source : the age
Good morning and welcome to our national news live blog for Tuesday, August 11. Here’s what you need to know.
- It’s Census night tonight! Every five years, the Australian Bureau of Statistics counts every person and household in Australia. This is called the Census of Population and Housing. Don’t forget to complete the Census form for your household if you haven’t already. You can find out more about completing the Census, and why it’s important, here.
- Parliament is set to resume today as the government looks to tackle some key legislative reforms, including securing a deal on gambling advertising and passing sweeping cuts to the NDIS.
- Several members of the Coalition have demanded Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apologise to Japan’s leader Sanae Takaichi following comments he made last month about a “couple of melons” she gifted him, which he has denied was a sexual innuendo about the leader’s breasts. Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and his deputy, Jane Hume, both rebuked the comments during a press conference yesterday.
- US President Donald Trump has lashed out against Iran’s demands for war compensation as part of talks to wind down the conflict, dimming hopes of a deal that would reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz and pushing up oil prices.
- And in Colombia, at least 111 people have been killed and more have been trapped after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake. Colombia’s interior minister said more than 20 municipalities across the country had been hit.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has dismissed claims Labor is not focused on bringing down inflation through lowering spending, as the Reserve Bank is set to meet today to decide whether to raise, lower or hold interest rates steady.
Appearing on Nine’s Today, Gallagher was asked: “Leading economists are now accusing you of spending too much time fiddling with taxes rather than reducing government spending. How do you respond to that accusation?”
Gallagher said: “Well, I don’t accept that at all. I mean, in every budget, we have reduced, we have found savings either to return to budget so that we have lower debt or to, you know, reallocate across the budget”.
The minister said the budget was under “enormous pressure” because of the cost of social services and defence, saying the government found “more savings than we spent” in the last budget.
“We really do make a huge effort to look at where we can trim spending. But we also need to be honest, and accept that there is a lot of pressure on the Commonwealth budget to do more and to provide more support to people, and we have to try to find the right balance with that,” Gallagher said.
Teal MP Monique Ryan has called Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s July podcast with comedian Nikki Osborne “pretty cringe” following fresh criticism of comments he made about a “couple of melons” the Japanese leader gifted him, which he has denied was a sexual innuendo.
Speaking to Nine’s Today show this morning, Ryan said, “I think that whole interview was pretty cringe.
“It’s disturbing to hear that the Japanese government has expressed some concerns about it. I think we can probably expect better … Especially when we’re talking about a really special gift that the Japanese state has given to the country. And if I was the PM, I’d call, pick up the phone to the Japanese prime minister and apologise to her on this one.”
Liberal senator Michaelia Cash appeared on the breakfast panel alongside Ryan, and called Albanese’s remarks “crude and dirty”.
But she reserved her harshest criticism for the women in Albanese’s cabinet, and demanded Foreign Minister Penny Wong personally raise the issue with the PM herself.
“Penny Wong’s hypocrisy, Tanya Plibersek’s hypocrisy, Catherine King’s hypocrisy is now on display. Their double standards are there for all Australians to see … As I said, I want to hear directly from our foreign minister. Did you raise this personally with Mr Albanese?”
Watt also said the government was considering following New Zealand’s lead and vaccinating Australia’s most endangered wildlife as the H5N1 bird flu continues to spread.
“Over the last couple of years, we have undertaken some trials of vaccinations when it comes to endangered species in a captive setting,” the minister said.
But he said vaccination effectiveness would be limited because of the difficulty of vaccinating wild birds, as well as the fact there were no available vaccines for mammals most at risk of infection such as seals and sea lions.
“It’s simply not feasible to vaccinate birds in the wild because vaccination requires two doses, and you know it’s hard enough to catch wild birds once, let alone twice,” he said.
There have been 231 confirmed detections of bird flu in Australian birds to date.
Environment Minister Murray Watt appeared on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night to defend the government’s gambling package after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Labor caucus yesterday that he expected the reforms to pass with the Coalition’s support.
Watt said there were amendments Labor was “prepared” to make to pass the legislation, including on betting inducements – one of the more contentious parts of the proposed reforms.
Critics from across the political spectrum accused Labor of failing to account for the harms of these inducements in its package.
But when he was pressed on what the amendments might look like, Watt did not provide further detail.
“We have just worked through exactly the definition of inducements and what level of control we want to exert on that. Again, it’s worth remembering that even the current laws that we have in place before any amendments do include some prohibitions on inducements, particularly as it relates to direct marketing to consumers.
“But we have said that we are prepared to make amendments in order to get this package through.”
US President Donald Trump lashed out against Iran’s demands for war compensation as part of talks to wind down the conflict, dimming hopes of a quick deal that would reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz and pushing up oil prices.
“I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts,” Trump wrote on social media this morning. “Additionally, compensation should be paid to the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protesters that Iran has killed over the last 50 years.”
The sweeping new demands from Trump, which he said will be put “firmly into any, and all, future negotiations”, are almost certain to be rejected by Iran. Tehran has reiterated requests for reparations and tied it to the opening of Hormuz.
Shortly after his post, Trump expanded the scope of his new demand, saying Iran should be responsible for “damages and death to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza”, without offering any details.
The hardening on both sides makes it unlikely that Washington or Tehran will be able to agree to any immediate pact on Hormuz that could help end the war.
Bloomberg
Good morning and welcome to our national news live blog for Tuesday, August 11. Here’s what you need to know.
- It’s Census night tonight! Every five years, the Australian Bureau of Statistics counts every person and household in Australia. This is called the Census of Population and Housing. Don’t forget to complete the Census form for your household if you haven’t already. You can find out more about completing the Census, and why it’s important, here.
- Parliament is set to resume today as the government looks to tackle some key legislative reforms, including securing a deal on gambling advertising and passing sweeping cuts to the NDIS.
- Several members of the Coalition have demanded Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apologise to Japan’s leader Sanae Takaichi following comments he made last month about a “couple of melons” she gifted him, which he has denied was a sexual innuendo about the leader’s breasts. Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and his deputy, Jane Hume, both rebuked the comments during a press conference yesterday.
- US President Donald Trump has lashed out against Iran’s demands for war compensation as part of talks to wind down the conflict, dimming hopes of a deal that would reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz and pushing up oil prices.
- And in Colombia, at least 111 people have been killed and more have been trapped after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake. Colombia’s interior minister said more than 20 municipalities across the country had been hit.
