What we discovered: Tuesday, 12 July
With that, we are going to wrap up the weblog for the night. We’ll be again very first thing tomorrow, with all the newest from Fiji and nearer to shore.
Listed here are right this moment’s main developments:
- With the Pacific Islands Discussion board underway, Australia has resisted calls from neighbours for no new gas or coal projects, saying it was not chargeable for different nations’ emissions.
- In different discussion board information, the Australian and US governments have signed a deal they are saying will assist speed up zero emissions know-how, together with lengthy period storage and removing of carbon dioxide from the ambiance. The announcement was made by the local weather change and power minister, Chris Bowen, and the US secretary of power, Jennifer Granholm, on the sidelines of the Sydney Energy Discussion board.
- The federal well being minister, Mark Butler, introduced the federal program offering 10 free rapid antigen tests every three months for concession card holders will finish in July. The opposition’s well being spokeswoman, Anne Ruston, has known as for the well being recommendation underpinning the choice to be launched. The announcement has been criticised by well being our bodies together with the Royal Australian School of Basic Practitioners and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.
- Australia reported 58 Covid deaths on Tuesday, as each NSW and Victoria lowered the reinfection interval from 12 all the way down to 4 weeks.
- And Australia’s privateness watchdog has launched an investigation into retail giants Bunnings and Kmart over their use of facial recognition know-how in shops.
Key occasions:
A delicate reminder we’re nonetheless in a pandemic:
AMA Victoria President Dr Roderick McRae says we’re headed for a “good” COVID-19 storm, “cheered on” by the enterprise sector who need “to fake this virus does not exist”.
“Issues are dangerous they usually’re going worse. The collective willful blindness isn’t in anyone’s curiosity.”
— Callum Godde (@calgodde) July 12, 2022
He says the govt. skewed “too far” in direction of the pursuits of enterprise when rejecting well being recommendation to reinstate some masks mandates.
“They’re simply in too large a rush to fake that is all completed, which it’s not, and ignoring the truth that we’re in the course of winter.”
— Callum Godde (@calgodde) July 12, 2022
Man dies in Fitzroy in Melbourne
A person has died in Fitzroy this afternoon after a deadly taking pictures occurred, Victoria Police say.
Emergency companies have been known as to Brunswick Road about 4.15pm this afternoon the place the person was situated with life threatening accidents.
Police consider he was concerned in an altercation with numerous individuals at a automobile parked on Brunswick Road earlier than he was fatally shot.
Witnesses known as triple zero and ambulance crews tried to deal with the person, who’s but to be formally recognized, however he later died on the scene.
Police have cordoned off the world and a criminal offense scene has been established.
Victoria police:
Detectives are nonetheless working to find out the precise circumstances of the incident however at this stage it seems to be a focused incident with the events concerned presumably identified to one another.
Police want to converse anybody who witnessed something or has CCTV or dashcam imaginative and prescient of the incident.
Covid admissions up 53% in Victorian hospitals in previous two weeks
The Victorian authorities has launched extra info on right this moment’s Covid replace.
Well being authorities say there’s been a 53% improve within the numbers of Victorians in hospital with the virus previously two weeks, as BA.4/BA.5 turns into the dominant pressure circulating in the neighborhood.
On the identical time, the third wave of Omicron isn’t anticipated to peak till August. The Victorian authorities joined New South Wales in lowering the interval of reinfection from 12 weeks to twenty-eight days, and has pushed for Victorians to get their booster and put on masks in excessive threat settings.
Case and hospitalisation tendencies are growing in Victoria. That is in keeping with comparable patterns globally and in different Australian jurisdictions, which have seen a major rise within the variety of individuals hospitalised with Covid-19 in current weeks.
Bertin Huynh
What’s GDP? Our newest Information glossary video explains
When a rustic’s economic system is mentioned within the information, you typically hear a quantity known as GDP, or gross home product, thrown round.
However what does it really imply, and is it gross?
On this episode of Information glossary, Matilda Boseley explains the which means of GDP and the way it displays economies in Australia and overseas.
PM defends the scrapping of pandemic go away funds
Anthony Albanese has defended scrapping pandemic go away funds, laying the blame on the toes of the earlier authorities, AAP studies.
