A leading advocate for Indigenous children has said there is no evidence that the snap curfew in Alice Springs will solve the town’s long-running issues.
A cyber group acting on behalf of China’s powerful minister of state security stole hundreds of usernames and passport words from one Australian entity in April 2022, the federal government revealed on Tuesday.
The Albanese government has announced funding for 720 new safe spaces over the next three years, bringing the total to 1,500 spaces nationally. About 4,200 women and children are supported each year by the current sites.
PM says government ‘determined to end’ domestic violence
Josh Butler
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says Australia has “a long way to go” in combating domestic violence after several recent alleged incidents dominated headlines.
In a post on X, Albanese wrote: “Again, we have seen lives stolen, futures torn away. Every death is its own universe of devastation. Communities are hurt, and the families and the loved ones left behind carry the sorrow with them for the rest of their days.”
“As hard and heartbreaking as this news is, we cannot turn away from it. Our nation, our society, all of us owe those we have lost more than that.”
Albanese concluded: “my government is determined to end this violence. Together we can make this change. We must”.
Australia commits $6.3m to prevent Pacific bank closures
More than $6m in commonwealth funds will be used to bolster financial security in the Pacific to ensure banking services don’t close down.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, used an address to the Pacific Banking Forum to announce $6.3m would address banking closures and urge Australian lenders to stay open abroad.
“The message we are sending today to the entire Pacific family is clear: you can bank on us,” he said in Brisbane on Tuesday.
“Australian banks like Westpac and ANZ provide vital ... services to the region and have been in the Pacific for more than a century.”
The extra funding will go toward developing digital identity infrastructure among Australia’s neighbours and enhancing compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements.
The forum was a key outcome of last year’s meeting between the US president, Joe Biden, and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
Dingo DNA: scientists say predators share little ancestry with introduced domestic dogs
Scientists have for the first time recovered DNA from the remains of dingoes between 400 and 2,700 years old to find the predator’s population was well established across the Australian continent thousands of years ago.
According to the researchers, modern dingoes share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs introduced into Australia from Europe but are instead descended from ancient dogs and wolves from China and the Tibetan plateau. Dingoes were closely related to modern New Guinea singing dogs, the research confirmed, with both sharing a common ancestor.
Dingoes arrived in Australia between 3,000 and 8,000 years ago, the research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences said, and probably came with Pacific traders on boats.
Scientists gathered ancient DNA from the remains of dingoes held in museums, recovered from Indigenous sites around Sydney and from caves in South Australia and south-west Western Australia.
Dr Sally Wasef, an expert on ancient DNA from the Queensland University of Technology and a lead author of the research, had the job of cutting the ancient specimens – mostly bone and teeth – for DNA analysis.
She said she was amazed when the results of carbon dating found several of the east coast specimens were between 700 and 2,700 years old.
“I thought they were fresh samples so I was really shocked,” said Wasef, who has done previous genetic work on Indigenous remains, Egyptian mummies and world war victims.
NSW energy minister Penny Sharpe ‘unimpressed’ by federal opposition’s nuclear plan
The federal opposition has lately gone quiet on its controversial plan to build seven nuclear power stations, starting from the mid-2030s. (Some sections of the media – such as the Daily Telegraph – are continuing to push the proposal even if the politicians are moved on.)
Anyway, the NSW energy minister, Penny Sharpe, has made it clear where she stands, telling a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (Ceda) lunch that she “can’t overstate how unimpressed” she was with the idea, arguing it would “smash a hole through the policy certainty and investment plans” for her state.
She listed some of the “important questions. All unanswered”:
What are the costs of building nuclear reactors and who is going to pay? How long will these reactors take to build? How do we manage the exit of coal-fired power in the meantime? How much of the task to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will nuclear reactors deliver? Where will the waste go? How much will electricity bills increase? How will the rollout of renewables be impacted?
