Australia news live: ANZ joins rivals in cutting fixed mortgage rates; QLD LNP leader says end of coal before 2030s ‘fanciful’ | Australian politics

Anthony Albanese speaks from Laos

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking at the Asean summit in Laos.

He hails the “good news” of the resumption of lobster trade with China, which he says means 3,000 jobs in Australia secure into the future:

I come to these forums in order to advance Australia’s national interests, in order to protect jobs and enhance our economic engagement.

Albanese thanks the business leaders in sectors from IT to green energy who have come to the summit. The business meeting held this morning progressed the south-east Asia economic strategy to 2040 – with 47 recommendations implemented and the establishment of business investment in south-east Asia, he says.

Australian shares ease but finish week in the green

The local share market has finished slightly lower but its weekly performance was enough to make up for last week’s losses and leave it within striking distance of a fresh all-time high, AAP reports.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index on Friday closed down 8.5 points, or 0.1%, at 8,214.5, while the broader All Ordinaries dipped 7.2 points, or 0.08%, to 8,491.5.

For the week, the ASX200 gained 64.5 points, or 0.79%, after dropping 62.2 points the prior week.

Its finish on Friday was 55.3 points, or 0.7%, off its all-time best close of 8,269.8 set on September 30.

The Australian dollar was buying 67.40 US cents, from 67.30 US cents at Thursday’s ASX close.

Quit stage diving at concerts, insurers tell musicians

If bands would stop stage diving at concerts, insuring Australia’s live music events would be much easier, an inquiry has been told. AAP reports:

Long-time live music fan Jason Holmes sells insurance for entertainment events through his brokerage H2 Insurance Solutions and said watching performers take risks onstage makes him cringe.

It’s only fun until something goes wrong, and regularly something does go wrong, and then obviously that’s where we see claims.

Insurers are saying: ‘Hey, you can’t jump in a crowd, you can’t throw things into the crowd.’ The artists need to be made aware of this.

The hearing in Canberra today is the latest examining a crisis in Australia’s music industry, with festivals such as Splendour in the Grass cancelled and venues closing as costs soar.

One of those costs is insurance. In general, public liability insurance premiums have increased by 40% since 2015, according to the Insurance Council of Australia.

The live music scene is predominantly insured through international companies, according to the council’s Alexandra Hordern – local insurers view the market as unprofitable and too risky.

Tributes flow after Richard Glover’s retirement announcement

The tributes to Richard Glover are flowing in on social media.

Peter Fitzsimons wrote on X, formerly Twitter:

Glover will be missed. One of the best in the business.

Comments on the ABC article also include tributes from Glover’s listeners, such as one person who says:

I am devastated, he has been apart of many of our lives for a long time. He feels like a friend who delivers good and bad news.

And many “Noooooooooo”s.

ABC’s Richard Glover announces retirement

Amanda Meade

ABC Radio’s Sydney Drive host, Richard Glover, will retire next month after a record 26 years behind the local radio microphone. He said:

It’s one of the best jobs in Australian journalism, and I feel I’ve hogged it for long enough.

It has a terrific audience – funny, wise, full of intellect but also willing to share some of the deeper stories of being human.

Murray Watt, the minister for workplace relations, earlier today said the government is open to changes to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (Palm) scheme, acknowledging there has been too many instances of abuse.

The scheme allows Australian employers to hire workers from the Pacific Islands and Timor-Leste for seasonal roles for up to nine months, or longer-term roles for up to four years. Watt said:

We have seen unfortunately far too many abuses of the Palm scheme and it’s important for Australia and our reputation that when people come to work in Australia, they don’t get exploited and they get treated fairly.

Unfortunately, I’m aware of some examples of that not happening in this very region across Bundaberg and we have seen the Fair Work Ombudsman take action against particular employers and particular labour hire firms who have done the wrong thing and that’s exactly the way it should be.

