What we learned, Sunday 21 June
We’re going to bring today’s live blog to a close. Here’s a reminder of how we got here.
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Experts say the significance of the arrival of H5N1 bird flu in Australia – which was confirmed by authorities on Saturday – could not be overstated and represents a “genuine wildlife emergency”.
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The Albanese government announced it would taper its temporary fuel relief, with the 32 cents a litre fuel excise cut in place for the past three months reduced to a 16 cents discount next month.
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The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has thrown his support behind his friend and UK counterpart Keir Starmer, as British Labour MPs brace themselves for a leadership challenge.
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Albanese has defended his government’s tax changes, saying they will help younger Australians into the housing market. But the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, says carve-outs from changes to capital gains tax, announced in the last week, are “layering failure upon failure” and that the government should scrap its reforms altogether.
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Police are investigating the fatal shooting of a man in the Melbourne suburb of Ascot Vale overnight.
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In Cairns, police are investigating the rollover of an allegedly stolen car that resulted in the death of a 12-year-old boy in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Updated
First dedicated adoption centre for rehoming research mice and rats opens in NSW
Australia’s first adoption centre for rehoming small animals used in scientific research has opened on the central coast of New South Wales.
The centre, run by the not-for-profit Liberty Foundation, is one of only two dedicated services for rehoming research animals, and the first to specialise in smaller species like mice, rats, guinea pigs and rabbits. The centre can house up to 120 animals while they wait for adoption.
The foundation’s director, Paula Wallace, said giving the rodents a chance to live out their natural lives outside the lab was important, not just for the animals, but for the people that work in research.
It’s important because it’s an acknowledgment that animals living in research facilities deserve a fair go, really, at having a life after their time in research.
It’s really an opportunity for us to show people how amazing animals from research are, and find more permanent homes for more animals.
The animals available for adoption are healthy, sociable and adapt well to home life, she said.
There are no national statistics for research animals in Australia, but Wallace estimated as many as 10 million animals were used in science and teaching around the country, each year.
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Bird flu could spark biggest domestic crisis since Covid: Greens
As authorities race to deal with the first confirmed case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain on the Australian mainland, the Greens say more should have been done to prepare.
The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, confirmed on Friday a brown skua found unwell a week ago at Cape Le Grand national park near Esperance in southern WA had died from H5N1.
Until this week Australia had been the only continent to have escaped the devastating strain, which experts believe could devastate native bird species and potentially threaten marine mammals and other species.
“Australia is staring down one of the biggest domestic crises since Covid, and the government has had almost two years to prepare for it,” Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says.
She is supporting calls from leading conservation organisations, including BirdLife Australia and the Invasive Species Council, for the Albanese government to establish a $200m emergency response fund.
Hanson-Young said:
The government must urgently boost funding to help save our Australian native wildlife from this deadly virus.
The experience around the world shows that this strain of bird flu will be devastating to Australian wildlife and could push iconic species like Tassie devils, black swans and sea lions to the brink of extinction.
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Queensland state budget to maintain 50c public transport amid other cost-of-living measures
The Queensland government has promised “no new or increased taxes” in its upcoming state budget, due to be handed down this week.
The state says it will maintain – as promised – many of the cost-of-living relief measures implemented under the previous Labor government, including 50c public transport fares and voucher programs for parents of school-age children.
The treasurer, David Janetzki, said on Sunday the budget would also include a reduction in power prices, and a freeze to bulk water charges.
The premier, David Crisafulli, said:
We said we would ensure there was structural, long-term cost of living relief Queenslanders could rely on, and that is exactly what we are delivering.
We are playing our part with structured cost of living relief Queenslanders can rely on when they’re doing it tough in the middle of a national affordability crisis.
The LNP was elected in Queensland on a narrow platform that included promises not to make cuts to public sector jobs. Labor has accused the government of making stealth cuts to some departments as it seeks to keep the budget in check, especially given the ongoing demand for cost-of-living relief.
The budget will be handed down on Tuesday.
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Boy, 12, dead and three in hospital after Cairns crash in suspected stolen vehicle
Police in Cairns say a 12-year-old boy has died in a single-vehicle crash, allegedly involving a stolen car, early this morning.
In a brief statement, Queensland police confirmed the boy was declared dead at the crash site at Stratford, in the Cairns northern suburbs, where a grey Toyota Fortuner wagon left the road and rolled about 4.15am.
