Australia news live: extra $1.8bn for veterans in mid-year budget update; police investigating Islamophobic graffiti in western Sydney
Nuclear ‘a distraction from what Australia needs’: PM
Asked whether Labor would consider dropping a moratorium on nuclear power if voters supported it, Albanese said that would “make no sense” to do so, and reminded reporters that the national ban on nuclear energy had been introduced by John Howard’s government.
John Howard introduced the moratorium on nuclear energy because it doesn’t make any sense here. And last term, Peter Dutton, Barnaby Joyce, Angus Taylor, are all on the record with quotes saying, ‘It’s too costly, it takes too long, and it’s a distraction from what Australia needs.’
They, in their own words, wrote this off. What you have here is a National Party tail wagging the Coalition dog, and Peter Dutton being too weak to stand up to the ideologues who dominate the Coalition, too weak to stand up to them and say, “No, this does not make sense for Australia” …
Every energy expert in this country is saying it doesn’t make sense and that’s why Friday’s so-called release of costings didn’t last an hour.
Key events
Ministers visit UK for annual security talks
Karen Middleton
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, and defence minister, Richard Marles, are headed to the United Kingdom on Sunday for Aukmin talks with their British counterparts, the first since the Starmer government took office.
It is the second set of Australia-UK ministerial talks on security this year, after Wong and Marles hosted counterparts from the Sunak government in Adelaide in March.
The ministers announced they would also visit Naval Base Devonport, where the UK trains naval personnel and conducts submarine maintenance, before travelling to Strasbourg and Brussels for meetings with the European Union and Nato.
Marles said:
In an increasingly complex strategic environment, it is critical we collaborate with partners as old and close as the United Kingdom …
Together we will continue to advance and strengthen our defence relationship, including through discussions on the updated agreement on defence and security cooperation, signed in Canberra earlier this year.”
More details on fatal crash in NSW
NSW police have provided more details about a fatal crash in Armidale on Saturday afternoon that left one dead and three injured when a car collided with a group of several cyclists.
One of the cyclists, a man in his 60s, died at the scene and is yet to be formally identified.
Three other cyclists – aged 57, 39 and a teenage boy – were treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to John Hunter hospital and Armidale hospital in a stable condition.
After crashing into the cyclists, the car continued and hit a tree. The driver of the vehicle, a woman in her 30s, was trapped and released shortly after emergency services arrived on the scene. She was airlifted to John Hunter Hospital in a critical condition.
A crime scene has been established and police are are urging any witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage to contact local police or Crime Stoppers.
Chalmers: Coalition’s nuclear plan will result in $4tn hit to economy
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has warned the Coalition’s nuclear plan will result in a $4tn hit to Australia’s economy over the next 25 years, based on its assumption that the economy will be smaller with less need for energy.
Chalmers conceded the mid-year budget update, expected to be released on Wednesday, would reveal bigger deficits than the May budget.
Chalmers said the Coalition’s nuclear proposal was a recipe for shrinking the economy to $294bn by 2050. He told Sky News:
What we saw from the opposition was a recipe for lower growth, a smaller economy, less energy and higher prices, and it raised more questions than it answered …
In terms of the lost output between now and then for people who rely on the national energy market, it’s about $4tn.
Read Karen Middleton’s full story here:
Coalition making ‘nuclear look cheap’ by basing costing on less industry: Bowen
The minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, has said that only way the coalition could “make nuclear look cheap” was to base their costings on less Australian industry.
Bowen posted a graph to social media on Sunday morning showing the coalition’s nuclear plan projected a drastic drop in energy use by heavy industry from 2030 onwards.
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Islamophobic Graffiti spotted in western Sydney
Mostafa Rachwani
Police have closed off a main street in Chester Hill, in Sydney’s west, after three pieces of Islamophobic graffiti were spotted overnight.
A photo provided to Guardian Australia of the underpass on Hector Street shows two pieces of graffiti reading “Fuck Islam” and one reading “Cancel Islam”.
Police have cordoned off the underpass, established a crime scene and are investigating the incident.
Chester Hill has a high proportion of Muslim residents, with the underpass close to an area with a large number of Halal restaurants and grocers.
Police said they had only just been notified, and that inquiries were ongoing.
Two men sentenced over 622kg drug haul
Two men have been sentenced over a failed plot to import 622kg of methamphetamine into Australia by hiding them inside a shipment of toilet rolls.
The men were sentenced on Thursday to a combined maximum of 16 years and six months’ imprisonment, police said in a statement on Sunday morning.
For attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drugs, the pair pleaded guilty in July and October 2024, police said.
The county court of Victoria sentenced one of the duo, a 33-year-old Hong Kong national, to 11 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of seven years and six months. A 31-year-old Malaysian national was sentenced to five years and six months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years.
