source : the age
Hello and welcome to our national news live coverage for Wednesday, October 7. Here’s what is making headlines:
- Online outage: Bendigo Bank has been working for several hours now to rectify an issue preventing customers from accessing its website and app. Its last update, just after 2pm, said some customers were still experiencing issues, but that ATMs and eftpos machines remained unaffected.
- Australia’s highest court has upheld a first-of-its-kind climate change bid to overturn a major coal mine expansion in NSW. It comes after that state’s appeal court found planning authorities are legally required to consider the climate impact emissions caused when the coal is eventually burnt – including overseas – on local communities.
- Vigils across Australian capital cities today have marked the third anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel when 1200 people were killed and 250 taken, sparking a devastating war in Gaza that brought on a humanitarian crisis.
- In the US, Paramount Skydance has closed its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, completing one of the biggest media mergers of all time after engaging in a bruising battle for control with Netflix and fending off antitrust lawsuits.
- And the federal opposition has again refused to say whether it will release the full costings of its new migration policy, as leader Angus Taylor argues the measures will be “good for the budget” and the economy.
The leaders of both federal Coalition parties have urged the government to change the law, after the High Court of Australia upheld a ban on extending a coal mine in NSW’s Hunter Valley.
The highest court in the country agreed with a lower jurisdiction that NSW planning authorities had failed to consider the emissions once the coal was burned – including burned overseas – in weighing up the climate impact of the project.
In a joint statement, Angus Taylor and Matt Canavan met the ruling with indignation, saying it posed “a direct threat to the Hunter, to thousands of future mining jobs and to Australia’s standing as a reliable energy exporter”.
“The Albanese and Minns Labor governments must act immediately to fix the law,” they said, adding more projects in NSW’s pipeline faced uncertainty under the precedent set today.
“This is absurd. Under the international rules Labor champions, emissions are counted where coal is used, not where it is mined. Holding Hunter miners responsible for power stations in Japan, Korea and India is a recipe for endless legal challenges. This will reduce Australian jobs, not global emissions.
“If Australian high-quality coal is not exported, our trading partners will not stop using coal. They will buy it from other countries, often lower in quality and higher in emissions.”
The NSW Liberal frontbench has been reshuffled five months before the state election, with Damien Tudehope returning to shadow cabinet three months after he resigned over his appearance at an anti-corruption probe.
Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane announced the refresh this afternoon, filling the gaps left by James Griffin and Alister Henskens, who announced in September they would leave politics at the next election.
“This is a team that combines experience with fresh perspectives, and is ready to take the fight to Labor, present a clear alternative and lead NSW,” Sloane said in a statement.
Tudehope – who appeared at the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Operation Rosny probe – will not return as shadow attorney general, with Susan Carter taking responsibility for the portfolio along with youth justice.
Deputy Greens leader Steph Hodgins-May has celebrated the High Court’s decision on the Mount Pleasant mine expansion, which found NSW planning authorities failed to consider the emissions of coal burnt overseas in the project’s approval process.
“The High Court backed the community in calling out the Labor government for continuing to ignore the climate consequences of fossil fuel projects.
This ruling now makes that impossible. For too long, big coal and gas companies have tried to pretend that the emissions from their products are someone else’s problem once they leave Australian shores. They’re not,” Hodgins-May said in a statement
“When Australian coal is burned overseas, the climate damage doesn’t magically disappear at the port. It comes back to communities here through worsening heat, drought, bushfires and floods. This judgment sends a clear message to governments and fossil fuel companies that the climate impacts of their projects cannot simply be ignored or pushed down the line,” the deputy leader said.
Earlier today Environment Minister Murray Watt said the government was still going over the details of the legislation, but cast doubt on it setting a precedent for all jurisdictions in the country.
The minister said federal environment laws did not require assessment of Scope 3 emissions – those central to today’s case – meaning states and territories would need to assess whether their laws could face similar challenges.
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has responded to the High Court’s decision on the Mount Pleasant mine’s expansion being rejected for not considering emissions of burned coal, including overseas, saying that activists should not celebrate the decision.
