What we learned today, Wednesday 26 July
Thanks for joining us on the Australia news live blog today. That’s where we’ll wrap up our coverage – here are some key developments:
Australia’s inflation rate has extended its retreat, with the headline consumer price index 6.0% for the June quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.
The minister for sport and aged care, Anika Wells said Daniel Andrews did not warn her of his Commonwealth Games decision.
A man is in a serious but stable condition after being shot outside a home in south-western Sydney.
A man in his 80s has drowned at Bondi beach after suffering a cardiac arrest, Surf Life Saving NSW says.
Indigenous voice ‘a step in the right direction’, former foreign minister Julie Bishop told the National Press Club.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese says he and New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins ‘have not looked at’ a trans-Tasman passport.
The global economy faces a tricky road ahead, federal treasurer Jim Chalmers said, adding that progress has been made in the battle against high inflation but the International Monetary Fund warns it’s still too early to celebrate.
The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said he has serious concerns about Sky News’ plans to launch a new channel dedicated to covering the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum 24 hours, seven days a week.
The Productivity Commission says Australian governments have not “grasped the nature and scale of change required to accelerate improvements in life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people” under the Closing the Gap framework, saying there must be a new “partnership” and more sharing of power in decision-making.
Scores of health professionals will head to Canberra when parliament resumes next month to protest against new gas developments planned in the Northern Territory.
More than 50 of the long-finned pilot whales stranded on a West Australian beach have died, but rescuers are working to return the remaining 46 whales to the water.
Meta was been ordered to pay $20m in fines over the offering of a virtual private network app, Onavo Protect, which was found to collect “an extensive variety of data” about users’ mobile device usage that Meta then used in an anonymised and aggregated form for commercial purposes.
A resident is missing after a fire ripped through a regional Victorian retirement village.
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has again refused to rule out cancelling the $25bn Metro West project.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has taken action against eight telcos, including Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, after they investigated the notifications they provided customers prior to having their services disconnected.
The CFMEU has called for Queensland transport minister Mark Bailey to step aside, after what it says is years of neglect at the state’s biggest public transport project.
Updated
Indigenous man dies in WA prison
AAP is reporting that an Indigenous inmate from a regional West Australian prison has died in hospital after collapsing during an exercise session.
The 34-year-old man died on Monday at Royal Perth hospital, The department of justice said on Wednesday.
He was taking part in a recreation activity at West Kimberley Regional Prison, near Derby, on 15 July when the incident occurred.
Paramedics transported the man to Derby public hospital before the Royal Flying Doctor transferred him to Perth.
The department said family members were able to spend time with the man at the hospital before he died.
Preliminary reports suggest there were no suspicious circumstances.
WA police will provide a report to the state coroner, which is mandatory for all deaths in custody.
A 68-year-old inmate died at the privately run Acacia prison in February and a 29-year-old prisoner died at Albany Regional prison in May last year.
Both were men.
Updated
Rio Tinto posts steep drop in underlying earnings
Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto has recorded a steep drop in underlying earnings of US$5.7bn over a six-month period amid easing iron ore prices.
The result to 30 June, down from last year’s US$8.63bn, signals a return to more normal days for miners of the key steel-making commodity, after years of elevated ore prices lifted profits.
Rio, which generates the bulk of its revenue from iron ore, noted that the tight labour market was weighing on its business.
“Our operations and growth projects continue to be impacted by high unplanned absences, tight labour markets, rising input costs and supply chain disruptions,” Rio said in a statement.
It said there was still strong demand from China, even as the major steel making nation grapples with an underwhelming economic recovery from the pandemic.
Rio recently announced it was putting significant funds into manufacturing and marketing recycled aluminium products through a joint venture with Canada’s Giampaolo Group.
Updated
GetUp: ‘We want to see First Nations-led solutions’
GetUp has been campaigning around the voice for some time, but says it will now further accelerate its efforts. The group has been focusing on its successful Passing The Message Stick project, seeking to educate and equip First Nations communities with information about the voice.
Their efforts will now bolster existing and growing grassroots efforts in volunteering, door-knocking and phone banking from the Yes23 organisation, the Uluru Dialogue, the Labor party, unions and more.
“GetUp is prepared to campaign for more ambition - to make sure that First Nations communities are consulted and have the ability to elect their own representatives,” Baldwin-Roberts said.
The design principles of the voice, released by the federal government, say that voice members “would be selected by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, not appointed by the executive government” – but the exact method of selection or election will be designed following the referendum. The design principles state “To ensure cultural legitimacy, the way that members of the voice are chosen would suit the wishes of local communities”.
Baldwin-Roberts said GetUp’s focus would remain on First Nations communities, including “holding space for deeper conversations and amplifying the stories of community leadership and strength”.
It’s an ongoing fight for self-determination, truth-telling and policy reform. We want to see First Nations-led solutions to stopping deaths in custody and protect water, cultural heritage and land rights.
The constitution never took into consideration how First Nations people should be represented within our political processes, now is the time to change that.
Updated
GetUp pushing for yes vote on voice: ‘We are in the most important political moment in our history’
Progressive campaign group GetUp says it will “be throwing everything we have” into the Indigenous voice referendum, saying it’s now all in on pushing for a yes vote.
GetUp’s CEO, the Widjabul Wia-bal woman Larissa Baldwin-Roberts, said the group would also push for “more ambition” in the final model of the voice, pending a successful referendum, including agitating for voice members to be elected by Indigenous communities.
“We are in the most important political moment in our history - the referendum is fast approaching and the conversations we have in the coming months are critical,” she told Guardian Australia.
With the polls showing public support for the voice flagging, GetUp and our movement partners will now be throwing everything we have into this. We’re mobilising our members and organising volunteers into action, making phone calls - holding thousands of conversations across key areas of the country.
Updated
‘We have never seen this’
Officials are baffled by the behaviour of a large group of pilot whales who grouped together in a heart shape before stranding themselves on a remote West Australian beach.
Drone footage shows the group of almost 100 whales moving tightly together, before stranding themselves at Cheynes beach about 60km east of Albany on Tuesday evening.
You can read more of this extraordinary story by Narelle Towie at the link below:
Updated
Victoria’s First Nations body that will negotiate the nation’s first treaty has appointed its new co-chairs.
The second iteration of the state’s First Peoples’ Assembly held its inaugural meeting at Victorian parliament today. Later this year the assembly will begin negotiations with the Andrews government over a state-wide treaty.
Rueben Berg, a Gunditjmara man, and Ngarra Murray, a Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Dhudhuroa and Dja Dja Wurrung woman, will lead the body in treaty talks.
Berg and Murray were re-elected to the assembly at its elections held earlier this month
Chalmers: unrelenting rental growth ‘concerning’ despite lower inflation overall
Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers was on Afternoon Briefing earlier, and was asked about today’s inflation figures, and he said that he knew people were “under the pump”, and added that the “composition of this inflation challenge” was changing.
Specifically, Chalmers expressed concern about the unrelenting growth of rent, saying it was the area “we need to be most focused on”.
I’m aware of the sorts of predictions that get made about rental pressure. They have been with us for some time.
They are as much a consequence of not enough supply as any other reason and that is why we have this broad and ambitious housing policy which is all about building more affordable homes at the same time as we made it easier for people to pay the rent, with the biggest increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance in 30 years.
But obviously, rent is a big part of the inflation story. It is obviously a concerning part of the numbers we saw today.
