Australia news live: person ‘likely’ with dementia made call to police before 92-year-old allegedly assaulted by police, Karen Webb says

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Chalmers asked about findings that jobseekers unable to afford ‘basics of life’

The treasurer Jim Chalmers was up on ABC News Breakfast just earlier, asked about new Anglicare data showing Australians on income support are “structurally unable to afford the basics of life”.

This is the primary motivation for the substantial cost of living relief that we’re providing in the budget. Whether it is the tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, energy bill relief for every household, help with student debt and cheaper medicines, plus the increases to jobseeker – which were in the budget before last – all of these are important ways that we can not just understand and acknowledge the pressures that people are under, but actually respond to them.

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New ‘targeted’ search in Samantha Murphy investigation – as it happened

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Sydney’s light rail network disrupted today amid industrial action

A reminder for Sydney commuters that the light rail network will be disrupted today amid planned industrial action.

Recent estimates have Australians consuming around 3,300,000 bags of cocaine per year, with every single one of them bought off the black market. There is no way of knowing whether any of them have been cut with deadly substances like fentanyl or nitazene.

We have to acknowledge that the majority of people who use cocaine do so recreationally and there is absolutely no chance of stopping people using the drug. We therefore need to consider all options to reduce harm, including regulating cocaine in a similar way to how we regulate alcohol.

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Australia news live: Dutton suggests Coalition won’t provide 2030 emissions target before election5; Qld state budget announcement today

Opposition leader says Coalition will ‘make our announcements in relation to our targets in due course’. Follow today’s news headlines live

Murray Watt says the opposition has “started the new climate wars” after Barnaby Joyce and Keith Pitt, two senior Nationals, called for Australia to pull out of the Paris agreement. You can read more on this from Karen Middleton below:

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Watt said:

We’re back to the same old climate wars in the Coalition. I saw overnight that [Joyce and Pitt] openly called for the Coalition to pull out of the Paris agreement. They’ve spent the last couple of days trying to paper over the cracks in the Coalition, saying that they can withdraw the target without withdrawing from the agreement. Now it’s out there in the open for everyone to see. And you can set your clock by Barnaby Joyce causing new climate wars within the Coalition. It’s seem like we’re back to the bad old days.

We’re on track to get to 42%, which is only 1% short of the 43% target.

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Queensland premier says ‘no update’ on anti-discrimination reforms – as it happened

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Brisbane Christian school issues apology two years after gender contracts

A Pentecostal Christian school has expressed regret for introducing a controversial student gender and sexuality contract two years ago.

We regret any distress or concern which was caused to students, parents and guardians of students or prospective students of the college.

We are working closely with all of our suppliers to ensure eggs remain available for our customers and we are providing support to the industry in responding to the Avian Flu cases in Victoria.

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Peter Dutton accused of trying to ‘rip up’ Australia’s commitment to Paris climate agreement

Opposition leader reportedly told News Corp he would oppose the legislated 2030 emissions target – a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels – at the next election

Peter Dutton has been accused of planning to break Australia’s commitment to the landmark Paris climate agreement after he said he would reject the country’s 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target.

The opposition leader reportedly told the Weekend Australian that he would oppose the legislated 2030 emissions target – a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels – at the next election but remain committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

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Shannon Fentiman referred to Queensland ethics committee over ‘cross your legs’ stoush – as it happened

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Max-Chandler Mather weighs in on Bandt’s potential legal action against attorney-general

Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather spoke to ABC News Breakfast earlier about the ongoing stoush between his party and Labor, with Adam Bandt threatening legal action against the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, over comments on pro-Palestine protests.

Asking me to comment on the specifics of a case like that – outrageous comments by the attorney general, completely baseless and without fact … this is an attempt to distract from the fact that the Labor government is complicit in a genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza.

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IT expert wins long-running freedom of information court battle over robodebt documents

Justin Warren first lodged request with the then Department of Human Services in January 2017

The federal court has ruled against a decision blocking access to early robodebt documents drafted under the former Coalition government, as part of one man’s long-running fight to shed light on the scheme’s origins.