“If you’re going to celebrate stopping our nation earning money and the state earning money, then it has to be authentic, you should start suggesting ways that we no longer spend money,” Joyce said.
“Do you want to cut money from the NDIS, or do you want to cut money from public hospitals? Do you want to cut money from the judges’ salaries who made the decision, or do you want to cut pensions? We’ve got to be realistic on this. If we keep coming forward with decisions about how our nation becomes poorer, we’ll do precisely that.
“We’ll become poorer, and poorer nations cannot pay for the public infrastructure and the social security benefits that are part of the birthright of this nation,” he said.
Joyce demanded legislation be altered to remove the inclusion of Scope 3 emissions from decision considerations, saying the removal of tax revenue would hurt future generations’ access to services.
Australia’s minerals export sector generates $70 billion annually, according to Bloomberg.
Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt has spoken after the High Court upheld a bid to overturn a major coal mine expansion, finding that planning authorities in NSW had not considered the Scope 3 emissions of the project – caused when the coal is eventually burnt, including when exported overseas.
“Obviously, this judgment has only just been handed down, and we haven’t had an opportunity yet to review it in full,” Watt told News24 shortly after the decision came out.
“I would make the point that the decision from the High Court is in relation to a NSW government decision based on NSW legislation, so it doesn’t automatically transfer to Commonwealth decisions or Commonwealth legislation.”
Watt reiterated that Scope 3 emissions did not need to be considered under federal law, which he interpreted to mean it wouldn’t “necessarily impact on Commonwealth decisions”, but said other states might be impacted depending on their legislative settings.
Returning to Andrew Denton’s speech at the National Press Club now, and as he concluded and prepared to take questions, we had a short intervention from Press Club director Greg Jennett.
Denton had just finished speaking about the need to increase access to voluntary assisted dying, and Jennett – who works at the ABC – confirmed the late Richard Morecroft accessed the service himself.
“It’s probably appropriate at this point to note that news emerged overnight of former NSW ABC newsreader Richard Morecroft’s death. In a family statement it included that he died at a time of his choosing… it does provide a recent and publicly recognised example that VAD is operating daily around us.”
Australia’s goal of building 1.2 million homes in five years has slipped further out of reach, even though the number of homes under construction is the highest on record.
The nation completed 355,817 dwellings in the first two years of the National Housing Accord, which started in July 2024.
The industry is picking up pace, at least.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics today reported that 47,168 homes were built in the June quarter.
Police are undertaking another major operation, guarding the second day of the Land Forces expo at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Last night, about 2000 anti-war protesters who oppose the international weapons event took to the streets of Perth’s CBD to rally against it.
The peaceful protect began at Yagan Square and ended at Elizabeth Quay. Police did not make any arrests, nor did they issue any move-on notices.
“We are the people; we won’t be silent,” some chanted.
It was a starkly different scene to the violence witnessed two years ago, when Melbourne hosted the same event.
Well-known interviewer and prominent advocate for voluntary assisted dying Andrew Denton has taken his campaign to Canberra, calling on the prime minister to remove legal barriers for doctors discussing VAD with patients over telehealth.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Denton was critical of the law under which doctors face fines and prosecution if they talk to patients about VAD via videolink.
In July, Labor’s national conference voted in favour of conscience vote in parliament on overturning the ban.
Denton said the ban created a “postcode lottery” disproportionately limiting terminally ill regional Australians from accessing VAD, and that removing it would not weaken the safeguards built into the laws.
Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction in its nuclear enrichment capacity to satisfy US demands and end the countries’ seven-month war, US Vice President JD Vance said.
In an interview with Reuters, Vance, who has taken a leading role in negotiating a settlement to the conflict, said he was looking for action from Iran rather than assurances of future nuclear draw-downs.
“If you don’t want a nuclear weapon, then why do you need 60 per cent enriched fuel? And if you want to show commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, don’t build highly enriched fuel. That’s a very basic threshold issue,” Vance said.
“I think if they want to show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on their enrichment capacity.”