Overwhelmingly, overall, the inflation picture is getting a bit better in our economy in welcome ways but that does not mean every single part of our economy is out of the woods and rent is obviously what of those things that we are most focused on.
Updated
Queensland transport minister defends safety record of Cross River Rail project
Mark Bailey told media this afternoon that he won’t step aside, describing calls from the CFMEU for his head as not “helpful, given the situation”.
“We need to all work together to improve,” he said.
“This is about the safety of workers.”
He said he reached out to the CFMEU yesterday, offering to work together to make safety improvements.
The minister said the transport project, the state’s biggest and one of the largest in the country, has not faced an unusually large number of safety problems.
“This is one of the biggest construction projects across the country, so safety issues will come up from time to time,” he said.
“Whenever we’re aware of them we move to act on them as quickly as we can.”
As part of “reset” of the project announced today, Bailey said he wants to ensure every safety issue is properly investigated into the future.
Updated
Union calls for Queensland transport minister to resign over Cross River Rail project safety issues
The CFMEU has called for Queensland transport minister Mark Bailey to step aside, after what it says is years of neglect at the state’s biggest public transport project.
The union said it has repeatedly raised concerns about the Cross River Rail project - including regarding scaffolding.
Union secretary Michael Ravbar said he hasn’t had any conversations with Bailey today.
“Our position is the minister should resign,” he said.
“The way this project was actually procured in regards to the Cross River Development Authority, [lead contractor] CPB, how the job’s been managed from the very beginning, was always going to be a financial disaster.”
Thousands of staff voted unanimously this morning to stop work at all 13 Cross River Rail sites this morning, according to the union.
The CFMEU secretary said the union had been warning about safety on the project since its start in 2016.
Updated
Julie Bishop: ‘You know I don’t speak French!’
I just wanted to return to a quip the former foreign minister Julie Bishop made during her National Press Club address this afternoon.
Bishop was asked multiple times about speculation she had been offered an ambassadorship, with one journalist specifically asking if she had been offered the French ambassadorship.
Bishop responded in kind.
You know I don’t speak French!
That would be a matter between me and whomever was doing the asking.
I can assure you that I am more than delighted with my role at the Australian National University as chancellor. I am more than happy living in Australia.
Updated
NSW opposition leader: ‘It is never acceptable to use abusive language’
The New South Wales opposition leader, Mark Speakman, has declared there is never an excuse for abusive language after an investigation was launched into messages sent by the upper house MP Taylor Martin.
Speakman said he didn’t want to make further comment on the matter raised with the party last week by the former federal MP Lucky Wicks until the “independent” investigation was completed.
He said:
It is never acceptable to use abusive language, there is never an excuse for abusive language.
But beyond that, I don’t want to add any further comment because I want to make sure that this process is independent, is impartial, is not influenced by anything I might say, remains as confidential as it can and is empathetic and trauma informed.
The Liberal party has appointed an SC to run the probe into the messages Martin allegedly sent Wicks, who is 18 years his senior, after the pair ended their relationship which began while he was working for her as a political staffer.
Updated
Albanese and Hipkins express ‘serious concern’ over ‘destabilising activities’ in South China Sea
Further to those comments on China in the Pacific, the joint statement from Anthony Albanese and Chris Hipkins also expressed “serious concern over developments in the South China Sea and an intensification of destabilising activities, including the continued militarisation of disputed features and unsafe behaviour at sea and in the air.”
The two leaders “acknowledged China would remain an important economic partner for both countries, and the importance of engagement and dialogue with China to advance and uphold national interests and manage differences”, the statement said.
The pair “reiterated the importance of China and the United States re-opening lines of communication at all levels and managing strategic competition responsibly”.
Updated
Albanese and Hipkins express concern over China-Solomon Islands policing pact
Anthony Albanese and his New Zealand counterpart Chris Hipkins have “expressed concern that the implementation of the new policing agreement between China and Solomon Islands would undermine the Pacific’s agreed regional security norms”, according to a joint statement from the leaders.
The prime ministers were meeting in Wellington for their annual trans-Tasman leaders summit. The China-Solomons agreement “is inconsistent with Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ commitments and the approach the Forum has taken on regional security matters”, the written statement said.
The leaders urged “the Pacific Islands Forum to discuss these issues and encourage transparency, enabling the region to collectively consider the implications for our shared security.”
Updated
Chris Hipkins notes ‘significant shift’ in Australia’s climate change policy in past year
Anthony Albanese and New Zealand’s prime minister Chris Hipkins have announced “a new trans-Tasman roadmap to 2035” at a joint news conference after a meeting in Wellington.
The work program between Australia and New Zealand would include a “sustainable and inclusive” trade declaration to “promote an integrated and climate focused approach to the economies” on both sides of the Tasman, the pair said. Hipkins said there had been a “significant shift” in “Australian climate change policy over the last year”.
The leaders have also asked a working group to report before July 2024 on how to make travel between the countries more “seamless”, they said. Albanese suggested to reporters that any measures would not include a shared trans-Tasman passport.
Updated
Albanese says he and Chris Hipkins ‘have not looked at’ a trans-Tasman passport
Next up, Albanese steps up and calls New Zealand “friends, family and neighbours”. He mentions the increased ease for New Zealanders to “call Australia home”, saying the change is “long overdue”.
But we jump to questions next, and Albanese is immediately asked if a “trans-Tasman passport” is on the agenda:
We have not looked at trans-Tasman passport but what we’re looking at though is making a seamless experience of going through from country to country.
That might look at, for example, how smart gates can operate and be complementary. Before you get on a plane in either country it is already recognised that you are OK to come in. And therefore you can just go through smart gates in a seamless way and in a timely way as well.
We have many business opportunities between us and the fact that business people will go from country to country regularly, what we want to make sure is that that experience is the best it can possibly be. And the efficiencies can be gained by doing so.
That really is what officials have already done a lot of work, we want to complete that by June of next year and we’re brought that date forward from where it was anticipated to be. If we could do it before June next year I’m sure Prime Minister Hipkins and I would be willing to do that as well. We want to make sure it is put in place as a matter of urgency because it is really a commonsense response.
Updated
NZ PM announces ‘bilateral roadmap’ for ‘shared ambitions’ with Australia
Chris Hipkins has gone on to announce a “bilateral roadmap” that intends to set out the “shared ambitions” between both nations, including on climate change.
Hipkins acknowledges the “significant shift” in Australian climate change policy over the past year, and calls climate change the “single greatest existential threat to our livelihoods, security and our condition of our regional partners”:
Both our countries are experiencing the effects of climate change now. I am looking forward to continuing to find ways to work together in the battle against climate change.
I will work together in the Pacific on the agenda, we want to support the Pacific Islands Forum and its members to work collectively to address the strategic and security issues that are facing the region. We agree that working through Pacific-led regional processes is critical on strengthening on our economies.
He went on to mention the increased “integration” the nations are discussing:
We will continue to work to make it easier to engage in trade and tourism, research and development, investment and promoting innovation. Prime Minister Albanese and I committed today to revitalise the joint working group on initiatives to move closer towards seamless travel across the Tasman.
We have asked the working group to report back by 30 June next year, on additional steps that we can take to improve that pathway. We also agree to negotiation of a sustainable and inclusive trade declaration, to promote an integrated climate-focused approach to the economies on both sides of the Tasman.