Justices Geoffrey Kennett, Anna Katzmann and Shaun McElwaine ruled that a December 2022 decision made by the administrative appeals tribunal (AAT) to keep some robodebt documents exempt, including draft costings and new policy proposals, should be set aside due to procedural unfairness and because the AAT had incorrectly agreed with the cabinet confidentiality exemptions Services Australia applied.

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Politics live: question time claims and counter-claims over Australia’s military ties with Israel

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Going fully electric would save households more than $600 a year for next four decades, report says

Households would save an average of $608 a year for the next 40 years if new residential buildings in New South Wales were required to be fully electric, according to a report commissioned by climate organisation 350 Australia.

It cuts energy bills for local residents and small businesses during a cost of living crisis and reduces climate pollution, at almost no cost to councils. It will be low-income people and renters who will benefit most from council-led electrification.

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Anthony Albanese accuses Coalition of ‘secret’ plans to cut Australian wages

In speech to ACTU conference, prime minister says opposition’s ‘gut instinct is always to gut workers’ rights’

Anthony Albanese has accused the Coalition of “secret” plans to cut wages through changes to industrial relations laws.

The prime minister said the Liberal and National parties’ “gut instinct is always to gut workers’ rights” in an address to the Australian Council of Trade Unions conference in Adelaide on Wednesday evening.

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Australia politics live: RBA governor still confident economy will slow without stalling; no-confidence vote for embattled Townsville mayor

Council passes unanimous motion of no-confidence in its mayor Troy Thompson. Follow the day’s news live

Australia’s existing submarines won’t get Tomohawk missile upgrades

Australia’s existing Collins-class submarines will not be fitted with Tomahawk cruise missiles as part of work to extend their life before the Aukus submarines come into service.

For instance, we will consider whether tomahawk missiles can be fitted to the Collins-class submarines.”

The government has also received advice from Defence, in consultation with the United States, that adding Tomahawk cruise missile capability to the Collins class submarines is not viable and does not represent value for money.

The Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines Australia will receive in the early 2030s will come with the Tomahawk as standard equipment. Tomahawk cruise missiles will also be used by Navy’s Hobart class destroyers and the government has agreed in-principle to fit the Hunter class frigates with Tomahawks, subject to a feasibility study. [end quote]

NDS agrees with the government that managing the sustainability of the NDIS is critical — the community expects no less. We need fundamental and systemic reform, and that must be accompanied by proper resourcing for sector transformation.

The system is broken. Training, supervision and retaining highly skilled practitioners to provide quality care is essential, but not adequately covered in the current funding model.”

A continuation of previous workforce trends showing that workforce issues in the disability sector have become entrenched.

The disability sector continues to rely heavily on casual disability support workers, who have a very high turnover.

The biggest variation this year was a in proportion of permanent employees who work full time – with the number of full-time employees growing by 10%, the highest in close to a decade.

Conversely, part-time employment dropped to 70% this year. The increase may be related to the current cost-of-living crisis.

Turnover continued the upward trend growing to 24% this year, while permanent staff turnover jumped to 16%, the highest it has been since this survey began. These figures represent a churn of almost 16,500 individual employees leaving their jobs and over 19,000 new appointments over a one-year period.

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Australia politics live: $600,000 speechwriter not responsible for Bill Shorten’s ‘zingers’, Matt Keogh says

Workplace relations minister Tony Burke has conceded role wouldn’t ordinarily be paid that much. Follow today’s news headlines live

For a bit of a change of pace, you may enjoy this essay from Malcolm Turnbull in Foreign Affairs, where he outlines how he believes world leaders can deal with a second Trump presidency.

Turnbull bases a lot of his arguments on his own dealings with Donald Trump while prime minister. He runs through the infamous refugee deal phone call (the transcript of which was leaked) and the trade back-and-forths over tariffs.

