Key events
What we learned, Wednesday 24 July 2024
That’s all for today’s rolling news coverage. Here is a wrap-up, in case you missed it.
-
An independent grouping of Australia’s top technologists said small modular reactors won’t be fully commercially available until the late 2040s at least. The report comes amid public debate that erupted when the federal opposition announced its nuclear policy in June.
-
The federal government outlined $77.6m to be given to public and non-government schools for age-appropriate and evidence-based lessons on consent – part of a national push for consent and respectful relationship education.
-
Nine’s director of sport, Brent Williams, reminded staffers in Paris to remain vigilant after two of them were assaulted in an attack he says was of a “serious physical nature”.
-
The world’s hottest day on record, which was declared on Sunday 21 July with an average surface temperature of 17.09C, has already been beaten. It took just one more day to set a new high mark, at 17.15C, as clocked by Europe’s Copernicus climate change service.
-
An “unprecedented” rise in Islamophobia around Australia has been reported since the 7 October terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel, according to the leading group tracking such incidents in this country, a Senate committee heard.
-
Ministerial reshuffle rumours are doing the rounds again, and politicians doing the media rounds were getting asked those questions too. Finance minister Katy Gallagher said this morning that such issues are “matters above my pay grade” and “matters for the prime minister”.
-
A large military exercise in the Northern Territory was suspended after one of the participating aircraft crashed. The pilot ejected from the aircraft and is “safe and well”, according to Australian defence officials.
Thanks for joining us, see you back on the blog tomorrow.
The Queensland attorney general, Yvette D’Ath, will appeal sentences given to two juvenile offenders convicted over a home invasion involving the Kefu family, after advice from the director of public prosecutions, she said in a statement.
Her statement continues:
Appeals have been lodged on the grounds the sentences imposed were manifestly inadequate, having regard to the maximum penalty and the declaration that some of the offences were heinous.
Given this appeal process is now underway, no further comment will be made on the matter.
National plan needed to rescue live music, inquiry told
Australia needs a national strategy to ensure the live music industry survives, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.
The sector is facing an existential crisis with smaller venues needing immediate help, according to Kris Stewart from QMusic, the peak body for Queensland’s music sector.
Industry-wide problems include reduced audience spending, huge increases in insurance costs and a weak Australian dollar.
“This is Halley’s Comet, not the end of the dinosaurs,” Stewart said. “I think this is an extraordinary moment in front of our eyes.”
Potential solutions were discussed at the parliamentary committee hearing in Brisbane today: big international tours could be told to hire local support acts; government-funded culture passes that subsidise young people’s spending in Europe might also work in Australia; an extra charge added to ticket sales for large concerts could go into a charitable trust to support grassroots music.
“If we want an Australian industry in 10 years from now, we need to acknowledge that our small music venues are the soil from which our artists grow,” Stewart said.
– Australian Associated Press
Andrew Messenger
Work mapping flood-prone areas in Brisbane “still under way”
Work is “still under way” on hazard mapping flood-prone parts of Queensland, two years after the city’s latest floods in the state capital, parliamentary estimates has heard.
Brisbane has flooded four times since settlement: in 1893, 1974, 2011 and 2022. The most recent floods caused $2.5bn in damage in Queensland and cost 27 lives nationwide.
On Wednesday, the Greens MP Michael Berkman used Queensland parliamentary estimates to ask the state’s planning minister, Meaghan Scanlon, whether the state was considering a ban on development on flood-prone land.
Scanlon said developing a resilience policy framework for hazard mapping was one of the priorities of a recent planning update for south-east Queensland. “It identifies no-go zones based on comprehensive hazard assessments,” she said.
That work is still underway.
Brisbane was the first city council in Australia to appoint a publicly paid town planner in 1925. The city was settled on a flood plain in 1825.
Man dies following single-vehicle crash in Southern Tablelands
A man has died following a single-vehicle crash in the Southern Tablelands this afternoon, a NSW police statement has confirmed.
Emergency services were called to Taralgo Road at Tarlo, north of Goulburn, after reports of a single-vehicle crash after 1.00pm today. A white Mitsubishi and trailer left the roadway and struck a tree. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash has commenced.
A passenger in the vehicle, believed to be a man in his 80s, was unable to be revived, despite the efforts of first responders.
The driver of the vehicle was taken to hospital for mandatory testing, the statement said. A report will be prepared for the information of the coroner.
Road closures are in place and police are urging motorists to avoid the area.
Andrew Messenger
Queensland government rented five-star hotel for emergency accommodation
Queensland housing minister Meaghan Scanlon has confirmed the state government rented a luxury hotel for temporary accommodation of the homeless.
The government both buys disused hotels and aged care homes and rents rooms on a case-by-case basis for high risk persons. The opposition’s housing spokesperson, Tim Mander, used a parliamentary estimates hearing to accuse the government of using the five-star Crystalbrook hotel in Brisbane for the purpose.
He said he’d been told residents had then rejected offers of permanent housing because the hotel is “so nice”.
Scanlon initially took a question about the department’s use of the hotel on notice, but later confirmed it was used on “two occasions”.
“The two people who temporarily used it have been since moved elsewhere,” she said.
The government spends an average of $144 per hotel per night, the hearing heard.
Queenslanders spent 144,000 nights in emergency accommodation in the last financial year, up from 110,000 the year before, it heard.
