And with that we are going to put the blog to bed
Thank you for spending the day with us. Let’s go though the big headlines:
Most Australian women in their 20s have experienced sexual violence, data shows.
Retailers call for teenagers to enter workforce to plug staffing shortage.
New initiatives developed at the national jobs summit to be announced Friday.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers admits stage three tax cuts ‘very expensive for the budget’.
Affirmative consent laws pass Victorian parliament.
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by 1.5% in quarter after Covid restrictions ended
Anthony Albanese pays tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev as ‘one of the true giants of the 20th century’
Convicted of murdering his wife Lynette, Chris Dawson arrives at Sydney prison
NSW premier Dominic Perrottet issues ultimatum to rail unions over industrial agreement.
Masks are no longer mandatory for passengers on domestic flights.
Covid isolation period reduced to five days for people with no symptoms.
We will see you tomorrow! Until then – stay safe.
Updated
Woman denies deliberately driving into cheating husband and his lover
When Christie Lee Kennedy saw her husband kissing another woman she felt her “whole life had been torn apart”, a Queensland court has been told.
But the 37-year-old has denied deliberately driving into her husband and the woman he was having an affair with just seconds later.
Updated
About 80 evacuated from fire at Paramount building in Sydney’s Surry Hills
Firefighters are at the Paramount building on Commonwealth Street in Sydney’s Surry Hills where a fire has just been put out.
Guardian Australia understands the fire is believed to have originated in a restaurant on the ground floor, and seven trucks are on the scene.
Oh no!
— Philip Thalis (@PhilipThalis) August 31, 2022
🔥 now at #paramount in Surry Hills.
Plenty of fire engines here already pic.twitter.com/sUMEhQMKbm
About 80 people have been evacuated from the building.
SURRY HILLS | #FRNSW working to contain a fire in a restaurant on Commowealth St, approx 80 evacs. FFs based in our dispatch centre processed numerous 000 calls to this fire, responding 7 fire trucks. Fire is now extinguished. @nswpolice @LiveTrafficNSW @NSWAmbulance
— Fire and Rescue NSW (@FRNSW) August 31, 2022
Updated
Independent senator David Pocock pushes climate bill changes
From AAP:
Further transparency measures and reporting mechanisms should be added to the government’s climate change bill, an independent senator holding a key vote says.
David Pocock has issued 11 proposed amendments to the bill as a government-chaired Senate committee recommends the legislation pass the upper house.
The committee also recommends the government undertake further consultations on additional legislation or amendments, as well as future policy responses, following the bill passing.
The government needs the vote of an independent crossbencher on top of the Greens to pass its legislation in the Senate.
Pocock’s recommendations include creating mechanisms to provide transparency on the impact of budget measures on greenhouse gas emissions and that new emissions reduction targets are automatically reflected without the need for further legislation.
He said the minister’s annual statement to parliament should include greater detail and reporting requirements should be stronger.
Updated
Federal government to legislate $200m disaster fund as more flooding expected
The federal emergency management minister, Murray Watt, has told people to “be prepared” for further inundation, as the Albanese government investigates reforms to disaster relief payments and rushes to complete new mitigation projects by year’s end.
Updated
Former Liberal Felicity Frederico to run as independent at Victorian election
Former mayor and longtime Liberal member Felicity Frederico is set to run against the party as an independent candidate in the marginal seat of Brighton at the Victorian state election, having failed to be preselected as a candidate on several occasions.
Updated
Crypto.com accidentally transfers $10.5m to woman
Crypto.com dropped $10.5m into Melbourne woman Thevamanogari Manivel’s account after her account number was accidentally entered into the payment amount field.
Amazing story from Josh Taylor:
Updated
Reaction to PM’s five-day Covid isolation announcement
People have reacted on Twitter to the news Covid isolation will soon be five days instead of seven.
The honorary Burnet epidemiologist Mike Toole:
According to overseas studies, the reduction of the isolation period from 7 to 5 days means that of the 13,232 new COVID-19 cases reported today, around 6,500 will be infectious on Day 5 when they will take the virus to their workplaces, schools and shops where few wear masks.
— Michael Toole 🇺🇦 (@profmiketoole) August 31, 2022
A year ago you had to spend 14 days in isolation for just coming into brief contact with someone with Covid.
— Holly Hales (@hollyhales) August 31, 2022
Now, people infected are out after five. Crazy how things change so quickly! https://t.co/42PKukIAGd
For those wondering how it might impact cases, I have this good explainer from earlier for you:
Updated
Defence minister to visit UK shipyard for Aukus announcement
The defence minister, Richard Marles, will visit the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard in the UK tomorrow for a “really important visit”, he said at a press conference earlier today.
As Josh Butler wrote earlier, the UK press was reporting that Marles will announce an agreement for Australian submariners to train on the UK boats under the Aukus agreement.
The ABC reported in July that this was already happening, while the US has an arrangement that “at least two” Australians will train with its Navy each year.
Marles said the Hunter program, to deliver nine frigates with BAE, was “getting back on track”. BAE Systems Australia said it has clawed back more than a year on the program, after previously announcing an 18-month delay.
Marles said:
Tomorrow, we’ll be at Barrow where submarines are made by Britain and BAE Systems. That’s going to be a really important visit as well, and we look forward to that very much. And, obviously, I’ll be catching up with Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, who I’ve already spoken to on the phone.
This is a really important relationship for Australia. Obviously, in the context of Aukus, but before Aukus, with our history with the UK, but through the frigate program, it is actually a relationship which, whilst being our oldest relationship, is one which is being given really significant contemporary life.
Updated
‘New era of inclusiveness’: Albanese says jobs summit is just the start
Albanese is finishing by spruiking the jobs summit:
I thank all of those who in good faith have participated in trying to search for common solutions in the national interest and I feel very positive about not just the next two days, but for what it symbolises.
This is not the end of the discussion at the jobs and skills summit. This in many ways is the start of it. The start of what I hope is a new era of collaboration. A new era of inclusiveness, one where we look for ideas and input, where we look forward genuine engagement and respect, where we were sent to each other, even when people disagree.
Updated
Albanese is pleased with cooperation in relation to jobs summit
Albanese:
The federal government sets the migration numbers and the federal government will continue to set our migration numbers. I’m very pleased at the level of cooperation which we are seeing in the lead up to the jobs and skills summit stop we are seeing genuine dialogue between business and unions and civil society. It is a positive thing.
I believe that we get a lot when we collaborate. When we maximise input and we are inclusive.
It is the sort of government that I want to lead, I said that people have conflict fatigue, people are looking for solutions and not arguments.
Updated
Migration to be addressed at jobs summit – Albanese
Albanese has been asked if national cabinet discussed allowing refugees on bridging visas to work:
There was a discussion about visas and the visa backlog … and there was a discussion about migration numbers and about skill shortages.
But also about training Australians. About those two things, clearly there is a need to look at migration issues and they will be looked out over the next couple of days. That is a task, if you like for the jobs and skills summit.
Updated
National cabinet may discuss Covid leave payments at future meeting – Albanese
Albanese is asked again if he will be cutting the paid pandemic leave in the future:
Let’s be clear. Seven days down to five days. That is what is occurring from September 9 with regard to paid pandemic leave, we want to time as well as is appropriate to consult about what we do with paid pandemic leave, we will have a meeting about that in a couple of weeks about where that goes.
The five days of leave at some time in the future, that will be reassessed but there is no timing for that. Gradually, as we come to deal with Covid a long period of time, we need to ensure that the mechanisms that have been put in place for, by government that impose restrictions on people that we reassess them at an appropriate time.
Updated
Government will ‘respond appropriately’ to Covid – Albanese
We had a discussion about people looking after each other. People looking after their own health, being responsible for the and making sure that they look up to each other.
