Australia to provide additional $10m in humanitarian aid to Gaza
The government has announced it will provide an additional $10m in response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
In a statement, the government said funding would be directed to Unicef and UNFPA (the United Nations Population Fund) to provide “lifesaving assistance, with a focus on women and girls, including the delivery of nutrition support, as well as hygiene and dignity kits.”
Since 7 October, Australia has committed $82.5m in humanitarian assistance to Gaza. The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said:
Australia’s support will help address the dire humanitarian situation with the delivery of nutrition and essential hygiene and health products. Rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian relief must reach civilians, and aid workers must be protected to enable their lifesaving work.
We continue to press for a ceasefire, the protection of civilians and the release of hostages.
The minister for international development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, said the situation in Gaza is “catastrophic” and that “civilians should not be made to pay the price for the horrendous acts of others”.
Key events
Katy Gallagher says opposition to RBA reforms ‘all politics’
Finance minister Katy Gallagher, who is also speaking to the media in Canberra, said that the government is still committed to its RBA reforms.
The bank supports the reforms. They’re important reforms to strengthen the independence of the RBA and to ensure that it is essentially set up for the job it needs to do in the future, so we remain committed to them.
This comes as the Greens said they wouldn’t back the reforms unless the government intervened to make the RBA cut rates. Gallagher continued:
I mean, this is all politics, right, and you know, I can’t think for a reason why the federal opposition would not support strengthening the independence of the RBA, were it not for politics, and the Greens are just crazy.
Albanese says divestiture powers ‘not the solution’
On the exposure draft, Anthony Albanese was asked if he would be open to divestiture powers, as the Coalition has proposed?
He said, “it doesn’t change my mind on it”.
It is rather extraordinary that you have a Coalition, a Liberal party, in 2024, along with the Greens political party, that have the same policies of breaking up capitalism.
If Coles sells their shop, who is going to move in to the local supermarket chain? Chances are they’d be divesting towards each other. That’s not the solution. What the solution is is making sure that you have an ACCC with pumped up powers.
Albanese said that this is “not rational policy” from the opposition, and they “are putting forward thought bubbles” – turning to nuclear energy ahead of Peter Dutton’s speech this afternoon:
And we’ve seen Peter Dutton give a speech today on nuclear energy where months after he said he would come clean with how much it would cost with all of the detail, we had none of it.
I have no idea why he’s giving this speech. I assume that they locked it in the diary in advance and said we’re going to give a speech about nuclear energy … and we’ll put out the costings and do all of that, and had a look at it and said, whoops, it doesn’t add up.
Albanese says if products cost more than they should ‘of course it has an inflationary impact’
Taking questions, the prime minister was asked about the ACCC’s alleged misleading conduct by the supermarkets – which dates back to the December quarter of 2022 when inflation peaked at 7.8%.
Does he think the supermarkets’ alleged actions contributed to inflation, and subsequently contributed to the Reserve Bank’s actions?
Anthony Albanese responded: “When you’re charging more for products than you should it of course has an inflationary impact, by definition.”
And we know that inflation is what the Reserve Bank is concentrating on in terms of monetary policy, as they should, to try to get it down to the band of 2% to 3%.
Albanese on ACCC action against supermarkets: ‘If this is found to be true, it’s completely unacceptable. This is not the Australian spirit’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been speaking to reporters in Canberra.
He announced the launch of the exposure draft on the new mandatory food and grocery code – as Josh Butler reported earlier. The PM also commented on the ACCC’s court action against Woolworths and Coles, and said:
These are serious allegations that the ACCC is bringing before the courts. If this is found to be true, it’s completely unacceptable. This is not the Australian spirit. Customers don’t deserve to be treated as fools by the supermarkets. They deserve much, much better than that.
My government takes today’s announcement by the ACCC very seriously. As it’s before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment further, but we will examine as the courts are able to deliberate. Shoppers are on the hunt for discounts when they do their weekly grocery shop, because every dollar matters when people get to the checkout. Advertised discounts need to be genuine – each and every time. Specials need to be real, because household budgets are tight. And I welcome the ACCC standing with supermarket shoppers.
