PM says Coalition’s refusal to set emissions targets ‘extraordinary’
Albanese also had harsh words for opposition leader Sussan Ley and her refusal to set the Coalition’s own targets.
Albanese said:
Today we’ve had the extraordinary comment by the leader of the Liberal party who said ‘we don’t believe in setting targets at all’ … The modern Liberal party is focused on their own jobs and fighting each other …
The Liberal party is too busy fighting each other, too busy looking over their shoulders, too busy arguing with each other over the interests of Australians.
Key events
Scientists to research bird flu on Antarctic islands
Australian scientists will set sail on a wet, wild and windy expedition to research whether bird flu has reached World Heritage-listed islands in Antarctica, AAP reports.
A group of experts will voyage to Heard and McDonald islands, 4,000 kms southwest of Western Australia, as part of the nation’s biggest campaign to the area in two decades.
Environment Minister Murray Watt, who joined the scientists in Hobart on Friday, said Australia was the only continent remaining free of the h5 strain of bird flu, despite it having spread globally.
H5 avian influenza is a highly contagious strain that mainly affects birds, but can also infect other animals. It rarely affects humans.
Australian Antarctic Program head of division Emma Campbell said one of the main objectives of the voyage was to also assess the size and distribution of seabird and seal populations on the islands.
Car owner and family expected to testify in Bruce Lehrmann theft trial
Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s alleged car theft victim, her husband, son and five police officers are expected to give evidence at a court hearing into the saga, AAP reports.
Lehrmann has denied stealing a Toyota Prado at remote Mountain River in southern Tasmania on 20 November 2024.
The 30-year-old and lawyer Zali Burrows appeared via phone before Hobart magistrates court on Friday.
Burrows said she would subpoena a media interview conducted by complainant Gail Oates that allegedly contained a different version of the incident than the one she told police.
The defence said they had received previously redacted statements, which included the name of someone else Oates believed might have taken the four-wheel drive.
“We may require more information in light of that,” Burrows told the court.
The yet-to-be-scheduled hearing would take four days, prosecutor Bunewat Keo said.
Oates, her husband and son would all give evidence, as would a friend of Lehrmann and a service station worker able to give context about what happened that night, Keo said.
Five police officers involved in the investigation would be called, and CCTV and police body-worn camera footage would be tendered.
Most of the evidence had been disclosed, bar a bank statement and maps to assist the court, Keo said.
Lehrmann’s bail was continued, and the matter was listed to return to court on October 31.
Jonathan Barrett
Queensland coalminer to cut jobs as prices fall
Queensland coalminer QCoal Group will close one of its two underground sites at its Cook Colliery project in the Bowen Basin, blaming production costs, taxes, royalties and low coal prices.
It is the third coalminer operating in Queensland to announce job cuts this week, with the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) and Anglo American also revealing workforce changes.
QCoal’s Cook Colliery project employs about 170 people, but it’s unclear on the exact number of expected job losses.
A QCoal spokesperson said consultation with workers was expected to take two weeks. The spokesperson said:
Unfortunately Cook Colliery has been affected by high production costs, high taxes and royalties and low coal prices and its ongoing operation at its current levels is unsustainable.
QCoal mines coking coal, used in steel, and thermal coal for energy production.
Coalminers recently emerged from a windfall period, marked by huge price rises after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Prices have now retreated to more normal levels.
Some of the miners have linked their decision to cut jobs to the Queensland government’s tiered royalty scheme, which was updated in 2022 to help the government retrieve higher rates during commodity price booms.
Petra Stock
Queensland government backs shark nets after five whale entanglements
When asked about the five whales caught in shark nets this week, Queensland Minister for Primary Industries, Tony Perrett, backed the continued use of shark nets and drumlines. He said in a statement:
The Crisafulli government will always put the safety of people first which is why it has delivered the largest investment into shark management in the program’s history.
This plan also funds the marine animal rescue team, 25 highly trained specialists who provide rapid response to any whale entanglement.
Perrett said the state government was funding whale-deterrent research and innovation.
Penry Buckley
NSW police commissioner may be announced next week
Earlier today, the NSW premier, Chris Minns, was again asked when the government will reveal the replacement for outgoing police commissioner Karen Webb, who announced her resignation in May.
