Chalmers says Trump’s F-word reflects ‘gravity’ of the situation in Middle East
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, just spoke to ABC News and said Donald Trump’s F-word directed at Israel and Iran reflected the delicate ceasefire deal struck in the Middle East. Trump told reporters on his way to a Nato summit of the conflict: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.”
Chalmers told the ABC:
I think it reflects the gravity, the enormity of the situation in the Middle East, and just how important it is that both sides stick to this ceasefire which has been negotiated.
You know, the stakes are very high in the Middle East. The consequences of this ceasefire falling over are pretty grave. And I think the president’s blunt language reflects that.
Key events
Anne Davies
Greens say reasoning behind proposed right to hunt bill in NSW ‘frankly bollocks’
The NSW Greens spokesperson for agriculture and the environment, Sue Higginson, who has opposed the bill, said: “The outcry of concern from so many across our communities about the proposed laws has been a massive reason we have worked hard to get the bill referred to an inquiry.”
She added:
The more I have looked at the proposed laws, and the government’s spin about why it’s supporting them, the more absurd it all gets. Enshrining a ‘right to hunt’ in this state, providing resources and power to a statutory body stacked by the gun lobby, making provisions for a minister for hunting and then arguing it’s about conservation outcomes is frankly bollocks.
Higginson said the laws would have a massive impact on the resources of local councils with all crown land managers having to consider shooting on public lands in their communities.
Despite the massive impact that these laws would have, no one was consulted with on these changes before Chris Minns made his captain’s call to back the Shooters.
This inquiry will give councils, environment organisations, gun safety advocates, and dissenting government agencies an opportunity to set the record straight.
The latest developments echo the creation of the Game Council under former Labor premier Bob Carr. The Game Council was abolished after an independent inquiry found it lacked governance and it became embroiled in scandal.
Anne Davies
Bill to allow hunting in NSW state forests referred to parliamentary inquiry
A controversial bill to create a right to hunt in NSW state forests and on crown lands has been referred to a parliamentary inquiry after the legislative council declined to rush the laws through.
The game and feral animal legislation amendment (conservation hunting) bill was introduced by the Shooters and Fishers party as a private member’s bill and would give licensed shooters the right to hunt pigs, deer and other feral animals on public lands, excluding national parks.
The Shooters argue that allowing recreational hunters into public lands will help control feral animals. This is disputed by environmental groups that say evidence shows professional animal control is more effective.
The bill gained support from the premier, Chris Minns, in what critics claim was a sweetheart deal to secure support from the Shooters party for other legislation the government wants to pass – notably its workers’ compensation reforms. The premier has denied doing a deal.
The bill will now be subject to parliamentary scrutiny. The committee is expected to report on 10 October.
More on Gout Gout’s stunning run this morning
The records keep falling for Gout Gout after the 17-year-old sprint sensation announced himself on the senior international stage with a new Australian benchmark of 20.02s over 200m at the Ostrava Golden Spike meet in the Czech Republic.
Gout remains on course to go sub-20s as he bettered his own national record in a field stacked with high-quality sprinters, chasing down and then roaring past Reynier Mena over the final 20m to cross the line 0.17s ahead of the Cuban, with Briton Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake third.
Read more here:
Catie McLeod
Undercover shoppers visited 104 supermarkets in 27 locations across Australia
West Australians also paid more than the mainland eastern states at Woolworths, Coles and IGA.
Shoppers in New South Wales paid less than other states at Woolworths and IGA; those in the ACT and NSW got the best deal at Aldi; and in Queensland, shoppers paid less than their fellow Australians at Coles, according to the report.
Choice started including IGA in the study in June last year, and now says it has changed its approach again based on consumer feedback, by switching up some of the 14 items in the basket seasonally based on what people are buying.
For example, the latest basket included products people are more likely to buy in winter, such as porridge oats and hot chocolate, Choice said.
To undertake the survey, the consumer advocacy group says it sent undercover shoppers into 104 supermarkets – 27 Woolworths, 27 Coles, 23 Aldi and 27 IGA stores – in 27 locations across Australia in March.
Catie McLeod
WA shoppers pay more for groceries than those in eastern states; Aldi still best deal on average
West Australians are paying more for groceries than people in the eastern states, while Aldi shoppers across Australia continue to get the best deal on average, a Choice report has found.
The consumer advocacy group has released its fifth quarterly report – funded by the federal government – into supermarket prices, which it assesses by buying a basket of 14 common grocery items from different supermarkets.
In March this year, without including specials, the basket of 14 items cost $55.35 at Aldi, $58.92 at Woolworths, $59.22 at Coles and the IGA basket was $69.74 on average at stores across the country. Choice says that when looking at the individual items on its survey shopping list, Coles had the cheapest apples, Woolworths had the cheapest chicken breasts and pumpkin, and IGA had the cheapest carrots and garlic, while Aldi was cheapest on everything else.
When the savings from available specials were factored in, the Aldi basket cost $54.44. The same items were $57.67 at Coles, $58.86 at Woolworths and $67.54 at IGA.
The prices varied very little between Aldi stores, Choice says, but because shoppers in WA paid up to $2.70/kg more for apples – considered a “staple item” in the survey basket – than in other Aldi locations, Aldi’s basket was more expensive there than in eastern states.