That is what has been happening. There aren’t mandated requirements for the flu or for a range of other illnesses that people are from.
What we want to do is to make sure that government responds to the changed circumstances, the Covid likely is going to be around for a considerable period of time.
And we need to respond appropriately to it. Based upon the weight of evidence.
Updated
No change to Covid payments – Albanese
Albanese is asked if he won’t definitely extend Covid payments:
I’m saying that we made a decision today about reducing the leave, seven to five. That is a change. We haven’t changed the arrangements with regard to payments, we will have a meeting about that in a couple of weeks time.
Updated
PM signals national cabinet will work on improving childcare access
Albanese:
We agreed to commence work on the new national skills agreement in place from January 1, 2024. For state and territory energy ministers to work towards implementing the reforms to accelerate the delivery of transmission projects, people would be aware that was identified in our rewiring the nation plan. And through the work on their integrated systems plan going forward.
We will work together on the long-term vision for early childhood education and care, to better support parents’ workforce participation.
We see this as a major productivity initiative. Childcare isn’t about baby minding. It’s about growing our economy and about women’s workforce participation and will be a very positive issue going forward.
Albanese said national cabinet will meet again in a fortnight:
We’ll discuss housing affordability issues in person at the next meeting of the national cabinet.
Updated
Albanese says leaders agreed on national skills statement
Moving on form Covid regulations Albanese said they also discussed workforce issues:
Ahead jobs and skills summit, first ministers discussed the ongoing workforce shortages and skills shortages that are impacting our economy and impacting businesses’ ability to operate.
And we had a constructive discussion and agreed on a vision statement and guiding principles for a new national skills agreement that will come into effect in 2024.
First ministers discussed the essential role of early childhood education and care as part of the education system and as a powerful lever for increasing participation of women in the workforce.
We agreed on the importance of delivering nationally significant energy transmission projects. And supporting regional communities and workforces to capture the opportunities emerging from Australia’s transition to a net zero emissions economy.
Updated
Masks no longer mandatory on domestic flights
Masks are no longer mandatory on flights, Albanese said:
National cabinet also agreed to remove the mandatory wearing of masks on domestic flights. This change will also come into effect from Friday September 9.
Updated
Covid isolation changes to start from Friday 9 September
Albanese says if you have symptoms you need to stay home – and changes will start from Friday 9 September .
Clearly, if you have symptoms, we want people to stay home. We want people to act responsibly.
Seven days isolation will remain for workers in high-risk setting including aged care, disability care, home care is important as well. I believe, and first ministers agreed, that on the with of evidence, this was a proportionate response at this point in the pandemic.
These changes will come into effect from next Friday September 9, with the paid pandemic leave disaster payment eligibility to reflect the changed isolation period effective from the same date. Services Australia will provide advice in 48 hours. They’ll work through by the end of Friday to be able to update the advice on their website.
Updated
Covid isolation reduced to five days for people with no symptoms
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has announced that the Covid isolation requirement has been reduced to five days.
First ministers reinforce their commitment to continued collaboration between commonwealth, state and territory governments in managing the pandemic.
The national cabinet agreed the isolation periods for Covid-19 positive cases would be reduced from seven to five following a positive test, with the following caveats.
This would apply to people with no symptoms.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to speak after national cabinet meeting
We are just waiting for the PM to appear after his meeting with National Cabinet – he should not be long.
Updated
Zoe Daniel says stage three tax cuts ‘run counter’ to cost-of-living crisis
Just going back to Afternoon Briefing where Zoe Daniel was just asked if she thinks the distribution of the stage three tax cuts (which will benefit super high earners) is unjust.
This is what she had to say:
We know there are people on low and middle incomes who are struggling because of the cost of living. So it seems to run counter to that, to then give large tax cuts to high income earners.
There are many people in my electorate who think they pay too much tax. Put that on the table.
But I think from speaking to people in Goldstein, that they recognise perhaps now is not the time and … it’s time to have a conversation about what the priorities are. On multi-national taxes, bring it on.
Updated
Unemployed workers’ protest outside jobs summit blocked
An event organised by unemployed workers to protest their exclusion from the jobs summit on parliament lawn in Canberra tomorrow has been blocked.
The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union and the Antipoverty Centre billed the event as a “mini employment summit”, with a group of long-term unemployed people sharing their views on barriers to work and proposals for government to consider at the jobs and skills summit.
The groups said no explanation had been given.
Co-organiser of the event and spokesperson for the Antipoverty Centre, Jay Coonan, said:
First they wouldn’t let us inside the jobs summit, and now we’re not even allowed to be outside it.
It is vital that those who hold the power to implement changes recognise the expertise that comes with being unemployed – we should be the most important stakeholders for this summit.
Unemployed workers deserve to have their voices heard. We will not be going ahead on Thursday morning as planned, but we are not giving up.
We are working hard to try and change our plans at the last minute so we can go ahead on Friday, and we urge the decision makers in parliament to give us approval. But if they don’t we’ll be there anyway – with or without permission.
Updated
Vote of no confidence carried against Victorian opposition frontbencher David Davis
A vote of no confidence against opposition frontbencher David Davis has been carried in the Victorian parliament’s upper house.
The motion was brought on by Transport Matters MP Rod Barton and called on Davis to resign as leader of the opposition in the upper house. The Andrews government backed the motion by the crossbench MP while the opposition labelled the motion a “political stunt”.
Barton said Davis should resign due to reports of inappropriate behaviour when drinking. In March, the Age reported Davis admitted to drinking too much at a multicultural event in Melbourne and said witnesses recounted he was told to leave by two Liberal party colleagues for behaving inappropriately towards guests. Barton also accused Davis of misleading the house after he called on the MP to say if his votes had been “corruptly” bought following a donation by a Labor-aligned union group.
The crossbencher received a donation from the Victorian Trades Hall Council – the state’s peak union body aligned with the Labor party – after he agreed to support the government’s pandemic legislation last year.
Former Liberal party MP Bernie Finn – who was booted from the parliamentary party in May after he posted on Facebook saying abortion should be banned, even for survivors of rape – also voted for the motion. Crossbench MPs Fiona Patten, Jeff Bourman and Andy Meddick also supported the motion.
The motion passed 21 votes to nine, but it does not force Davis to resign as leader of the opposition in the upper house.
Updated
‘We’re waiting for a talkfest’: Sussan Ley stands by decision to boycott jobs summit
The deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, is being interviewed on Afternoon Briefing about the jobs summit right now. She is standing by her decision to boycott the jobs summit:
Look, 10% of workers are in unions. But 25% of the attendees at the jobs summit are going to be the unions. So that’s already an overrepresentation of a certain point of view. I’m not saying it’s not a valid point of view, it needs to be included.
But I’m saying that by stacking the summit with people who have a predetermined outcome, led by a government with a predetermined outcome, who is taking instructions from those that it has installed at this summit is really not in the interests of small business, of workers and the economy more broadly.
She says the government should act now and adopt the Liberal’s policy to allow retirees to work more before their welfare payments are cut.
They could adopt our policy to have veterans and pensioners, retirees, back in the workforce without affecting their income. And there’s a workforce ready-made to start tomorrow.
They could allow the private sector to be more involved in training, industry-led training and quickly develops the skills that we need. And they could do something about visas.
They’re talking about that but they haven’t announced anything. All these things could be in place already. We’re waiting for a talkfest.
Updated
Josh Taylor has more information on this morning’s shark attack here:
Updated
Anthony Albanese is expected to address the media around 4.45pm – I will bring you that as soon as it happens:
The Prime Minister will hold a press conference following National Cabinet meeting, 4:45 PM Sydney #auspol
— Political Alert (@political_alert) August 31, 2022
Updated
Little-known Canadian-born businessman Geoffrey Cumming has made one of the largest single philanthropic donations in Australian history, providing $250m for the creation of a global pandemic therapeutics centre in Melbourne.