Sharpe said her state would “not be giving up its future economic prosperity for a policy thought bubble designed to play politics. A thought bubble that ignores the scientific reality of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as a matter of urgency.”
NSW, as it happens, is one of the states with a ban on nuclear energy that would have to be scrapped before nuclear plants were to get built. (The opposition suggested the Hunter Valley and Lithgow as two of their seven sites – if they get a chance to act on their pledges.)
Laura Davy had secured themself to a piece of machinery during a climate protest at a Newcastle coal terminal on Sunday as part of a rolling climate protest by Blockade Australia that is now in its 15th day.
The activists have been undertaking daily actions that have involved standing atop trains and hanging suspended above railway lines to call for a change to economic and political systems to achieve meaningful climate action.
Davy, who is from Tasmania and is among a number of people who travelled interstate for the protest, has been released from bail under the condition they return to Tasmania within 48 hours and do not enter NSW for any other purpose other than their appeal, which has been set for September.
More than 30 people have been arrested since the protest began on 25 June, with most receiving between a $750 to $1,500 fine, according to a Blockade Australia spokesperson. Davy’s three-month prison sentence was the harshest conviction faced by the protesters yet.
Under the anti-protest laws passed by the former NSW Coalition government in 2022 with the support of Labor, protesters who block major facilities – such as railways, ports, transport facilities or infrastructure – can face a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment and $22,000 in fines.
The NSW Greens’ spokesperson for justice, Sue Higginson, called for the laws to be repealed in the wake of Davy’s sentence:
The fact is no one, no matter who they are, should be subjected to a term of imprisonment for engaging in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience as part of their political and moral objection.
Albanese says ‘we cannot turn away’ from family and domestic violence
The prime minister has released a statement following a number of alleged domestic violence incidents across the country in recent days.
In a statement shared to social media, Anthony Albanese wrote:
So much work is being done to rid Australia of family and domestic violence. Yet as the tragic events of recent days have reminded us, we have a long way to go.
Again, we have seen lives stolen, futures torn away. Every death is its own universe of devastation. Communities are hurt, and the families and loved ones left behind carry the sorrow with them for the rest of their days.
As hard and heartbreaking as this news is, we cannot turn away from it. Our nation, our society, all of us owe those we have lost more than that.
My government is determined to end this violence. Together, we can make this change. We must.
BoM predicts damaging winds and thunderstorms across WA
The Bureau of Meteorology has published a severe weather update for parts of Western Australia, for damaging wind, showers and thunderstorms.
The Bureau said damaging winds are expected from Perth all the way down to Albany, with a cold front making its way across the coast to Perth by this evening.
Severe Weather Update: Damaging wind, showers and thunderstorms to impact parts of #WA. Video current: 11 am AWST 9 July 2024. Latest forecasts and warnings: https://t.co/4W35o8iFmh or the BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/TPMddUVTwb
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) July 9, 2024
Use frozen Russian funds to build new hospital: envoy
Australia should use frozen Russian assets to rebuild a critical hospital hit in a barrage of missiles, Ukraine’s ambassador has said as the federal government condemns the attack.
As AAP reports, Vasyl Myroshnychenko branded the incident as horrible and “one of the worst attacks ever”.
That was a very important children’s hospital, it was specifically dealing with some very complicated cases. The brand new building which was recently completed, which included the cancer ward and toxicology ward … when you can think Russia cannot go lower, they are always finding a way.
He later told reporters in Canberra he would welcome Australia joining a security guarantee signed with G7 nations and hoped for a new military aid package when Nato members meet in Washington.
SNAICC questions where $250m is going in Alice Springs
Lorena Allam
Catherine Liddle, chief executive of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC), says there is a “lack of transparency” around where the $250m in federal funding allocated in Alice Springs is “hitting the ground”.
SNAICC is the national voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
In a statement, Liddle told Guardian Australia there has not been visible progress made since a meeting held among key community organisations, in response to the first youth curfew in April.