Webb, who stepped down almost two years before her contract was due to end, has her final day on 30 September, although deputy commissioner Peter Thurtell is currently acting in her role.
Since Webb’s resignation, media reports have focused on the frontrunner and acting chief executive of the NSW Reconstruction Authority, Mal Lanyon – including a 2021 incident in which he was found collapsed near Goulburn’s “Big Merino” sculpture.
This month, Lanyon admitted taking his wife and another couple aboard an operational police boat for New Year’s Eve in 2023, after a complaint to the police watchdog.
Asked whether the government has ruled out Lanyon over the incidents, Minns says “people do make decisions, sometimes they’re bad decisions, me included”, but says the final appointment will consider the “totality of someone’s career”.
My experience is that senior police, like our senior public servants in the big portfolios, are eminently professional and just focused on public service … You’ve got every right to highlight and scrutinize public servants. But from my position, if we’re only picking people who have got completely lilywhite records, then we’ll be missing out on a lot of people that can contribute to public life in NSW.
Asked if the announcement could happen next week, Minns says: “Maybe.”
Josh Butler
Ley says party doesn’t ‘believe in setting targets at all from opposition’ but says things would be different in government
Returning to Sussan Ley’s press conference on climate earlier, the Liberal leader now says her party “don’t believe in setting targets at all from opposition”.
While the Labor government yesterday set its target of a 62-70% reduction in emissions by 2035, it seems the Liberal Party or Coalition may not set one of their own in return at this stage.
Ley had initially told the press conference “we don’t believe setting targets at all from opposition or from government”. However her team says she misspoke initially, in adding “government” to that answer.
We understand Ley came back to the press conference immediately after it ended and clarified that the Coalition don’t support setting targets from opposition but that “we do, of course, recognise the importance of targets in government when we have the full information in front of us, which we don’t have”.
Ley, under pressure from right-wingers in her ranks who have been increasingly lobbying to dump the Coalition’s still-current net zero by 2050 pledge, yesterday was quick out of the blocks to oppose the 62% to 70% target.
The obvious question was, what target would Ley’s Liberals and the National party support?
In another presser today, Ley shot down the concept entirely. Asked what she thought the target should be, the Liberal leader responded:
“We don’t believe in setting targets at all from opposition or from government, because the reality is that energy policy is not about a target that is never going to be reached and the 43% target is a perfect example of that,” she said in her initial answer, pointing to the government’s 2030 target.
“Energy policy is about visiting businesses like this one,” Ley continued, referencing the manufacturing business she was speaking from.
And talking to people who work in the energy sector, who deliver the energy grid, who understand the actual realities of the energy economy, not setting a notional target and then expecting that everyone will agree with it even though you can’t demonstrate how you will get there or what it will cost.
PM says Coalition’s refusal to set emissions targets ‘extraordinary’
Albanese also had harsh words for opposition leader Sussan Ley and her refusal to set the Coalition’s own targets.
Albanese said:
Today we’ve had the extraordinary comment by the leader of the Liberal party who said ‘we don’t believe in setting targets at all’ … The modern Liberal party is focused on their own jobs and fighting each other …
The Liberal party is too busy fighting each other, too busy looking over their shoulders, too busy arguing with each other over the interests of Australians.
Albanese touts emissions reduction targets as ‘ambitious’ but ‘achievable’
Prime minister Anthony Albanese is speaking in Melbourne to speak about the installation of at-home batteries to bolster clean energy from solar power.
Albanese spoke about yesterday’s emissions reduction targets, which would limit carbon emissions from between 62% and 70% over 2005 levels by 2035.
He said:
That was advice based upon science, based upon the best technology. An ambitious target, but one that is achievable.
Rape accused ‘threatened to distribute intimate images’
A Sydney man hit with dozens of rape charges for alleged assaults on three women is also accused of threatening to distribute graphic images, AAP reports.
The 31-year-old is due to face court on Friday over the alleged assaults between April 2023 and April 2025.
One woman was aged 29 and the other two were 21.