The centre is designed to invest in developing treatments that can fight infectious diseases and will be named in honour of Cumming, who currently lives in Melbourne and whose donation will be used over a 20-year-period.
Former Test cricketer Michael Slater charged with assault and intimidation
From AAP:
The former Test cricketer and commentator Michael Slater has been charged with assaulting and trying to intimidate a man in a Sydney hospital.
The 52-year-old did not appear at Manly local court on Wednesday, entering pleas of not guilty through a lawyer to two charges of common assault and one of attempted intimidation.
The offences against a 36-year-old man are alleged to have occurred on 18 July at the Northern Beaches hospital.
Slater played in 74 Tests for Australia, scoring 5,312 runs at an average of 42.83 after making his debut during the 1993 Ashes tour of England. Seven dropped him as a commentator ahead of last summer’s cricket season, citing budgetary pressures.
Updated
Two NSW beaches closed after shark attack
Avoca and North Avoca beaches on the Central Coast are closed after a shark attacked a surfer earlier this morning.
The surfer was bitten on the arm around 10:30 am and a drone operator has been sent to the area to search for the shark.
People are being warned to avoid the beaches for now.
Avoca and North Avoca beaches are currently closed following a shark bite incident at approx. 10.30am today. Our thoughts are with the young surfer involved. Please avoid both beaches at this time until the incident can be investigated further. #staysafe #ccbeaches pic.twitter.com/EIuADqGtw4
— CentralCoastCouncil (@CCoastCouncil) August 31, 2022
Updated
NBN Co acknowledges advantages of fibre optic internet connections over copper
NBN Co, free of the former government’s need to justify ditching the full-fibre National Broadband Network, seems to be talking up fibre-to-the-premises for the first time in a decade.
The company has today released a statement of corporate intent, which is just a short document summarising the company’s strategy, sustainability, employment policies, and things like that. But there was an interesting paragraph after NBN discussed the plans to upgrade 3.5m homes to full fibre from fibre-to-the-node by the end of 2025. (This is part what the company was already doing under the Coalition but expanded under Labor.)
It seems now there’s been a change of government and a change of policy, NBN Co is clearly acknowledging the advantage fibre offers over copper:
This extended access to Fibre to the Premises also means the company will be able to significantly reduce the number of copper connections in the network.
This is central to the company’s plan to improve customer experience and reduce maintenance and operating costs. Fibre is inherently more capable of delivering faster upload and download speeds and is generally more reliable than copper connections.
There’s no similar statement in the last corporate plan released in 2021, for comparison.
Updated
Greenhouse gas emissions increased by 1.5% in quarter after Covid restrictions ended
National greenhouse gas emissions increased by 1.5% over the year to March as Australians emerged from Covid-19 restrictions.
Quarterly emissions data for the March quarter show emissions over the previous 12 months rose by 7.4m tonnes, reaching 487.1m tonnes, due to increases in carbon pollution from transport, manufacturing industries and agriculture.
They more than cancelled out the continuing drop in emissions from electricity generation as the country burned less coal and uses more renewable energy.
The quarterly report said national emissions for the previous year were 21.6% below 2005 levels. The Albanese government has a target of cutting emissions to 43% below 2005 levels by 2030.
Most of the cut recorded in the accounts since 2005 was due to changes in emissions from land-clearing and forestry, mostly driven by state government policies. Emissions across other parts of the economy – including fossil fuel industries, farming and waste management – were down only 1.4% since 2005.
The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, said the data showed the previous Coalition government had relied on the pandemic and drought to cut emissions and had no climate or energy policies.
Even a global recession could only interrupt the LNP’s decade of climate policy neglect for so long.
A Senate committee inquiry into Labor’s climate change legislation, which includes the 43% target, is due to release its report on the bill later today.
Updated
Australian sailors to train on British nuclear submarines
The defence minister, Richard Marles, will tomorrow announce a landmark agreement for Australian sailors to train on British nuclear submarines in the next step forward for acquiring the advanced military hardware under the Aukus pact.
The Times newspaper reports that Marles – currently on a trip to Europe, meeting his ministerial counterparts in Germany, France and the United Kingdom – is working on arrangements with Britain for Australians to train on Astute-class submarines and “access sensitive technology that has been kept secret from foreign nations for decades”.
Guardian Australia has contacted Marles’ office for comment.
“Having the opportunity for Australian submariners to gain experience on the submarines of either the United States or the United Kingdom is going to be absolutely fundamental,” Marles told the Times.
The Aukus pact will see Australia gain access to nuclear technology kept secret by the United States and UK, with a view to acquiring nuclear-powered subs to replace our ageing diesel-powered fleet. A key sticking point is whether Australia will go with American or British models of ship.
The Times says Marles will join the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, at the commissioning ceremony for a new submarine tomorrow.
Speaking to Radio National this morning, Marles said he would also visit the BAE shipyards where submarines are manufactured, saying the government was “determining what will be the successor platform for the Collins-class submarine. That’s the process we’re working through with both the United States and the UK.”
“We’ve made it really clear that not only do we need to make the choice as to exactly which platform we run with, but we need to be finding options which are sooner rather than later,” he said.
“The former government left us with … a situation of not having a prospective boat in the water until the 2040s. This is a long way into the future and we are trying to examine, with both the United Kingdom and the United States, about whether there is any way in which we can get that date brought forward, and to the extent that there is any capability gap that arises as a result of whenever that date is, ways in which we can fill that capability.”
Updated
Tony Sheldon, Labor senator and the chair of the Senate’s employment legislation committee, has forcefully endorsed unions’ call to be able to bargain with more than one employer at once.
In a speech to the Kingston Reid employment conference , Sheldon said:
There have been proposals made in the lead up to the Summit which warrant serious consideration. In my view, the most important is the ACTU’s proposal to unlock multi-employer bargaining ... As workplaces have become more fragmented, an industrial relations system based solely on enterprise level bargaining has become impractical and outdated.
It isn’t working for workers, and it isn’t working for employers, as the Council of Small Businesses [COSBOA] has acknowledged. The ACTU has made a very persuasive case for why multi-employer bargaining is needed in low-paid, often-feminised industries like aged care and childcare…
But the issues with our industrial relations system isn’t limited to those
industries. The textbook case for why single enterprise bargaining is broken is
Qantas. Alan Joyce’s enduring legacy will be that he proved our enterprise bargaining system is broken and can only be fixed through multi-employer bargaining.
Sheldon cited Qantas’ record setting up companies to hire workers through entities like “QF Cabin Crew Australia” and “Qantas Ground Services”.
He said:
If Qantas workers are engaged through 20 or more different employers, single employer bargaining does not work. If Qantas can tell its workers they either sign this agreement or they’ll set up a new company to hire them, single employer bargaining does not work. Alan Joyce has proven that multi-employer bargaining is the only way to protect and improve wages and conditions in aviation.
These comments are even more forward-leaning than those of the workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, who has also been endorsing unions’ key demand for Thursday and Friday’s jobs and skills summit.
Updated
ACTU responds to school-aged workers proposals from retail bodies
AAP reported earlier that the Australian Retailers Association was calling for children as young as 13 to help fill labour shortages. Readers with good memories may recall that Scott Morrison took a similar idea for younger forklift drivers to National Cabinet – though that one didn’t last too long.
The ARA’s chief executive, Paul Zahra, said Australia is at a crisis point when it came to labour shortages with more than 40,000 vacancies in the retail sector.
Agreeing to a national framework on young workers would help mobilise a willing and able cohort of people to help address the staffing shortfall.
But the government cannot agree to allow 13 year olds to work if it wants to maintain a commitment to international labour organisation conventions, according to unions.
The president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Michele O’Neil, said:
We’ll of course hear what’s put forward, but it’s not something that we think is an answer.
