Good morning. Anthony Albanese is due to rejoin the campaign trail after seven days of Covid isolation. The Labor leader will fly to Perth on Friday ahead of the party’s campaign launch on the weekend. Scott Morrison will be in Hobart, after announcing $50m for the Nyrstar smelter in the Tasmanian capital.
A majority of voters agree with key Labor campaign messages that Scott Morrison is “all announcement no delivery”, a new poll reveals. In further bad news for the government, Labor’s claim it will “put the care back into aged care” is also resonating well ahead of election day. The poll of 1,000 voters, commissioned by the progressive thinktank the Australia Institute, also found Coalition claims about handling of the economy are testing well, but overall it was Labor’s messaging that was hitting the mark. Meanwhile, two of Labor’s star candidates in must-win marginal electorates have advocated strongly for an increase to the jobseeker payment, contradicting the party’s decision to scrap its planned review of the benefit if it wins government.
Russia attacked western Kyiv with two cruise missiles on Thursday evening, as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, visited the Ukrainian capital. Ukrainian officials were quick to underline the extraordinary timing of the attack, saying it was hard to see it as anything other than Moscow mocking the UN. Meanwhile, US president, Joe Biden, has called for a giant $33bn package of military and economic aid to Ukraine, more than doubling the level of US assistance to date.
Wholesale power prices in Australia’s main electricity market continued to rise in the first three months of 2022, more than doubling the cost a year earlier, with the increase blamed mostly on more costly fossil fuels and the falling reliability of coal-fired power plants. The leap in wholesale power prices is beginning to feed into the bills sent to households and businesses. Extra costs will also stoke the highest consumer price inflation since the introduction of the GST more than 20 years ago.
Australia
The Queensland and federal governments are trading blows over the state’s housing after another report on the crisis from the Queensland Council of Social Services (Qcoss), which said more than 50,000 households are currently on the waiting list for social housing.
One Nation has divided its support between the major parties on how-to-vote cards, saying the move is in retaliation for Liberals’ decision to preference the Jacqui Lambie Network in Tasmania. Party leader, Pauline Hanson, revealed the plan on Thursday, directing supporters to preference Labor in at least five seats while helping the Coalition in the north Queensland seat of Leichhardt and Braddon in Tasmania.
The wet weather that has triggered record floods and filled dams across much of eastern Australia looks set to extend well into winter and beyond, global models indicate. After two La Niñas in two years in the Pacific – a pattern that sees strengthening easterly winds pushing rainfall towards Australia – the landscape “is a bit more primed for flooding” than a year ago.
Debut writer Evelyn Araluen has won the $60,000 Stella prize for her collection Dropbear, which she wrote while “one paycheck away from complete poverty”. She is the first poet to win Australia’s literary award for women and non-binary writers, in the first year poetry was allowed to enter.
The world
The UN secretary general has described the war in Ukraine as “an absurdity” in the 21st century, on a visit to the scene of civilian killings outside Kyiv. “I imagine my family in one of those houses that is now destroyed and black,” said António Guterres, who has been criticised for visiting Ukraine only after having first met Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow.
Chinese authorities have said they are cracking down on price gouging as food shortages due to Shanghai’s lockdown continue and fears in Beijing prompt a run on supermarkets. On Wednesday, the ministry of public security pledged any individuals taking advantage of outbreaks to make a profit would be dealt with strictly, with fines of up to 3m yuan (A$637,400).
A Samsung advertisement featuring a woman jogging alone at 2am has been criticised as “unrealistic” and “tone deaf”, coming after the death of 23-year-old Ashling Murphy, who was attacked while out running along a canal near Tullamore, west of Dublin, earlier this year.
Pristine rainforests were once again destroyed at a relentless rate in 2021, according to new figures, prompting concerns governments will not meet a Cop26 deal to halt and reverse deforestation by the end of the decade.
Recommended reads
“If I actually am friendly, what other stories about myself could be true?” ponders Sinéad Stubbins, after an encounter with a friendly person has a profound effect on how she sees herself. “It’s peculiar that we think certain elements about ourselves are set in stone, even if there’s no real evidence to suggest that. Maybe these stories that we carry, like heavy trunks full of memories, can become outdated – or maybe they were never really true in the first place.”
Yuki Kihara celebrates Samoa’s third gender in an interview with Jinghua Qian. Her show Paradise Camp comprises 12 tableau photographs that offer a winking response to the paintings of French post-impressionist Paul Gauguin and a wry comment on tourism and the climate crisis. Prominent in every element of the show are fa’afafine – a Sāmoan term that literally means “in the manner of a woman” and refers to third gender people in both the singular and plural.
Make or Break’s behind-the-scenes look at the World Surf League engages fans and non-fans alike, even if some hard questions remain ignored, writes Kieran Pender. There is a moment early in the first episode when Tyler Wright neatly encapsulates the tension at the heart of professional surfing. “We come from a sport of, ‘aww we’re hippies’,” says the Australian surfer, a two-time WSL champion. “We’re not. We’re competitive little assholes.”
Listen
New inflation figures show the largest annual rises since the introduction of the GST. The consumer prices index hit 5.1% annually. The numbers tell a clear story: Australians are struggling – struggling to afford groceries and petrol, and to keep a roof over their heads. In today’s episode of Full Story, Gabrielle Jackson talks to Lenore Taylor and Mike Ticher about why we aren’t hearing from the people most affected by massive price hikes and low wage rises and whether it will influence the election campaign.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
David Squires on … the joy of exhibition games featuring foreign mega-clubs – and Crystal Palace. Our cartoonist gives his take on the upcoming swathe of friendlies to be played on Australian soil.
Media roundup
Tens of thousands of people in NSW have likely caught Covid more than once, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Maritime Border Command has released a multi-language video aimed at Asian people smugglers, after receiving intelligence the trade is becoming active again, reports NT News.
And if you’ve read this far …
The winners of the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year have been announced. See all the best entries here.
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