Netanyahu ‘needs to listen to the international community’: Albanese
Anthony Albanese says Australia supports calls for immediate ceasefires both across the Lebanon-Israel border and in Gaza.
I say to Prime Minister Netanyahu that he needs to listen to the international community. Just like the other players in that region need to listen to the international community. The calls are very clear when you have the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, other nations all calling for a de-escalation of this conflict.
We are very concerned and the world is concerned about the escalation that is continuing here and the consequences for it.
Key events
Bronze statue of ex-Victorian premier in works
A statue of former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is in the works one year after he resigned from the state’s top job.
Bronze statues of state premiers who spent more than 3000 days in office are immortalised outside government offices near Treasury Gardens in central Melbourne, under a rule introduced by former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett to honour premiers for their longevity.
The process of installing one of Andrews is under way. It is unclear how much it will cost or its possible location.
A government spokesperson confirmed the Department of Premier and Cabinet has provided a brief to government over the statue but did not reveal further information.
Opposition finance spokesperson Jess Wilson hit back at the decision to immortalise Andrews in a statue.
“As Victoria buckles under a cost-of-living crisis, a failing health system and surging crime, Premier Allan’s priority is to erect a statue for Daniel Andrews instead of delivering relief for Victorian taxpayers,” she said.
– Australian Associated Press
Australian numbers of mpox surge, more than half the cases from NSW
Mpox cases have surged across Australia, swelling from a handful to hundreds in the space of a few months.
More than 600 cases have been notified to federal authorities in the current reporting quarter, as of Friday, amid an explosion in the virus worldwide.
The tally is up from only six confirmed cases in the first three months of 2024.
More than half of the 737 diagnoses throughout the year have been in NSW, while there have been another 254 cases in Victoria.
The vast majority of cases are men, although two women have been diagnosed.
Mpox is caused by the mpox virus, which is from the same family as the one responsible for smallpox. Vaccinations against that disease have also been used to suppress mpox.
The virus is transmitted chiefly through prolonged physical or intimate contact with an infected person.
Common symptoms include a painful rash, lesions or sores, fever, chills, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes and sore throat. Most patients fully recover, but some can become seriously ill.
– Australian Associated Press
Daniel Hurst
Australia and UK to negotiate new treaty for implementing Aukus
Australia and the UK will negotiate a new treaty to spell out how the two countries will work together to make the Aukus security pact a reality.
The first pillar of Aukus – which also includes the US – is the project to assist Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines over the coming decades. The second pillar relates to collaboration among the three countries on other advanced defence technologies.
Readers may recall that the three Aukus countries agreed last month on a new trilateral treaty that will allow for the transfer of nuclear material to Australia as part of the plan to acquire nuclear-powered but conventionally armed submarines.
Further to that, Australia and the UK are now starting talks on their own bilateral treaty to complement the overarching plans. The announcement was made at a meeting of the defence ministers and secretaries of the three Aukus countries in London last night.
At a joint press conference, the UK defence secretary, John Healey, said he and his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, had “agreed that negotiations will soon be under way for a new bilateral treaty to bind our Aukus collaboration into law”.
Healey said this “not only reflects our commitment to a secure Indo-Pacific region where international rules are respected [but] it also sends a very strong message that our defence alliance is one that will endure for many decades to come”.
Marles elaborated on the focus of the UK and Australia treaty talks:
That particularly pertains to the development of the SSN-Aukus type submarine in the future, and we’re really excited about the prospect of undertaking those negotiations.
Australia plans to buy at least three Virginia class submarines from the US in the 2030s before a new class of submarine, SSN-Aukus, starts entering into the Royal Australian Navy’s service in the 2040s. Australia plans to build this submarine in Adelaide, but the UK will also be building the same class of submarine for its own use.
Jonathan Barrett
Casino operator Star suffers share price plunge
The value of Star Entertainment has fallen almost $600m this morning, after shares in the embattled casino operator resumed trading on the ASX for the first time this month.
Star had been in a trading halt after it failed to lodge its financial accounts on time amid concerns over its viability.
Its full year financials were published yesterday, almost one month overdue, showing a $1.69bn full year loss. The casino operator warned that it was facing “significant near-term liquidity requirements” even after securing a new debt facility.
Star’s shares were halted at 45 cents at the start of the month, giving Star a market value of $1.3bn. At midday, shares were trading around the 25 cent mark, which equates to a market cap of about $720m.
The casino group is in discussions with state governments to renew casino licences in NSW and Queensland, while it also grapples with demands from gambling and financial crime regulators that could result in significant fines, adding more financial pressure.
Peter Hannam
Chalmers says China’s economic stimulus efforts are helping Australia
By coincidence, Jim Chalmers has been visiting China this week as the first Australian treasurer to do so in seven years.
Before he landed, Chinese officials had already begun announcing the nation’s biggest stimulus package in years in a bid to revive an economy that has been peering into a deflationary hole as its property market wilts.
The sweeping moves – from interest rate cuts and pressure for banks to lend to even handouts to the poor – suggest officials are clearly getting worried the economy won’t meet its 5% growth goal this year.
It remains to be seen what other spending plans are in the works because consumer confidence will take more than lower borrowing costs to revive.
China’s financial markets, though, have generally rocketed this week, with some international investors calling for a buy “everything” China strategy. (That doesn’t seem very discerning.)
Anyway, Chalmers himself didn’t reveal much that isn’t already public, telling a media conference in Beijing today that the news “can only be a good thing for Australia”.