Updated
Chalmers: Covid support payments ‘can’t continue forever’
From AAP:
Isolation requirements and pandemic leave payments will be at the top of the agenda when federal, state and territory leaders meet for national cabinet.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will host his colleagues in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon where state premiers will push to shorten the Covid-19 isolation time from seven to five days.
But while the federal government will be responsive to the health advice, Australians should not expect the emergency payments to go on forever, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said:
The reality ... is that kind of support can’t continue forever [and] it’s also contingent on some of the other ways that we’re responding to this health and economic challenge.
One of the issues at play is the length of the isolation period and, not wanting to preempt the discussion that will happen this afternoon, it’s a relevant consideration as well.
I will bring you more when we have it.
Updated
Two Queensland police officers who arrested and handcuffed prominent First Nations writer and academic Chelsea Watego have told a tribunal they did not also approach or investigate an allegedly “aggressive white man” who was also the focus of nightclub security guards at the time they arrived.
ABS: Covid and flu symptoms reporting up but testing down
More Australians reported household members experiencing cold, flu or Covid-19 symptoms, but fewer reported testing for Covid-19, according to survey results released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
David Zago, head of household surveys at the ABS, said:
Our latest household impacts of Covid-19 Survey, conducted between 10 and 30 July 2022, showed 42% of households experienced cold, flu or Covid-19 symptoms, up from 32% with symptoms in April 2022.
However, only 48% of households had a Covid-19 test in the past four weeks, down from 62% in April.
The percentage of households where someone had a positive Covid-19 test in July has remained about the same since April – 27% and 23%, respectively.
The survey also asked Australians about the impacts of Covid-19 on their household’s working arrangements and school or childcare attendance.
Zago said:
One in four Australians reported that the job situation of someone in their household had changed due to Covid-19 in the last four weeks – 23%, up from 18% in April.
Updated
Clouds rolling into Victoria from the west
It has been a sunny 🌤️ morning for much of #Victoria, but cloud ☁️ is developing from the west (seen here in a photo from Ilana in #Lorne ). Isolated showers 🌦️ in the south for Thursday & into the weekend
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) August 31, 2022
Detailed local #VicWeather forecasts & warnings: https://t.co/uku7Q8UjtK pic.twitter.com/UukYGgVTPi
Hello everyone – this is Cait Kelly. Before we start a big thank you to Natasha for taking us through the morning!
Let’s get into it – I’ve got a weather update coming and an important story from Ben Smee so stay with me.
Updated
Hope this Wednesday is treating you well. I am handing the blog over to the marvellous Cait Kelly who will be with you for the rest of the day!
Updated
New national disaster agency comes online
A new national disaster management agency will be created to help Australians get through their “darkest hours” with severe flooding likely to be on the way as the nation approaches a “high-risk” weather season, AAP reports.
The emergency management minister, Murray Watt, announced the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) will come into effect from Thursday and lead the country’s response to natural disasters. He told reporters in Canberra:
The new NEMA will transform the way the federal government supports the Australian people in their darkest hours and help communities respond and rebuild.
It’s about preparing, building resilience, responding and recovering.
Our view is ... that is going to work in a much more coordinated manner if all of those functions sit under one roof with one set of leadership.
Greg Browning, a senior climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said the forecast for the next three months showed the country moving into a “high risk weather season” with flooding as the major risk, over bushfires or heatwaves.
Browning said severe storms, intense rainfall, and giant hail were likely to batter the eastern states, with bushfires to hit the northern part of Australia.
An early tropical cyclone could also develop in northern Australia.
The body will be created following a merger of Emergency Management Australia and the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.
Updated
Lightning expected offshore of the Northern Rivers in NSW
The current view of #NSW, with some lightning offshore of the #NorthernRivers. While tomorrow is expected to be partly cloudy, chance of showers in the northeast corner of the state on Friday and Saturday. Check your local forecast for more: https://t.co/C2ypbSTHja pic.twitter.com/tIqFkKSULZ
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) August 31, 2022
Updated
Western Australia records one Covid death and 228 people in hospital
There were 1,380 new cases in the last reporting period, and six people are in intensive care.
Universities could help end skills shortage, University of Sydney vice-chancellor says
A stronger government focus on higher education could help solve the skills shortage crisis, the University of Sydney’s vice-chancellor, Prof Mark Scott, is saying in an address to the National Press Club today.
Ahead of the government’s jobs and skills summit, which begins tomorrow, the vice-chancellor said it was critical for there to be an increase in national investment in research to drive future jobs, AAP reports.
Scott said:
I’d like those at tomorrow’s jobs and skills summit to consider not just the immediate challenges, for which migration will surely be one answer, but those challenges Australia will contend with a decade from now.
The speech also highlighted the university’s vision and goals for the next decade, including to enable more than 1,000 more students from low socio-economic backgrounds and disadvantaged schools to study at the university, along with a greater emphasis on student-focused education.
Scott said while the universities sector has been under funding pressure in recent years, student outcomes were still key.
The federal government provided as much as 90% of funding to universities during the 1980s, but commonwealth funding now makes up less than 30% of the sector’s income. The majority of income comes from domestic and international student fees, along with grant schemes and philanthropic donors.
Scott said current funding arrangements for higher education was a “complicated ecosystem”. He said:
International students in particular have played a vital role in providing not just key researchers at a graduate level, but also together providing the funding income that underpins much of the national research effort.
Funding pressure is no excuse for not fulfilling the promise that a university education should present to today’s students.
The federal government has promised to review university funding as part of a new accord with the sector.
It is expected nine in every 10 new jobs created in the next five years will require a form of post-school qualification.
Updated
No 2 golfer Cameron Smith defects from PGA to Saudi-backed LIV tour, citing financial rewards
Cameron Smith, the world No 2 male golfer and reigning British Open champion, has left the PGA tour to join the breakaway Saudi-backed LIV golf tour.
Speculation over the possibility of Smith joining LIV began in a press conference after the Australian’s success at St Andrews last month. Smith bristled at the journalist’s question at the time, but refused to rule out a switch to the Saudi Arabian-backed scheme.
Now Smith has become the first current top-10 player to sign with the rebel circuit, telling Golf Digest:
The biggest thing for me joining is (LIV’s) schedule is really appealing.
I’ll be able to spend more time at home in Australia and maybe have an event down there, as well. I haven’t been able to do that, and to get that part of my life back was really appealing.
Greg Norman, the Australian LIV chief executive, revealed earlier this month the circuit was looking to hold an event down under in 2023.
Smith admitted the financial rewards were also tempting at a reported $US100m ($A145m) signing-on fee. He said:
[That] was definitely a factor in making that decision, I won’t ignore that or say that wasn’t a reason.
- with AAP
Updated
PM pays tribute to Gorbachev as ‘one of the true giants of the 20th century’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev “changed the world for the better” in a tribute message posted this afternoon following the death of the last leader of the Soviet Union.
He freed the nations of Eastern Europe from the prison of Soviet rule, and helped bring an end to the Cold War … [Mikhail Gorbachev was] a man of warmth, hope, resolve and enormous courage.
With his death we have lost one of the true giants of the 20th century.
Updated
South Australia records three Covid deaths and 116 people in hospital
There were 639 new cases in the last reporting period, and six people are in intensive care.
South Australian COVID-19 update 31/8/22.
— SA Health (@SAHealth) August 31, 2022
For more information, go to https://t.co/XkVcAmeZ6V pic.twitter.com/cB2RLM5qe0
Nadal wins against young Australian Rinky Hijikata
We brought you the news this morning that Australian tennis player Rinky Hijikata had taken the first set off Rafael Nadal in their US Open first round encounter.
The twenty-one-year-old Hijikata put up a good fight, but Nadal clinched the match in four sets.
Hijikata, currently ranked 198th, fought to the end, saving multiple match points in a final game that went back and fourth to deuce several times.