The funds for staff who wanted to spend time away from work whereas they remoted ended on 30 June. However there have been requires the funds to be reinstated as Covid case numbers and hospitalisations improve throughout the nation, pushed by new, infectious sub-variants.
The prime minister, who right this moment acquired his fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose, stated he wouldn’t convey again the funds as a result of want for the federal government to rein in spending.
The brand new authorities had inherited the previous’s choice to finish the funds and $1tn of debt, he stated:
They’re circumstances which my authorities faces … there are a selection of issues we want to do, however we intend to be fiscally accountable in how we take care of points.
As case numbers rise throughout the nation, the chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, stated hospitals may maintain again some elective surgical procedure as a result of pressure on the system. He stated the emergence of influenza for the primary time in three years in Australia was making the scenario worse.
The well being minister, Mark Butler, stated Covid instances weren’t more likely to peak nationally for at the very least 4 weeks through the third wave of infections. Whereas case numbers have elevated and calls have grown for masks mandates to return, the prime minister stated he would comply with well being recommendation on the problem.
The epidemiologist Catherine Bennett informed Sky Information educating the general public concerning the dangers of publicity to Covid can be extra useful than reintroducing a masks mandate.
Australia resists Pacific requires no new fuel or coal tasks
Kate Lyons
Australia has resisted calls from the Pacific for no new gas or coal projects, saying it was not chargeable for different nations’ emissions, in a transfer that would trigger tensions as Pacific leaders meet in Suva this week.
A key demand of Pacific nations – that Australia decide to no new coal or fuel tasks – will stay a degree of distinction between Australia and Pacific nations, as Anthony Albanese arrives in Fiji on Wednesday forward of the Pacific Islands Forum leaders assembly.
Labor late off the mark on foot-and-mouth illness, Littleproud says
David Littleproud simply appeared on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing to debate the rising menace of foot-and-mouth disease. As if we didn’t want extra issues to fret about.
Murray Watt, the federal minister for agriculture, has backed the enlargement of digital tagging to enhance tracing of livestock to fight the chance of illness, however says it’s as much as state governments to mandate it.
Littleproud says he’s been too late off the mark.
Whereas I welcome the very fact Murray’s going to Indonesia, we might have hoped most likely final week he might need picked the telephone up and tried to construct on what we’d already put in place in Indonesia and Timor and Papua New Guinea.
When this hit, we – not solely with foot-and-mouth illness, however with lumpy pores and skin illness – we put biosecurity officers and vets into these nations to try to … assist. What we’re involved about is there’s no decisive motion on another measures that may very well be taken … there are a whole bunch of individuals coming from Indonesia again into Australia on daily basis.
Anthony Albanese has the Australia-themed sportswear on however he’s lacking the face masks flag.
Throwback:
Happy to get my #COVID19 vaccine right this moment together with Australia’s CMO Professor Paul Kelly to offer additional confidence to Australians these vaccines, which have been examined and permitted by our medical specialists, are protected & efficient. pic.twitter.com/uz7uX900My
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) February 21, 2021
Rafqa Touma
Hydrogen venture will want authorities help, power discussion board hears
Within the closing panel of the Sydney Energy Discussion board, Yoshinori Kanehana of Kawasaki Heavy Industries says higher authorities help will probably be wanted to progress the Japanese-Australian Hydrogen Power Provide Chain venture (HESC) – an engineering milestone that makes liquefied hydrogen from coal.
HESC was “so profitable due to the large help from the Japanese and Australian authorities”, he says.
Underneath the $500m HESC pilot venture, hydrogen will probably be made in Victoria’s LaTrobe valley from brown coal and transported aboard a purpose-built ship to Japan, the place it is going to be burned in coal-fired energy crops.
Kanehana says:
Firstly, the fee [of liquid hydrogen] could also be costlier in comparison with fossil fuels … So we want working expense assist from the federal government.
Massive, huge amount manufacturing of hydrogen will cut back the fee. This can’t be completed by a single firm or single nation.
Some researchers have raised issues that the venture may improve emissions and lock in a brand new fossil gas business.
Fiji’s PM urges Pacific unity however respects Kiribati withdrawal from discussion board
In Suva, Fiji’s prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, says the Pacific is “most resilient as a household”, whereas respecting the desires of Kiribati and its authorities to withdraw from the discussion board.