Protestors gather outside Ceda conference ahead of Peter Dutton’s nuclear speech
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is due to give a speech on the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy at the Ceda conference at 1pm.
Some protesters have begun gathering outside the conference in Sydney, ahead of his speech:
Call for for Victorian FOI laws to be rebuilt ‘from the ground up’
Victoria’s Freedom of Information laws are struggling to meet the needs of a modern democracy and must be entirely rebuilt from the ground up, according to a parliamentary review.
As AAP reports, the report released today has revealed Victorians are forced to wait up to a year to access their own medical records or other personal information from what’s been described as an “impenetrable” 40-year old system. The report stated:
Victoria’s first-generation FOI legislation cannot be repaired, or even renovated … the legislation needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.
Many government agencies take a “defensive approach” and purposely release as little information as possible, Integrity and Oversight committee chair Tim Read said.
More than two-thirds of the 48,000 requests for information each year relate to individuals wanting information about themselves. Dr Read said delays, complexity, high fees, public records in a poor state and an unhelpful culture contributed to the current system’s reputation for being impenetrable.
The parliamentary committee made 101 recommendations including replacing existing legislation with an entirely new “Right to Information” law, widening the scope from “documents” to all information in the digital age and a presumption that requested details will be released.
It also called to abolish fees related to requests for personal information and limiting other charges.
Choice says price of food and groceries consistently ranked as number one concern
Rosie Thomas, the director of campaigns at consumer group Choice, has been speaking with ABC TV about the court action ACCC is taking against Coles and Woolworths.
Thomas said that late last year, Choice wrote to ACCC with examples of discount claims it “didn’t think stacked up”.
This action today is a really excellent example of the power of the consumer voice … We know that consumers are really doing it tough, and the cost of food and groceries is really at the top of the list.
Consistently for a number of years now, food and grocery prices have ranked at the top of Choice’s quarterly surveys about what consumers are most concerned about. That figure has been almost 90% of consumers are worried about this, so it’s definitely something where people are feeling the pinch.
Natasha May
Doctors warn of the health risks of nuclear power ahead of Dutton speech
As the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, plans to deliver a major speech with further details on how Australia could use nuclear energy, medical group Doctors for the Environment Australia say it rejects nuclear power because of the its high health risks.
Dutton will deliver the keynote address around lunchtime today at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (Ceda) conference, laying out how the Coalition’s proposal to build seven nuclear reactors across five states would work.
The Doctors for the Environment statement warns:
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Uranium – the most widely used fuel by nuclear power plants – is a heavy metal with the potential to harm our health, including kidney failure, diminished bone growth and damaged DNA, the genetic blueprint of life.
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The high-level radioactive waste it creates cannot be safely disposed of and there is no known secure long-term storage. Every stage of mining, transport, processing, using and attempting to dispose of radioactive fuel has the significant potential to contaminate the environment and endanger workers and those living nearby.
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Potential health and environmental risks arise from uranium mining and processing because it contaminates the environment with radioactive dust, radon gas, water-borne toxins, and increased levels of background radiation.
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Nuclear power plants themselves produce radioactive emissions in air and water, in addition to other nuclear waste. Workers in the nuclear industry show higher rates of cancer.
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Nuclear cannot decarbonise the energy sector fast enough to avert catastrophic climate change, and distracts from and delays more reliable, safer and cheaper renewable technologies.
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Nuclear power plants are vulnerable to extreme weather – cyclones and storms, floods, droughts and fires, as well as sea level rise. Nuclear power outages have occurred due to these factors already and are likely to increase.
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There is an extensive history and ongoing risk of nuclear accidents and incidents, including at Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011.
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Nuclear power requires large amounts of water. Reduced water supplies will be felt hard by our regional and remote communities.
