source : the age
Update, 5.20pm: Trains on the Belgrave and Lilydale lines between Box Hill and Ringwood stations have now resumed following an earlier serious emergency incident. Buses will continue to “supplement services as delays begin to ease”.
Earlier: Melbourne’s Belgrave and Lilydale train lines have been disrupted after a serious emergency incident at Blackburn station causing significant disruptions, Transport Victoria says.
Buses will replace trains between the eastern suburbs of Box Hill and Ringwood, adding delays of up to 40 minutes.
Trains will continue to operate between Flinders Street and Box Hill stations with delays likely.
The disruption is under the control of Victoria Police, Transport Victoria said.
Usually when numbers shoot higher on Wall Street, it is a reason for celebration.
That is not how Jonas Goltermann, the chief markets economist at Capital Economics, feels when he looks at one of the most feared charts on the sharemarket: the Shiller price-to-earnings (PE) ratio.
“That’s obviously a bit worrying,” he says after seeing the metric on track to end the month at its highest level since August 2000.
The Shiller PE ratio, a closely watched fear gauge on Wall Street, may sound esoteric, but it has become one of the most important numbers in the world – and one you should care about.
For all intents and purposes, it is the canary in the coal mine for global financial crashes.
Telegraph, London
Russian state development bank VEB has fired its chief economist over remarks in which he said the country was falling behind the West and China and was suffering mounting economic damage from the war in Ukraine, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Andrei Klepach, one of Russia’s most prominent macroeconomists, made the remarks to a financial forum in May, but they were reported in Russian media only last week.
“We are falling behind. We are losing both the technological and economic competition in the world. And we are losing it not only to China and the United States, in some ways we are losing it to Ukraine too,” he said, adding that this was due to Kyiv receiving financial support from the West.
“We will not win the competition in this war of attrition. We have the illusion that everything there [in Ukraine] will collapse. It has not collapsed and will not collapse. Our costs are mounting,” he said, predicting a social crisis.
A Coalition MP has slammed his own party for not forcing the government to go further on gambling advertising reform.
Pat Conaghan spoke to the ABC after his party reached an agreement with Labor to pass amended legislation to limit the amount of betting advertising that Australians see around sports broadcasts and online. He sat with the crossbench for the debate.
The NSW MP was deputy chair of a cross-parliamentary committee into the matter with late Labor MP Peta Murphy. Conaghan said the committee drafted 31 unanimously agreed recommendations in 2023.
“We spent many hours together making sure the settings were right,” Conaghan said. “To see it just thrown to the side and discarded is incredibly disappointed. We could have made sweeping changes to stop these predatory practices we see so often.”
A Liberal MP has appeared to question how much the government listened to the gambling industry on writing the bill to reform gambling advertising in Australia.
Member for Cook, Simon Kennedy, has been one of the more outspoken agitators for change to the government’s bill, parts of which are now passing parliament. He has been pushing for people to opt in to be able to see gambling advertising, but instead will support the bill which compels people to opt out of seeing the ads instead.
“This is not perfect, but it’s much improved,” said Kennedy on the ABC this afternoon. “And in politics, unfortunately you often don’t get things your own way, it often involves compromise.”
Kennedy also said he had no ill will to colleagues Pat Conaghan and Andrew Wallace, who have indicated they will cross the floor over their disagreement with the bill and its amendments.
Labor is continuing its run of making deals with the opposition to get support for key legislation, striking an agreement with the Coalition to allow for more amendments to its reform of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
High-risk NDIS participants will be able to apply for plan variations, and new criminal and civil penalties will be introduced for providers who offer kickbacks, are among 63 amendments across both houses of parliament. The bill could pass as early as tonight.
Health Minister Mark Butler announced the changes this afternoon, where he was asked about the $25 billion he offered in public hospital funding to states and territories in exchange for supporting NDIS reform. He was asked if he was still prepared to use that as leverage to get the states to implement the reforms.
“It’s a question of honour, really, for states – they signed an agreement earlier this year that set up five years of very significant increases for our public hospital system, but a reaffirmation of the commitment they made in 2023 to work with the Commonwealth to get the NDIS back on track.”
Butler then singled out Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, claiming the state is yet to fully commit to Thriving Kids, an upcoming program to support children with autism and developmental delay.
“The Queensland government needs to answer for its inability so far to live up the agreement that the premier signed earlier this year.”
Earlier today, Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi met his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, saying the recent furore over Anthony Albanese’s comments about Japan’s Prime Minister was not discussed.
Albanese has so far rejected calls to apologise after comments he made on a light entertainment podcast, released in July, in which he said Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi gifted him two melons.
“She brought two and they’re beautiful,” he said while making a gesture with both hands in front of his chest.
Earlier today, we learned a leaked letter from Japanese officials to their Australian counterparts noted there had been “sensationalised reporting” about the interview and that Japan would not be taking action. The AFP is now investigating how that letter was leaked.
Update, 5.20pm: Trains on the Belgrave and Lilydale lines between Box Hill and Ringwood stations have now resumed following an earlier serious emergency incident. Buses will continue to “supplement services as delays begin to ease”.
Earlier: Melbourne’s Belgrave and Lilydale train lines have been disrupted after a serious emergency incident at Blackburn station causing significant disruptions, Transport Victoria says.
Buses will replace trains between the eastern suburbs of Box Hill and Ringwood, adding delays of up to 40 minutes.
Trains will continue to operate between Flinders Street and Box Hill stations with delays likely.
The disruption is under the control of Victoria Police, Transport Victoria said.
Nationals MP Michael McCormack has called on Veterans’ Affairs Minister Matt Keogh to apologise after a veteran accused the minister of rolling his eyes when he met with former defence personnel over access to allied health services.
Keogh was forced to meet with the veterans after initially saying he could not, after the Coalition launched an attack in question time yesterday.
Veterans walked out of the chamber as Keogh said a discussion paper was out to consult on the government’s decision to cap allied health services for veterans at $5000, which advocates are demanding be removed.
McCormack asked Keogh in question time today:
A vessel was struck by an unknown projectile while leaving the Strait of Hormuz, causing engine room damage and a crew casualty, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported.
The remaining crew were being assisted by the Omani Coast Guard. No environmental impact has been reported and authorities were investigating, UKMTO said.
The incident comes as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted, with vessel crossings still in the single digits, down from more than 130 a day before the US and Israel attacked Iran in February.
Reuters
Liberal MPs have heckled Communications Minister Anika Wells as she lauded the government’s gambling reforms, which are becoming law with the support of the Coalition.
They called out that Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson should be thanked for pushing the government to toughen restrictions on inducements.
Liberal MP Simon Kennedy was warned by the speaker for his repeated interjections, while another MP shouted, “What about the Murphy report?”
That MP was referring to the recommendations made by a parliamentary inquiry led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy that included a blanket ban on gambling advertising and inducements – measures that have been left out of the finalise laws.
Kennedy has been advocating internally for the Coalition to push the government to go further and adopt an opt-in advertising scheme, rather than opt-out, but cannot cross the floor to vote against the legislation because he is an assistant minister.
The gambling reforms have proven divisive in the Coalition party room. Backbenchers Andrew Wallace and Pat Conaghan are crossing the floor to oppose the reforms, with Wallace saying “we’ve lost the plot” for allowing Australians to lose tens of billions of dollars to gambling each year.
