Albanese coy on prospect of Trump meeting
Albanese was also asked on Sky and the ABC about the prospect of a meeting US president Donald Trump in coming days.
He was coy, but didn’t deny it was possible, though wouldn’t confirm a time. Albanese told the ABC:
I’m saying that we will meet when we meet – obviously there are things that occur such as the funeral of course as a result of Mr [Charlie] Kirk’s tragic murder [which] will occur on Sunday, there are a range of events occurring as well that means that the arrangements will be finalised when they are finalised.
Albanese clarified that didn’t mean the meeting had been scheduled for Sunday, but that he mentioned this as another reporter asked him earlier about whether the meeting would occur that day.
I gotta tell you as I go around Australia or indeed anywhere else, it is journalists who are obsessed by this.
He also wouldn’t be drawn on what he could discuss with Trump, including the US withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. Albanese was then asked what he described as a “hypothetical on a hypothetical”: If he did meet Trump would he invite him to address the Australian parliament. Albanese responded:
Any US president will always be welcome in Australia of course as our other world leaders.
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Updated at 09.23 CEST
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The founder and executive chairman of Fortescue, Andrew Forrest, says the Australian climate risk assessment underlines that countries and companies who “have put their head in the sand” when it comes to fighting the climate crisis will soon be seen as committing “culpable negligence”.
Forrest said in a statement on Monday:
Climate action is no longer tomorrow’s problem. Inaction condemns the people we love around us to rising costs, destruction and lost opportunities. The Government’s own, well-anticipated climate risk assessment now makes this obvious to everyone.
Some countries and companies have put their head in the sand. This will soon not be seen as excusable inaction. It will be seen as culpable negligence.
No community in Australia will be spared the escalating costs of climate change. A recent Nature study directly links more than 200 heatwaves since 2000 to emissions from the world’s biggest carbon polluters.
Lethal heat and humidity is closing in and the evidence is everywhere. It includes our own companies. Our business leaders, like government, are becoming directly culpable if we continue to kick the can down the road. We must demand they act.
Shareholders, community leaders, all Australians: please no longer allow companies to hide behind vague, conditional 2050 pledges while continuing with business as usual. They are condemning our communities, our workers and our children to face the worst impacts of climate change.
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Albanese coy on prospect of Trump meeting
Albanese was also asked on Sky and the ABC about the prospect of a meeting US president Donald Trump in coming days.
He was coy, but didn’t deny it was possible, though wouldn’t confirm a time. Albanese told the ABC:
I’m saying that we will meet when we meet – obviously there are things that occur such as the funeral of course as a result of Mr [Charlie] Kirk’s tragic murder [which] will occur on Sunday, there are a range of events occurring as well that means that the arrangements will be finalised when they are finalised.
Albanese clarified that didn’t mean the meeting had been scheduled for Sunday, but that he mentioned this as another reporter asked him earlier about whether the meeting would occur that day.
I gotta tell you as I go around Australia or indeed anywhere else, it is journalists who are obsessed by this.
He also wouldn’t be drawn on what he could discuss with Trump, including the US withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. Albanese was then asked what he described as a “hypothetical on a hypothetical”: If he did meet Trump would he invite him to address the Australian parliament. Albanese responded:
Any US president will always be welcome in Australia of course as our other world leaders.
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Updated at 09.23 CEST
PM says PNG defence treaty will be an ‘upgrade’ to security relationship
Back to the PM in PNG. Anthony Albanese is speaking with the ABC now from Port Moresby. He has said that the defence treaty to be signed with PNG on Wednesday will be made public.
He will not be drawn on whether PNG “had chosen us over China”, as asked by the ABC presenter, but says that the agreement respects PNG’s sovereignty, despite the concerns of some local politicians.
It’s certainly an upgrade to the relationship, I will have more to say once we have signed the agreement going forward, I think that’s the respectful thing to do rather than foreshadow it all, it’s an upgrade in our security relationship to a treaty level to the sort of level that we have with the United States and … other allies so it is important going forward.
It’s increased interoperability, it’s increased engagement and security relationship … our economic relationship is important and our people to people relations as well.
It means that Papua New Guinea is choosing … it’s own interest, going forward, and it’s sovereignty.
