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What you need to know tonight
That’s where we’ll leave our live coverage, thanks for staying with us. We’ll be back with you tomorrow morning.
Here’s what you need to know tonight.
- Labor MPs gave their Indigenous colleagues a standing ovation at a party caucus meeting today, where Anthony Albanese justified the lengthy referendum campaign.
- Opposition Leader Peter Dutton rejected the prospect of a federal government treaty with Indigenous Australians to address First Nations disadvantage.
- Minutes of the Reserve Bank’s most recent meeting show it is worried inflation won’t come down fast enough without more rate pain.
- The heads of the US and Australian intelligence agencies have warned about the risk of violence spilling over on home soil due to the bloodshed in the Middle East.
- The NSW Liberals’ election post-mortem has blamed former prime minister Scott Morrison and the “dysfunction” of the party’s state executive for its loss at the state’s March poll.
- Thousands of struggling Victorian households are at risk of repossession and homelessness unless the state government urgently funds more financial counsellors.
- Caesarstone, an engineered stone manufacturer, has launched an advertising blitz against a blanket ban on stone with high levels of crystalline silica, claiming such a move could increase the risk of silicosis.
- More than a million people have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected Israeli invasion. Follow our ongoing live blog to stay abreast of the conflict.
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Stone manufacturer launches ad blitz opposing silica bench ban
By Angus Thompson
A global manufacturer of engineered stone has launched an advertising blitz against a blanket ban on the product, claiming such a move could increase the risk of silicosis, as federal and state governments keep a key Safe Work report under wraps.
Caesarstone is warning of the economic and health effects of prohibiting the engineered stone commonly used in kitchen benchtops and responsible for a silicosis epidemic among tradies as it pushes instead for a ban on manufactured stone with a crystalline silica concentration above 40 per cent.
Ken Parker, a silicosis sufferer who was cutting 40 benchtops a day before he was diagnosed, undergoes a lung function test.Credit: Steven Siewert
“Caesarstone’s primary concern is that a wholesale ban is unnecessary, excessive and, most importantly, will not solve the devastating issue of silicosis,” the company’s Australian managing director, David Cullen, wrote in a letter to Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke ahead of a radio, print and social media campaign.
“We believe such action may actually increase risks for workers, who will continue to handle types of stone containing levels of harmful silica higher – sometimes significantly – than the engineered stone products now available.”
A joint investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes revealed workers exposed to silica dust were battling the debilitating symptoms of the lung disease silicosis while state-based regulators failed to effectively police workplaces to guard against the dangers associated with inhaling the dust generated from cutting engineered stone.
Government urged to improve its own transparency to fight misinformation
Australia is creating a lot of enemies through its obsession with secrecy, prominent whistleblowers say.
Peter Greste, a former Al Jazeera journalist who was arrested in Cairo for news reporting which was “damaging to national security”, and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen took to the national stage on Tuesday to discuss the importance of press freedoms in an effective democracy.
“As a country, particularly with our security and defence agencies, we are too obsessed with secrecy ... and I think that’s causing a huge amount of problems for everybody,” Greste told the National Press Club.
Professor Peter Greste, Executive Director, Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, during an address to the National Press Club on Tuesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
For example, Australians generally don’t know what the defence forces do, which creates a culture of impunity and untouchability. He pointed to alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by Australian personnel.
“For every government and every civilian we kill - either intentionally or unintentionally - we create a whole family of people who want revenge,” he said.
“The government and the ADF needs to be far more transparent about the work that it does, the operations it conducts and also when it gets things wrong.”
Transparency could also facilitate a far healthier relationship between the ADF, the public and veterans.
Former Facebook worker Frances Haugen’s revelations led to regulatory changes around the world.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Without transparency, Australia will be unable to effectively regulate social media and tackle the kinds of misinformation and disinformation that led to the demise of the Indigenous voice referendum.
A proposed government bill would give the Australian Communications and Media Authority power to combat online misinformation and disinformation, but Haugen believes it is unlikely to pass.
“Tech companies know exactly how to stop regulations: they call them censorship,” she told the club.
“It’s not really possible to have an effective democratic debate on how we should intervene without first passing transparency legislation.”
AAP
Widodo distances himself from decision stoking democracy concerns
By Chris Barrett and Karuni Rompies
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has distanced himself from a controversial court decision that clears the path for his eldest son to stand for the vice-presidency and that has intensified concern about a democratic slide in South-east Asia’s largest nation.
Indonesia’s Constitutional Court on Monday ruled in favour of an amendment to electoral laws that considered would-be presidential and vice-presidential candidates ineligible if they were under the age of 40.
It rejected a bid to reduce the minimum age to 35, but later gave the green light to a proposal by a student to permit under-40s to contest the top two offices if they already have regional or national leadership experience.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo arrives in Beijing on Monday for China’s Belt and Road Summit.Credit: AP
That opened the way for Widodo’s 36-year-old son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who was elected mayor of his hometown of Solo in 2020, to join leading presidential contender Prabowo Subianto if named by the former special forces commander as his running mate.
The outgoing Widodo, also known as Jokowi, moved to separate himself from the court decision, which was reached by a nine-member panel of judges presided over by his brother-in-law.
“I do not wish to give my opinion on the Constitutional Court’s decision because it may be misconstrued as though I’m interfering with the judicial authority,” he said in a video statement on his YouTube channel from Beijing, where he is attending China’s Belt and Road summit.