The individuals and authorities of Kiribati have all the time been and can stay a part of our Pacific household.
Fiji’s Prime Minister makes an impassioned pitch for regional unity on the opening of the Pacific Islands Discussion board leaders assembly. Frank Bainimarama says “we are able to solely construct our greatest doable future collectively as a household” 1/ pic.twitter.com/eZ5ww1wjkd
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) July 12, 2022
Privateness watchdog to analyze Bunnings and Kmart over facial recognition know-how
Josh Taylor
Australia’s privateness watchdog has launched an investigation into retail giants Bunnings and Kmart over their use of facial recognition know-how in shops.
Client group Choice last month revealed Bunnings and Kmart have been utilizing the know-how – which captures pictures of individuals’s faces from video cameras as a singular faceprint that’s then saved and may be in contrast with different faceprints – in what the businesses say is a transfer to guard clients and workers and cut back theft in chosen shops.
Selection reported the 2 corporations together with the The Good Guys to the Workplace of the Australian Data Commissioner (OAIC), elevating questions over how individuals’s private info was being dealt with by means of the know-how.
The OAIC introduced on Tuesday it had determined to launch an investigation into the non-public info dealing with practices of Bunnings and Kmart and the way they use the facial recognition know-how in retailer.
The Good Guys paused its use of the know-how following preliminary inquiries from the OAIC.
The OAIC stated:
Consistent with the OAIC’s Privateness regulatory motion coverage, no additional remark will probably be made whereas the investigations are ongoing.
Remark has been sought from Bunnings and Kmart.
Atmosphere safety company wanted to assist Australia ‘do higher’, Plibersek says
Lastly, Plibersek is requested concerning the State of the Atmosphere Report, to be launched on 19 July and anticipated to be “grim studying”.
The report was acquired by the earlier authorities in December and never made public earlier than the federal election.
Query: What would a standalone setting safety company, the likes of which you have got promised, what would it not do to enhance any of the findings in that report and by when?
Plibersek:
It is a report that’s months overdue … the very fact we’ve saved it secret earlier than the final election tells you numerous concerning the contents of the report. I don’t wish to disclose all the things right this moment. I’ll inform you that this report exhibits that there’s been a considerable decline in numerous key areas of our surroundings. We have to do higher. We completely must do higher to guard our landscapes, our threatened species, to guard the setting for all Australians.
We’ve spoken about an environmental safety company as a result of it’s a easy indisputable fact that the EPBC Act … isn’t doing its job notably effectively. It’s not defending the setting in one of the best ways and it’s additionally fairly sluggish and cumbersome.
Labor ‘decided’ to put money into shift to renewable regardless of world power disaster
Plibersek is requested whether or not a warning from the visiting Worldwide Energy Company chief that the worldwide power disaster could worsen earlier than it will get higher may hinder the federal authorities’s 43% power discount dedication.
She says Labor stays “decided” to put money into the transition to cleaner power.
I believe it’s plain to everybody that the battle in Ukraine and different uncertainties are having an affect on power markets around the globe however it doesn’t change the truth that notably within the medium to long term, one of the best ways of bringing down energy costs is to see extra renewables getting into the market.
I believe this can be a reminder that this transition is a large alternative for Australia. In fact, it has short-term difficulties, and I’m not for a second discounting the affect that greater power costs proper now are having. That is the results of 10 years of … neglect by the earlier authorities.
Quick time period, then, is there lots of “strain positioned on [her] shoulders” to approve new coal and fuel tasks? (Presumably as a form of “band-aid repair” regardless of the very fact coalmines take an inexpensive period of time to begin up and shut down.)
I don’t suppose any severe commentator is saying that we’ve bought to cease exporting Australian coal and fuel tomorrow. I don’t suppose anyone severe is saying that. It will likely be a part of our power combine for a while to return and a part of the worldwide power combine for a while. What we have to do is be certain on the identical time we develop the financial alternatives of renewable power.
Australia in talks with Pacific on 2029 UN local weather convention, Plibersek says
The setting minister, Tanya Plibersek, follows Conroy on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.
Samoa is a key accomplice within the Pacific + an energetic participant in regional + world discussions on necessary points like plastics and local weather change.