The caricature of Trump as a one-dimensional, irrational monster is so entrenched that many forget that he can be, when it suits him, intelligently transactional. Like most bullies, he will bend others to his will when he can, and when he cannot, he will try to make a deal. But to get to the deal-making stage, Trump’s counterparts have to stand up to the bullying first.

I would certainly like to see the performance lifted. I would like to see better outcomes, particularly for the more vulnerable cohorts.

We also have work going on, in response to a parliamentary inquiry into the employment services system, going on in parallel to overseeing this new system.

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Allowing Josh Frydenberg to recontest Kooyong a ‘crazy’ idea, Liberal senator says

Jane Hume is against opening preselection for former treasurer while Karen Andrews argues he would be ‘absolute asset’

Senior Liberals are split on reopening preselection to allow Josh Frydenberg to recontest Kooyong for the party, which the shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, has denounced as a “crazy” idea.

On Monday Karen Andrews, the former home affairs minister, came out in favour of Frydenberg, arguing he would be an “absolute asset” and the Liberal party should do “all that we can” to attract him back into parliament.

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Australia news live: Sydney drenched by month of rain in day; man arrested after woman found dead in Darwin

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The Coalition has questioned why the government is using drones to monitor people released from immigration detention.

Cabinet minister Murray Watt confirmed on Insiders earlier that “drones are being used as part of this operation, but more in the sense of monitoring the accommodation that people are living in, in for example ensuring that it’s not too close to schools or other areas that they’re not supposed to be living close to.”

There’s a couple of issues here. One, either Andrew Giles accidentally and casually disclosed a previously secret drone surveillance program operating domestically in Australia in a Sky News interview with your colleague Kieran Gilbert. Or he made it up and it’s not actually happening at all.

And in a fresh statement provided by the Department of Home Affairs to SBS, I understand yesterday afternoon, they refer to using aerial surveillance to look at people’s locations and other buildings in the area.

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The winners and losers of Australia’s proposed electoral redistribution explained

Labor has lost a key seat in Victoria but could replace it by picking up a newly created electorate in Western Australia

The Australian Electoral Commission has announced proposed new boundaries for federal electorates in Victoria and Western Australia to be used at the next election.

A number of seats have been changed dramatically, with one seat abolished – the electorate of Higgins in Victoria – and a new one created.

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Australia politics live: government has discretion over acting on ICC arrest warrants, officials say

Meanwhile, government to rewrite visa cancellation rules after independent tribunal gave non-citizens with serious criminal convictions their visas back. Follow the day’s news live

Andrew Giles was asked why he wasn’t told about what was happening with his directive in the tribunals – why there weren’t meetings to receive updates.

He said there were meetings with his department which were taking place “pretty regularly”.

What has been unacceptable is the fact that these AAT decisions to set aside cancellations that were made under section 99 that were made by this government by my department – we were not advised, I was not told that these cancellations had been overturned by the tribunal.

That’s the issue that I’m deeply concerned about. And that’s what I’m focusing on fixing now.

There are around 30 that I’ve called up as a matter of absolute urgency and they are dealt with through the day and night.

I’m gonna get to the bottom of this – a protocol that I put in place was not adhered to, that is entirely unsatisfactory. As I said, I’m now focused on dealing with the urgent issue which is the cancellation consideration, I put in place a new protocol and I want to get to the bottom of what happened and why.

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Australia politics live: cabinet ‘crafting the offer’ for next election, PM tells caucus; transport department boss quizzed over Taylor Swift shirt

Anthony Albanese reminds his colleagues that government now in the final 12 months of its first term. Follow the day’s news live

‘Last 24 hours only reinforces need’ for immediate humanitarian ceasefire, return of hostages and aid access, Conroy says

Pat Conroy was also asked about Israel’s assault on a refugee camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah.

Well, we’re incredibly concerned by what we saw in Rafah. And that’s why we’ve been continuing to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. We’ve also called for an immediate return of all hostages that Hamas have taken. And the immediate opening of access so we can get massive amounts of humanitarian support into the Gaza. So immediate humanitarian ceasefire, release of hostages and immediate flow of aid is critical. That’s the Australian government’s position and you’re absolutely right, what we’ve seen overnight or over the last 24 hours only reinforces the need for those three things.