We actually have made changes to the Palm scheme since coming to office a couple of years ago to try to reduce the exploitation that we have seen. We brought in, for example, minimum amounts of pay that need to be paid to people to make sure they do have money in their pockets. We have made changes around the housing requirements.

But what I can say is that wherever there is exploitation going on of Palm workers or local workers as a Labor government we will continue to take action and we’re open to further changes.

Natasha May

Thanks Emily and good afternoon everyone! It’s nearly the weekend but still plenty of news coming your way.

Emily Wind

Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, the lovely Natasha May will be here to guide you through the rest of our rolling coverage. Enjoy your afternoon, and your weekend!

An historic apology has been offered to Victoria’s stolen generation victims by Victoria’s premier, Jacinta Allan, AAP reports.

Allan made the personal apology on behalf of the state government yesterday in Melbourne’s inner north. The premier posted a picture online of the smoking ceremony after the event and wrote on Facebook:

Members of the stolen generations have never received an apology in person from the Victorian government. Until today.

On behalf of successive Victorian governments and parliaments, I apologised to those children who were forcibly removed from their families. To the babies and children who grew up without knowing who they were. And the mums and dads who were left – sometimes for a lifetime – searching.

Allan told reporters in Shepparton today that she and the attorney general were “joined by people in their 80s, people in their 50s who were part of that stolen generation who are still experiencing the grief and trauma of being torn away from their family at birth.”

The opposition spokesperson, David Davis, criticised the government for not inviting the media to cover the ceremony, declaring the apology should have been delivered in plain sight.

LNP leader says end of coal before 2030s ‘fanciful’

Andrew Messenger

The LNP leader, David Crisafulli, appears to be walking away from a commitment to 75% emissions reduction by 2035.

Asked if he still backed the interim target, which he voted to legislate earlier this year, Crisafulli said his focus was elsewhere:

Our primary target, the biggest focus, is net zero by 2050. We will continue to make sure we’re on the journey, that we have a credible path to get there. 2050 is the number one target.

He didn’t answer a question as to whether he would amend the emissions reduction target.

Crisafulli has previously said he would repeal Queensland’s 80% by 2035 renewable energy target. The party voted against legislating it. Last week he said he would extend the life of the Callide unit B coal-fired power station past its scheduled end of life in 2028.

Yesterday he said he would extend the life of coal plants “indefinitely”.

The notion that by the early 2030s you can turn off Queensland’s baseload power without impacting reliability or people’s hip pocket is fanciful, and even the government’s own energy department has said so.

Queensland has eight coal-fired power stations, including the last plant built in the country, Kogan Creek, commissioned in 2007. Many are due to close in the 2030s.

Consensus on right age to ban social media ‘unlikely’, Rowland says

Rafqa Touma

The federal minister for communications, Michelle Rowland, has said the age assurance trial – to prevent children from accessing pornography – is evaluating technology that “could be effective to age limit access to social media platforms”.

Addressing the social media summit in South Australia, Rowland said:

Let me also take this opportunity to acknowledge the extensive work of former high court chief justice Robert French. Our age assurance trial is evaluating technologies that could be effective to age limit access to social media platforms from 13 up to 16 years and preventing people under 18 from accessing online pornography. The trial includes targeted stakeholder consultation and consumer-focused research looking into attitudes towards different technologies and important issues of privacy, security and accessibility.

Rowland said she anticipated the independent review of Australia’s Online Safety Act final report “in coming weeks”, and that it would be unlikely there would be a consensus on the right age to ban users from social media:

Let me be clear that no solution will be perfect, and the consensus on the right age is unlikely. Young people, of course, are digitally savvy and will find ways to circumvent controls, but we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

ANZ joins rivals in cutting fixed mortgage rates

Jonathan Barrett

ANZ has joined its big bank rivals in cutting its fixed mortgage rates ahead of expectations the Reserve Bank will lower the official cash rate.

Many two- and three-year fixed loans are now priced at a full percentage point below standard variable rates, which equates to four quarter-point rate cuts.