Updated
New Zealand PM Chris Hipkins: ‘NZ has no better friend than Australia’
Good afternoon, Mostafa Rachwani with you this afternoon, and we begin with a press conference featuring the PM and the New Zealand prime minister, Chris Hipkins, who has begun proceedings by describing Australia as a “great friend” of his country:
The fact that we have met so many times in a short space of time, I think it reflects the strength of the trans-Tasman bond. The relationship is in very good heart, evidenced by the historic pathway to citizenship for New Zealanders living in Australia that was announced earlier this year. New Zealand has no better friend than Australia.
Updated
Greens renew call for rental freeze and caps
The Greens have argued today’s inflation data shows rent increases are making life less affordable for everyone.
Max Chandler-Mather, Australian Greens housing spokesperson:
If you’re under 35, rents are rising the fastest they have in your entire life. Today’s shocking rent data shows the prime minister must urgently accelerate the National Cabinet process and coordinate an agreement on a national 2-year freeze and ongoing cap on rent increases as soon as possible.
With rents surging ahead of CPI, it’s clear that unless the federal government caps rents then it will take much longer to get inflation under control, which means more rate rises.
Rents are driving up the cost of living for everyone. Whether you’re a renter, homeowner, have a small business or are just getting hit by the rising cost of living, surging rents mean you’re paying more for daily essentials.
Chandler-Mather has repeated calls for the federal government to take action on the housing crisis, including a $1bn fund to encourage states to implement a two-year rent freeze and use their existing powers under the RBA Act to freeze interest rates, preventing the flow-on harms that come from rate increases.
Updated
More on Queensland Cross River Rail safety incident
CFMEU state secretary Michael Ravbar described the incident as both “inexcusable” and preventable.
The union claims the project has the worst safety record of any in the country.
Ravbar said:
This is an incident that with properly enforced safety protocols would not have happened.
We have been warning the state government since the start of this project that safety standards were grossly inadequate, and that a culture of fear and intimidation used by lead contractor CPB and some of its shoddy subcontractors leaves many workers too frightened to speak up on safety or other issues.
CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith said there had been more than 300 safety notices issued at the site:
We need a full safety audit on the entire Cross River Rail project to arrest the life-threatening mismanagement it’s suffering from.
Updated
CFMEU strike halts work at Queensland’s biggest rail project after accident
A 54-year-old worker is in hospital after falling about 12 metres from scaffolding at the Cross River Rail project’s Dutton Park work site at about 1.15 pm on Tuesday.
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland immediately launched an investigation into the incident. The project is already under investigation by rail safety regulators after a train crash into construction equipment two weeks ago.
Hundreds of workers marched on the offices of lead contractor CPB this morning, with the union saying they won’t return to work until Monday next week.
Updated
Consent laws inquiry hears civil liberties group’s concerns
Executive member of Liberty Victoria Isabelle Skaburskis then gives an example to the Senate committee examining consent laws, of what the civil liberty group is speaking about:
“We do not disagree that it is a very reasonable expectation that people ask. What we take issue with is whether the failure to ask should be backed by criminal sanction that includes 10 years imprisonment,” she said.
Skaburskis then provides a counter, hypothetical example in response to the story of Andrew Doherty earlier in the day. Doherty’s allegations were not progressed by police and he told the committee he had been told by a police officer that if the NSW affirmative consent laws had been in place when he came forward, police would have progressed the case.
Skaburskis says:
I could provide, at this stage, a hypothetical counter-example of being approached by a 22-year-old young man who has been in a relationship for a year. It’s a relationship with someone that he loves, and they have sex regularly.
He feels that he understands his partner and they engage in what he believes is consensual, mutually satisfying sex. In those circumstances, he may not explicitly obtain consent every time they have sex, and yet he may still have a reasonable belief in consent.
The issue that we have with the affirmative consent model is that a person, this hypothetical young man, may be convicted for the offence of rape and face a 10-year term of imprisonment. Not because he didn’t have reasonable belief and consent he might have otherwise have had reasonable belief and concerns, but he failed to ask.
And the issue that we have is failing to ask shouldn’t be treated in the same way as other instances of rape where a person acted in a way where they had no other means of obtaining reasonable belief.
Updated
No uniform support for affirmative consent
But there is not uniform support for affirmative consent – which at its bare bones is getting a yes before sexual activity rather than waiting for a no – in this committee hearing.
President of Liberty Victoria Michael Stanton gives two main reasons for his organisation’s concerns – one, young people in particular would not be thinking or even have the ability to understand the “technical” aspects of affirmative consent laws, or directions to juries about what steps they went though to secure a “yes”.
And two, that the need for a “yes” could mean an accused loses their right to silence – Stanton says he fears a situation where an accused would have to answer questions about what steps they took to secure a yes, which could chip away at their presumption of innocence – which includes the right to silence.
“The practical impact of that is that it requires an accused person to give evidence,” he said.
“That’s the practical reality. Now, there was some evidence here to say that it’s not impinging upon the right to silence because there’s not a statutory provision that says the accused person must give evidence right, but the practical reality is in those cases, the accused person will have to give evidence to lay that evidentiary foundation.
“That’s becomes your problem because it limits the right to silence the presumption of innocence service provision. That’s the practical reality of it.”
Updated
Consent laws inquiry hears about restorative justice
Legal experts and advocates are giving evidence on consent laws to the Senate committee, which includes the concept of restorative justice. That is something which is facilitated between the victim-survivor and the accused, which is not a judicial outcome – there is not a “guilty” finding or custodial element – it may be an apology, or an acknowledgment of the victim’s pain and hurt.
So far, everyone who has mentioned it, or been asked about it, says it can not be an “either or” concept and can only be offered as an option if it is something the victim-survivor wants. And not just because they have been told that there is no chance, or they believe there is no chance, of justice in the court system.
South-East Monash Legal Service director of advocacy and development Ashleigh Newham told the committee:
It will only work firstly if it’s something that the victim-survivor is something they would like to pursue. And it will also only work if there’s an acceptance from all parties to come to the table for a restorative process. It’s a very different process from our formalised justice system. So actually making sure that it’s going to be a successful process [is important].
There’s lots of good research, particularly around the Centre for Innovative Justice, in the restorative justice processes that can speak to what works in that space. But it’s certainly not something that can be a tick the box exercise to decide it’s an option. It’s coming with openmindedness to the process.
Updated
Just jumping over to the senate consent inquiry, where Labor senator Nita Green has asked if Liberty Victoria president Michael Stanton if he has statistics on the number of people who are “unjustly accused” of sexual assault.
Stanton does not. He goes on to say:
I don’t dispute for one second, that there needs to be improvements in the way that victims survivors are treated through the criminal justice system.
Our concern is in particular, for matters that do get to trial how the system preserves the rights or balances the rights of complainants, victims, survivors and accused people.
Bishop asked about replacement Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi
Bishop has been asked for her thoughts on the news overnight that Wang Yi has come back as the Chinese foreign minister.
Bishop:
I know Wang Yi well, I dealt with him on numerous occasions over five years. He’s a highly competent, highly professional diplomat.
He has an unceasing ability to promote China’s national interests. He knows Australia well and I always had very professional dealings with him, although there is one occasion but we won’t go into it … [I’ll] save one that one for the book …
I know the Albanese government is seeking to thaw the somewhat frozen diplomatic relations and progress is being made.