The April Alice Springs curfew was a circuit-breaker, not a solution. It was enacted in response to escalating issues involving young people, who were not safe and were being exposed to concerning levels of violence.
We need to be looking at sustainable solutions, a view clearly articulated at a meeting organised by the NT and federal governments in April.
SNAICC said at the time this meeting should have been the first step in designing community-led solutions to issues that have been decades in the making. This does not seem to have happened.
Concerns were also raised at the meeting about how $250m, plus another $48.8m in federal funding commitments was hitting the ground. There seems to be a lack of transparency and accountability to the community.
Catherine Liddle, the chief executive of SNAICC. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Liddle said the April curfew showed “many families crying out for support,” and “a focus on investing in family and children during the early years is an approach that works and can turn the tide for communities like Alice Springs.”
SNAICC has raised the need for community-run child and family hubs to deliver early education and care, that support older children to access school and education and connect to other services such as accommodation, therapeutic care, finance, employment, return to country, DSS and other supports.
The National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) has been contacted for comment.
Continuing from our last post: Unemployed people who had difficulty finding work had more issues with labour market barriers in the year to February 2024, such as having insufficient work experience or facing competition from too many applicants for available jobs.
The year’s jobs slowdown also meant a smaller share of Australians were able to leave their jobs to take up better opportunities, falling to 27% of those leaving jobs after hovering at 33% the previous two years.
Chasing a change is still the most common reason for leaving a job, but today’s data suggest it’s increasingly out of reach.
While the ABS data doesn’t cover the months since March, the labour market has broadly stayed steady at that slightly weaker position, with job advertisements falling by 17% in the year to June according to data released yesterday by jobs marketplace SEEK.
The number of Australians swapping jobs falls for first time in three years
The number of Australians switching jobs has fallen for the first time in three years, adding to signs the post-Covid jobs boom has faded.
Job mobility was 8% over the year to February 2024, down from recent highs of 9.6% the previous year, according to ABS data released today.
Rising economic pressures saw the number of people made redundant increase for the first time since the pandemic, with 233,800 people retrenched in the year to February compared to the previous year’s record low of 182,700 people.
Today’s release substantially covers the calendar year 2023, during which cost-of-living pressures became a drag on Australians’ spending and business activity, cutting the number of jobs on offer and pulling unemployment up from record lows.
The new data confirms the country’s hyperactive post-Covid jobs market had weakened by February, drawing 2.6m people into employment compared to 2.9m the previous year.
People walk along Bourke Street with shopping bags in Melbourne. Photograph: Con Chronis/AAP
Laura Tingle asked Mark Dreyfus to elaborate on the point he was making:
When people apply to Israel a standard that is not applied to other countries, then potentially it’s antisemitism. When people deny to Israel its right to exist, when people pretend that Israel was not created by the United Nations in 1948 and is absolutely a full member of the United Nations – those sorts of things.
I can go on, but I’d be giving you a long list of antisemitic approaches to Israel. I’d say again, as a matter of principle, when people criticise Israel in a way that they would not dream of applying to another country, then you are at the point of antisemitism.
Tingle: So it’s about approaches to Israel, as opposed to actions by Israel?
Dreyfus: Well, the question was directed at – when is criticism of Israel antisemitism? I’m saying there absolutely can be criticism of Israel which is antisemitism.
And with that, the press club appearance has wrapped up.
Mark Dreyfus says criticism of Israel ‘absolutely can be’ antisemitic
Back at the press club, Mark Dreyfus was asked whether the government considers criticism of Israel to be antisemitic? He responded:
It absolutely can be.
Not always. I criticise the government of Israel from time to time, I don’t think I’m antisemitic. Other people criticise the government of Israel, and I don’t think they’re antisemitic.
But when people are singling out Israel and applying a standard to Israel that they do not apply to other countries, then potentially there’s antisemitism going on.
