Australia’s natural heritage is in poor and deteriorating health
Ancient giant trees and threatened birds, mammals and ecosystems are being sacrificed for a ring road south of Perth approved by the Albanese government, leading conservationists say.
Habitat for the critically endangered western ringtail possum and endangered black cockatoos will be allowed to be cleared for a section of the $1.25bn Bunbury outer ring road.
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Labor wants consensus between business and unions – Burke
Burke says “everything is on the table” including the potential for fixed enterprise bargaining. He also says that the government would like to seek consensus between business and union groups if it can. Asked specifically about a deal struck between the ACTU and the Business Council last year, Burke says he doesn’t know whether that is possible now but he’d be interested in exploring it.
If I can find agreements where there’s consensus I don’t know whether the consensus of that agreement of a couple of years ago still existed in identical form, but if a consensus like that turns up at the job summit you could work on the basis I will be inclined to grab it, because that did have safeguards around it to prevent workers from in fact going backwards.
When you don’t have an energy policy for a decade that’s inflationary. When you have a skills crisis and refuse to invest in skills, that’s inflationary. So in establishing the first bill will be dealing with in the Parliament will be jobs and Skills Australia, we have already had Chris Bowen taking action in terms of making sure we are dealing with the energy crisis. But none of this turns around straight away.
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New South Wales has reported similarly high numbers, with 41 deaths and 14,953 new cases in the 24-hours to 4pm yesterday.
There are 2,176 people with Covid-19 in hospital, and 59 in intensive care. Just over 68% of people have received their third shot, despite a fourth booster now being available.
Continue reading...Victorian students aged eight and over are being urged to wear masks when indoors to help counter the Covid-19 surge.
The request comes in a joint letter from the state education department and independent and Catholic schools.
I respect the fact that people on the crossbench were elected to deliver action on climate change and our government wants to work with them to do just that.
That’s why one of the very first acts of the new government will be to legislate that higher ambition. They want more than the 43% that Labor is offering though.
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Labor adopting ‘take it or leave it’ approach, says Bandt
Bandt warns the government is adopting a “take it or leave it” approach to negotiating climate legislation, when there are real issues to address, such as the extent of climate ambition and how to phase out fossil fuels.
We’re saying that’s not our position. We’re saying we’d be willing to have discussions with the government but these are the things that have to be on the table. We’re not going into it with ultimatums.
I’m not talking about bottom lines and ultimatums but you can’t even have this discussion if the government is saying it’s my way or the highway, which is with where, with respect to the target, where they’re at at the moment.
If we’re negotiating climate legislation, then this government, now they’re in power, has to grapple with the question of are they going to open up more coal and gas projects that could potentially blow 43% out of the water? Just one of those projects could do that.
Continue reading...Experts warn of worse to come, with most states likely several weeks away from peak hospitalisation rates
Hospitals across the country are “bursting at the seams” as the number of people being admitted with Covid-19 reaches record levels in several states.
Western Australia recorded its highest number of Covid hospitalisations to date on Thursday, with Queensland also expected to surpass its January peak in coming days.
Continue reading...While scale of shortfall is uncertain, conservationists claim admission is proof the project isn’t working
Gas giant Chevron has fallen even further behind on targets to capture and store CO2 at its mega gas project in Western Australian, but has refused to say by how much.
The company also confirmed on Friday it had bought and surrendered 5.23m tonnes of CO2 offsets to make up for the failure to meet its 2021 target at its CCS project at the offshore Gorgon gasfield in Western Australia.
Continue reading...Guardian Australia brings together all the latest on daily new Covid-19 cases, as well as stats, charts and live state by state data from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, ACT and NT. We bring together the latest numbers on the vaccine rollout and fourth dose booster vaccination rates.
Due to the difference in reporting times between states, territories and the federal government, it can be difficult to get a current picture of the pandemic in Australia. Here we have brought together data on cases, deaths, hospitalisations and vaccinations.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern meets with Daniel Andrews; Dominic Perrottet warns heavy rain forecast in NSW; federal disaster payments available to 23 flood-affected areas; RBA interest rate decision due; Victoria records 16 Covid deaths, NSW records 14, Queensland records 11. Follow the day’s news live
The federal government is making disaster relief payments available to 23 flood-affected areas in NSW, with emergency management minister Murray Watt saying the assistance would be “uncapped”.
Watt announced early on Tuesday that the federal and NSW governments were making assistance available through the commonwealth-state disaster recovery funding arrangements.
These are uncapped payments, they are demand-driven and they will be available for anyone who qualifies.
Continue reading...Woodside’s North West Shelf gas development would release more than eight times Australia’s annual emissions if it continues to operate until 2070
Western Australian authorities have recommended a 50-year extension of the country’s biggest polluting fossil fuel development, sparking condemnation from climate campaigners who warned it could add more than 4bn tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
The WA Environment Protection Authority (EPA) advised the state government it should give the greenlight to oil and gas giant Woodside Energy to run its North West Shelf gas development in the Pilbara until 2070.
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Continue reading...NSW Greens criticise ‘overreach’ of police operation against climate activists; Anthony Albanese leaving Sunday for Europe visit; protester interrupts Chinese ambassador’s Sydney address; Chris Bowen says energy market has returned to ‘normal market conditions’; report of aged care providers operating at a loss; nation records at least 46 Covid deaths. Follow the day’s news
Qantas is forecasting a loss of up to $550m this year, despite strong demand for domestic and international flights allowing it to reduce its net debt to $4bn by the end of this financial year.