⁰Wonderful to satisfy with Samoan Minister of Pure Sources and Atmosphere Hon. Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster this morning. pic.twitter.com/GtpfRgA6Zn— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) July 12, 2022
Nonetheless on the Pacific Islands Forum, she’s requested how a lot thought the federal authorities has given to the 2029 UN local weather convention and the involvement of smaller Pacific nations.
Plibersek says:
We’ve began to have conversations with our Pacific neighbours concerning the form of involvement they’d prefer to see. I met with the Samoan setting minister right this moment, and final week once I was in Lisbon I met with numerous Pacific leaders and ambassadors from Pacific nations, and there’s a good diploma of enthusiasm for this proposal. Clearly no area on the planet is extra impacted by local weather change than the Pacific. So, there’s a really robust curiosity from Pacific nations to remind the world once more of what an existential challenge that is for them.
Australia is supporting Vanuatu’s voice on local weather, Conroy says
Conroy is requested concerning the push from Vanuatu for the worldwide courtroom of justice (ICJ) to hunt referrals on nations that don’t meet their local weather change obligations.
No Pacific island nation is a celebration to the ICJ, but Conroy has indicated he’s in help of the proposal.
Is Australia “backing the fallacious horse”?
We’re backing a course of. We’re being very supportive of the Vanuatu authorities’s efforts to get a decision handed by the UN common meeting, that will refer numerous inquiries to the worldwide courtroom of justice for his or her deliberations … we make it clear that the UNFCCC negotiations is the first focus for reaching local weather motion across the globe however are supportive of the method that Vanuatu has been pursuing … we haven’t agreed on the decision. We’re but to see the questions that the federal government of Vanuatu intends to place to the UN common meeting and we are going to reserve our place till we see the questions, like each different nation.
That is simply an instance of the place underneath the brand new Australian authorities somewhat than stifling local weather motion, somewhat than attempting to bully and intimidate Pacific nations to cease them speaking about local weather motion, we’re supporting their voice in multilateral boards as a result of is the primary safety menace to the Pacific and we’re very dedicated to being a part of the answer, somewhat than being a part of the issue.
Pacific Islands Discussion board centered on ‘rebuilding unity’, Conroy says
Now to China, “looming massive” over discussions on the discussion board.
Conroy:
We decided to not embody dialogue companions on this PIF, however the focus was on concentrating on rebuilding PIF unity. In order that’s why the overwhelming majority of this system with restricted exceptions … centered on Pacific Island Discussion board leaders and international ministers speaking to one another, engaged on how we are able to renew and energise the PIF structure.
Why, then, did the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, make a pitch to members?
There are some restricted and particular interventions that the chair has allowed. And clearly that was a call that the prime minister of Fiji made. So you must go to the Fiji authorities as to why they did that. There are restricted exceptions to that focus. The overwhelming focus is on rebuilding unity.
Australia’s assist to Kiribati has no strings hooked up, Conroy says
Requested what extra Australia may do to entice Kiribati again, Conroy acknowledged it was “necessary that the discussions are being led by Fiji” because the chair of the Pacific Islands Forum.
Yesterday, Australia dedicated $2m in extra help to assist the island nation by means of drought.
It’s counter productive for Australia to be too ahead leaning.
That call across the assist package deal isn’t conditional on Kiribati rejoining the Pacific Islands Discussion board. We don’t ship assist like that. We don’t ship assist with strings hooked up, in contrast to different nations on this area.
Pacific minister Pat Conroy on Kiribati rejoining the Pacific Islands Discussion board
Pacific minister Pat Conroy is showing on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, sporting a beautiful shirt.
Requested whether or not Kiribati could rejoin the Pacific Islands Discussion board, he replied:
The leaders’ dialogue had lots of robust language round dedication to unity and the significance of a robust united Pacific voice. That may be a optimistic. Importantly, a number of Micronesian leaders have been robust in the necessity to implement the Suva settlement and rebuild the structure of the Pacific Islands Discussion board because the central structure for the area.
I wouldn’t say that I’m extra optimistic about Kiribati rejoining. I’m no more pessimistic, however I believe it’s one the place we’ve to let Kiribati undergo their paces, acknowledging right this moment is their nationwide day … Pacific unity is significant for our shared pursuits. That’s what Micronesian leaders stated … and one thing we’re working in direction of.