Updated
Chris Dawson arrives at Sydney prison
Chris Dawson has arrived at Silverwater Prison in Sydney this morning following his conviction for the murder of his wife Lynette Dawson more than 40 years ago.
After Dawson was found guilty in a judge-only trial by justice Ian Harrison yesterday, Dawson was held at Surry Hills police station last night.
You can read more about why Harrison made that decision from my colleague Nino Bucci, who has been covering the trial:
Updated
Adam Bandt on jobs summit outcomes
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has called for the government to “lift wages” directly rather than just changing the bargaining system.
After the jobs and skills summit, the Greens plan to move amendments to set the minimum wage to 60% of the median wage and “re-regulate the wages of the lowest-paid in women-dominated industries” by requiring that rises in those sectors are 0.5% above inflation.
At a Kingston Reid employment conference, Bandt argued that the “floor has rotted” as award minimum wages have not kept up with the cost of living.
Bandt also warned about the “scourge of insecure employment”, with as many as 50% of workers at universities employed as casuals or on fixed term contracts, meaning “working people can’t plan their lives properly”.
The Greens want sick and holiday leave for casuals and gig workers, arguing if this is an incentive to hire people through more secure work “that’s good” because people should only be casuals where “absolutely necessary”.
The Greens will also move an amendment to create a “legal presumption that all jobs are ongoing and permanent” except in limited circumstances.
The government should also use its “purse strings” to make secure employment a condition of funding, Bandt said, including in the university and Tafe sector.
Bandt reiterated calls to cut the stage three income tax cuts to fund improvements to healthcare and other government services, noting that tax was on the table at Bob Hawke’s 1983 economic summit.
He said the government is only doing “half a Hawke by seeking to block the discussion of tax ... tackling inequality with one hand tied behind its back”.
Updated
More backed-up renewable energy ‘urgently needed’ to avoid blackouts, new report says
The Australian Electricity Market Operator has issued its annual electricity statement of opportunities report today.
Sounds a bit alphabet-soupy (Aemo’s Esoo), but it’s actually the latest milestone report highlighting the rising urgency to get more renewable sources, backed up by storage, into the grid.
Here’s our take on it:
Now, there’s no immediate reliability risk to the national electricity market (that serves about 80% of the Australian market across eastern and southern regions). But a lot has to go right to avoid power gaps (ie blackouts) in coming years.
Coal-fired power plants are becoming less reliable as they age – and as their closure dates near, their owners have diminishing incentive to spend big bucks to maintain them. Lots of renewable plants are lining up for approval, but will the transmission lines be adequate, or ready to take their output?
Aemo is also banking on the 750MW gas-fired power plant at Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley of NSW to be online by December 2023. A bit ambitious?
And as for the giant (2040MW) Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro projects? Well Aemo is still relying on Snowy Hydro’s end-2026 commissioning date. The report, though, notes “media reports” that it will be delayed a couple of years.
So, as a backup, Aemo modelled what a two-year delay – just in case, mind - would mean for reliability. Well, for now, there’s no material impact. (Some analysts wonder how the project can be both vital but also that its delay might not be such a big deal.)
Aemo, meanwhile, isn’t predicting any reliability issues for this coming summer – unless, of course, there is some extreme weather (which is hard to forecast). Given the past year’s floods, and what’s been going on in the northern hemisphere’s summer, you wouldn’t want to rule it out.
Updated
Dutton accuses Albanese of being ‘distracted’ by international celebrities
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, just spoke in Melbourne ahead of the government’s jobs summit tomorrow, to which he has rejected his invitation.
Dutton says the government has been too focused on wages when workforce shortages are hampering small business.
Dutton doesn’t think Australia should lower the minimum working age to 13, as the peak retail body suggested this morning in a submission to the summit. That’s a somewhat different position to the former Coalition leader Scott Morrison’s position on allowing under-eighteen-year-olds to operate forklifts.
Dutton says he believes the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been “distracted” from the pressing issues facing Australians by international celebrities – perhaps referencing the recent meeting held with NBA star Shaquille O’Neal. The meeting with O’Neal was held to discuss the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, after which O’Neal agreed to do some videos to garner support.
Updated
ACT records no Covid deaths and 90 people in hospital
There were 236 new cases in the last reporting period, and two people are in intensive care.
ACT COVID-19 update – 31 August 2022
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) August 31, 2022
🦠 COVID-19 case numbers
◾ New cases today: 236 (129 PCR and 107 RAT)
◾ Active cases: 1,214
◾ Total cases since March 2020: 202,543
ℹ For more detail, including an age breakdown of case numbers, please visit https://t.co/qRDoepyJkh pic.twitter.com/hnzTWB8fNR
Perrottet issues ultimatum to rail unions
The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, has issued a stunning ultimatum to the state’s rail unions following another day of industrial chaos, saying he will tear up an industrial agreement covering tens of thousands of transport workers unless members agree to the government’s final offer.
Calling the latest strike action on Wednesday “absolutely disgraceful”, Perrottet said he had instructed his transport minister, David Elliott, to finalise negotiations with the rail unions on Wednesday.
Perrottet said he would not be accepting the union’s demands for an extra 0.5% wage rise above the government’s wages cap, and – in a significant escalation of the hostility between the government and the rail unions – vowed to tear up the agreement if union members voted down the government’s offer.
He said:
We will seek to terminate the current agreement immediately. And we’ll have the new agreement arbitrator by the Fair Work Commission and that will be resolved in that manner.
Elliott, who said he had been “shat on from a great height” by the Rail, Tram and Bus Union during the negotiations, had been due to meet with the unions for further negotiations today, and as recently as last week said he did not want to terminate the agreement.
While he conceded had been “overruled” by the premier, Elliott also said he was fed up with the union.
Updated
Queensland records 14 Covid deaths and 316 people in hospital
There were 2,294 new cases in the last reporting period, and 10 people are in intensive care.
Today we have recorded 2,294 new COVID-19 cases.
— Queensland Health (@qldhealth) August 31, 2022
Sadly, we have reported 14 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Full details ➡️ https://t.co/rKHIwroZeI pic.twitter.com/fAfGvgabKC
Eric Abetz to head anti-republic campaign
The Australian Monarchist League has called on the services of the former Liberal senator Eric Abetz as it plans to fight Labor government plans for a republic, AAP reports.
The staunch monarchist lost his seat at the May federal election after being demoted to third spot on the party’s ticket, ending a 28-year senate career.
The Australian Monarchist League on Wednesday announced Abetz had been appointed chairman of the group. The group’s national chair, Philip Benwell, said in a statement:
Mr Abetz has enjoyed a sterling career spanning 28 years in the Australian senate.
[He] will bring to the monarchist cause the same fighting spirit that has characterised his entire political career for nearly three decades.
The Albanese government says it will work towards establishing an Australian republic and has appointed an assistant minister for the republic.
Labor intends to hold a referendum on having an Australian head of state to replace the Queen if it is elected for a second term.
Abetz has previously described the monarch as a “stable, enduring, unifying part of our democratic arrangements”.
Updated
ACTU predicts Covid isolation period will likely not be cut
The Australian Council of Trade Unions’ assistant secretary, Scott Connolly, has suggested it is “unlikely” the Covid isolation period will be cut.
Connolly told a Kingston Reid employment conference on Wednesday:
The Covid crisis remains a big big challenge for us all. Despite how far we’ve come – and it pains me at a personal level to say this ... the reality is the pandemic is still here, it shows no real signs of going away in any significant way, no matter how much we would like. The most tangible outcome to that is from national cabinet this afternoon, where we’re unlikely to see change to isolation rules.
I’m not sure how accurate the prediction will be, but it certainly suggests unions are leaning against that outcome.