No, to be quite frank, we don’t. The Papua New Guinean government has asked the UN agencies to coordinate partner countries and those assessments are going on right now. But this is an incredibly inaccessible part of Papua New Guinea. And it’s a really challenging process for everyone.

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Change in visa rules was to apply in absence of ‘serious offending or family violence’, Andrew Giles was told

Labor is standing by ‘ministerial direction 99’ despite cases that appear at odds with advice given in early 2023

A rule change that meant a non-citizen’s ties to Australia would be considered before their visa was cancelled was intended to target people without “serious offending or family violence”, the immigration minister was told in early 2023.

But reports detailing the criminal history of some non-citizens who have had their visas restored appear at odds with the intention of that advice to Andrew Giles – leading the Coalition to pledge it would tear up the new rules if elected.

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Australia news live: aged care Covid vaccination rates ‘disappointingly low’, chief medical officer warns

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Malinauskas can’t ‘overstate the complexity’ of Aukus endeavour

Peter Malinauskas said his visit to the United States “unequivocally” confirmed what a massive challenge it will be to develop a workforce of 30,000 at the Osborne shipyard to build nuclear-powered submarines.

I don’t think I could possibly overstate the complexity of the task that is before us, simply because it is the most complex machine that has ever been built in human history.

And that is everything from developing the skills that are required at a vocational level but also the university level, but similarly making sure that we’re starting to upskill existing parts of the naval shipbuilding supply chain, amongst others who can participate in this process. And South Australia industry alone has got more than enough work on its hands for me to be able to say, as a premier, [it’s] time to sort of abandon the parochial nature of industrial policy we see between states around defence and instead invite everyone to lift their eyes and look what is important for the national effort in this regard.

We know that building nuclear submarines is going to take a national enterprise and a national effort, but our ambitions to be able to build these submarines domestically requires a supply chain and an industry that are capable of delivering the parts that are required.

Now, in order to be able to do that, I think as a first big step – we’ve got to see if we can’t participate in the nuclear submarine supply chain in advance of the … Aukus submarines construction commencing later this decade. So, what we’ve negotiated with [HII], that builds the Virginia class submarines, is an opportunity for South Australian suppliers to supply to the Virginia class program.

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Peter Dutton wrong to claim Australia was consulted on ICC pursuit of Israeli leaders, government says

Not ICC practice to consult all states before making application for arrest warrants, Dfat says

The Australian government has flatly rejected Peter Dutton’s claim that it was consulted by the international criminal court regarding the pursuit of Israeli leaders over their conduct of the war in Gaza.

The opposition leader has repeatedly urged the government to publicly condemn what Dutton has called the ICC prosecutor’s “terrible decision” to apply for arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant.

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Labor takes aim at Adam Bandt’s refusal to support two-state solution in Middle East – as it happened

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Bandt condemns antisemitic graffiti on school, calls for end to Gaza invasion

Adam Bandt was also asked about the threatening graffiti discovered at Mount Scopus Jewish day school in Melbourne on Saturday, where the words “Jew die” were painted on the school’s front fence.

I condemn those words. There’s of course no place for that and we’ve said from the very beginning, from the first moment this got debated in parliament, no to antisemitism, no to Islamophobia, no to the invasion.

I think what you are seeing across the country is a very strong push for peace. People are fighting not only against antisemitism, but fighting to end the invasion of Gaza as well.

It’s up to Palestinians and Israelis to equally enjoy those rights. And if that’s what they choose to self-determine, then that’s what they choose to self-determine. Our point is that the international community can no longer pretend that the slaughter and the invasion is not happening.

Well, support for Israelis as well as Palestinians, as I’ve said, both having their rights to self-determination under international law. Now, at the moment, what is happening at the moment is that we are seeing over 34,000 people killed. A region brought to the brink of starvation and this is a manmade famine.

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