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The industry emerges from the history of nuclear weapons testing and uranium mining on First Nations lands without consent, and may continue to disproportionately affect First Nations people.
Josh Taylor
Meta says more teens under 18 in Australia on Instagram than Facebook
The proportion of teens under 18 on Facebook is significantly lower than the number of teens on Instagram, according to new data from Meta.
The company, which announced an overhaul to the accounts of teenagers under 18 on Instagram last week, revealed in response to a question from a Senate inquiry last week that based on self-reported ages of users on the two platforms in Australia, 10% of Instagram users are under 18, while for Facebook it is just 5%.
Meta said it was currently working to comply with a notice from the eSafety commissioner to break down the figure to the ages of those under 18, which will probably feed into the public debate over what limit the age ban should be. The Coalition favours 16, while the federal government has indicated the minimum age will probably be somewhere between 14 and 16.
Meta also pushed back at the use of the term “scraping” for it using public posts from Facebook and Instagram in training its AI. It argues scraping refers to third-party accessing of data from the internet, which Meta’s is not because it is on its own platform.
While Meta has admitted to using public posts in its AI training, the company said it goes out of its way from other companies scraping the data. Meta said:
We devote substantial resources to combating unauthorised scraping on Facebook products. We have a dedicated Anti-Scraping Team, including data scientists, analysts, and engineers focused on our efforts to detect, block, and deter scraping.
Hazard-reduction burn in Sydney’s Beacon Hill
The NSW Rural Fire Service says it is conducting a 1-hectare hazard reduction burn in Sydney’s northern beaches, around Beacon Hill.
The burn is located 1km from the Meatworks Avenue fire, which is burning at advice level.
Josh Butler
McKim says RBA board are ‘not high priests who are beyond criticisim’
The Greens have hit back at Labor government criticism over their stance on the Reserve Bank reforms, with senator Nick McKim saying the RBA board are “not high priests who are beyond criticism”.
Labor’s latest stoush with the Greens goes to reforms at the RBA, with the government seeking to establish a new board to deal with monetary policy. The Coalition has refused to back the change, leaving Labor to deal with the Greens – who have said they won’t support the reforms until interest rates go down, either by the RBA’s normal decisions, or by Jim Chalmers using arcane legislative provisions to force them to lower the rates.
It’s led to another round of Labor v Greens bickering. McKim, the Greens treasury spokesperson, said they weren’t backing down on their criticisms. McKim tweeted this morning:
We are unashamedly using our political power to fight for mortgage holders who are getting smashed by high interest rates. Housing affordability has never been worse in Australia, and the RBA governor has admitted some Australians will have to sell their homes. We need action.
Time for Jim Chalmers to end his ritual ashen-faced handwringing, end the pretence there’s nothing he can do, and intervene to bring down interest rates.
McKim pointed out soaring rent and mortgage rates, and backed in the Greens’ tactic of “deliberately bringing the RBA into the centre of the political debate where it belongs”.
The RBA board are unelected technocrats, not high priests who are beyond criticism. Every decision they make is political. The Greens will keep fighting until interest rates come down.
DHL downplays delivery impact as 1200 workers strike
As we brought you earlier via AAP, about 1,200 DHL workers have planned a four-hour work stoppage at warehouses in NSW and Victoria today.
As AAP reports now, DHL has said it has taken measures to minimise the impact of the strike on customers. A spokesman said in a statement:
This is supported with the assistance of over 3000 DHL team members nationally who continue to service our customers.
The United Workers Union has been trying to negotiate new workplace agreements since March, including a 21% pay rise over three years for NSW workers, and a 10% rise each year for three years for Victorian workers.
The company said it had offered workers a wage increase in the form of an upfront, one-off payment. The spokesperson said:
We regret that the UWU has been determined to lead the taking of protected industrial action against DHL, despite the fact that a large part of the workforce have accepted and received our offer.
However, we are confident that DHL employees will be able to vote up these agreements and receive wage increases as soon as possible.