They were arrested in October 2023 as part of Operation Improcco, a multi-agency investigation led by the Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce, with members from the Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force and Victoria police.
The taskforce located and seized 622 green and gold tea packages inside a shipment that arrived in Melbourne via sea cargo on 4 October 2023. The packages, each weighing 1kg and containing a white crystalline substance, were concealed within a pallet of toilet paper.
Two Chinese nationals, who were also arrested in relation to the investigation, remain before the courts and will face trial next year.
Third Test against India continues
In cricket, the rain has cleared in Brisbane and day two of the third test match against India has begun at the Gabba. You can follow live on our sport blog here:
Australian fashion week to go ahead in 2025 after future secured
Australian fashion week will go ahead in 2025 following weeks of doubt after its former operator announced it was withdrawing from the event.
The fate of the event was thrown into limbo after IMG, the New York firm that had owned and operated the event for almost two decades, announced last month that it was withdrawing.
Australian fashion week will take place from 12 to 16 May next year at Carriageworks, Sydney. Event founder Simon Lock has been confirmed to play a crucial role in delivering the event.
The NSW arts minister, John Graham, said the week was an essential showcase of one of the country’s largest creative industries. He said in a statement:
The industry has come together swiftly, pulling together its great expertise, to ensure that fashion week can go ahead in 2025. The NSW government is pleased to confirm its continued support of the event.
Australian fashion week chair, Marianne Perkovic, thanked the NSW government and the “entire fashion industry” for their commitment and collaboration:
Fashion week 2025 will mark a crucial milestone in the journey towards a truly industry-led event for Australian fashion. Our consultation has reinforced that the AFC is best positioned to lead this transformation, much like its successful international counterparts. A further announcement will be made on other appointments soon.
Extra $1.8bn for veterans in mid-year budget update
Nino Bucci
An extra $1.8bn in payments to veterans will be included in the mid-year budget update, with the Albanese government saying the additional funds explain a “slippage” in the budget since May.
It said the need to take “decisive action” to clear a “backlog” of 42,000 veterans’ claims would put more pressure on government coffers, given $6.5bn was already included in the 2024-25 budget to deal with the issue.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said:
We’re doing the right thing by our veterans and that will have an impact on the budget.
Supporting those who served our country is our responsibility. We’re paying veterans what they’re entitled to.
Pressures on the budget are intensifying, estimates variations like payments to veterans are a big part of the story and you’ll see that in the mid-year update.
Nuclear ‘a distraction from what Australia needs’: PM
Asked whether Labor would consider dropping a moratorium on nuclear power if voters supported it, Albanese said that would “make no sense” to do so, and reminded reporters that the national ban on nuclear energy had been introduced by John Howard’s government.
John Howard introduced the moratorium on nuclear energy because it doesn’t make any sense here. And last term, Peter Dutton, Barnaby Joyce, Angus Taylor, are all on the record with quotes saying, ‘It’s too costly, it takes too long, and it’s a distraction from what Australia needs.’
They, in their own words, wrote this off. What you have here is a National Party tail wagging the Coalition dog, and Peter Dutton being too weak to stand up to the ideologues who dominate the Coalition, too weak to stand up to them and say, “No, this does not make sense for Australia” …
Every energy expert in this country is saying it doesn’t make sense and that’s why Friday’s so-called release of costings didn’t last an hour.
Nuclear ‘doesn’t stack up’: PM
Albanese said the Coalition did not consider nuclear energy as an option while previously in government because “it doesn’t stack up”, adding:
There is not a single private investor coming forward saying they want to invest in nuclear because it doesn’t stack up. It does not make sense for Australia …
Peter Dutton has been opposition leader for 2.5 years. He hasn’t come up with a single cost-of-living measure and now he’s come up with the most expensive form of new energy that somehow he says will make things cheaper.
Well, I’ll listen to the CSIRO, I’ll listen to the Australian Energy Market Operator, who all say that the most expensive form of new energy will increase people’s power bills by $1,200 – which is why on Friday, there was no mention about the impact on consumers, none whatsoever, because Peter Dutton isn’t concerned with that.
He just wants to stop investment in renewables as part of his ongoing culture war because this is a guy who always seeks to divide, never seeks to bring the country together. That’s been his whole record in public life for two decades.
Albanese criticised the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan:
What the opposition has declared on Friday with an energy plan that is based upon 40% less energy being produced – that means 40% less economic activity is what they are planning for. We want to attract industries, like green steel, green aluminium. We want to attract manufacturing here driven by clean energy. Tasmania is in a really strong position to do that along with other parts of the country to take advantage of what we have.
