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Australian soldiers injured in military vehicle rollover in Darwin
A group of Australian and East Timorese soldiers have been injured when their armoured vehicle rolled during a military exercise in Darwin, just days after an aircraft crash killed three US marines.
Of the eight injured soldiers, some were taken to hospital in serious but stable conditions and are receiving treatment for non-life-threatening injuries.
A member of the 80th Airborne Assault Brigade on a Bushmaster.Credit: Julian Knysh
The Bushmaster vehicle rolled over near Howard Springs RAAF base at about 8.30pm on Wednesday.
The soldiers were training as part of Exercise Predator’s Run 2023, the Northern Territory’s largest annual military exercise.
The accident is the second serious incident since the exercise kicked off last week after three US marines were killed and 20 others injured when their aircraft plunged to the ground on a remote island on Sunday.
AAP
‘I’m friendly with Josh Murray’, NSW premier says of transport secretary
By Caroline Schelle
NSW Premier Chris Minns has spoken about Transport Secretary Josh Murray, who was questioned at an upper house inquiry this morning.
The premier was asked about his relationship with Murray, after the transport secretary told the inquiry he had known Minns for decades.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has been friends with Josh Murray for 20 years, Murray told an inquiry today. Credit: Oscar Colman
“I’m friendly with Josh Murray,” Minns said this afternoon.
“I think I probably caught up with him six times in the last decade ... out of thousands of people in NSW politics.”
The inquiry is examining the recruitment process that led Murray being appointed to the $588,250-a-year secretary role. It will resume this afternoon.
Watch: NSW Premier Chris Minns holds press conference
NSW Premier Chris Minns is holding a press conference after it was revealed he has a 20-year-long friendship with Josh Murray.
Murray is the candidate Transport Minister Jo Haylen hand-picked for the departmental secretary role.
Watch live below:
Qantas pro-Voice event a ‘remarkable coincidence’, Dutton says
By Paul Sakkal
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says it is a “remarkable coincidence” Qantas held a major pro-Voice event with Anthony Albanese just weeks after Labor disallowed Qantas’ competitor from flying more often into Australia.
In an interview with 2GB radio host Ray Hadley, the Liberal leader was asked about Infrastructure Minister Catherine King’s late-July aviation decision and Qantas’ mid-August Voice to parliament event.
“It’s a remarkable coincidence,” Dutton said.
Peter Dutton spoke about the “close relationship” between Qantas and the government.Credit: Nine News
“They’ve obviously got a close relationship because of the relationship around the Voice.”
The opposition leader said firms like Qantas backing the Voice would backfire for Albanese, who he claimed was out of his depth and lacking in intellectual ability to argue for the referendum.
The Albanese government has been questioned this month about its decision to block Qatar Airways’ application to fly to Australia 21 times a week, which would likely have resulted in cheaper prices.
Dutton said the government had given seven different explanations for the call, including that it was in the national interest for Qantas to maintain healthy profits.
“The government’s job is not to disadvantage other companies to advantage one they prefer,” Dutton said
Bowen says Labor stands by Snowy 2.0 despite spike in costs
By Caroline Schelle
Environment and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has spoken about costs doubling for the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project.
This masthead reported costs for the project doubled within the past six months to be close to $12 billion, and the minister received the advice today.
The minister confirmed the figure, saying it was “obviously very, very substantial”.
“We support the new steps being put in place by the new management of Snowy 2.0 to put this important project back on track,” Bowen told reporters today.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the government stands by Snowy 2.0 project. Credit: Eamon Gallagher
He said it was an important project for the country and one that Labor had supported since the party was in opposition.
“We stand by the project, we said that from opposition, even though it was a Liberal government initiative,” he said.
He said it hadn’t been well delivered until now, but that wasn’t the fault of the thousands of workers on the site.
“They are cleaning up a very difficult situation. And they have our full support as we as they do.
“So we’ll continue to focus on delivery and unlike the previous government will be open and upfront and transparent as we are today. It has not been well delivered until now.”
Not surprising some Indigenous people didn’t support Voice: PM
By Caroline Schelle
The prime minister says Indigenous Australians “overwhelmingly” support the Voice, but added that it was common sense to believe that not everyone was behind the proposal.
Anthony Albanese is in Hobart, where a reporter asked about Indigenous groups in Tasmania that were “very much opposed” to the Voice to parliament.
“I state – very clearly – that overwhelmingly, Indigenous Australians support a Yes vote,” he said in response.
“Overwhelmingly, Indigenous Australians support a Yes vote and unless you’ve gone around and surveyed every citizen who is Indigenous in Tasmania, then you can’t comment on that.”
