Good morning. The Morrison government has passed its controversial religious discrimination bill after a marathon all-night sitting of the lower house – expect a day of reaction ahead. Russia and Belarus prepare for joint military exercises, and more Australians turn to renewable energy than ever before.
In a long but dramatic debate, the hotly contested religious discrimination bill has passed the lower house, despite five Liberal moderates defecting to help add more extensive protections for LGBTQ+ students. Bridget Archer, Trent Zimmerman, Katie Allen, Fiona Martin and Dave Sharma crossed the floor against the government, helping Labor and the crossbench add protections for LGBTQ+ students into the Sex Discrimination Act. Zimmerman told the house the parliament could not send a message by “omission” by moving to fix sexuality discrimination but not gender identity discrimination: “I could not live with myself if I didn’t seek to address those issues.”
Australians from socially disadvantaged households or communities suffered an “incredible imbalance” in receiving Covid-related fines, a Guardian Australia analysis of freedom of information data has revealed. Towns in north-western New South Wales with high Indigenous populations bore a disproportionate percentage of fines, making up nine of the state’s 10 most-penalised areas, while several suburbs in western Sydney received more than 10 times as many penalty notices as suburbs in Sydney’s east. Redfern Legal Centre’s police accountability solicitor, Samantha Lee, says the numbers show that “those who were over-policed before Covid were just policed more during the pandemic”.
Russia and Belarus are to begin 10 days of joint military drills on Thursday, with the Kremlin moving 30,000 troops, two battalions of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems, and numerous fighter jets into Belarusian territory. Vladimir Putin reportedly told French president, Emmanuel Macron, that the troops would leave once the exercises had ended but the drills mark a strong shift from Belarus’ position of neutrality during the 2014 invasion. Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, lies 210km south of its border with Belarus. The UK’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, travels to Moscow on Thursday, having promised the nation’s “toughest sanctions regime against Russia”.
Australia
Two newly approved oral treatments for Covid-19 will be available in Australia in the “coming months”, with priority expected to be given to elderly, vulnerable and high-risk unvaccinated Australians.
The percentage of Australia’s energy provided by gas-fired power has fallen to its lowest level since 2005, as renewable alternatives continue to gain market share.
Sportsbet has been hit with penalties worth $3.7m after being found to have broken spam laws. The online bookie reportedly sent more than 150,000 texts or emails to customers who had attempted to unsubscribe.
China’s trade bans on Australian goods prompted significant internal fears, freedom of information documents have revealed, in contrast to the Coalition’s strong media line on the issue.
Australians without a regular GP have been locked out of bulk-billed telehealth consultations, prompting the industry’s peak representative body to call for “more commonsense flexibility” over the system’s rules.
The world
More than 80 people are feared dead in Madagascar after the onset of Cyclone Batsirai last Saturday. It’s the second deadly storm to hit the east African nation in the past few weeks, with hundreds of thousands believed to be left homeless.
A leading Vietnamese environmentalist has been arrested in what human rights monitors are calling a “clampdown”. Nguy Thi Khanh is one of several prominent government critics arrested, ostensibly for tax fraud, in recent months.
The relatives of Italy’s last king are suing the Italian state to recover his crown jewels. The descendants of King Umberto II have failed to reach agreement with the Bank of Italy, which has held jewellery containing more than 6,000 diamonds for nearly 76 years.
Recommended reads
It’s been rocked by border closures and cancellations but Friday’s opening of the Perth festival still represents a triumph over adversity. There’s no King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, or the festival’s flagship opera performance of Carmen, but the acts that have been able to proceed are still worth the ticket, Kelly Burke says.
When it comes to unemployment, a rate of 4% sounds almost like a dream. But it’s a figure that can’t be viewed in isolation, Greg Jericho argues, given the complicated state of the current labour market. “[The unemployment rate] is related to the number of people in the labour force – and one of the big changes since the pandemic is the absence of migration has meant the pool of working age people has barely grown at all”. Which makes the numbers “artificial” or just downright “weird”.
Being a radio presenter, Mitch Churi knows his way around “a pointless countdown”. And whether it’s the iceberg’s perspective on the Titantic sinking, or Facebook Marketplace horror shows, he’s put together 10 of the best for this week’s funniest things on the internet.
Listen
No rink, no worries. Without a single curling rink in Australia, Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt were always facing an uphill shuffle to make it to the Winter Olympics. On this episode of Full Story, reporter Kieran Pender tells their remarkable journey.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Russia’s gold-medal winning figure skating team have been rocked by a positive drug test, reportedly for a substance that is not performance enhancing. The IOC has cancelled the medal ceremony for the event.
Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad’s omission from the Test squad is “not the end of the road”, England’s interim managing director and former Test player Andrew Strauss has said. The duo are England’s most successful bowlers of all time, with 1,177 wickets between them.
Media roundup
Asio has foiled an attempt by a major foreign power to influence the forthcoming federal election, the Australian claims, detailing attempts by an alleged “puppeteer” to bankroll several candidates in marginal seats. Pregnant women and end-of-life patients will be able to receive hospital visitors after an overhaul of NSW guidelines, the Daily Telegraph writes. And Vegemite has announced it’s launching a new flavour – Vegemite & Cheese – as part of its 100th anniversary celebrations, the Courier-Mail reports.
Coming up
The Lithuanian foreign affairs minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, will address the National Press Club.
And if you’ve read this far …
Queensland snake handlers are pretty used to unusual callouts. But for veteran veterinarian Trish Prendergast, removing a foam Nerf gun dart from a family frog that was scarcely larger than it was definitely something new. “You would be surprised at what they shove in their mouths.”
Sign up
If you would like to receive the Guardian Australia morning mail to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com.
Discover Australian Weekend
Every Saturday from 6am, enjoy early access to the best journalism planned for the weekend in one elegant app, plus a curated selection of the week’s news and analysis from Australia and the world.