Police said the same vehicle had been reported stolen from an address in Mooroobool, Cairns, about 3am.
Police also said three other people – two men aged 20 and 22, and a 19-year-old woman – were taken to the Cairns hospital for treatment.
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Police investigating after man shot dead in Melbourne
Police are trying to piece together who is responsible for the fatal shooting of man in Melbourne overnight.
Australian Associated Press reports that homicide squad detectives are investigating after a man in his 30s was found in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Ascot Vale with suspected gunshot wounds, at 12.15am on Sunday.
He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, where he died.
Police are yet to establish where or how the man was shot and have called for any witnesses to come forward.
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Handing the blog baton over to Guardian Australia’s Ben Smee for a bit, to keep you up-to-date this Sunday morning.
Australian Antarctic researchers celebrate winter solstice with icy dip
Expeditioners from the Australian Antarctic Program have welcomed the winter solstice by taking a polar plunge as part of the traditional Midwinter swim.
At Mawson station, in Antarctica, station leader Dave Buller said water temperatures in the ice hole were about -2C.
More than 100 Australians are currently stationed at Australian Antarctic Program stations in Antarctica and on Macquarie Island.
At Casey research station, station leader Justine Thompson said she was “questioning life choices”, for voluntarily taking a dip on a -20C day.
The event is an important part of the Antarctic calendar, giving expeditioners a chance to recognise their achievements and celebrate the return of longer days.
The governor general, Sam Mostyn, also announced three recipients of the Australian Antarctic Medal this year:
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Jennifer McGhee – for outstanding contribution to Australia’s Antarctic Program, through leadership in fostering safe, inclusive and resilient station communities
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Shaun Gillies – for outstanding contribution to the program, through fostering resilient and cohesive station communities
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Dr Clive McMahon – for outstanding contribution to the program, in marine mammal telemetry and ocean observing systems.
Mostyn said:
Your dedication while living and working in such challenging and remote conditions is remarkable.
Thank you for the extraordinary work you do on our behalf, and for the sake of the planet we share.
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Angus Taylor dismisses Labor’s ‘half-arsed’ tweaks to CGT reform
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has dismissed the government’s proposed carve outs from changes to capital gains tax, announced in the federal budget.
Under the proposed concessions, all of Australia’s 2.7m small businesses will receive exemptions from capital gains tax, with startups and testamentary trusts exempted from the tax reform proposals.
The announcement by Anthony Albanese and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, on Thursday followed weeks of sustained criticism from industry groups and the opposition, who have labelled the move from a flat 50% CGT discount model to an inflation-linked approach as a “tax on growth”.
Taylor told Sky the government should scrap the budget reforms and go back to square one.
This is abject failure, and they are layering failure upon failure.
Now we see a half-arsed carve-up from this government that is an admission of failure. Well, why not just get rid of the whole thing, scrap it, and start again?
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Happy winter solstice!
The winter solstice is upon us, with Sunday marking the shortest day of the year – when the Earth’s south pole is furthest from the sun.
Weatherzone’s meteorologist, Ben Domensino, said:
This means Sunday will be the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere, including Australia, based on the amount of time between sunrise and sunset.
The days surrounding the winter solstice have the fewest hours of daylight for the year, while the surrounding nights have the most hours of darkness.
After today, the days will start to get longer, and nights will get shorter across Australia.
Feeling the cold? Change by degrees this week offers a timely refresh on ways to stay warm, without turning on the gas.
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Ilana Cherny, a meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology said:
We’ve seen a prolonged period of quite warm temperatures for this time of year.
We’re generally moving to more average conditions for June into today and tomorrow.
Today’s forecast for the capital cities:
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Sydney – sunny, maximum 20C
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Melbourne – partly cloudy, maximum 15C
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Brisbane – rain increasing, maximum 22C
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Perth – cloudy, maximum 20C
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Adelaide – partly cloudy, maximum 15C
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Canberra – partly cloudy, maximum 14C
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Darwin – sunny, maximum 31C
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Hobart – partly cloudy, maximum 13C
The BoM officially declared an El Niño this week, which is expected to persist until at least summer, with above average temperatures forecast for most of Australia over the coming months.