There’s still a way to go, it’s fair to say, but I think with Minister Wang Yi, at least we have a minister who knows us well and understands the challenges that Australia faces in working with China where we disagree on some global issues, but where we have significant reason to collaborate on trade, on students, on tourism.
There are a whole range of areas where Australia and China have much in common and much to collaborate over.
Updated
Bishop on voice: We need ‘something that comes from Indigenous people themselves’
Guardian Australia’s Daniel Hurst is up asking a question now.
Hurst: Are you disappointed the party is actively campaigning for “no” under Peter Dutton? … What messages of reassurance would you offer to Liberal party supporters about their ability to support this?
Bishop:
The complexity of this matter is exacerbated by the fact that … and I needn’t spell it out to this room because you all understand, is that the more complex the issue, the less bipartisan it is, the less likely it is to succeed. We have had something like 44 referenda in this country, only eight have succeeded.
I believe all eight had bipartisan support. They were kind of no-brainers, like giving Indigenous people the vote.
So the more complex it is and the less bipartisan it is, the less likely it is to meet that very high standard of a majority of votes in a majority of states. We have even had referenda that have won the yes vote but have lost on the majority of states benchmark.
Bishop says she’s pragmatic about the choices that political parties take.
My position, as private citizen Julie Bishop and as Chancellor Bishop and chairman is to support the yes case, for I believe that many Indigenous people whom I respect greatly have put a lot of thought into this and they believe that it is a step in the right direction.
No one’s claiming that it’s going to end in equality and disparity, but surely we have to come from something that comes from Indigenous people themselves.
Updated
Indigenous voice ‘a step in the right direction’, Julie Bishop says
Bishop says from her perspective Australians should support the voice and vote yes.
Personally, my message to anyone who wants to listen to what I have to say is that I believe that it is a step in the right direction.
I sat through too many of those Closing the Gap speeches in parliament to sense that what we were doing was working to close the disparity and inequality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations.
In some instances, the key measures were getting worse, not better, so it’s not a question of money, it’s not a question of politicians coming up with policies, it’s a question of giving Indigenous people the franchise to make decisions to implement policies that will work.
We’ve got to give it a chance.
Updated
Bishop on voice and First Nations issues: ‘Canada’s been there, they don’t understand why we’re so far behind’
Bishop has just been asked what she thinks the impact on Australia’s international reputation will be from the voice referendum and what her message is to Liberal voters thinking about how they should vote in this referendum.
On our international reputation:
I hate to break the news, but whatever is happening in Australia doesn’t always make headlines, let alone page seven of international news. But countries that share our First Nations issues are certainly identifying with the process that we’re going through and are certainly following it.
For example, I mentioned I had been in Canada. We actually had a session on Indigenous economic development during the Australia-Canada Leadership Forum and there was significant interest in how Australia was dealing with this issue of the voice and the referendum because Canada’s been there, they don’t understand why we’re so far behind.
It was suggested we’re about 40 years behind public policy in this space, from Canada.
Updated
Rescue mission to save stranded pilot whales continues
Our reporter Narelle Towie is at Cheynes beach in Western Australia where 97 pilot whales became stranded yesterday.
51 pilot whales died overnight but 46 are still alive.
Volunteers have been braving the freezing water since 7am this morning as they attempt to return the remaining live animals to deeper water, Towie says.
There is still a feeling of hope among the volunteers that something can be done to save the remaining pilot whales, she says.
Updated
More on Bondi drowning
An elderly man has died after being pulled from the water in Bondi this morning.
Police were called the beach about 10am following reports a man had been pulled from the water in a critical condition.
The 82-year-old was treated by paramedics before being taken to St Vincent’s hospital for treatment.
He later died in hospital.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
Updated
Chalmers welcomes ‘moderating’ inflation rate but ‘still a long way to go’
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has not surprisingly welcomed the lower inflation rate, but adding there’s “still a long way to go” in getting it down to where most people want it.
Having had to front most of the press conferences after each Reserve Bank rate rise, Chalmers will be hoping there aren’t any more, and today’s CPI numbers make that more likely.
In fact, the 0.8% quarter on quarter headline rate was less than half the peak quarterly CPI rate of 2.1% in the March quarter of 2022. That number landed just as the federal election campaign was going and resulted in a mid-campaign RBA rate rise that hurt the Coalition’s re-election hopes. (No wonder Chalmers remembers that 2.1% number.)
“We know people are still doing it tough”, the treasurer said (as he is always careful to do.), adding “inflation remains our number one challenge”.
June’s 5.4% year-on-year inflation pace wasn’t much slower than May’s 5.6% rate, so Chalmers and probably everyone will be hoping that price pressures ease off at an accelerating speed in the September quarter.
Updated
Bishop says Australia able to moderate tensions between US and China
Bishop says Australia is in a good position to act as moderator, so the situation with China and Taiwan does not become “a ladder of escalation, with military conflict as the last step”.
And in fact, whenever there is an escalation of tensions between the US and China, it’s in all our interests to ensure that there’s a corresponding de-escalation.
Updated
Bishop says Australia in bind due to relationship between China and US
Bishop is on the second trend – the geopolitical situation. First, she is discussing the (not-so-great) relationship between China and the US.
Now, it’s worth looking at what each of the protagonists is saying about the other.
In the 2022 US national security [statement], the United States claims that China is the only competitor that has the intent to reshape the rules-based international order and that it’s the only competitor with the economic technological, diplomatic and military power to do so.
China, on the other hand, in its national defence policy says that China is committed to peaceful collaboration with all nations of the world, that it will continue to create the environment for peace both within China and externally and that it will abide by the five principles of peaceful coexistence.
She says China has promised a peaceful re-emergence as a global leader, but that ends with Taiwan.
Well, that puts a number of countries, including Australia, in an exquisite dilemma for the first time in our history. Iur major trading partner is not also a major defence and strategic ally.
In fact, our major trading partner is in open economic conflict with our major defensive strategic ally.
Essentially, it’s very awkward for us.
Updated
Julie Bishop says Australia should consider regulating AI
On technology, she says the most disruptive are still to come:
While the technologies that we have already experienced have had a profound disruptive effect, our experts tell us that the most disruptive are yet to come.
The most disruptive technologies are still ahead of us whether it be through AI or quantum computing or genetic engineering and the like.
She says she was wondering if ChatGTP was the driver was the next wave of change – so she went to the site and asked it. It talked about its potential to change the world, kill or create jobs and the ethical implications.
As a matter of fact the cofounder of OpenAI which established ChatGPT has warned that super-intelligence could, in fact, be the most impactful technology ever.
And he warned that in the wrong hands, it could be dangerous. In fact, he went so far as to say that super intelligence by its vast power could disempower humanity.
Bishop says we need to start thinking about regulating the AI sector. She says ANU has set up a new school to look at this and that we should embrace it as a tool that can help us in the future.
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Julie Bishop addresses National Press Club
And Bishop is up. She is speaking in her capacity as the chancellor of the Australian National University and has been talking about mega-trends that will or already do impact Australia.
She says the four main ones are technological advancement, shifting relative power in a geo-strategic and military sense, the backlash against globalisation and climate change.
There are more, she says, but these will be her focus.
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Good afternoon everyone, this is Cait. I will be with you for the next few hours.
Soon former foreign minister Julie Bishop is set to address the National Press Club. I will bring you that as it comes.