Updated
ACTU calls for minimum wage and jobseeker rise
The ACTU assistant secretary, Scott Connolly, has told the Kingston Reid employment conference that Australia’s wages have been flat for a decade and we face “real wage cuts for years to come”. Connolly said:
The world of work has changed but the Fair Work Act has not. We are increasingly seeing its shortcomings, exposed almost on a daily basis. It’s not delivering sustainable wage increases, or more secure work. It’s not responding to needs of employers, employees and industries. We need to make the minimum wage a living wage.
Connolly said the minimum wage is currently $127 short of 60% of median full-time earnings, the “biggest gap in history” and something that is “shameful” for a wealthy nation like Australia.
Connolly also called for a “floor” of at least $70 a day on jobseeker, and for the unemployment payment to be indexed going forward. Connolly said:
We need significant reform: a workplace relations system that work for all of us, and delivers good secure jobs. The Fair Work Act needs to be reformed so working people are better ability to achieve fair outcomes. Regardless of label history has put on it ... we need new options, multi-employer bargaining.
Asked if this would include rights to take industrial action, Connolly confirmed: “Absolutely.” He said if workers weren’t able to take industrial action, the measure would not even up bargaining power between employers and employees. But he added there would be safeguards including Fair Work Commission supervision that bargaining is in good faith.
Updated
Unions call for NSW politicians to respect workforce and ‘stop attacking people’
Alex Claassens, the NSW secretary for the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, has called on everybody, especially “boof-head” politicians, to respect all government employees including nurses, teachers as well as transport workers, specifically during industrial relations. (Maybe he didn’t need the descriptor there, though.)
I’m calling on all those boof-head politicians - stop going out there and calling our members names, go out there and do what we’re doing and try to protect people at work. That’s what this has always been about …
We cannot tolerate this behaviour any more. So, as a consequence to that, we immediately lifted our ban at midnight last night on enforcing the government’s own standards on our rolling stock. It is a problem that we still need to go and fix. Having trains not serviced for 60 days is unacceptable …
In the meantime, our delegates have taken the only step they could … respect the workforce. They are there trying to do a job and they have a voice. At the moment, it’s me standing up here being their voice. They have a voice and the only time they can use it is at election time and obviously at enterprise agreement negotiation time.
They are collectively saying to this government and any potential government, we have had enough …
You have nurses taking action, you’ve got teachers taking action. At which point does the New South Wales public realise the problem is not with the workers, the problem is with the politicians, the ruling class people that think they’re better than us?
Today I am calling on everybody to respect the workforce and stop attacking people.
Updated
Unions say NSW politicians ‘don’t live in the real world with the rest of us, they don’t catch our trains’
Alex Claassens, the NSW secretary for the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, is holding a conference on industrial action negotiations as Sydney commuters continue to face delays after the state government and unions were unable to reach an agreement.
Claassens says the negotiations only highlight the “need to keep fighting” as he accuses NSW politicians of being out of touch.
This is and always has been about safety. Over the last couple of days, the comments made by certain politicians and their mates, shock jocks, have perpetuated a bunch of actions against our members.
Now, I can cop everything that anyone wants to throw at me, but our members, the people that are on the front … out there every day supplying a transport service, deserve a hell of a lot better, particularly from those politicians that are paid for by the taxpayers in this state.
We pay our politicians to do the work that we need to do. We need we ask to listen to our concerns. There are politicians on both sides of the equation that have listened and tried to help. For the large part a lot of those billionaires are living in some glory world, every day, where they sit in their ivory towers, get in their chauffeur driven cars, they don’t live in the real world where with the rest of us, they don’t catch our trains. They would not know what happens on the trains. They wouldn’t know what happens in our buses. They just have no clue on reality. They are living in a bubble. The rest of us are out here trying to live in the real world.
The NSW Labor leader, Chris Minns, told 2GB Radio this morning that Claassens hadn’t been picking up his phone calls.
Updated
Nadal one set apiece against Australian opponent in US Open first round
Tennis buffs may not have heard of Rinky Hijikata, but the Australian has taken the first set off Rafael Nadal in their first round US Open match.
Hijikata won the first set 6-4, but Nadal took the second 6-2 and the third is just beginning.
The 21-year-old Hijikata was ranked 369 in the world at the end of last year and got a wildcard to play at Flushing Meadows, where he is currently ranked 198.
Nadal has never lost a US Open opening round, so the odds are in the Spaniard’s favour – but if you want to follow along to see if an upset could be brewing, keep an eye on Guardian’s US Open live blog:
Updated
Leaders remembers Gorbachev’s legacy ‘offering hope for peace’
Australian leaders’ tributes to Mikhail Gorbachev continue to flow in following this morning’s news of the last president of the Soviet Union’s death.
We already brought you government ministers Jim Chalmers’ and Richard Marles’, as well as opposition leader Peter Dutton’s, tributes to the Russian leader. Here are some of the other tributes that have come from the opposition leader in the senate, Simon Birmingham, and the shadow minister for multicultural affairs, Jason Wood.
Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the towering figures of his era. Gorbachev’s leadership, alongside Ronald Reagan & Margaret Thatcher, reshaped the world, offering hope for peace. In these challenging times we should honour his life, his contribution & continue to strive for peace.
— Simon Birmingham (@Birmo) August 30, 2022
Wood wrote on his facebook page:
Sad to hear of the passing of a truly great world leader in Mikhail Gorbachev. Known widely for ending the Cold War with US President Ronald Reagan.
Gorbachev’s legacy will not be forgotten. Although the evil dictator Vladimir Putin seems intent on destroying it.
Updated
Hooray for the last day of winter!
Mild, dry & partly cloudy 🌤️ on the last day of winter across the State. Our climate outlooks tells us spring is likely to be wetter 💧 & warmer 🌡️ than average for most of #Victoria
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) August 31, 2022
Latest #VicWeather & Warnings https://t.co/zH6FLEA4eY
Climate Outlooks https://t.co/wQm3HwC9OU
Government urged to accept more Afghan asylum seekers after Amnesty report
The Australian government has been urged to lift its humanitarian intake from Afghanistan after a new report found Iranian and Turkish security forces were illegally opening fire on men, women, and children seeking refuge from the Taliban.
Amnesty International this morning released a damning report on the treatment of Afghan asylum seekers at the Iranian and Turkish borders. The report is based on 74 interviews in Herat City and the border town of Islam Qala and documents a string of concerning incidents. It alleges that security forces, mostly on the Iranian border, have shot at Afghans as they climbed over walls or under fences.
Amnesty says that those who do manage to find a way into Iran or Turkey are either being tortured or subjected to other mistreatment, including arbitrary detention, before being forcibly returned to Afghanistan.
Forty-eight of the 74 interviewees reported coming under fire as they attempted to cross the borders. All interviewees were sent back to Afghanistan without the chance to register an asylum claim in either country.
After the release of the report, Amnesty International Australia urged the Australian government to do more to increase its humanitarian intake from Afghanistan.
An estimated 200,000 Afghans have applied for humanitarian visas but the Labor government is yet to provide any additional places beyond what was announced by the former government in March. The Morrison government promised 16,500 places.
Amnesty wants at least an additional 3,500 places to meet calls from the Afghan community for 20,000 places.
Updated
Victoria passes affirmative consent laws
Victoria has adopted an affirmative consent model, shifting scrutiny off victims and back onto perpetrators of sexual violence, AAP reports.
Under new laws which passed Victorian parliament on Tuesday, a person must have a clear and enthusiastic go-ahead for their belief in consent to be reasonable.
The consent can include – but is not limited to – verbally asking and getting a “yes” in response, a physical gesture such as a nod, or reciprocating a move such as removing clothes.
The laws make clear that “stealthing” – the removing, tampering with, or not using a condom without consent – is a crime. They also target image-based sexual abuse, which includes taking intimate videos of someone without their consent, as well as distributing or threatening to distribute intimate images.