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Updated at 08.52 CEST
Lisa Cox
Springwater flows set to resume in Murray Darling
Important spring water flows will resume in some areas of the Murray-Darling Basin in New South Wales after the commonwealth lifted a pause on environmental watering in some parts of the state.
The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder had put a statewide temporary stop to environmental flows last month amid a legal stoush with the Minns government over how environmental water releases should be interpreted under the NSW non-urban water metering policy.
At the heart of the dispute was whether environmental water should be treated as “take” in the same way as water extracted by irrigators and comply with metering rules.
Late last week, the state government updated its water management regulations to clarify when river operators need a water licence to release water for the environment.
The NSW water minister, Rose Jackson, said:
I know the delay on some environmental water flows in the past few weeks has caused concern. That’s why as soon as we found this technical issue, I asked my department to respond as an absolute priority.
In a statement published Friday, the Commonwealth Environment Water Holder Dr Simon Banks said the amendment meant the pause on environmental water could be lifted in some circumstances, including scheduled environmental watering for the Macquarie Marshes:
I am now satisfied that our regulatory obligations can be met for planned in-stream, within-channel watering actions in the Barwon-Darling, Lower Darling and Murray. I am also pleased to be able to progress important watering actions in the Macquarie Marshes and the Murrumbidgee.
Banks said while this was good news for the environment and NSW communities, it was likely some other watering actions would need to remain paused “for some time, while NSW works to ensure metering compliance or alternative measurement methods are assured for remaining actions”.
Macquarie Marshes (Wammerawa), NSW. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The GuardianShare
Updated at 09.04 CEST
PM speaks to media in PNG
Anthony Albanese says that the defence treaty he is in PNG to sign will elevate the country to a similar armed forces relationship that Australia shares with the US and New Zealand.
Albanese is speaking to Sky News from Port Moresby, where he is set to join in the country’s celebration of it’s 50th year of independence.
He said the significant defence agreement underlined the important role that Australia played in the region.
We are the security partner of choice, and that’s a good thing for democracies in the region.
Anthony Albanese arrives in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on Monday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShare
Updated at 08.41 CEST
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Australians should be reassured not alarmed about climate risk, Coalition says
The federal opposition says now is the time to “reassure Australians” and not for “alarmist language” after the release of a landmark report on the risks of the climate crisis.
The national climate risk assessment, released on Monday, revealed the far-reaching social and economic impacts of global heating, including the potential for a surge in heat-related deaths and an increase in the number of coastal communities at risk of flooding, erosion and inundation.
In a statement, the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, and the acting shadow energy minister, Ted O’Brien, said climate change was a “global problem, and it demands global action”.
The statement said:
Australia cannot make a difference on its own, but we must play our part. The Coalition will always support sensible action to reduce emissions, strengthen resilience, and protect communities.
Our nation has the capacity and resources to meet the challenge of climate change with the right policies and priorities. This is a moment to reassure Australians. What Australians do not need is alarmist language being used to distract from Labor’s failures.
Sussan Ley: ‘We need to reduce emissions, but not at any cost.’ Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Ley and O’Brien said the government’s 2035 emissions target, expected to be released later this week, must be “credible” and Labor must be upfront about the financial cost to households and businesses.
We need to reduce emissions, but not at any cost. If Labor cannot outline the cost and a credible pathway, why should Australians trust them not to force households and small businesses to pay even more? Don’t look at what Labor says, look at what it does.
It’s worth remembering the Coalition is considering ditching its commitment to net zero by 2050 as part of a post-election review.
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Updated at 08.21 CEST
Krishani Dhanji
Independent authority finds NDIS pricing arrangements are ‘not working’
NDIS pricing arrangements are not working, says the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA), after consulting participants, providers and stakeholders.
The government has released the consultation snapshot, but has refused to release IHACPA’s final report on pricing, claiming public interest immunity, and maintaining that the release would “undermine cabinet deliberations”.
The consultations found pricing “doesn’t reflect the reality of delivering services” particularly in regional areas and for people with complex disabilities.
Participants said pricing isn’t helping with choice of services or access, while providers told IHACPA pricing doesn’t take into account the complexity of some cases that can impact resourcing. Where providers are unable to hire sufficient or quality staff, this can result in “lower worker to participant ratios, and potentially unsafe environments”.