Thanks for following along what has been an unrelentingly grim morning of news, minus the bright spot that was Mike Hytner bringing us the prophetic penguins predicting a Matildas win. I’m signing off and passing the baton over to Cait Kelly, who will hopefully bring you better news!
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Moderating inflation suggests RBA has gone ‘too far’ with rate hikes, Deloitte says
As you can imagine, economists have been sharpening their quills and dipping into the ink to react to the lower-than-expected inflation numbers.
Stephen Smith, Deloitte Access economics partner, said the CPI figures were “further evidence that the Reserve Bank has increased interest rates too far”, in some of the spicier comments we’re received.
Smith said the inflation we had seen was mostly caused by “supply-side factors” – think disruption to energy and food markets in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine – that were not affected by RBA rate rises.
Smith said:
The Australian economy is softening dramatically, the pace of inflation has peaked and is moderating quickly, wage growth is not excessive and medium-term inflation expectations are not rising.
In that context there should be no further interest rate increases in Australia.
We’ll see about that, I suppose, in coming months. Still, it’s not out of the question that Michele Bullock, who takes over from Philip Lowe as RBA governor from 18 September, won’t have much to do rates-wise, other than cut them.
That still gives Lowe a chance to lead a lift in August or September, if not both. (“Revenge rate hikes”, we can see the tabloids screaming now. You read it here first.)
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Man drowns at Bondi beach
A man in his 80s has drowned at Bondi beach after suffering a cardiac arrest, Surf Life Saving NSW says.
The organisation said in a statement:
At approximately 9.55am the Surf Life Saving NSW state operations centre became aware of an incident unfolding at Bondi where a member of the public had brought a man to shore and commenced CPR.
It is understood the man had suffered a cardiac arrest.
Lifeguards arrived on scene and assisted with CPR before he was handed over to paramedics and transferred by road to St Vincent’s Hospital.
The man, identified as being in his 80s, has since been declared deceased.
It is the third coastal drowning incident this month for Surf Life Saving NSW.
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Tech contract system unfair for Australian companies, inquiry told
IT contracts are rigged in favour of multinational technology companies, a local cloud company has told a Senate inquiry.
Vault Cloud CEO Rupert Taylor-Price told the Senate inquiry looking at the influence of international digital platforms on Wednesday that whole-of-government agreements had excluded Australian tech companies supplying to the Australian government, with 100% of them given to multinationals. He said:
This is the equivalent of a banking licence. It’s the ability to go and do business with government in a seamless and free fashion, without the confines of a tender and value-for-money assessments or an individual procurement basis.
There are no Australian companies that have this whole-of-government agreements. The government has effectively orchestrated a system where big technology companies can come in and sell to government and small companies would commonly describe the barriers to entry for government as insurmountable for Australian technology companies.
Taylor-Price said the taxation system was also unfair to local companies:
We’re running full rates of taxation on Australian businesses, yet big tech today was largely untaxed as it goes forward. And I’m sorry for the cute comment but then the government invites PwC as tax advisor in and provides all the sensitive information around how they intend to tax them in the future, and then hands that information across to those organisations. It is effectively a rigged game.
He said there needed to be more regulation of the industry and called for donations from multinational tech companies to Australian political parties to be banned.
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Rents post biggest quarterly rise in a generation, ABS says
The CPI data dump includes lots of positives, such as June’s inflation easing to 5.4%, helping to drag that June quarter tally overall down to 6%.
However, it’s far from a benign report, particularly if you’re renting. That component was a big reason the inflation rate didn’t slide further.
In the June quarter, rents increased 2.5%, bringing the annual rate up to 6.7%. Michelle Marquardt, the ABS head of prices statistics, said we hadn’t seen since a quarterly pace since 1988 (or 35 years).
She said:
Rental price growth for flats continued to outpace the growth for houses.
Food prices rose 1.6% for the quarter, matching the pace in the March quarter. Within that tally, meals out and takeaway foods were 1.7% more expensive, with fruit and vegetables up 2.4% and bread and cereal products gaining 2.9%.
A shortage of potatoes due to wet weather in key growing regions late last year has continued to place pressure on prices for potato products, including takeaway hot chips, potato crisps and frozen potato products.
For more, you can follow on at home here:
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Man killed in Victorian aged care home fire
AAP has more details on the elderly man who died in the fire at an aged care residence in a regional Victorian retirement village.
Police are investigating two unit fires that broke out at the village on Royal Parade at Kilmore just after 6am on Wednesday.
One resident, believed to be aged 78, was confirmed dead by police, Insp Jayme Cutler said.
Emergency services were on scene quite quickly and managed to evacuate about 40 people from the area.
But unfortunately there was one particular person who wasn’t able to get out of the unit itself.
The fire was brought under control just after 7am.
Cutler said police had been supporting the victim’s wife since the incident.
His wife’s obviously in a fair bit of shock. It’s an awful experience for anybody to go through.
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A serious two-car crash occurred on the Bruce Highway in Queensland shortly after 10am, leaving multiple people being assessed by paramedics on the scene.
It follows the deadly three car crash on the Bruce Highway last week which left three dead.
CASSOWARY COAST: The Tully River Bridge, Bruce Hwy, is closed in both directions through Euramo following a serious two car crash. Motorists are urged to avoid the area. #qldtraffic pic.twitter.com/HniQcD2j2P
— Queensland Police (@QldPolice) July 26, 2023
#Euramo - Multiple paramedics are at the scene of a serious two-vehicle crash on the Bruce Highway at 10.03am in which multiple patients are being assessed. The rescue helicopter is tasked to the scene and the highway is closed in both directions. pic.twitter.com/DVhDVEFpMu
— Queensland Ambulance (@QldAmbulance) July 26, 2023
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Lowest quarterly inflation gain in seven quarters sends dollar down, stock up
The standout inflation figure is probably the quarter-on-quarter headline number of 0.8% for the April-June period. Economists had been tipping 1%.
With the 6% headline annual rate, investors had seen enough to slash their expectations the Reserve Bank will lift the cash rate again next Tuesday.
The dollar shed about a third of a US cent immediately, to trade at US67.38c. Stocks went the other way, adding about 0.5%, to 0.7% higher for the day. If Australia’s interest rates don’t have to go higher, yield hunters will head elsewhere, while companies’ profits will be buoyed if their borrowing costs don’t rise further.
Michelle Marquardt, the ABS head of prices statistics, said:
While prices continued to rise for most goods and services, there were some offsetting price falls this quarter, including for domestic holiday travel and accommodation and automotive fuel.
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Man shot outside a home in Greenacre
A man is in a serious but stable condition after being shot outside a home in south-western Sydney.
Police are investigating what they believe to be a “targeted incident” in Greenacre.
The suburb is the same one in which a shooting took place on Sunday, leaving three people in hospital.
Police said:
On arrival, police located a 31-year-old man with gunshot wounds.
It’s understood the man was outside the home when he was approached by an unknown person and shot.
He was treated at the scene by NSW ambulance paramedics before being taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition.
… Investigations are in their infancy. However, it’s believed to be a targeted incident.
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June quarter consumer inflation drops to 6.0%, ABS says
Australia’s inflation rate has extended its retreat, with the headline consumer price index 6.0% for the June quarter, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.
Economists had expected the annual rate to ease to 6.2% from the 7% pace during the March quarter. The inflation numbers will be closely watched by the Reserve Bank and will figure in next Tuesday’s board meeting to decide whether or not to leave interest rates on hold.
