source : the age
Hello and welcome to our national news live blog for Thursday, August 27. Here’s a snapshot of the day so far:
- The leaders of major parties, state and federal, have descended on Dubbo for the annual Bush Summit. So far, the NSW and SA Premiers have continued their gripes with the WA-favouring GST arrangements, Anthony Albanese was jeered while talking about renewable energy, and Pauline Hanson clashed with Nationals leader Matt Canavan. More below.
- The world continues to mourn the loss of beloved cultural figures. After the death of Dolly Parton earlier this week, tributes are now flowing for beloved British actor Tim Curry and world-famous visual artist Yayoi Kusama.
- Russia is preparing to escalate attacks on Ukraine after concluding that negotiations for a peace deal have reached a dead end, according to three people close to the Kremlin. CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare visit to Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Russian counterparts, though it’s unclear what they focused on.
- And Meta has reached a $24 billion settlement to add child safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms, to end a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settle claims filed by 47 states in the US.
The Geelong Cats have been handed a massive $140,000 fine for failing to lodge the variation to the contract of one of its players, which included what AFL chairman Craig Drummond described as “a waiver” to reduce their exposure to legal risk if the defender suffered another concussion.
The AFL Commission found the failure to lodge the document by the Cats was an oversight rather than a deliberate attempt to conceal it from the authorities.
The Cats had put an agreement in writing that premiership defender Jake Kolodjashnij acknowledged the risk of continuing his career after the league’s concussion panel delivered an “amber” finding which left the responsibility for the decision to play on in the player’s hands.
A move to impose a 12-month ban on the import of big tech’s camera-enabled glasses will be introduced in parliament, in a bid to protect privacy against “covert recording”.
The Greens’ legislation will apply a temporary prohibition on bringing glasses and other wearable devices into the country that have the ability to secretly record, such as Meta and Anko glasses.
They often look like normal glasses and allow the wearer to record video and audio without the knowledge of people around them.
Under the changes, the Privacy Act would be amended so that filming, storing or sharing footage from these devices without consent is a clear breach of the law.
When news broke last week that America’s national debt had surged to a record high of $US40 trillion ($56 trillion), it was notable enough. If the US economy shakes, the rest of the globe feels it.
And then came the kicker: Donald Trump suggested he could use the military to stage an “intervention” on bond markets.
Today, international and political editor Peter Hartcher discusses the declining global confidence in the American dollar and US Treasury – and what Trump will have to do to avoid a global financial crisis.
Pauline Hanson and Nationals leader Matt Canavan have clashed during a head-to-head panel at the Bush Summit in Dubbo, moments after agreeing they both wanted to get rid of the Labor government.
After being asked why the Nationals and One Nation didn’t join forces, Canavan said: “I’ll always work with the people that the Australian people elect.”
“Just say yes,” Hanson interjected.
Canavan criticised Hanson for failing to mention farmers in her sprawling National Press Club speech in June, before Hanson attacked the Coalition for heralding Australia’s net-zero policy.
To Victoria now, and Jeroen Weimar will leave his role as secretary of the Department of Transport and Planning – the latest high-profile exit under new premier Ben Carroll.
Carroll announced in a statement on Thursday that Weimar would leave the role to which he was appointed in January 2025, to be replaced by current deputy secretary Fiona Adamson.
Weimar previously achieved widespread recognition for his role overseeing Victoria’s harsh response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement has come on the same day that Carroll announced a controversial levy secretly added to the fares of Victoria’s public transport commuters would be scrapped. This masthead is not suggesting the two events are related.
Pauline Hanson has attempted to clean up the confusion over her party’s migration policy at the Bush Summit in Dubbo, saying she wanted to drive down net overseas migration to 130,000.
“That’s it. It’s not going to move from that,” the One Nation leader said.
But she then seemed to conflate net overseas migration – which is an ABS count that tracks the number of arrivals to Australia minus the number of departures – with the number of permanent residents allowed each year.
“Your net migration, those people who we’re going to say, ‘Okay, you can come into the country. We’re going to give you a permanent residency that you can move on to citizenship’. That’s at 130,000.”
A US military judge has set a summer (US time) 2028 trial date for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three others accused of plotting the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The trial is scheduled to begin on June 5, 2028, 18 months later than the January 2027 start that prosecutors had requested.
The additional time is needed to resolve pre-trial disputes, including disagreements about what evidence can be presented, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Schrama wrote in his ruling on Wednesday (US time).
The US military and successive administrations have struggled for more than two decades to bring to justice the man charged with planning one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park has faced mounting pressure from the opposition on the beds for western Sydney promised by Premier Chris Minns in the lead-up to the 2023 election.
The highly populated region’s emergency departments have faced unprecedented demand in recent years, with one in 10 patients at Blacktown’s emergency department waiting more than 36 hours to be admitted or transferred to another hospital.
Park told budget estimates this morning that just 82 of the 600 promised beds had been delivered.
Half of the beds were promised for Rouse Hill Hospital, for which construction is now under way.
Park said the opposition had announced the north-west Sydney hospital three times throughout their 12 years in government, but did not deliver.
He said the 82 beds were located across Westmead, Nepean, and Mount Druitt hospitals, and said the government aimed to deliver an additional 30 beds at Blacktown hospital by the end of the year.
Australian business spending is up 11 per cent compared with last year, driven by an almost 80 per cent jump in investment in data centres, underscoring the strength of the sector as a driver of activity in the Australian economy.
New figures from the ABS show companies invested almost $51 billion in the second quarter, down 3.6 per cent from the first three months of the year.
The drop was largely attributed to a slowing in spending on data centres and other information technology, which is down by almost a third from the record set in the first quarter.
But the ABS noted despite the quarterly fall, total capital expenditure was 10.7 per cent higher than at the same time last year.
New research shows takeaway coffee drinkers might be receiving an unwanted shot of microplastics.
Scientists have found single-use paper cups, widely used for takeaway coffee, release millions of microplastic particles when exposed to hot liquid.
The warning comes after a University of Queensland research team looked at single-use cups lined with fossil fuel-based polyethylene (PE) and the biodegradable alternative polylactic acid (PLA).
Both types of cups were found to release plastic particles, UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences said.