Canstar said ANZ had cut owner-occupier fixed rates by up to 0.6 percentage points and investor fixed rates by up to 0.7 percentage points, representing the bank’s first fixed rate cuts of 2024.

Canstar’s data insights director, Sally Tindall, says:

For months, ANZ held out on changing fixed rates when the other majors were busy making cuts, but the bank has now gone and made the chop.

Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac have already announced fixed rate cuts.

Funding costs have reduced for lenders amid expectations the RBA will soon enter a rate-cutting cycle, even though the central bank has warned that it does not expect “near term” cuts due to persistent inflation.

Mortgage brokers have said the fixed rate cuts allow under-pressure mortgage holders to consider locking in some immediate savings.

Rafqa Touma

Penalties on platforms, not users, in approach to social media age ban legislation

Penalties will be faced by platforms, not users, in the federal government’s legislative design for a national minimum age for social media access, the minister for communications, Michelle Rowland, says.

She is addressing the social media summit in South Australia, and said:

A key design principle of the commonwealth’s legislative approach is to place the onus on the platforms, not on parents or young people. Penalties for users will not feature in our legislative design.

Instead, it will be incumbent on the platforms to demonstrate that they are taking reasonable steps to ensure fundamental protections are in place at the source. Our approach will ensure the eSafety regulator provides oversight and enforcement.

Rowland said the federal government is considering an exemption framework, “to accommodate access for social media services that demonstrate a low risk of harm to children”. She said the aim is to “create positive incentives” for platforms to develop “age-appropriate versions of their apps and embed safe and healthy experiences”.

By design, we are conscious of the harmful features in the design of platforms that drive addictive behaviours, and this is why we will set parameters to guide platforms in designing social media that allows connections but not harms to flourish.

The federal government will set a 12-month implementation timeframe, for the industry and regulator to implement necessary systems and processes, Rowland said.

Andrew Messenger

Queensland premier forgets second candidates’ name in repeat gaffe

The Queensland premier, Steven Miles, has again forgotten the name of a local Labor candidate.

The premier was campaigning in Kawana, on the Sunshine Coast, today, one of the LNP’s safest seats. But there was no sign of Jim Dawson, who is trying to take the electorate off the LNP’s deputy leader, Jarrod Bleijie.

When asked where his candidate was, Miles said:

I’ll be campaigning on Sunshine Coast seats from now all day. So stay tuned.

He was then asked a follow-up question: who were they?

“That’s a good question,” Miles said before a lengthy pause.

We’ll get that for you and I’ll be with them later.

It was an embarrassing repeat of a similar blunder in central Queensland last week, when the premier forgot the name of Mirani candidate Susan Teder.

The Sydney local health district says it is assisting the Holy Family medical centre in Dulwich Hill, in Sydney’s inner west, after patients were given less-effective vaccines due to storage issues.

Vaccines were incorrectly stored at the practice and patients who received a vaccine between 4 December 2019 and 30 July 2024, may have received a vaccination that was less effective.

The Sydney LDH will assist the medical centre to coordinate and run a revaccination clinic “in the coming weeks”, prioritising children under five and adults over 65.

In a statement, the LHD said patients who received the private travel vaccine and influenza vaccines are not at risk.

Holy Family medical centre is notifying all patients affected, including a number of children who were aged between 0 and 5 years at the time of their first vaccination.

Repeating a vaccination will not cause any harm, even if the first vaccine was effective.

Rafqa Touma

Michelle Rowland addressing social media summit

The federal minister for communications, Michelle Rowland, is addressing the social media summit in South Australia.

She will be laying out the commonwealth’s approach to legislating a national minimum age for social media access.　She labelled it a “significant reform” and said the government would work with “state and territory governments, regulators, experts, industry and the community”:

Today I’ll cover three things: the pragmatic approach we are taking to social media, age limits, the design principles that will underpin our reforms, and finally, how this aligns to our whole of government approach to improving online safety.

The Bureau of Meteorology has shared a weather update, as severe thunderstorms are forecast for parts of eastern NSW.