A person who knowingly distributes an intimate image of someone else faces three years’ imprisonment under the justice legislation amendment (sexual offences and other matters) bill 2022.
The new laws mean judges can give juries directions about consent and have to explain to them what “proof beyond reasonable doubt” means.
Updated
Delays on M5 near Liverpool after two-car crash
A two-car crash has occurred on the M5 this morning in Casula, near Liverpool. Authorities are warning drivers to expect delays, with westbound traffic impacted.
Nine news is reporting that the traffic is banked up 15km after two citybound lanes were closed.
CASULA | Two car crash. M5 Westbound. #FRNSW FF's are currently on scene at a two car crash on the M5. Westbound traffic is impacted. Delays to be expected. @nswpolice and @NSWAmbulance are also in attendance.
— Fire and Rescue NSW (@FRNSW) August 30, 2022
Updated
Defence responds to Solomon Islands moratorium on foreign naval vessels
Defence has issued a statement in response to reports that Solomon Islands has issued a moratorium on foreign naval vessels visiting its ports.
The issue was thrust into the public spotlight after Honiara did not respond to a request for a US Coast Guard ship to dock and refuel on Friday. The ship was diverted to Papua New Guinea.
A spokesperson for the Australian Defence Force said it was aware of the reports that foreign navy and coast guard vessels had not received approval to visit Solomon Islands.
The spokesperson said:
Diplomatic clearances for visiting foreign vessels are a matter for the Solomon Islands government.
Australia continues to work with Solomon Islands to meet its security priorities and the region’s collective maritime security objectives.
Updated
Chalmers admits stage three tax cuts ‘very expensive for the budget’
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the federal government is focusing on its “near-term challenges” when asked if there were any changes that could be made to the $243.5bn stage three tax cuts, but has not ruled out making changes to the controversial tax plan for high earners.
At his Canberra press conference earlier today, Guardian Australia asked whether the government was considering tinkering with the extreme end of the tax cuts after Parliamentary Budget Office analysis found the top 1% of earners would get the same benefit as the lowest-earning 65% of Australians when they kick in after 2024.
Chalmers and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, have long said that the tax cuts have been legislated, the government has not changed their position on the tax cuts and that it was not their policy to change them.
But Chalmers did not entirely shut down the prospect of changes at some point. Chalmers said:
The reason we point out these tax cuts come in in two years’ time is because we’ve got some near-term challenges and they occupy 100% of our time.
The issues in the labour market that the jobs and skills summit it all about, issues in multinational tax avoidance ... our position on the tax cuts haven’t changed, we’ve got other priorities and other focuses and that’s occupying all that time.
Chalmers added he was not working on a deficit levy for high-income earners. However, in a podcast with the Conversation this week, Chalmers conceded “it’s self-evident that [the tax cuts are] very expensive for the budget”.
He said:
It’s important to remember that even if a government were to tweak those stage three tax cuts, they don’t come in for another couple of years. So they have absolutely no bearing on some of these challenges that we’re dealing with right now.
Some in Canberra believe the Labor government will have to eventually reform some part of the stage three tax cuts or the wider tax system, with some theories that the government may start laying the groundwork for a change to the cuts after the October budget. Albanese appeared to leave himself some wiggle room on changes with answers to the National Press Club on Monday.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, called on the government to scrap the tax cuts. He said this week:
Australia shouldn’t be left reading the tea leaves and just hoping Labor will shift on their stage three tax cuts for the wealthy.
Updated
Dutton accuses government of pre-deciding outcomes from job summit with unions
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is speaking to Sky News about the government’s upcoming jobs and skills summit, to which he has rejected his invitation.
He’s accused the government on not striking the balance right on its invitation list, with too many representatives from the unions and not enough from small businesses. He said:
The small business community is going to be completely overlooked.
He also accused the government of having the outcomes of the summit pre-determined:
Some policy outcomes [have been] already written by government in concert with [the] ACTU.
Dutton said the test of the summit’s success will be “if the numbers are achieved”, such as the processing of visas and accepting the coalition proposal of allowing pensioners to work more.
Updated
Victoria records 26 Covid deaths and 333 people in hospital
There were 2,857 new cases in the last reporting period, and 20 people are in intensive care.
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) August 30, 2022
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAcOZP pic.twitter.com/mPiKG97PDH
Updated
NSW records 22 Covid deaths and 1,802 people in hospital
There were 5,434 new cases in the last reporting period, and 38 people are in intensive care.
COVID-19 update – Wednesday 31 August 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) August 30, 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
- 97% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine*
- 95.4% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine* pic.twitter.com/pue0b3Weg8
Updated
New drug centre in Melbourne to tackle infectious diseases
A new pandemic drug centre is set to be created in Melbourne to fast-track the development of treatments to tackle infectious diseases.
The Victorian government has invested $75m in the new centre at the University of Melbourne, alongside a $250m donation by the Canadian philanthropist and businessman Geoffrey Cumming.
The centre will be titled the Cumming Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics and be based at the Peter Doherty Institute, before being located at the Australian Institute for Infectious Diseases that is due to open in 2027.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said the investment would help “create life-saving therapeutics and vaccines for infectious diseases and help us fight future pandemics”.
Updated
Initiatives from the jobs summit to be announced Friday
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, was also speaking at a media conference in Canberra this morning.
He said a list of initiatives from the jobs summit to move forward immediately would be announced on Friday afternoon.
Updated
Jobs summit invitation list ‘tried to strike a good balance’, treasurer says
The full invitation list for the government’s jobs and skills summit is out, but ABC is reporting that the big four banks are not on it.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, told ABC Radio this morning that not everybody could be accommodated:
We have tried to do, with this invitation list … to strike the right balance, whether it is gender, employers, unions, community groups, state and local governments, we have tried to strike a good balance.
We have a good problem here in that we have got hundreds of people who have got a legitimate reason to be there. We have got people absolutely clamouring to be involved, which is better than the alternative.
Chalmers also indicated he could be open to allowing pensioners to work more before their pension payments are effected.
Updated
Greens leader concerned changes to better-off-overall test could weaken worker protections
The business council’s chief executive, Jennifer Westacott, said she was keen to see industry and unions agree on changes to enterprise bargaining, including to the better-off-overall test, to make the system less complex for employers and ensure workers were paid more.
However, the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, is expressing “deep reservations” about any weakening of the test. At a pre-jobs summit address on Wednesday, Bandt said:
The test protects workers, especially young and casual workers, from getting even less than the already low award minimum wages and conditions.
It is deeply distressing to see even the Labor government now open to changing the Fair Work Act to endorse this… The Greens cannot back the summit striking deals that leave young and low-paid workers worse off.
Updated
‘He was a reminder it takes more courage to end a war than to start one’: Chalmers on Gorbachev
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has paid tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev at a press conference in Canberra, saying:
The curtain has come down on one of the world’s most significant leaders. He was a pivotal figure at a defining moment.
When the world saw conflict, and stalemate, he saw peace and possibility.
He was the epitome of courage and vision. And he was a reminder that it takes more courage to end a war than to start one.
There is no history of the 20th century that doesn’t have him playing a central role.
Updated
Suggestion 13-year olds fill labour shortages shows lack of leadership, Wells says
Australia’s peak retail body this morning released a submission to the government’s jobs summit suggesting children as young as 13 could be put to work to help fill labour shortages.
Anika Wells, the minister for aged care, was asked about that suggestion this morning on Channel 9 and said while “workforce is the key issue in country” she certainly did not think lowering minimum working age requirements was the way to get there.
To me the fact that we’re throwing out ideas like this – apart from the throwback to remember that time Scott Morrison suggested children drive forklifts – suggests that there’s been a lack of leadership in this country regarding [industrial relations].