As with “a lot of people around the world, we have been concerned about the softer conditions here in the Chinese economy,” he said. (The Reserve Bank yesterday cited slow Chinese growth as one of three “vulnerabilities” that could shake Australia’s financial stability.”)
The Australia‑China Strategic Economic Dialogue, which Chalmers attended, will be an annual gathering from now on, so the channels of discussion, at least, will become more regular.
But as a reminder of the Jekyll/Hyde relationship Australia (and allies) have with Australia, Chalmers was asked about a ballistic missile launch by China this week, and warships from Japan, Australia and New Zealand sailing through the Taiwan Strait this week.
“I was able to reiterate in the meetings yesterday afternoon our expectations of safe and professional conduct of all militaries operating in our region,” Chalmers said.
“But, as you would expect, the overwhelming focus of our discussions here has been the economy,” he said.
Townsville police issue emergency declaration for fuel truck rollover on Flinders Highway
Townsville police has issued an emergency declaration under the Public Safety Preservation Act just before 9am after a fuel truck rolled over on the Flinders Highway at Pentland.
There is an exclusion zone 2km around the crash site, near the Warrigal Creek.
QLD police are urging motorists and the public to avoid the area, and for those within the exclusion zone to remain indoors until further notice.
Daniel Hurst
Wong says ‘a Palestinian state cannot threaten Israel’s security’
Penny Wong went on to say that Australia supports the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, but “there can be no role for terrorists” and “a Palestinian state cannot threaten Israel’s security”.
She says Australia is “ready to play our part” in helping the Palestinian Authority reform, including with support for public administration capacity building.
Wong says Israel “must not be allowed to continue to take unilateral actions to entrench the occupation and prevent a viable Palestinian state”. Israel, she says, “must stop establishing settlements, which are illegal under international law and a major obstacle to peace” and should hold to account settlers engaging in violence against Palestinians.
Australia open to coordinated effort to set ‘a clear timeline for the international declaration of Palestinian statehood’
Daniel Hurst
Separate from her speech to the UN security council, Penny Wong also spoke in New York about a pathway to recognising Palestine during a speech to a ministerial meeting focused on Gaza.
While the foreign affairs minister said the most pressing need was for ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, she also reiterated the need for a path to “a just and enduring peace”. Wong said the world “can no longer wait”.
Speaking at the UN headquarters at a ministerial meeting on the situation in Gaza and the implementation of the two-state solution, Wong said:
Like other partners, Australia no longer sees recognition of a Palestinian state as only occurring at the end of negotiations but rather as a way of building momentum towards a two-state solution.
But individual country actions alone are not moving the dial – which is why Australia wants to engage on new ways to break the cycle, including the role of the UN security council in setting a pathway for two-states, with a clear timeline for the international declaration of Palestinian statehood.
So we commend the collective initiative being discussed here today to build momentum to achieve a two-state solution. We stand ready to support this work.
The reference to individual country actions “not moving the dial” is notable because Spain, Norway and Ireland each recognised Palestine as a state in May this year. The Labor government did not act on calls from the Greens to immediately follow suit at the time. Wong is now speaking about exploring “new ways to break the cycle” and a clear deadline for international recognition of Palestine (more than 140 UN members states already recognise Palestine).
Jim Chalmers says Australia ‘not immune’ from weaker growth in China
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says he consulted with BHP, Rio, Fortescue, Woodside and others before his visit to China “to understand the implications for our exports of a softer Chinese [economy]”.
We saw iron ore fall 40% since the start of the year. Similar with thermal coal. That has implications for us and for the budget but, importantly, it has implications for the economy. So, even in the course of this week, we saw a minor improvement in the prices we get for some of our bulk commodities, that is obviously a good thing when it comes to our major exporters.
More broadly, softness has implications for growth in the global economy. We’ve seen in the last 24 hours our Reserve Bank putting out its financial stability analysis, talked about the consequences of weaker Chinese growth for the global economy. We’re not immune from that across the board but the easiest way to understand it is when it comes to the impact on our exporters.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is speaking live from Beijing, China:
When steps are taken here to boost economic activity and growth in the Chinese economy, subject to the details that will be released in good time, we see that as a very, very good development for Australia.
Chalmers has been meeting his counterparts in economic agencies in a two-day visit to Beijing.
You can read about what is on the agenda here:
Shorten announces two NDIS pilots
Josh Butler
Two NDIS announcements from minister Bill Shorten this morning: one on a new pilot program to gear services toward vulnerable participants who may not be getting the help they need, and another on a trial to design new payment options.
On the first, Shorten said the NDIS would begin a pilot to “focus on the delivery of support coordination and supported independent living (SIL) for participants including those who have complex and high needs”. These are for people who need seven-day-a-week care, often overnight, and programs that ensure people are getting the right support for their needs.
Shorten said reviews of the NDIS found the government needs “to incentivise and pay for high-quality supports from committed high-quality providers”. Some issues at play here include some high-quality providers experiencing financial difficulty – issues that need to be solved to keep those providers running.
The payment options announcement will see 31 providers share in $330,000 to help co-design “blended payment options”, in a bid to “test if there is a better payment option than the current fee-for-service model”.
“Under the current fee-for-service model, a participant pays a provider for their services and often that’s the end of it. The idea of a blended payment method will test if there might be a better option – where both participants and providers are clearer from the start on the desired outcome and thereby work more effectively towards that,” Shorten said
Shorten’s office said the trial would look at two options: “an enrolment payment, where providers are paid for providing supports over a period of time (for example one or two years). The second is an outcome-based payment where a provider is paid when a participant’s goal is achieved.”