Some 4,028 people were assisted into social housing in the last financial year, the committee heard. But 5,594 new people were added to the social housing register in the same period. The government’s housing investment fund has built just 615 homes since 2021, with 313 currently under construction.
The committee also heard that the government spent about $20.9 on “unfair wear and tear” in its properties, repairing issues like holes in walls and replacement keys for locks – about 5% of the overall budget.
It had to pay $2.9m to undertake drug remediation works in 154 homes where there had been drug use by tenants, including cleaning up three clandestine drug labs between July 2023 and March 2024.
Barnaby Joyce claims Lucas Heights as example of how city can handle nuclear reactor, despite expert opinion
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce told a Hunter Valley press conference today that Muswellbrook could “handle” a nuclear plant, pointing to the Lucas Heights Ansto (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) facility in Sydney.
After remarks from Peter Dutton, Joyce added:
Peter gave some great examples. I’m gonna give you one more – one more.
And you’ve got to hear this – you’ve got to hear this: Australia does have a nuclear reactor. People don’t realise it, [but] we do.
It’s bang smack in this city – might’ve heard of it – a town called Sydney, right, Sydney. And around Sydney are houses worth $1.5m to $1.6m. And if they look out their front or back door, whichever way they want to face, they see Lucas Heights.
So if Sydney can handle it, I reckon Muswellbrook can handle it.
The Lucas Heights facility, however, is different to a nuclear plant. Last month, NSW’s chief scientist, Hugh Durrant-Whyte, explained that “this is a ‘zero-power’ pool reactor where the complexities of high pressure, high power, high radiation environments do not exist”.
The capabilities learned at the Lucas Heights facility would make “little contribution” to supporting a nuclear power industry in the country, he wrote in his 2019 report.
Read more about the federal opposition’s plans to build seven nuclear power stations in five states at existing coal plant sites, here:
More details on RAAF operation in which aircraft crashed
It is not yet known what type of aircraft was involved in the crash, or what caused the incident. Australian Associated Press reports:
Pitch Black, one of the largest tactical air operations in the world, is hosted by the Australian Royal Air Force and includes 20 countries, more than 140 aircraft and 4,500 personnel.
The exercise is being held out of both the RAAF Base Darwin and RAAF Base Tindal. The Air Force’s website describes the operation as its “most significant flying activity for strengthening international engagement and enhancing our ability to work with overseas partners”.
Pilot escapes crash during military exercise
Daniel Hurst
A large military exercise in the Northern Territory has been suspended after one of the participating aircraft crashed. The pilot ejected from the aircraft and is “safe and well”, according to Australian defence officials.
A Defence spokesperson said in a statement issued this afternoon:
Defence can confirm an international participant in Exercise Pitch Black 24 is safe and well after ejecting from their aircraft this morning during flying operations.
Australian Defence Force personnel responded immediately and professionally at 10:45am to an aircraft emergency in the exercise area and coordinated recovery of the pilot with a search and rescue helicopter.
The exercise participant made immediate contact with aircrew in the area via radio following their ejection.
The pilot arrived at hospital by helicopter around 1:30pm (local time).
All flying for the remainder of the day has been cancelled.
News Corp cited social media report as saying it was an Italian aircraft, but Defence has yet to confirm the country.
NSW ministers visit farmer’s conference
While NSW’s environment minister, Penny Sharpe, acknowledged there had been problems with the rollout of renewable energy she said things were turning around.
“I know many of you struggle with the renewable energy zones … the rollout is complicated but the rollout is well under way,” the minister told delegates on Wednesday.
I’m not going to tell you that it’s perfect, but it is turning it around.
I would hope that we are learning all the time from the mistakes of the past and we’re getting better on the way through.”
The minister again ruled out sending transmission lines underground. “It is too expensive and it will take too long, our government’s been really upfront about that,” she told reporters.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, also addressed the conference, acknowledging the threat posed by fire ants and feral pigs. The premier outlined efforts that had seen 110,000 pigs killed in a nine-month period but conceded there were still feral pig “hotspots” across the state.
– Australian Associated Press
Farmers call for more renewable energy planning control
Farmers want to force renewable energy developers to maintain the agricultural productivity of the land.
At their annual conference in Sydney, farmers were fired up over renewable energy but want more control over how projects are planned. Delegates also called for payments to farmers hosting renewable energy projects to be paid for the life of the project and not the 25-year term currently being offered.
“Delegates are expressing their frustration … most are saying in living memory they can’t remember anything so badly thought through,” said Xavier Martin, the freshly re-elected president of NSW Farmers. “The impact on the landscape on some of our prime agricultural land is just appalling.”
– Australian Associated Press
More to come.
Two police suspended after 35-year-old man who became unresponsive during arrest dies
A 35-year-old man who became unresponsive during his arrest by police earlier this month has died in hospital, Victoria Police said in a statement.
A male sergeant and a male constable, both from North West metro region, have been suspended while the investigation is carried out.
The man was arrested in the car park of a convenience store at the corner of Heaths and Tarneit Roads at Hoppers Crossing at about 2am on 15 July. He became unresponsive during the arrest, and police subsequently performed CPR and called for further medical assistance. He was then conveyed to hospital.
“The investigation by the homicide squad remains ongoing and this investigation is being oversighted by professional standards command, as per standard practice when a person is seriously injured or dies while in custody,” the statement said.
