dailynewsnblog
Key events
Handing the blog baton over to Guardian Australia’s Ben Smee for a bit, to keep you up-to-date this Sunday morning.
Expeditioners from the Australian Antarctic Program have welcomed the winter solstice by taking a polar plunge as part of the traditional Midwinter swim.
At Mawson station, in Antarctica, station leader Dave Buller said water temperatures in the ice hole were about -2C.
More than 100 Australians are currently stationed at Australian Antarctic Program stations in Antarctica and on Macquarie Island.
At Casey research station, station leader Justine Thompson said she was “questioning life choices”, for voluntarily taking a dip on a -20C day.
The event is an important part of the Antarctic calendar, giving expeditioners a chance to recognise their achievements and celebrate the return of longer days.
The Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, also announced three recipients of the Australian Antarctic Medal this year:
Jennifer Susan McGhee – for outstanding contribution to Australia’s Antarctic Program, through leadership in fostering safe, inclusive and resilient station communities
Mostyn said:
Your dedication while living and working in such challenging and remote conditions is remarkable.
Thank you for the extraordinary work you do on our behalf, and for the sake of the planet we share.
Tom McIlroy
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has dismissed the government’s proposed carve outs from changes to capital gains tax, announced in the federal budget.
Under the proposed concessions, all of Australia’s 2.7m small businesses will receive exemptions from capital gains tax, with startups and testamentary trusts exempted from the tax reforms proposals.
The announcement by prime minister Anthony Albanese and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, on Thursday followed weeks of sustained criticism from industry groups and the opposition, who have labelled the move from a flat 50% CGT discount model to an inflation-linked approach as a “tax on growth”.
Taylor told Sky the government should scrap the budget reforms and go back to square one.
This is abject failure, and they are layering failure upon failure.
Now we see a half-assed carve-up from this government that is an admission of failure. Well, why not just get rid of the whole thing, scrap it, and start again?
The winter solstice is upon us, with Sunday marking the shortest day of the year – when the Earth’s south pole is furthest from the sun.
Weatherzone’s meteorologist, Ben Domensino, said:
This means Sunday will be the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere, including Australia, based on the amount of time between sunrise and sunset.
The days surrounding the winter solstice have the fewest hours of daylight for the year, while the surrounding nights have the most hours of darkness.
After today, the days will start to get longer, and nights will get shorter across Australia.
Feeling the cold? Change by degrees this week offers a timely refresh on ways to stay warm, without turning on the gas.
Ilana Cherny, a meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology said:
We’ve seen a prolonged period of quite warm temperatures for this time of year.
We’re generally moving to more average conditions for June into today and tomorrow.
Today’s forecast for the capital cities:
Sydney – sunny, maximum 20C
Melbourne – partly cloudy, maximum 15C
Brisbane – rain increasing, maximum 22C
Perth – cloudy, maximum 20C
Adelaide – partly cloudy, maximum 15C
Canberra – partly cloudy, maximum 14C
Darwin – sunny, maximum 31C
Hobart – partly cloudy, maximum 13C
The BoM officially declared an El Niño this week, which is expected to persist until at least summer, with above average temperatures forecast for most of Australia over the coming months.
Read more here:
Tom McIlroy
Albanese plays down successor speculation
The prime minister says no one in the Labor party caucus is focused on who will succeed him as the leader of the country, insisting he is happy in the top job.
Four years into government, there is speculation the health minister, Mark Butler, could be better placed to succeed Albanese in The Lodge, potentially jumping ahead of the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the defence minister, Richard Marles.
I am very happy to do the job that I have, and one of the good things about our government is there isn’t any speculation.
Albanese says no one in Labor is focused on future leadership challenges.
No one in our caucus is worried about that.
Graham Readfearn
A spate of shark bites has Australian ocean lovers on edge. People want to know why they’re rising
Rob Harcourt is heading back from a “beautiful surf” at Bondi on a warm and sunny winter’s morning in Sydney.