“I would like to stress that I do not interfere in deciding the presidential and vice-presidential candidates.”
with AP and Bloomberg
Two of SA’s biggest unis should be merged, committee finds
The merger of South Australia’s two biggest universities should go ahead as it will advance the state’s economic and social interests, a parliamentary committee has found.
While it identified significant opportunities, a report tabled on Tuesday recommended a slate of measures to increase oversight and reduce risks posed by the move.
The merger of Adelaide’s two biggest universities is another step closer to reality.Credit: Alamy
But the legislation sealing the deal still has a final hurdle to clear.
The Labor government requires two more upper house votes to pass the legislation finalising the merger of the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia, meaning it needs only court either the Liberals, the Greens or SA Best.
Greens education spokesman Robert Simms and shadow education minister John Gardner penned dissenting reports rejecting the majority view.
Neither the Greens nor the Liberals have ruled out supporting the bill’s passage, as long as proposed demands to amend the bill are met.
AAP
Emergency warning issued for NSW bushfire
By Catherine Naylor
In NSW, the bushfire situation was deteriorated.
Just before 3pm on Tuesday, the Rural Fire Service issued an emergency warning for a fire at Cope, north of Mudgee, which has burnt through 744 hectares and was downgraded overnight before flaring up again.
RFS spokesperson Emilie Koek said residents on Cope Road and Springwood Park Road should seek shelter because it is too late to leave. The fire is out of control and burning in a north-westerly direction.
“The focus is very much on fighting the fire and making sure the residents in that area are supported,” she said.
More than 600 firefighters are tackling the Cope blaze, with another 100 fighting the fire at Moparrabah, about 30 kilometres west of Kempsey, where the body of a 56-year-old man was found near his burnt-out bulldozer on Monday night.
Eddie Jones: I probably need to give myself an uppercut
By Anthony Segaert
Afternoon, Anthony Segaert with you here. Earlier today, we brought you the news that Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has denied he’s a candidate for Japan’s national team.
Eddie Jones speaks to the media earlier today.Credit: Getty
One small section from the press conference is worth pointing out, based on his earlier comments that he wanted the media to “give yourselves uppercuts”. Here’s how he reflects on those comments with the blessing of time:
Probably need to give myself an uppercut don’t I? I didn’t like the way that media conference was portayed, and I am allowed to say that. It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to say, but sometimes you say things in the heat of the moment that you regret.
PM asked about unlimited rent increases
By Rachel Clun
Greens Housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather has asked the prime minister why property investors get billions in government support (though tax concessions such as negative gearing) while renters face unlimited rent increases.
It’s a bit of a forward sizzle to a plan from the Greens to introduce a bill in the Senate to freeze rents tomorrow.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at Question time today.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Albanese said the government wants to have a “serious housing policy”.
“The policies [put] forward by those in the Greens political party are considered by every single state and territory government, every economist, everyone in the property sector that what they will do was make it harder for renters and not easier,” he said.
“Which is why we are working on the issue of supply.
“What we will do on this side of the house is always take every single opportunity to put more money into public and social housing. That is what we will do. That is what we have done and that is why we work with states and territories.”
Deputy PM does not repeat earlier commitment to Uluru Statement
By Rachel Clun
On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the government remained committed to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.
In Question time just now, manager of opposition business Paul Fletcher asked if Marles stood by that statement, and the deputy prime minister did not reaffirm that commitment, saying instead the government would listen to what Indigenous people wanted to do next.
“In the light of what has occurred over the course of the weekend, we have made clear that we hear the voice of the Australian people and that the pursuit of reconciliation, the pursuit of closing the gap is no longer going to be achieved through constitutional reform,” Marles said.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles in Question time today.Credit: Alex Ellingausen
“But we are completely committed to a process of reconciliation, and we are deeply committed to a process of closing the gap.
“We are going to take what Indigenous Australians have said in the aftermath of the last weekend and that is [to] allow time for the dust to settle and we will work with them about how we can best as a nation achieve the objective of closing the gap and achieve reconciliation.”
‘Totally abhorrent’: PM details misleading ad used in Voice campaign
By Rachel Clun
The Prime Minister says the government is starting a process to look at false and misleading political advertising, citing an example of a deceptive ad that ran during the referendum campaign.
Independent MP for Warringah Zali Steggall has asked whether the government would support her bill or introduce its own to protect Australians from misleading or deceptive political advertising, following a bruising Voice campaign.
There is currently no requirement for truth in electoral advertising, and the Australian Electoral Commission only has powers over ads that are deceptive concerning casting votes.
Yes supporters waiting for the referendum results at Richmond, in Melbourne, on Saturday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Anthony Albanese said this was a concern, because in some cases those ads could be dangerous. He cited a specific example, which was an image that had the Star of David across eight Australians’ faces, including Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo, businessman Anthony Pratt, and Attorney General Mark Dreyfus.
Albanese quoted one ad that said: “All of the major creators, financiers and supporters of the Voice to parliament are Jewish. Ask yourself why 0.38 per cent of Australia’s population is using three per cent as a battering ram against the rest of the country.”
He said there were a number of ads along those lines.
“Everyone in this parliament would find that totally abhorrent,” he said.
“Now when it comes to the challenge that we have of dealing with this, it is complex, you do not want to interfere with freedom of expression but you want to make sure that elections can be held and democratic processes can be held in an appropriate way.
“The Minister is undertaking appropriate processes to deal with that and I look forward to working with them, with the Member for Warringah.”
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2023-10-17 07:05:37Z
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