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Acting inspector Jaymee Cutler of Victoria police has just told a press conference that one person has died in the retirement home fire in Kilmore this morning.
Police said in a statement:
The body of a man was located inside the second unit, which was partially destroyed by fire.
He is yet to be formally identified.
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Eight telcos breached consumer protection rules, watchdog says
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has taken action against eight telcos, including Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, after they investigated the notifications they provided customers prior to having their services disconnected.
ACMA investigations found various breaches of the telecommunications consumer protections (TCP) code after investigating Exetel, Foxtel Management, Optus Mobile, Southern Phone Company, SpinTel, Telstra and TPG Telecom (Vodafone).
ACMA said:
Each of the eight telcos, excluding Vodafone, was found to have failed to provide some customers with the TCP code-required five working days’ notice prior to restricting, suspending or disconnecting their services.
ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said telecommunications companies needed to exercise greater care before taking any action that disrupted people’s service.
Limiting an essential service like phone and internet access has the potential to cause significant distress, making it difficult for people to access their work, education, health and banking services.
With the current cost of living pressures, I expect all telcos to take the utmost care with customers who are struggling with bills. Telcos need to lift their game to help their customers or face further regulation.
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Prophetic penguins back Matildas to win against Nigeria
Great news for Matildas fans – even without Sam Kerr, Australia are certain to win tomorrow night’s World Cup match against Nigeria and secure their passage to the knock-out phase of the tournament. That’s according to a team of “prophetic penguins” at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium that have picked Tony Gustavsson’s team to pick up all three points in Brisbane.
Relying heavily on watertight scientific methodology, penguin keepers encouraged the animals to kick a ball towards either an Australian or Nigerian flag. The Gentoo penguins chose Australia for the second time this tournament, having already correctly predicted the Matildas’ opening win over Ireland.
Quite why random animals are regularly rolled out to predict results at major sporting events remains a mystery, but there is a rich tradition in the practice – Paul the Octopus, widely considered the OG of psychic animals, sticks in the memory for correctly predicting eight straight results at the 2010 men’s World Cup, while we’ve also seen the likes of Camilla the camel, Taiyo the otter and Achilles the cat, among others over the years.
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Inflation is falling but how fast will determine RBA’s next decision
We’ve seen inflation retreating in many economies of late, often faster than expected. Will the same be true for Australia?
At 11.30am AEST we’ll find out when the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases the consumer price index numbers for the June quarter.
Inflation peaked in the December quarter at 7.8%, surprisingly close to what the federal government predicted about half a year earlier. The pace of price increases was the highest since 1990, and the Reserve Bank was busy hoisting interest rates to bring the rate down to its 2-3% range.
The headline inflation rate eased to 7% in the March quarter and a similar decline to about 6.2% is forecast by economists for the June quarter.
Markets will have a few numbers to make a snap decision about. Do they look at the headline annual or quarterly number (the latter should be about 1%)? Or do they jump all over the underlying rate (“trimmed mean” to the cognoscenti), where a 6% annual or 1% quarterly rate is roughly what’s expected?
If inflation retreats more than expected, most analysts will take that to mean next Tuesday’s RBA board meeting will result in another pause for the cash rate. Perhaps 4.1% might even be the peak.
Should price pressures remain elevated (or more than pundits had tipped), odds will shift towards another interest rate – unlucky number 13 in this cycle – to 4.35%.
Stay tuned, in other words.
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Survivor tells consent inquiry of his experience with police
Still in the consent committee hearing and witness Andrew Doherty spoke about some of the issues people reporting their assaults face.
He said police often want a perfect case – but that it doesn’t really exist.
In regards to his own assault, Doherty said his autism and history of childhood violence meant he responded to his trauma by dissociating and freezing.
He only remembers “fragments” of the attack, which he said was an issue when he made his police report.
I can say that the fragments that I do remember were tiny, bizarre details and not not what you would expect someone in that position to remember and it’s infuriating, when you try to piece it together.
I remember at the police station they specifically asked me did you say no?
And I wasn’t going to lie to them. I was scared. I was in a police station. I told the truth and I said I don’t remember. I remember telling him beforehand that I didn’t want to have sex. But during that moment, I remember different things like the pillow and a drop of sweat fell from his head onto my body and I could feel that and that it hurt and that I was pushing him away with my hands. But did I scream the word No?
I don’t remember. And this look on their face was like, ‘we kind of wish that you had just said that you said you no’, they’re not going to tell you to lie.
But I think victims tell the truth. Right? Rapists lie. And if the laws are set up in such a way that I’m supposed to clearly remember not freezing, speaking clearly. Putting down a memo that ‘I would like to stop being raped please’ and ‘oh, what is the time’? Well, ‘that’s the time that’s when I said it. I looked at my watch’.
You know if that’s what’s expected of people who’ve been through significant trauma resulting in them, essentially losing consciousness, then we will always be in a situation where rapists who get to make up their narrative, winning against victims who are encouraged to tell the truth.
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Inquiry into consent laws to hear from more survivors
The Senate inquiry into consent legislation is in Melbourne today, hearing from more experts, survivors and advocates.
It’s a lot and very heavy listening, but important. Yesterday we heard that affirmative consent laws, while a good step in the right direction, is not enough without complete systemic and societal change.
Today, we are hearing much the same thing.
The committee is hearing from a victim-survivor Andrew Doherty, who was raped by a man he was dating in February 2022.
Doherty said that he would like to see laws and services also cater to men – that the affirmative consent legislation he read in NSW almost exclusively seemed to apply to women, as did the services he navigated while trying to get help, and that there needed to be more for victims of sexual violence who are not women.
He also echoed what we heard about yesterday (and previously) that society’s views of who is a rape victim and how they should act is very different from reality.
[When we see] assault in the movies and in television it’s usually an innocent lady walking down a dark alley being attacked by a strange man and being kicked.. She’s screaming ‘no, stop’ and he smashes her face in for good measure on the way out and that’s that’s a rape.
So there seems to be an impression that unless that happens, it’s not a sexual assault, it’s not a rape.
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Fifty-one pilot whales die after stranding
More than 50 of the long-finned pilot whales stranded on a West Australian beach have died, but rescuers are working to return the remaining 46 whales to the water.
The Parks and Wildlife Service said:
Sadly 51 whales have died overnight after a mass stranding at Cheynes Beach.
Parks and Wildlife Service personnel are working in partnership with registered volunteers and other organisations to try to return the remaining 46 whales to deeper water during the course of the day.
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Match says Apple and Google’s cut of in-app purchases harms competition
Match – the company behind dating apps such as Tinder, Hinge and OK Cupid – has labelled the monopolistic control exerted by Apple and Google over their app stores as “digital harms” that Australia must tackle as a “matter of urgency”.
Speaking to a Senate inquiry examining the influence of international digital platforms on Wednesday, the company’s head of global government relations and government policy, Mark Buse, said the 30% cut Apple and Google took on in-app payment transactions was harming competition.
He said:
This results in numerous forms including reduced consumer choice, inflated prices borne out by Australian consumers, stifling of innovation, reduced quality and volume of in-app content and services. Less competition in apps and fintech. And they [are] hindering the ability of app developers to detect and respond to scams and keep bad actors, even predators, off their services.