But for him and many of his surfing mates, the compelling pull of the city’s world famous surf breaks has been neutered by tragedy, fear and uncertainty.
“A lot of my surfer friends are not going in,” says Harcourt, who, at 65, mixes his retirement and daily swims and surfs with ongoing research as an emeritus professor and the leader of Macquarie University’s marine predator research group. “A lot of people are very nervous – they’re traumatised.”
Australia should not ‘hold a gun to the head’ of Pacific nations over aid funding, O’Brien says
Ted O’Brien distanced himself from Pauline Hanson’s suggestion that Australia shouldn’t give aid to Pacific countries that also take aid from China.
He said it was a legitimate concern, but her solution was “completely wrong” for the Pacific and not in Australia’s national interest.
The idea that you effectively hold a gun to the head of our Pacific neighbours – that’s that’s not what a friend does, that’s not a way of building trust, you don’t basically create an ultimatum.
You certainly don’t say it’s all about who you’re going to get money from. The relationship that we have with the Pacific islands is far deeper than then development money.
And if you were to narrow the debate to just that, well, you got to be careful who you’re wanting to go into a bidding war with. You go into a bidding war with someone with deeper pockets, well, you’re going to lose that.
Tolls on strait of Hormuz would ‘set a dangerous precedent’, Ted O’Brien says
The shadow foreign affairs spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, said Australia should be concerned about the risk of an ongoing toll for the strait of Hormuz, following a 60-day memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran.
Speaking on the ABC Insiders program, he said:
From Australia’s perspective, I think that’s the main thing that we should be concerned about, because that has a direct impact on the prices we pay here in Australia.
A permanent toll would be bad in practice, wrong in principle, and set a dangerous precedent for how otherwise waterways should be managed internationally.
Iran has said it would again close the strait after waves of Israeli strikes in Lebanon, a move that threatens to derail the fragile interim peace deal.
Read more here:
Tom McIlroy
Albanese backs Keir Starmer, says ‘stability is a good thing’
Anthony Albanese has urged support for his friend, the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, warning voters want stability and not political chaos.
Asked about the expected leadership challenge by newly elected Labour MP Andy Burnham, Albanese says he will work with whoever is elected to be prime minister. Burham is expected to oust Starmer from 10 Downing Street within days.
But I must say that the history of just changing leaders is not a positive one.
I’ve dealt with already four British prime ministers since I’ve been elected as prime minister, and so I think stability is a good thing, and I’m on my fourth Liberal party leader as well.
A lot of chaos has occurred in global politics, one of the things that my government has provided is stability and order and getting things done.
Shadow minister for foreign affairs Ted O’Brien said the Albanese government’s decision to taper down the fuel tax excise cut was a “practical step”.
On the ABC Insiders program, he said:
I think it’s a practical step. It’s good insurance.
I’m glad it hasn’t been set for too much longer.
I think the real test for them is whether or not they find budget offsets to pay for it.
Prime minister hits back at Hanson, says One Nation ‘pretends that they stand for battlers’
Tom McIlroy
Anthony Albanese says the government’s changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing rules will help improve access to the housing market for first home buyers, dismissing criticism from Pauline Hanson.
Hanson’s One Nation has raised millions of dollars from its “Fire the Liar” campaign, labelling the prime minister as dishonest based on the broken promise over tax rules for property investments.
He told Sky:
The fact is that One Nation pretends that they stand for battlers whilst getting planes given to them by Australia’s richest person, while receiving donations from some of the very wealthiest people.
They want it to be easier to sack people. They oppose increases in the minimum wage, they oppose our support for childcare, they’ve opposed our support and expansion and strengthening of Medicare. They’ve opposed free Tafe to give Australians the skills that they need.
You can’t say we want to stop migration, but not want to upskill Australians to give Australians the skills to fill the jobs, so that industry can continue to thrive.
Albanese government extends fuel excise cut, at a reduced rate
Adeshola Ore
The Albanese government will taper its temporary fuel relief, with the 32 cents a litre fuel excise cut in place for the past three months reduced to a 16 cents discount next month.