Read more here:
Albanese plays down successor speculation
The prime minister says no one in the Labor party caucus is focused on who will succeed him as the leader of the country, insisting he is happy in the top job.
Four years into government, there is speculation the health minister, Mark Butler, could be better placed to succeed Albanese in The Lodge, potentially jumping ahead of the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the defence minister, Richard Marles.
I am very happy to do the job that I have, and one of the good things about our government is there isn’t any speculation.
Albanese says no one in Labor is focused on future leadership challenges.
No one in our caucus is worried about that.
A spate of shark bites has Australian ocean lovers on edge. People want to know why they’re rising
Rob Harcourt is heading back from a “beautiful surf” at Bondi on a warm and sunny winter’s morning in Sydney.
But for him and many of his surfing mates, the compelling pull of the city’s world famous surf breaks has been neutered by tragedy, fear and uncertainty.
“A lot of my surfer friends are not going in,” says Harcourt, who, at 65, mixes his retirement and daily swims and surfs with ongoing research as an emeritus professor and the leader of Macquarie University’s marine predator research group. “A lot of people are very nervous – they’re traumatised.”
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Australia should not ‘hold a gun to the head’ of Pacific nations over aid funding, O'Brien says
Ted O’Brien distanced himself from Pauline Hanson’s suggestion that Australia shouldn’t give aid to Pacific countries that also take aid from China.
He said it was a legitimate concern, but her solution was “completely wrong” for the Pacific and not in Australia’s national interest.
The idea that you effectively hold a gun to the head of our Pacific neighbours – that’s not what a friend does, that’s not a way of building trust, you don’t basically create an ultimatum.
You certainly don’t say it’s all about who you’re going to get money from. The relationship that we have with the Pacific islands is far deeper than development money.
And if you were to narrow the debate to just that, well, you got to be careful who you’re wanting to go into a bidding war with. You go into a bidding war with someone with deeper pockets, well, you’re going to lose that.
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Tolls on strait of Hormuz would ‘set a dangerous precedent’, Ted O’Brien says
The shadow foreign affairs spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, said Australia should be concerned about the risk of an ongoing toll for the strait of Hormuz, following a 60-day memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran.
Speaking on the ABC Insiders program, he said:
From Australia’s perspective, I think that’s the main thing that we should be concerned about, because that has a direct impact on the prices we pay here in Australia.
A permanent toll would be bad in practice, wrong in principle, and set a dangerous precedent for how otherwise waterways should be managed internationally.
Iran has said it would again close the strait after waves of Israeli strikes in Lebanon, a move that threatens to derail the fragile interim peace deal.
Read more here:
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Albanese backs Keir Starmer, says ‘stability is a good thing’
Anthony Albanese has urged support for his friend, the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, warning voters want stability and not political chaos.
Asked about the expected leadership challenge by newly elected Labour MP Andy Burnham, Albanese says he will work with whoever is elected to be prime minister. Burham is expected to oust Starmer from 10 Downing Street within days.
But I must say that the history of just changing leaders is not a positive one.
I’ve dealt with already four British prime ministers since I’ve been elected as prime minister, and so I think stability is a good thing, and I’m on my fourth Liberal party leader as well.
A lot of chaos has occurred in global politics, one of the things that my government has provided is stability and order and getting things done.
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Shadow minister for foreign affairs Ted O’Brien said the Albanese government’s decision to taper down the fuel tax excise cut was a “practical step”.
On the ABC Insiders program, he said:
I think it’s a practical step. It’s good insurance.
I’m glad it hasn’t been set for too much longer.
I think the real test for them is whether or not they find budget offsets to pay for it.
Prime minister hits back at Hanson, says One Nation ‘pretends that they stand for battlers’
Anthony Albanese says the government’s changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing rules will help improve access to the housing market for first home buyers, dismissing criticism from Pauline Hanson.
Hanson’s One Nation has raised millions of dollars from its “Fire the Liar” campaign, labelling the prime minister as dishonest based on the broken promise over tax rules for property investments.
He told Sky:
The fact is that One Nation pretends that they stand for battlers whilst getting planes given to them by Australia’s richest person, while receiving donations from some of the very wealthiest people.
They want it to be easier to sack people. They oppose increases in the minimum wage, they oppose our support for childcare, they’ve opposed our support and expansion and strengthening of Medicare. They’ve opposed free Tafe to give Australians the skills that they need.