Buse said if the company was able to offer its own payment systems in apps, the company would better be able to track bad actors on their services, and prices would be reduced for services for customers.
He said the 30% fee was “arbitrarily decided” by Apple and Google and had no bearing on the services offered.
The ACCC told Guardian Australia earlier this month that legislation was needed to force the tech giants to offer alternatives.
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Chris Minns refuses to rule out cancelling Metro West project
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has again refused to rule out cancelling the $25bn Metro West project.
He has asked for patience from the public while he awaits the findings of a review into the development.
Speaking in western Sydney this morning, he said:
We’re having an independent review into Metro West. We need to do that for one reason in particular – the cost blowouts are extreme ... If we make a decision to axe the project, then you could take my head off then, but, in the meantime, let’s let this review do its job and report back to government.
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Meta ordered to pay $20m in fines
Meta has been ordered to pay $20m in fines over the offering of a virtual private network app, Onavo Protect, which was found to collect “an extensive variety of data” about users’ mobile device usage that Meta then used in an anonymised and aggregated form for commercial purposes.
The ACCC took Meta to court in 2020 over the offering of the app.
Meta and the ACCC agreed that the behaviour, between 2016 and 2017, was in breach of Australian consumer law, because although information about data collection was contained in the terms of service, it was not prominent enough.
Meta has agreed to pay $20m in fines, with $10m to subsidiary company Facebook, and $10m with Onavo.
Meta has also agreed to pay $400,000 in the ACCC’s legal costs.
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Resident missing after retirement village fire
A resident is missing after a fire ripped through a regional Victorian retirement village, AAP reports.
Police are investigating two unit fires that broke out at the village on Royal Parade at Kilmore just after 6am on Wednesday.
A resident is yet to be accounted for, police confirm.
The cause of the fire is yet to be determined and a crime scene has been established, with arson investigators on their way.
About 20 Country Fire Authority units went to the scene, with the fire engulfing several buildings.
Most residents had evacuated the village by the time crews arrived.
It was brought under control just after 7am and firefighters will spend the rest of the morning putting out hot spots.
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Anika Wells promises ‘seismic shift’ on aged care
Circling back to Anika Wells’ ABC Radio interview this morning, Wells says when it comes to her other portfolio, aged care, a “seismic shift” will take place, implementing a new principle that Australians should be given every opportunity to stay in their home for as long as possible.
The taskforce looking into future funding options met yesterday with media reports suggesting it is leaning towards a system where those who can afford to pay more for their care do. However, Wells insisted the issue of changes to means testing is yet to be settled and that “everything remains on the table”.
Wells said the meeting ended with an agreement on a set of six principles about how aged care should be perceived and funded, which will be discussed with stakeholders over the next month:
The most important one that we reached yesterday was the first one set out that Australians should be given every opportunity to stay in their home for as long as possible.
And just setting that out as the first primary principle is a fairly radical change and perspective to how the aged care system is currently governed and funded when the act itself is currently based on the corporation’s power. It’s basically a law sets out how providers are funded.
We are moving to a new rights-based act. And it is people centred, and setting out the first principle being you as an Australian should be able to stay at home as long as you possibly can, will be a seismic shift in aged care in this country.
The other principles are that aged care and your care as a participant in the aged care system should be fair, it should be transparent, it should be sustainable.
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Victorian universities to vote on industrial action
Seven of Victoria’s eight public universities could strike at upcoming open days in the latest union push for improved working conditions.
The NTEU said progress on enterprise bargaining at the University of Melbourne, Monash, Deakin, La Trobe, Swinburne, RMIT and Victoria University hadn’t reached agreements on claims around pay, job security and workloads.
Members will vote on whether to take open day action at an online meeting on Wednesday, scaling from leafleting to the “full weight” of strikes and work bans.
The NTEU Victorian division secretary, Sarah Roberts, said three months on from statewide action, university managements hadn’t budged on union claims.
Unfortunately, the stubborn approach of university managements across most Victorian universities has put us in a position where union members are saying enough is enough. University staff deserve fair pay rises, secure jobs and safe workloads.
Federation University is the only Victorian university on the verge of reaching an enterprise agreement.
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Rick Nugent appointed Victorian emergency management commissioner
Victoria’s deputy police commissioner, Rick Nugent, has been appointed the state’s next emergency management commissioner.
Nugent, who has served for 35 years in the police force, starts the new role on 11 September, succeeding Andrew Crisp who has served in the role since 2018 and will complete his term on 4 August.
In the interim, the deputy emergency management commissioner, Chris Stephenson, will act as emergency management commissioner.
Nugent said:
It is a great honour and responsibility to take on the role of commissioner.
I look forward to working with the dedicated staff across the emergency management sector to keep the Victorian community safe before, during and after emergencies.
Welcome to our new Emergency Management Commissioner, Rick Nugent!
— VicEmergency (@vicemergency) July 25, 2023
Read more on the Premier's website: https://t.co/xRXJicHuDj pic.twitter.com/0KHJo0B1L1
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Homebirths to be introduced at Royal Women’s Hospital
A publicly funded homebirth program is set to be introduced at Victoria’s leading women’s hospital, AAP reports.
While the initiative is only in the planning stages, a Victorian government spokesman confirmed it was expanding its public homebirth program to include three additional hospitals, including the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.
The program already runs at Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Sunshine and has previously been available at Casey Hospital in Berwick.
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A number of pilot whales stranded on WA beach have died
Some of the 70 long-finned pilot whales stranded on a West Australian beach have died, after overnight monitoring efforts by wildlife experts.
The Parks and Wildlife Service wrote this morning on their facebook page:
Unfortunately, a number of animals have died overnight. Rescue efforts for live whales continue.
Read more about the stranding here:
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Australia is one step closer to a high speed rail, with the infrastructure minister, Catherine King, saying the government has started the recruitment process for the boss to lead the project:
The Albanese Government is determined to make high speed rail a reality. The search has begun for a CEO for the High Speed Rail Authority who can help make that happen. It’s a merit based appointment for a person with the skills & experience to lead this important project.
— Catherine King MP (@CatherineKingMP) July 25, 2023
Read more about the project from our transport and urban affairs correspondent, Elias Visontay:
Anika Wells declines to say whether federal government will intervene on Games
Wells was directly asked whether she believes the commonwealth should intervene to ensure the Commonwealth Games stay in Australia, as the Coalition has urged.
Appearing on Insiders on Sunday, the deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, called on the state and federal governments to find “creative solutions” for an outcome that restores Australia’s reputation on the global stage. Ley also called on Australian athletes to forgo any photo opportunities with Labor MPs until the situation is resolved.
The sports minister accused the Coalition of hypocrisy but did not answer the question of whether her government would intervene:
This Coalition always bang on about sport and politics not mixing and they shouldn’t mix. And when people like Donnell Wallam or Pat Cummins stand up for their values, the Coalition tut tut and say sport and politics should never mix. But here in this situation, they are demanding that sport interfere with politics and that politics interfere with sport.
Wells says whatever figures the Victorian government put out around the issue won’t affect what the federal government does next with respect to the Commonwealth Games.
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Sports minister says Daniel Andrews did not warn her of Commonwealth Games decision
The minister for sport and aged care, Anika Wells, says her focus is on people in sport, not the infrastructure, following the announcement Victoria was pulling out of hosting the Commonwealth Games.
Wells has told ABC Radio she was not warned by Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, ahead of time about the decision, and found out along with the rest of the country when he stood up to make the announcement.