The snapshot also states the “one-size-fits-all” model has an adverse impact on participants rural and regional areas. It states:
A one-size-fits-all model doesn’t account for the differences between states and territories, nor between metro, regional and remote areas. This means inequitable access and service delivery. Remote participants are most affected, especially in rural and remote areas where the cost of delivering services is higher …
We found that the current NDIS pricing model is causing big ripples in unintended ways for participants, providers and the disability sector.
The consultation was done between June and November 2024.
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Updated at 08.10 CEST
Jordyn Beazley
Teacher charged with multiple sex offences against student arrested at airport
A teacher who worked at a school on the NSW’s Central Coast has been charged over allegedly sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
Police said on Monday that the teacher, a 42-year-old man, was arrested a day after they began their investigation.
He was caught attempting to leave the country Sunday evening and arrested at Sydney airport. Police will allege he was intending to travel to South Africa via Perth.
The man was charged with seven counts of sexual intercourse with a child between 14 and 16 years, three counts of intentionally sexually touching a child between 10 and 16 years, and grooming a child for unlawful sexual activity.
Police will allege the teacher assaulted the teenager on multiple occasions in August and September.
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Updated at 08.14 CEST
Queensland police investigating 20 deaths linked to ‘end of life service business’
Andrew Messenger
Queensland police have charged a Gold Coast business owner with allegedly operating a business supplying veterinary drugs to aid in suicides.
Gold Coast Det Insp Mark Mooney said the police are investigating the deaths of 20 people who have died as a result of what he called an “end of life service business”, including in Victoria and New South Wales.
A 53-year-old man from Main Beach has been charged with two counts of aiding suicide and several drug offences including trafficking dangerous drugs. An 81-year-old woman from Southport and an 80-year-old man from Ashmore have also been charged with drug offences, over the same alleged incident.
“Toxicology confirmed the cause of death as acute pentobarbitone toxicity, a drug commonly used by veterinarians to euthanise animals, and is tightly controlled under Queensland law,” Mooney said.
Police allege the man obtained the drugs through a “front” charity set up to euthanise whales.
Instead he offered a range of services to aid people’s death, including wills and finding a person after their death. It’s alleged that he did so as a “business transaction”, “just for pure money”, Mooney said.
Mooney said detectives were also investigating other deaths from as early as 2021.
“The alleged conduct involves deliberately targeting vulnerable people and exploiting them in their most desperate moments,” he said.
Voluntary assisted dying is legal in Queensland but is strictly regulated under state law, and requires an application to a regulatory body.
The maximum penalty for aiding suicide is life in prison.
Last year, the Queensland coroner labelled the state’s euthanasia laws “inadequate”, warning that “further calamity and heartbreak” will be caused if reforms were not made.
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Updated at 08.07 CEST
PM lands in PNG
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has landed in Port Moresby. He is expected to speak to media there later this afternoon.
He has travelled to the country ahead of the celebration of Papua New Guinea’s 50th anniversary of independence.
ShareAnne Davies
NSW Coalition slump in polls, but leader appears safe for now
A new Resolve Strategic poll revealed a further slump of 4 percentage points in the NSW Coalition’s primary vote since its last poll in July, adding to the party’s fears of a drubbing in March 2027 and the pressure on opposition leader, Mark Speakman.
But despite the new poll and the disappointing result in the Kiama byelection on the weekend, Speakman appears to have stared down the doubters, and possible challengers have retreated.
Sources said they did not expect a spill motion at the party room meeting to be held Tuesday morning. The frontrunner to replace Speakman, Liberal MP for Vaucluse, Kellie Sloane has ruled out calling a spill as has the MP for Manly, James Griffin.
NSW opposition leader, Mark Speakman, during a live on-air radio interview with the ABC’s Hamish Macdonald on Monday. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
Unless a backbencher moves an “empty chair” spill – calling a spill without a nomination – the leadership unease in NSW looks set to simmer on, without resolution.
The statewide Resolve poll, taken before the byelection on 8-11 September shows the NSW Coalition primary vote at 28%, compared to a Labor primary vote of 38%.
If repeated at the general election, the result would see the Coalition lose a swathe of marginal seats, leaving it with less than 30 seats in the 93-seat NSW parliament.
The issue for the NSW Coalition is that changing the leader may make little difference. Polling points to far more serious and ingrained problems for the conservative side of politics.
Two polls on federal voting intentions, released on Monday, were even worse than the NSW result.
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Updated at 07.56 CEST