The man was arrested on Thursday at a block of units in the western Sydney suburb of North Parramatta.
The man was charged with 32 counts of sexual intercourse without consent dating back to 2023.
The man was refused bail to appear before a local court on Friday.
Australia Post will begin postal sending to the US for business customers earlier than expected
Australia Post said today it will resume postal sending to the US for business customers on Monday, 22 September, three days earlier than planned after the shock decision to suspend most parcel service to the country amid president Donald Trump’s tariff regime.
AusPost said it was working with a company called Zonos, a third-party provider, to offer business contract and My Post business customers the ability to comply with the new tariff rules, which impose duties on parcels valued more than $100USD.
Those business customers looking to send parcels to the US must register with Zonos and set up a verified account.
Retail customers will be able to send parcels to the US via the post office network on or before 7 October. Letters, documents of no commercial value and gifts under that dollar value are exempt.
Gary Starr, the executive general manager of the company’s parcel, post and e-commerce services, said:
We know our customers have felt the impact and disruption from changes the US Government made to customs and import tariff rules, and we have been working around the clock to re-start sending as soon as possible.
Andrew Messenger
Analysis: Australian lives – and deaths – not given even a moment of consideration as Queensland pill testing ban brought in
According to experts, last night’s decision by Queensland parliament to ban pill testing will cost lives. A lot of them; more Australians die of drug overdoses than in car accidents.
Their deaths – past and future – warranted not an instant of parliamentary time.
The family of Queenslander Josh Tam, whose death at a New South Wales music festival led to a coronial recommendation in favour of pill testing in that state, had publicly pleaded with the government to reconsider.
That plea was given not a moment’s formal consideration by parliament.
There is no law or structure preventing Queensland’s governments from ruling by decree via the state’s unicameral parliament.
On Thursday night the government did so by attaching amendments to ban pill testing to an unrelated omnibus bill in parliament.
No less than 11 Labor MPs tried to debate pill testing. Every one had their attempt ruled out of order.
Sandy Boulton, one of the few to get a word in because she is an independent MP representing Noosa, slammed the process as “a form of gagging and not part of transparency”.
“If amendments [to bills] do not go through the appropriate process of committee scrutiny, Queenslanders are denied the right to have their say, and that is wrong in all ways,” she said. They did not.
At 9pm on Thursday the motion was finally “put”, which means all the amendments to the omnibus bill were voted on in one block. There was no opportunity for anyone to speak on the pill testing amendment.
Weekly Beast is out, and a must-read as always:
Ley calls emissions target modelling ‘a cruel hoax on every Australian’ but ducks Paris agreement questions
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, is speaking to reporters in Lonsdale, South Australia.
She has become “increasingly worried” about the emissions targets announced on Thursday by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, because they “fail the two tests of cost and credibility”.
Ley does not believe the modelling, which she says is “a cruel hoax on every single Australian”.
She will not, however, comment on the future of the Paris Agreement saying she was instead “focused on … the national interest of Australians”.
Health regulator places conditions on Victorian GP who spoke out on mushroom murders case
Nino Bucci
A Victorian GP who treated triple murderer Erin Patterson and her victims after the deadly mushroom lunch has been slapped with conditions by the health regulator after speaking out about the case.
Dr Christopher Webster, a GP in Leongatha, south-east of Melbourne, was a witness in Patterson’s trial earlier this year.
After she was found guilty, Webster gave several media interviews about the case, including one in which he called Patterson a “crazy bitch”.
On Wednesday, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) placed conditions on his registration.
According to Ahpra’s register of practitioners, Webster’s conditions include that he must complete:
One-on-one education with an approved educator for a minimum of 8 hours and address the following topics: professionalism and ethics, professional communication, privacy and confidentiality, complying with your obligations under Good medical practice: a code of conduct for doctors in Australia and Social media: How to meet your obligations under the National Law.
The register also says that he must complete the one-on-one education within six months, and that once it is completed he must be mentored.
This mentoring must take place for a minimum of five hour-long sessions on a monthly basis, and must be completed within a year.
Petra Stock
More on shark nets and whale entanglements
There are 27 shark nets in Queensland and 51 in New South Wales. As large numbers of whale mothers and newborns make their way south, spending time near the shore, they are at risk of entanglement.