Graham Readfearn
Matt Kean to say Australia should reduce emissions at ‘breakneck pace’, window to protect corals closing
The chair of the government’s Climate Change Authority, Matt Kean, will tell an audience of scientists this morning that Australia needs to act to reduce emissions at “breakneck pace” and “with all the vigour we can muster”.
The authority is set to advise the government on a recommended 2035 target to cut emissions. A preliminary assessment released last year by the authority suggested cuts of between 65% and 75% by 2035 from levels in 2005 were achievable. The government has said it will announce the target by September, ahead of the next global climate talks to take place in November in Brazil.
In a speech to the annual conference of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, in Cairns, Kean will say:
When it comes to climate action, forget bottlenecks – we need breakneck pace.
In the speech, Kean will say an upcoming authority report on the Great Barrier Reef warns the window for avoiding broadscale losses of corals is closing. He will point to record-breaking ocean temperatures that caused simultaneous bleaching on the Queensland reef and across reefs in the west, where Kean will point to how scientists there have been distraught by widespread coral death.
Caitlin Cassidy
Average family saving $7,000 after cheaper childcare reforms
The average family has saved about $7,000 in out-of-pocket costs after cheaper childcare reforms were introduced, the federal government says.
Two years in, the education minister, Jason Clare, said more than a million families had benefited from the changes, which he said had saved families earning $168,000 with one child in care about $7,440, despite concerns over rises in daycare fees. In the same time period, an additional 1,200 early education services had opened, and about 48,000 more early childcare workers had entered the system, Clare said.
He said the government was also delivering a 15% pay rise to expand the early education workforce and would implement the three-day guarantee next year, replacing the current activity test. More than 100,000 families would be entitled to more hours of subsidised education and care under the guarantee, which was expected to save eligible families earning between $50,000 and $100,000 an average of $1,460 per year.
Clare said:
This is a key part of our plans to build a universal early education system.
The findings come following the release of tougher mandatory regulations in the multibillion-dollar industry in response to safety concerns over “shonky and dangerous operators”.
NZ foreign minister says allies will always have ‘times where we do differ’ after US strikes in Iran
Winston Peters, New Zealand’s foreign minister, said the country would collect all the facts on US strikes on Iran before levelling judgment, but said good friendships meant countries could have a difference of opinion. Peters spoke to RN Breakfast about New Zealand’s values and how they align with those of the Trump administration, saying:
We’re always going to have times where we do differ. To say that we all think the same would be terrible. It would mean with a loss of examination, a loss of proper exhaustion of finding out the truth. And this is not to be unexpected.
We’ve found it far better to keep our counsel, find out the facts, and if we have got a difference, to relay it in privacy rather than to try and trumpet it out.
Good friendships mean you can have a difference [of opinion].
Peters went on to say the situation surrounding the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites “can only be examined in the fullness of time as to the veracity behind the facts in which they acted”, adding:
And we haven’t got those facts yet. And so, as you know, our position is: Let’s find out all the facts before we, as so many have done in the past, headlong rush to judgment and find that we were wrong.
Minns, Catley staffers to appear before inquiry into Dural caravan plot on Friday
Anne Davies
Five staffers from the offices of the NSW premier, Chris Minns, and the police minister, Yasmin Catley, have agreed to appear before a parliamentary inquiry into the Dural caravan “fake terrorism plot” after they were threatened with arrest for failing to attend last week.
A senior staff member for the premier confirmed on Wednesday they had been told by the president of the NSW Legislative Council, Ben Franklin, that he was planning to seek arrest warrants. Franklin had sought legal advice from Bret Walker SC about his powers to seek the warrants after the staffers defied summonses to appear at the upper house inquiry.
They have now “voluntarily” agreed to appear on Friday.
The inquiry – launched with the support of the Coalition, the Greens and crossbench MLCs – is examining the handling of information about the caravan plot amid concerns parliament may have been “misled” before controversial laws aimed at curbing antisemitism were rushed through parliament.
In January, after it was announced that the caravan had been found, Minns said it had the potential to be a “mass casualty event”. But in March, the Australian federal police revealed they believed it was a “con job” by organised crime figures seeking to divert police resources and influence prosecutions.
The premier and the police minister refused to appear at the inquiry before the committee sought the appearance of their staffers.
Greens MP Sue Higginson, who is a member of the inquiry, also confirmed on Wednesday the political staffers would appear to give evidence on Friday. The standoff had been sparked by the refusal of Minns and Catley to appear. Ministers from the lower house cannot be required to appear before an inquiry of the upper house.
Chalmers says Trump’s F-word reflects ‘gravity’ of the situation in Middle East
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, just spoke to ABC News and said Donald Trump’s F-word directed at Israel and Iran reflected the delicate ceasefire deal struck in the Middle East. Trump told reporters on his way to a Nato summit of the conflict: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.”
Chalmers told the ABC:
I think it reflects the gravity, the enormity of the situation in the Middle East, and just how important it is that both sides stick to this ceasefire which has been negotiated.
You know, the stakes are very high in the Middle East. The consequences of this ceasefire falling over are pretty grave. And I think the president’s blunt language reflects that.