Thank god we’ve got the jobs summit coming up tomorrow and Friday here in Canberra, so that 140 people from all sides of the IR system can get together and come up with agreed criteria to stop things like that.
Our Jobs and Skills Summit will bring together over 140 industry experts to come up with real solutions for some of our nation’s toughest workforce challenges… and I promise none of those solutions will involve children driving forklifts 🤦♀️ pic.twitter.com/ivB5emnzo9
— Anika Wells MP (@AnikaWells) August 30, 2022
Updated
Jobs summit should support apprenticeships in female-dominated trades, independents say
Independents are calling for more investment in female-dominated trades like textiles and floristry ahead of the government’s jobs and skills summit to be held tomorrow.
Zoe Daniels, the independent member for Goldstein, will make a push at the jobs summit for the expansion of apprenticeship subsidies to feminised industries, the Australian Financial Review is reporting. Daniels told the AFR:
This jobs summit must not become fixated on getting only the high-vis industries out to work and leave the pink workforce at home yet again … We have women who want to work. We must enable them.
The AFR also reports that the independent for Warringah, Zali Steggall, believed female-centric fields such as fashion are suited to apprentice-style training. Steggall said:
There’s been too narrow a view of what are the apprenticeships and trades, it’s been a very bloke-centric approach.
Updated
Put teens to work to fill gaps: retailers
Children as young as 13 could be put to work to help fill labour shortages as Australia’s peak retail body calls for national minimum working age requirements, AAP reports.
Ahead of the federal government’s jobs and skills summit, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has released a submission calling for businesses to be able to tap into willing school-age workers.
The inconsistency in minimum age regulations across the country should be addressed on a national basis, the ARA’s chief executive, Paul Zahra, said:
An ideal model would be one where we allow 13- to 15-year-olds to work, with sensible regulations in place around not working during school hours or at times that would impact a young person’s education.
But while the government is open to hearing all ideas at this week’s summit, the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles said common sense needed to be applied when it came to putting younger teens to work. He told the Nine Network on Wednesday:
We don’t want to pre-empt what’s coming out of the jobs and skills summit over the next couple of days, but that’s certainly not a plan that the government has in mind.
The deputy prime minister said he wanted to hear ideas about how the pension system could be reformed to allow older Australians to re-enter the workforce if they wanted. He said:
Every business that you talk to, large and small, is struggling to find the people with the skills that they need and that’s what we need to be addressing.
Getting children used to the value of working was important, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said. He said:
Multi-generational unemployment, it’s very insidious ... getting into a culture of work is important, but I think that really starts [with] doing jobs around the house.
Updated
Marles wants PNG security pact to bring two countries ‘as close … as we can be’
Richard Marles is asked what he’d like to see included in the security pact the minister for foreign affairs, Penny Wong, has held talks with the Papua New Guinea government about.
We’ve been making it really clear that we want to be as close with PNG as we can be.
We want to see Australia be the natural partner of choice for the Pacific.
Updated
Marles will not confirm if Australian naval ships have been issued with Solomon Islands moratorium
The Solomon Islands have announced it is banning foreign naval vessels entering its port.
Richard Marles is asked by ABC Radio whether Australia has been issued with a moratorium on its naval ships entering the Solomon Islands port like the US. However, Marles doesn’t provide a direct answer:
I’ve seen the reports … ultimately that is a matter for the Solomon Islands.
I’m confident if we put in the work we will be the partner of choice for the Solomon Islands.
Updated
US and UK both committed to helping acquire nuclear submarines, Marles says
Returning to the deputy prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles’ interview with ABC Radio. He is asked about the replacements for the ageing Collins Class submarine fleet.
He is in London at the moment where discussions are taking place with the UK, France and Germany. He is asked if he has been looking at submarine options in Europe. Marles responded that it’s a three-way process where “there is one discussion with the three countries”.
He said both the US and UK committed to helping Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarine.
We’re working through the process ... with both the US and UK.
He said Australia “need to be signing options sooner rather than later”.
Updated
‘The lessons of the 80s have been lost on … President Putin’: Dutton responds to news of Gorbachev’s death
Speaking of leaders’ reactions to the news of Mikhail Gorbachev’s death, opposition leader Peter Dutton was speaking with ABC news breakfast when the news broke. His immediate reaction:
It casts your mind back to his period and the interaction with the west. Obviously, what we’re seeing today is a very different leadership style and role. I think the carnage that we’re seeing in the Ukraine is horrific and whilst people will mourn of loss, understandably, the focus at the moment is on the damage that the current Russian leader is doing.
Whilst it’s slipped from the headlines we should remind ourselves every day that these attacks are still taking place on women and children, on places of shopping centres, residential buildings etc. And unfortunately, the lessons of the 80s have been lost on the likes of President Putin. I hope that we can return it a more sensible age. That doesn’t seem possible at the moment, which is a tragedy.
Updated
Deputy prime minister pays tribute to Gorbachev’s legacy
Deputy prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles is speaking with ABC Radio from London, where he is strengthening ties with France, Germany and the UK.
ABC Radio asks Marles about breaking news this morning – Mikhail Gorbachev’s death. Marles calls him one of the key architects in ending the cold war.
The world is a much safer place as a result.
Updated
NSW trains and inner-west buses disrupted
NSW train commuters are again advised to seek alternatives as a final day of industrial action disrupts services one more time, AAP reports.
Most timetables will be reduced to a 30-minute frequency on Wednesday, while services are suspended on the T5 Cumberland and T7 Olympic Park line.
Compounding the disruption, bus drivers will be off the job in Sydney’s inner west as part of a separate dispute with Transit Systems, the private company contracted to run services in the area.
It will affect services in Region 6, which includes the inner west, some of the CBD, Olympic Park, Strathfield and Rockdale.
Meanwhile, rail workers are refusing to operate foreign-built trains, which make up about 70% of the fleet, as part of a month of industrial action that has also included area-based strikes.
Multiple unions are attempting to secure a new enterprise agreement to replace one that expired in May 2021, while the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) has been demanding changes to a fleet of Korean-built intercity trains it says are not safe to operate in NSW yet.
None of the various government ministers involved in the disputes, nor premier Dominic Perrottet, think the trains need modifying.
Updated
Most women in their 20s have experienced sexual violence, data shows
“Shocking” evidence shows most women in their 20s have experienced sexual violence, according to Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (Anrows).
Sexual violence is defined as “sexual actions without consent, which may include coercion, physical force, rape, sexual assault with implements, being forced to watch or engage in pornography, enforced prostitution or being made to have sex with other people”.
Anrows used data from the Australian longitudinal study on women’s health (ALSWH) to establish new prevalence rates for women. The ALSWH is an ongoing project collecting sexual violence data, which started in 1996.
The study includes data from more than 57,000 women across several age cohorts.
It found 51% of women in their 20s and 34% of women in their 40s had experienced sexual violence in their lifetimes, and 26% of women aged 68 to 73 had experienced sexual violence.
Good morning!
The national cabinet will meet later today in Sydney to discuss reducing the Covid-19 isolation period from seven to five days, following the push from NSW premier Dominic Perrottet.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says he’s open to the shift if it’s supported by the health advice, but the Australian Capital Territory chief minister, Andrew Barr, says any reforms will not come until next month’s meeting.
The full invite list is out for the government’s jobs and skills summit to be held tomorrow including mining magnate Andrew Forrest, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, the heads of Coles and Woolworths as well as BHP and Rio Tinto.
Overall there will be almost 150 representatives from unions, universities, all levels of governments and business leaders.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers told ABC Radio’s Sabra Lane this morning the government attempted to strike the right balance in its invitations when it comes to all issues from gender to union representation. He said:
We’ve got a good problem here … people are absolutely clamouring to be involved.
If there’s something you think I’m missing on the blog, you can ping me on Twitter @natasha__may.
Let’s get going!