Asked about if she cared whether the Commonwealth Games go ahead in Australia, Wells’ answer is:
I care for our athletes. I think that that dream of competing on home soil for your country is one of the most potent dreams that motivate our high performance athletes and possibly our kids as well to go from from playground to podium.
But given how many events that Australia does already have on the green and gold runway and the World Cups – we’re hosting four Women’s World Cups across the next five years, including the one that is on right now – as long as we have opportunities for people to go from playground to podium.
I welcome how this has opened up a discussion about people versus infrastructure in sport. I think the previous government had a real focus on sporting infrastructure on bricks and mortar like right through to the now infamous sports rorts – and I think that has left the people in sport underfunded. My focus is very much now on redressing that and on investing in people in sport not necessarily the bricks and mortar in sport which lives with Catherine King as the infrastructure minister.
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Closing the Gap efforts 'slow, uncoordinated and piecemeal', Productivity Commission says
The Productivity Commission says Australian governments have not “grasped the nature and scale of change required to accelerate improvements in life outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people” under the Closing the Gap framework, saying there must be a new “partnership” and more sharing of power in decision-making.
The Productivity Commission’s review of the Closing The Gap agreement has found a lack of meaningful progress on the issue, and stated that one pathway is “stronger accountability mechanisms” - noting progress toward a national Indigenous voice, through the referendum.
The commission said in its report:
Governments continue to make decisions that disregard or contradict the Agreement.
… Overall progress against the priority reforms has been slow, uncoordinated and piecemeal.
The report sets out an idea for an “independent mechanism” by better reporting on governments’ work on Closing The Gap. It also discusses what role that body would play, and whether it would need to be a standalone mechanism on top of the proposed national voice and other state-based bodies like South Australia’s legislated voice.
Here is potential for the proposed Voice to the Australian Parliament (as well as state and territory representative bodies), together with current treaty processes and justice commissions, to strengthen accountability for matters covered by the Agreement.
But regardless of the outcomes of these processes, governments will still be responsible for adopting a fundamentally new way of developing and implementing policies and programs that affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as they have committed to do in the Agreement.
It notes that new bodies like the voice would “play a role in accountability”, and that the national voice “could contribute to accountability and oversight of matters affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”
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Albanese makes first official NZ visit
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is today making his first official visit to New Zealand where he will meet his transatlantic counterpart, Chris Hipkins, in Wellington for talks. The pair’s last meeting in Australia in April led to easing longstanding tensions around immigration rules:
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NSW paramedics take industrial action, reject pay offer
Paramedics are renewing industrial action to protest against a 4% pay offer from the NSW government, AAP reports.
Paramedics are refusing to enter patient billing information or report performance indicators, or attend special events which would place their home station below minimum staffing levels.
The Australian Paramedics Association says the action will ramp up on Monday and Tuesday when they will refuse to respond to non-emergency patient transfer jobs that could be undertaken by patient transport officers or private providers.
The union says it’s taking action because not enough has been done to fix the emergency in the healthcare system that was exposed in two recent NSW government inquiries.
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Malcolm Turnbull says Sky News voice channel would be 'anger-tainment'
The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says he has serious concerns about Sky News’ plans to launch a new channel dedicated to covering the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum 24 hours, seven days a week.
Turnbull has told ABC Radio he believes Sky News and Fox News in the US have the goal to “rile people up”:
That’s why I call it anger-tainment. Now, that is bad enough in any context, but when you apply it to something as significant as this issue, you run the risk of there being a lot of collateral damage in this country, to Indigenous people, to the path of reconciliation, way beyond whether the referendum gets the required majority or not.
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Good morning! Thanks to Martin for getting us started, Natasha May now reporting for blog duty.
Global economy shows tricky road ahead, Chalmers says
The global economy has made progress in the battle against high inflation but the International Monetary Fund warns it’s still too early to celebrate.
In a fresh set of economic forecasts, the IMF shaved 0.2 percentage points off its expectations for global inflation in 2023 compared with projections made three months earlier.
It predicts inflation declining from 8.7% in 2022 to 6.8% this year, reaching 5.2% in 2024.
The IMF director of research, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, said global inflation pressures had eased faster than expected, with energy and food prices down sharply from their war-induced peaks.
The outlook for growth is also looking more upbeat, with the international institution expecting to upgrade its forecast for 2023 by 0.2 percentage points compared to April projections.
Economic activity is still expected to slow from 3.5% in 2022 to 3.0% in both 2023 and 2024.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the report highlighted the tricky road ahead for the world economy.
“The IMF emphasises the need to rebuild fiscal buffers – something the Albanese government has done with its responsible approach to the budget,” Chalmers said.
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Pocock says allowing Middle Arm precinct would be ‘failing young people’
The announcement of the protest in Canberra next month comes as heatwaves have engulfed the northern hemisphere and wildfires burn in countries including Canada and Greece.
Pocock said the government had a duty to act in the best interests of Australian children and future generations and “allowing the Middle Arm petrochemical precinct to proceed would be failing young people”:
Providing a huge government subsidy to a gas export hub while seeing the impacts of climate change, and being warned there is worse to come, is negligent. We need our government to do better.
Ryan said when she worked as a paediatric neurologist she knew many doctors who cared about the health risks of climate change but feared speaking out:
That so many are now standing up shows how defining this fight is.
The government has previously rejected suggestions its stake in the Middle Arm project is a fossil fuel subsidy, with the infrastructure minister, Catherine King, saying the precinct did not favour one industry over another. King has said the government’s financial support is focused on marine infrastructure at the site.
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Health professionals to protest against Top End gas developments
Scores of health professionals will head to Canberra when parliament resumes next month to protest against new gas developments planned in the Northern Territory.
More than 80 paediatricians, GPs, nurses and other healthcare workers have so far registered for a rally and “day of action” on 8 August to highlight the climate and health risks of the proposed Middle Arm industrial precinct in Darwin harbour, in which the Albanese government has taken a $1.5bn stake.
The independent senator David Pocock and the member for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, are supporting the rally.
It comes after a Guardian Australia investigation revealed the precinct, which has been branded “sustainable”, was described by government officials as a “key enabler” for the export of gas from the Beetaloo basin.
The hub will be a major manufacturing centre for gas, petrochemicals, blue and green hydrogen and critical minerals. Tenants announced so far include Beetaloo operator Tamboran Resources and Fortescue Metals Group’s clean energy arm Fortescue Future Industries.
More than 1,100 health professionals have signed an open letter to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, calling on the government to withdraw its financial support for the project.
Northern Territory paediatrician Louise Woodward, who has helped organise the rally, said she was “deeply concerned about the expansion of the onshore gas industry in the NT and the risk to the health of children and families in the Territory”:
It is not only doctors who have a duty of care to protect their patients from harm, but also governments, who have a duty to uphold the right to health for the people they serve. Middle Arm and Beetaloo jeopardise these basic human rights and will turbo-charge the climate crisis reducing the liveability of Northern Australia for future generations.
Updated
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Good morning and welcome to the live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with some top overnight stories before my colleague takes the reins.
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And health professionals have signed an open letter to Anthony Albanese calling on the government to withdraw its financial support for the Darwin Middle Arm gas hub, and are planning a rally in Canberra, saying it’s not only doctors who have a duty of care to protect the people they serve. More on that soon.