What they are saying is that the Coalition with their nuclear energy plan want a smaller economy, they want less jobs, they want less growth, they want less activity going forward, and it’s there in their own documentation … I want an Australia that seizes the opportunity of clean energy, that seizes the opportunity of growth creating those jobs.
PM on salmon farming in Tasmania
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is in Launceston Tasmania. Asked whether he viewed it as a mistake to visit Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s west coast yesterday while the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, is deciding on the future of the salmon farming industry there, Albanese said:
I don’t make a mistake by complying with the law. I support jobs on the West Coast. I support the salmon industry, and I’ll continue to do so, and I was welcomed very strongly.
Environment groups have requested that licences for salmon farming be revoked in Macquarie Harbour after finding that fish farms are the greatest threat to the survival of the endangered Maugean skate.
Albanese said:
What I’m doing is supporting industry and also supporting good outcomes for the skate. That’s why we’re funding the oxygenation at Macquarie Harbour. That’s why we’re funding the captive breeding program that’s been very successful. That’s why we’re following the science.
Pseudolaw ideas causing havoc in custody disputes
Self-declared sovereign citizens, who believe Australia’s laws do not apply to them, are having a serious impact on the family court, experts say.
This year, my colleague Ariel Bogle has tracked almost a dozen family court judgments where adherents are using “legal argumentation” that has no legal basis – often predicated on a belief in the illegality of or corruption of government.
Pseudolaw ideas about children and the court are shared openly in groups on the messaging app Telegram, and taught in online Zoom sessions, she reports.
You can read the full story here:
Severe heatwave bakes eastern Australia
Huge swathes of the country will continue to swelter as a severe heatwave is set to continue across much of Australia until the middle of next week.
The Bureau of Meteorology has current heatwave warnings issued for all states and territories on the Australian mainland.
Temperatures between 5Cto 12C above average are expected over the weekend through most of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and NSW, as well as parts of the southern Northern Territory and southern Queensland.
Senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said Monday would be the hottest day for Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania, with temperatures up to 16C above average:
Adelaide is forecast to reach 40C on Sunday, and Melbourne is forecast to reach the high 30s or even 40C on Monday. Were this to occur, it will be the warmest day in Melbourne since January 2023 and the warmest December day since 2019.
Other parts of Victoria and NSW could be in the low to mid 40s. Inland NSW could even reach the high 40s on Monday. Along with the heat, windy conditions and a lack of rain are likely to lead to a spike in fire danger during Sunday and Monday for much of the east and south east.
Louisa Hope, one of the Lindt Cafe siege survivors, told the ABC that the fateful day remained vivid in her memory:
It is still amazing to me – miraculous, really – that I didn’t die that day.
Being a survivor of a victim of terrorism is slightly different to being a survivor of other violent crime. Other violent crime is usually personal. But of course, the terrorist is not interested in me personally … They’re really interested in hurting the state or our collective sense of security.
The siege made her “very aware” of “how “tragedy and trauma can visit anybody and can be part of all of our lives”, Hope said, adding:
I think that, certainly for myself, it’s given me hope that we can actually survive the worst. You just don’t know when you’re having a cup of coffee in a cafe … and your life can change.
Tenth anniversary of Sydney Lindt cafe seige
Sunday marks the 10-year anniversary of the beginning of the siege at the Lindt cafe on Martin Place, where Man Haron Monis took 18 people hostage over 17 hours, AAP reports.
At gunpoint, Monis forced hostages to call police and media organisations, falsely warning that he had placed bombs around the city, including in his backpack, and that it was an attack by Islamic State. Images of the terrified hostages standing at the windows for hours were widely broadcast.
Monis eventually fatally shot cafe manager Tori Johnson, while barrister Katrina Dawson was killed by stray police bullet fragments in the final moments of the siege.
After the tragedy, a sea of flowers washed over Martin Place, as family, friends and onlookers remembered the pair who were killed.
Ten years on, a permanent exhibition is embedded into the concrete in Martin Place, with small flowers set into the pavement behind glass frames. On Monday, the NSW government erected a commemorative exhibition, displaying photos of the sea of flowers behind panels.
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. Donna Lu here coming to you from a very sunny Melbourne to take you through the news today.
It’s 10 years ago today that the Lindt cafe siege began at Martin Place in Sydney, where where Man Haron Monis took 18 people hostage. The victims of the tragedy, cafe manager Tori Johnson and barrister Katrina Dawson, have been remembered by a commemorative exhibition erected by the NSW government.
Another heatwave is set to bake swathes of the country’s interior in the coming days, bringing temperatures above 40C and the warmest summer in years for much of south-east Australia.
And the end of Bashar Al-Assad’s rule in Syria has led to “pure joy and awful sadness” as Syrians in Australia express cautious optimism for their homeland’s future.
Tips and thoughts are welcome at [email protected].