It will come into effect on 1 July and run until 2 August. The government will also reduce the vehicle road user charge by 16 cents a litre for the same period to assist truck drivers.
This week, the prime minister signalled the government was open to extending the three-month cost-of-living relief which was due to end on 30 June. He warned it would take “many months” for the global oil market to return to normal despite the US-Iran peace deal. Overnight Iran said it would be closing the strait of Hormuz again over Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
In a statement on Saturday evening, Anthony Albanese said:
Today’s decision recognises that despite the welcome and substantial drop in the price of petrol recently, we know people are still under pressure.
The 16 cents a litre extension to the fuel tax cut that we’ve announced today will reduce the cost of a 65L tank of fuel by around $11.
Contactless payments roll out to Melbourne tram network from today
Tram passengers in Melbourne will be able to pay for their trip using a bank card, smartphone or smartwatch from today.
The long awaited expansion of tap-and-go payments follows a staged roll out to the city’s train network and main regional routes. Buses are expected to follow.
The step follows almost a decade after Sydney introduced tap-and-go payments.
Passengers who prefer to use a Myki card can continue to do so.
Gabrielle Williams, the Victorian minister for public and active transport, said:
From today, you can step off a train and straight on to a tram using the same phone, watch or bank card.
Four in five tap and go trips are already being made with a phone or smartwatch – showing more Victorians are leaving the wallet at home.
Arrival of H5N1 on mainland a ‘genuine wildlife emergency’, wildlife experts say
Lisa Cox
Kate Millar, chief executive of BirdLife Australia, said the significance for Australian wildlife of the arrival of H5N1 bird flu could not be overstated and it could be “the beginning of a long fight to protect birds and wildlife in Australia”:
The potential for this virus to kill wildlife in significant numbers means it could be particularly catastrophic for threatened species.
We are talking about possible extinctions, alongside severe impacts to common birds like our beloved pelicans and black swans.
Millar said she was concerned “many jurisdictions at the local level simply don’t yet have plans in place to respond to H5 bird flu” and called for a rapid increase in investment in conservation programs to ensure people could respond.
The Invasive Species Council (ISC) and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) have called for an extra $200m in funding over the next two years.
AMCS campaigns director Alexia Wellbelove said H5 bird flu posed a real risk to the future of species such as the Australian sea lion, which was already endangered and existed nowhere else on earth.
ISC chief executive Jack Gough said “whether this particular outbreak is contained or not, the threat is no longer theoretical”:
This is a genuine wildlife emergency and it must be treated as such with emergency funding to increase efforts to protect wildlife populations.
Lisa Cox
Agriculture minister says investigations under way into mainland spread of H5N1 bird flu
The federal government confirmed on Saturday that mainland Australia had its first case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain that has devastated wildlife populations globally.
Australia had been the last continent free of the disease. If it becomes established in wild native bird populations it could have catastrophic effects.
In case you missed this development, let’s recap the key details:
The infected migratory seabird – a brown skua – was found on the coast at Cape Le Grand national park near Esperance in southern Western Australia last Sunday and has since died.
Tests by the CSIRO confirmed the bird died of the H5N1 strain. A second migratory bird – a giant petrel – was found unwell in the same area and WA tests have found that bird has H5 bird flu but the CSIRO will need to verify the result.
The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, said a nationally coordinated response would first focus on investigating whether the disease has spread to other wildlife in WA.
She said there was no evidence so far of mass mortalities or infection of poultry.
She said it will probably be known within a few days whether the disease had affected any local wildlife populations.
You can read more here:
Good morning
And welcome to another Sunday Guardian live blog.
We’ll continue to bring you the latest news and reactions following confirmation of Australia’s first mainland case of deadly H5 bird flu, as well as the government’s extension to fuel excise cuts for a further month. A “swim out” event is planned for Sydney’s Coogee beach marking one week since a woman was bitten, suffering critical injuries.
I’m Petra Stock and I’ll be taking the blog through the day.