A spokesperson for Queensland’s Department of Primary Industries said:
Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol officers, the Sunshine Coast shark contractor and a trained marine animal release team from the Sunshine Coast have successfully released a juvenile whale entangled in a shark net at Marcoola beach on the Sunshine Coast.
The entanglement was first reported just before 8am and the whale was successfully released at around 10am.
Our teams were alerted to this incident by reports to the shark control program hotline and we had crews on the scene very quickly. We thank everyone who contacted the hotline, enabling us to provide prompt assistance.
The net is currently being replaced onsite.
Another whale tangled in shark nets off Marcoola
Petra Stock
Another humpback whale has been caught in shark nets on the Sunshine Coast on Friday – the fifth to become ensnared this week.
The whale, which became tangled off Marcoola on Friday morning, has since been released, according to Griffith University’s Dr Olaf Meynecke. He said calm conditions were often associated with entanglements.
This is a very calm morning … the whales come pretty close to shore when it’s calm, when they feel the least danger. They come within a few hundred metres of the shore to rest.
If there’s more waves and wind, mothers and calves stay further away to avoid the risk of stranding.
Authorities are still working to release a mother humpback from shark nets near Hervey Bay. The animal has been entangled now for about six days. Most, but not all, of the nets have been removed. Separately, a mother and calf caught in nets off Noosa were freed on Wednesday.
Humpback whales are caught in shark nets every year, said Meynecke, but this was the first time involving five in a matter of days.
AHRC accepts complaint over Merivale keffiyeh incident
Adeshola Ore
The Australian Human Rights Commission has accepted a racial discrimination complaint against a Sydney restaurant for allegedly denying dine-in service to six Palestinians for wearing keffiyehs after last month’s Harbour Bridge march.
The Racial Justice Centre (RJC) says the group complaint against Merivale-owned Jimmy’s Falafel has been accepted by the AHRC as an alleged breach of the Racial Discrimination Act. Sharfah Mohamed, lawyer at the RJC, says she welcomes the AHRC’s swift acceptance of the complaint.
The AHRC can only accept a complaint when it is “reasonably arguable” that the alleged conduct is unlawful discrimination. The commission will invite Merivale to respond before it facilitates and conducts conciliation between the parties.
A Merivale spokesperson previously told Guardian Australia that management made a decision to protect their staff that involved banning people carrying or displaying flags and placards inside the venue for a 20-minute period after people walking past its venues shouted “obscenities and violent rhetoric”. Merivale said the comments included“death to the IDF”, “death to all Zionist pigs” and “f***ing Zionist pigs and scum”.
The spokesperson said its staff understood the decision to include “political items of clothing”.”
If conciliation is unsuccessful, the complaint can take the matter to the federal court.
Guardian Australia has contacted Merivale for comment.
Pedestrian dies after being hit by car in Sydney’s south-west earlier this month
A 60-year-old woman has died after she was hit by a car in Sydney’s south-west earlier this month, NSW police say.
Emergency services were called to the suburb of Bradbury on 9 September amid reports a pedestrian had been hit by a car. Paramedics treated the woman at the scene before she was taken to a local hospital in a critical condition.
She died yesterday in hospital.
The alleged driver of the vehicle, a 24-year-old man, was taken to hospital after the accident for mandatory testing. He was later taken to the police station and charged. His case remains before the courts.
The accident is being investigated.
Asic chair Joe Longo will not seek reappointment
Joe Longo, the chair of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), will not seek reappointment to the body when his term ends next May.
Longo said in a statement his tenure, which began in June 2021, had been an “immense privilege” saying he had been given an opportunity to “rebuild and renew the agency”. He went on:
When I accepted the position, I was clear Asic needed to become a modern, confident and ambitious regulator.
With the most significant organisational restructure in 15 years, new commissioners, a new CEO and refreshed senior executive team, I see that transformation is delivering dividends.
Longo said Asic had a highly skilled team of dedicated staff, and he could not “praise them enough”.
The ASIC of today is better fulfilling what Australia needs of it. That is just the beginning.