Anthony Albanese confirmed the vote for the Voice to parliament referendum would be held on October 14.Credit: Sarah Reed
But he said it was “common sense” that not every Indigenous person supported the referendum.
“It is no more surprising that not every Indigenous person agrees with the one position, just like there are different views across the spectrum,” Albanese said.
“That should be no more surprising than the fact that everyone who’s a South Sydney Rabbitohs supporter doesn’t vote Labor. Most do. But not everyone does.”
He said the idea that Indigenous people should be homogenous or have exactly the same views is “of course, not real”.
Albanese is positive about Voice support in Tasmania
By Caroline Schelle
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is speaking in Tasmania, where he is campaigning for the Voice to parliament referendum.
He told reporters he was “very positive” about how the vote will go in the state, and throughout the country.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said decades of failed policy had to be reversed.Credit: Getty
Albanese said he would be heading to Launceston, along with Liberal MP Bridget Archer and others.
“We’ll be there campaigning and advocating for a Yes vote and four of the five federal members here in Tasmania, across the spectrum – an independent, a Liberal and Labor members – will all be campaigning for Yes,” he said.
The prime minister said the referendum was a “clear and simple proposition”.
Transport secretary has been friends with NSW premier for 20 years: inquiry
By Max Maddison
In NSW, transport secretary Josh Murray has told an upper house inquiry that he has known Premier Chris Minns for 20 years.
The NSW upper house inquiry is examining the recruitment process that led to Murray being appointed to the $588,250-a-year secretary role.
Josh Murray appears at the inquiry today. Credit: Rhett Wyman
Murray rejected the idea his appointment was “some kind of conspiracy”, revealing his friendship with the premier stretched back decades to when they worked in Macquarie Street as political staffers.
He characterised their relationship as “friends”.
“I have been at weddings with the premier. Sadly, I’ve recently been at a funeral with the premier,” he told the inquiry.
He also said he met NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen at a wedding seven years ago, but could not say the number of times they had met since.
Murray denied having any discussions with either the premier or Haylen about the vacant secretary role.
Burke finds some arguments about productivity ‘really odd’
By Caroline Schelle
Circling back to the employment minister, who was asked whether rules to protect gig workers would impact on Australia’s productivity.
“Some of the productivity arguments that have been running about these particular laws, I found really odd,” Tony Burke told ABC radio this morning.
He said there was “obviously” a principle that a secure workforce will be more productive.
Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“A secure workforce is always more willing to invest in skills and invest in the business of providing them with security.
“It’s also the case though, that everything that is in the legislation that I’ll introduce next week, is simply about keeping to standards that Australia already thought we had.”
Burke pointed to the introduction of laws to criminalise wage theft, to ensure people are paid the same rates that are in law and to regulate the economy and accept the flexibility that’s there.
“There’s a lot of productivity and flexibility and ... you’ve just got to have some minimum standards so we’re not undercutting the whole concept of minimum rates.”
He also pointed to the government’s proposed same job, same pay policy which would close the “labour-hire loophole”.
“[It’s] entirely about making sure that where the business has already agreed, ‘this is the productivity value of a particular classification of work’, [then] saying ‘well you can’t [have agreed] that’s a productivity value’ then undercut it.”
Snowy Hydro confirms $12 billion blowout to mega pumped hydro project
By Mike Foley
Snowy Hydro confirmed reports by this masthead that the cost of its mega pumped hydro project Snowy 2.0 in the Australian Alps has blown out by more than $6 billion in the past six months.
The Commonwealth-owned corporation confirmed the final $12 billion price tag in a press release this morning, and reiterated it would be completed by December 2028.
The massive 2000-megawatt expansion of the Snowy pumped hydro scheme was announced by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in March 2017, with a completion date of 2021 and a price tag of $2 billion. By May this year, that had blown out to $5.9 billion and a 2029 deadline.
Snowy Hydro’s pumped hydro project has been beset by delays.Credit: Jamila Toderas
Snowy 2.0 is viewed as critical to boost energy security in the electricity grid as fossil fuels are replaced by clean energy.
The independent grid operator warned today that a continuation of delays and disruptions to new energy projects is creating risks of power outages as soon as the coming summer, amid escalating closures of ageing coal-fired power plants.
Snowy Hydro chief executive Dennis Barnes said the project’s current construction contract was no longer fit for purpose and a new deal had been renegotiated to an “incentivised target cost contract model”.
“I am committed to ensuring these critically important projects are transparent and are placed on a robust and sustainable footing,” Barnes said.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will address the media at 11am (AEST) today.
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2023-08-31 02:28:08Z
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