That’s a $1.5bn improvement in the past six months.
We don’t want a circumstance whereby there’s risk to Australian personnel by undertaking such a visit, but we’ll take that advice and we’ll act accordingly.
We’ve formed a special bond with Ukraine. President Zelenskiy is one of the century’s great heroes, and he’s provided inspiration not only to his people but to the rest of the world as well.
I hope that we can visit in due course and if the prime minister is able to visit, if that’s the security advice he’s received, that it’s safe for him and for his delegation to visit, then I think it’s entirely appropriate that he would.
Continue reading...Family found a Lamarckdromia beagle specimen washed up on the beach in Denmark in southern WA
A “fluffy” crab discovered off the coast of Western Australia has been named after the ship that carried Charles Darwin around the world.
The new species, Lamarckdromia beagle, belongs to the Dromiidae family, commonly known as sponge crabs.
Continue reading...Foreign minister says Australia ‘has ground to make up’ in Pacific region; jobless rate steady at 3.9%; nation records at least 73 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed
So the below comes as both the NSW and Victorian government move to introduce an extra, free year of preschool in the next decade.
Both the NSW and Victorian premiers, Dominic Perrottet and Daniel Andrews, want to introduce a new year for four- and five-year-olds.
It will mean that, in the next 10 years, every child in Victoria and NSW will experience the benefits of a full year of play-based learning before their first year of school. At the same time, it will benefit hundreds of thousands of working families.
We want to expand our existing preschools. It’s a game changer and it’s exciting and there is big money behind it, because we have to do well for our kids.
They do an amazing job, our early childhood workforce, so this is our chance to invest in them and grow and set children up for that best start of life.
Continue reading...Paul Erickson speaks at National Press Club; Bowen says energy system ‘under pressure’; AEC says it will not conduct a recount in federal seat of Gilmore; foreign affairs minister’s first trip to Solomon Islands since security deal with China; Victoria records 18 Covid deaths, NSW records 14. This blog is now closed
Quick note:
NSW is reporting 7,260 new Covid cases and 14 deaths this morning.
Continue reading...Scientists spot extremely luminous object powered by supermassive black hole using Coonabarabran telescope
Astronomers believe they have discovered the fastest-growing black hole of the past 9bn years.
The supermassive black hole consumes the equivalent of one Earth every second and has the mass of 3bn suns, they estimate.
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Continue reading...Mark McGowan says state’s two remaining coal-fired power stations are becoming less viable due to rise of renewable energy
The Western Australian government will shut its last coal-fired power unit before the end of the decade and spend an extra half a billion dollars to foster new jobs for displayed workers, the state government said.
Later this year, the first of the state-owned 854-megawatt Muja power station’s units near Collie, south of Perth, will close, with the entire plant to be shut by 2029. The nearby 340MW Collie plant will exit the market by the end of 2027, the premier, Mark McGowan, said in a statement on Tuesday.
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Continue reading...Prime minister responds to reports of Chinese naval base in Cambodia; nation records 29 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed
There’s no magic fix for inflation, Jason Clare says
Education minister Jason Clare appeared on the Today show this morning alongside Scott Emerson.
Inflation is through the roof. Wages are through the floor. We have got interest rates knocking at the door. The Reserve Bank ... have made it clear there will be a number of interest rate rises, which makes it harder for people with big rate rises already. Especially for people who are ahead in their mortgage, but if you have just signed up and the bank says you have to pay more, it will make it harder and harder.
There is no simple magic fix to this.
The market expects them to increase interest rates because we have an inflation problem in the economy and rising interest rates were something that the Reserve Bank governor flagged before the election and that is the trajectory we are on, but just because these interest rate rises are expected, it won’t make them any less difficult for a lot of people who are already confronting cost-of- living pressures.
That is the unfortunate reality. There is no point mincing words about that. Our job is the government is to make sure that after some of this near-term cost-of-living relief runs out that it is replaced by responsible long-term sustainable cost-of-living relief in areas like medicines and childcare, getting power bills down over time and getting real wages moving again.
Continue reading...Previous environment minister, Sussan Ley, declined to issue emergency protection to halt $4.5bn development on Western Australia’s Burrup peninsula
The incoming federal environment minister has been urged to block the construction of a fertiliser plant on a world heritage-nominated site in Western Australia, and to act swiftly to stop the multinational company behind the plans from removing Indigenous rock art.
Perdaman is planning a $4.5bn plant on the Burrup Peninsula, in the Pilbara region. The plant, which is strongly supported by the state government and was backed by the former federal government, will require the removal of Aboriginal art produced over a period starting about 50,000 years ago.
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Continue reading...Tim Edwards spent 35 hours grinding his work into a glass illusion that took out the $15,000 Tom Malone prize
Artist Tim Edwards has won the prestigious Tom Malone prize for Australian glass art with a work that plays tricks with the viewer’s eye.
The winning work, titled Ellipse #8, is a luminous blue form 47cm tall and from some angles it is difficult to tell whether the glass is two- or three-dimensional. The piece is 3D but not very thick with a depth of just 8mm.
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