You can’t say we want to stop migration, but not want to upskill Australians to give Australians the skills to fill the jobs, so that industry can continue to thrive.
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Albanese government extends fuel excise cut, at a reduced rate
The Albanese government will taper its temporary fuel relief, with the 32 cents a litre fuel excise cut in place for the past three months reduced to a 16 cents discount next month.
It will come into effect on 1 July and run until 2 August. The government will also reduce the vehicle road user charge by 16 cents a litre for the same period to assist truck drivers.
This week, the prime minister signalled the government was open to extending the three-month cost-of-living relief which was due to end on 30 June. He warned it would take “many months” for the global oil market to return to normal despite the US-Iran peace deal. Overnight Iran said it would be closing the strait of Hormuz again over Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
In a statement on Saturday evening, Anthony Albanese said:
Today’s decision recognises that despite the welcome and substantial drop in the price of petrol recently, we know people are still under pressure.
The 16 cents a litre extension to the fuel tax cut that we’ve announced today will reduce the cost of a 65L tank of fuel by around $11.
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Contactless payments roll out to Melbourne tram network from today
Tram passengers in Melbourne will be able to pay for their trip using a bank card, smartphone or smartwatch from today.
The long awaited expansion of tap-and-go payments follows a staged roll out to the city’s train network and main regional routes. Buses are expected to follow.
The step follows almost a decade after Sydney introduced tap-and-go payments.
Passengers who prefer to use a Myki card can continue to do so.
Gabrielle Williams, the Victorian minister for public and active transport, said:
From today, you can step off a train and straight on to a tram using the same phone, watch or bank card.
Four in five tap and go trips are already being made with a phone or smartwatch – showing more Victorians are leaving the wallet at home.
Arrival of H5N1 on mainland a ‘genuine wildlife emergency’, wildlife experts say
Kate Millar, chief executive of BirdLife Australia, said the significance for Australian wildlife of the arrival of H5N1 bird flu could not be overstated and it could be “the beginning of a long fight to protect birds and wildlife in Australia”:
The potential for this virus to kill wildlife in significant numbers means it could be particularly catastrophic for threatened species.
We are talking about possible extinctions, alongside severe impacts to common birds like our beloved pelicans and black swans.
Millar said she was concerned “many jurisdictions at the local level simply don’t yet have plans in place to respond to H5 bird flu” and called for a rapid increase in investment in conservation programs to ensure people could respond.
The Invasive Species Council (ISC) and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) have called for an extra $200m in funding over the next two years.
AMCS campaigns director Alexia Wellbelove said H5 bird flu posed a real risk to the future of species such as the Australian sea lion, which was already endangered and existed nowhere else on earth.
ISC chief executive Jack Gough said “whether this particular outbreak is contained or not, the threat is no longer theoretical”:
This is a genuine wildlife emergency and it must be treated as such with emergency funding to increase efforts to protect wildlife populations.
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Agriculture minister says investigations under way into mainland spread of H5N1 bird flu
The federal government confirmed on Saturday that mainland Australia had its first case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain that has devastated wildlife populations globally.
Australia had been the last continent free of the disease. If it becomes established in wild native bird populations it could have catastrophic effects.
In case you missed this development, let’s recap the key details:
The infected migratory seabird – a brown skua – was found on the coast at Cape Le Grand national park near Esperance in southern Western Australia last Sunday and has since died.
Tests by the CSIRO confirmed the bird died of the H5N1 strain. A second migratory bird – a giant petrel – was found unwell in the same area and WA tests have found that bird has H5 bird flu but the CSIRO will need to verify the result.
The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, said a nationally coordinated response would first focus on investigating whether the disease has spread to other wildlife in WA.
She said there was no evidence so far of mass mortalities or infection of poultry.
She said it will probably be known within a few days whether the disease had affected any local wildlife populations.
You can read more here:
Good morning
And welcome to another Sunday Guardian live blog.
We’ll continue to bring you the latest news and reactions following confirmation of Australia’s first mainland case of deadly H5 bird flu, as well as the government’s extension to fuel excise cuts for a further month. A “swim out” event is planned for Sydney’s Coogee beach marking one week since a woman was bitten, suffering critical injuries.
I’m Petra Stock and I’ll be taking the blog through the day.
