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China’s acting ambassador to Australia, Wang Xining, has likened Australia to “a naughty guy” over the Aukus nuclear submarine deal, saying it jeopardises Australia’s peace-loving reputation and the Australian people “should be more worried”. In an interview with Guardian Australia, he also called on Australian politicians to “refrain from doing anything that’s destructive to our relationship” after the defence minister, Peter Dutton, signalled Australia would be likely to participate if the US came to Taiwan’s aid in a conflict with China.
Locals in flood-hit Forbes are demanding the NSW Nationals proceed with its election promise to raise the Wyangala Dam wall by about 10 metres, after the dam this week spilled billions of litres of water, contributing to floodwaters that caused millions of dollars in crop damage. The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, said the raising of the dam wall would be “critical infrastructure that keeps communities safe” but it would be necessary to “work through” the cost of the project. The project originally had a price tag of $650m but the estimates for building the dam had risen to as much as $1.5bn, with reports it could blow out to $2.1bn. But environmental experts believe there are cheaper ways to manage flood risk.
Covid infections are soaring around the globe as nations impose new measures to get on top of record infection rates. Germany is “heading towards a serious emergency” according to the country’s disease control agency’s head, Lothar Wieler, after a record 65,371 daily infections were recorded. “We are going to have a really terrible Christmas if we don’t take countermeasures now.” The UK has reported another 46,807 Covid cases and a further 199 deaths. The Netherlands has imposed a partial lockdown that applies to all. Pressure is growing on Austria’s government to impose a full lockdown, with its hardest-hit provinces saying they will adopt the measure for themselves.
Australia
Scott Morrison’s record on integrity and climate action is in the firing line of a social media-focused advocacy campaign endorsed by former Liberal leader John Hewson and Labor veteran Barry Jones before the federal election.
The pharmacy and aged care sectors have called for new penalties for vaccination status fraud including bribery, use of fake certificates or stand-in vaccine recipients. The Pharmacy Guild warned it should not be up to pharmacists to police fraud.
The Coalition’s religious discrimination bill could override states’ equality protections and “would be an extraordinary act of overreach” in its current form, equality advocates have warned.
The NSW Liberal executive will be pushed on Friday to speed up preselections in the state that could determine the outcome of the next federal election. Party sources say the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, has been deliberately delaying preselections in Morrison’s home state in order to circumvent grassroots plebiscites to install candidates.
The Morrison government is preparing to consider legislation to establish an Indigenous voice to parliament, with sources saying that legislation to fulfil its recommended model is “imminent”.
Experts have questioned how a controversial energy technology that doesn’t currently exist in Australia could be earmarked as a major source of cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in the Morrison government’s plan to reach net zero by 2050.
Chevron has attacked rival Woodside Petroleum’s decision to sell a floating rig to a smaller company that couldn’t afford to decommission it – a decision that has led to a levy on the entire industry to pay the clean-up bill estimated at $1bn.
Loneliness costs Australia an estimated $2.7bn each year due to adverse health outcomes, according to a new report.
The world
Flooding and landslides have devastated the western seaboard of Canada and the US, forcing thousands to flee their homes. The flooding in Canada could lead to country-wide shortages and price surges and become the country’s costliest disaster.
Belarus says migrant camps on its border with Poland have been cleared of people, in a sign that Minsk is keen to defuse the deadly crisis.
Detailed new mapping has pinpointed the carbon-rich forests and peatlands that humanity cannot afford to destroy if climate catastrophe is to be avoided.
Recommended reads
For women of colour working in Stem fields of science, engineering, technology and mathematics, conforming often feels like cultural erasure. Now a group of female scientists are working to reprogram the dress code. Stem Sisters is hosting Dress to Impress, a digital panel discussion to challenge fashion norms migrants and women of colour are expected to follow in male-dominated Stem industries. “We are trying to give women their confidence back to express their true selves because when you feel confident … you don’t have to turn yourself into someone else,” says Stem Sisters founder Ruwangi Fernando.
Australia’s absurd house prices are preventing us from dismantling the cathedral of work, writes Brigid Delaney. “When you enter a market that will demand such steep and relentless repayments, your choices are going to be long defined by this relentlessness and debt. You are choosing to miss out on the ability to work less, or not work at all; to become a carer, or rest for long periods if you are sick or burned out … or any manner of activity that won’t make you much money.”
Notoriously sweary YouTube cook Nat’s What I Reckon knows how to throw a dinner party. He shares with us three recipes from his illustrated cookbook, plus a few top tips to keep the evening stress free, from who to invite to how to set the mood. “I’m a big lighting-obsessed person. If you’ve got fluoros on the ceiling and candles in the cupboard, fuck the fluoros off and get the candles out. It’s gonna look a little bit less like it’s in a 7/Eleven, and a little bit more delicious. I’ve never seen a candle upset someone.”
Listen
A new pandemic bill introduced to Victorian parliament by the Andrews government was criticised by some legal and civil liberties groups for its broad powers and a lack of checks and balances. But some protesters – including members of far-right groups – co-opted the debate to inflame anti-government sentiment. In this episode of Full Story, Gabrielle Jackson talks to Lenore Taylor and Mike Ticher about the need to separate legitimate criticism from the extreme views of a minority – and what extreme anti-government rhetoric means for democracy.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
There will be nothing but pride at stake when the Wallabies play Wales in Cardiff on Sunday morning, yet it is still important to finish their frustrating tour of Britain with a confidence-boosting victory, writes Bret Harris.
Media roundup
Genomic sequencing has traced Covid outbreak in the Northern Territory’s Katherine region to an earlier cluster brought into the NT by a 21-year-old woman, report the NT News. New South Wales’s QR check-in will be dumped for low-risk venues such as shopping centres but remain in place for high-risk zones such as pubs and gyms if Covid cases continue to fall, says the Sydney Morning Herald.
Coming up
NSW parliament is debating the bill to introduce a “affirmative consent” requirement into the state’s sex laws.
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