Australia news live: Westpac and St George online banking hits technical difficulties for third day in a row; Nedd Brockmann completes 1,000 mile run | Australian politics

Tamsin Rose

NSW EPA working with Randwick council to investigate mysterious balls at Coogee beach

The NSW environment minister, Penny Shape, has confirmed the Environmental Protection Authority was working with the Randwick council to investigate the source and risk presented by “mysterious black, ball-shaped debris” found on Coogee beach yesterday.

Lifeguards discovered the golf-ball sized balls washing up on the beach on Tuesday afternoon. Sharpe said forensic scientists were working to identify exactly what the balls were, the source of the contamination and the risks it presented.

Speaking at NSW parliament today, Sharpe said:

The advice is that people shouldn’t be swimming and Coogee is closed. Other beaches are fine, but we hope to get to the bottom of what is a pretty unusual situation as quickly as possible.

Customers who bank with Westpac and St George are experiencing online issues for the third day in a row.

Both banks posted on X today they are aware of further issues impacting customers’ ability to access online and mobile banking.

Our teams are currently working to fix the issue. We apologise for the inconvenience and will continue to share updates here.

The banks first reported the issue with online services on Monday.

One X user wrote that this stopped them from getting Oasis tickets, one said they couldn’t pay a bill, and another said that overseas customers couldn’t top up their travel card to avoid fees.

Penny Wong condemns killing of civilians by Israel in Gaza, says humanitarian situation ‘unacceptable’

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says Australia “condemns the killing of innocent civilians by Israel in recent operations in Gaza”.

In a post to X, Wong said the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza is “unacceptable”.

Israel must allow essential supplies to flow. I have asked Australia’s officials to convey our concerns directly to Israel.

We also support all efforts by our partner countries to ensure humanitarian assistance gets to those in need. Palestinian civilians cannot pay the price for defeating Hamas.

We repeat our call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, protection of civilians and increased humanitarian access. Parties must agree to the plan put forward by the US and endorsed by the United Nations security council. Delays are costing lives.

Bureau of Meteorology testing cyclone and tsunami warning systems

The Bureau of Meteorology says it will be testing its tropical cyclone and tsunami warning systems today.

The tests will occur from 10am to 6pm AEDT, marked “TEST” and appear for short periods of time on the bureau’s website and weather app, it said.

Queensland attorney general reflects on career, role of social media ahead of retirement from politics

Earlier this morning, Queensland’s attorney general, Yvette D’Ath, spoke to ABC RN ahead of the state election on 26 October – which she won’t be contesting.

On her decision to retire after seven election and almost 17 years, she said:

I always hoped that I’d have enough self-awareness to know when it was time for me to step back and hand over to someone else … It’s been a tough few years, really tough few years, especially this term with the portfolios I’ve had. And I decided it’s time that I get to be a little bit selfish and put myself first and find a bit of balance in my life.

D’Ath was the state health minister during the Covid-19 pandemic, and received death threats during that time. She said it was “difficult” but easy to put aside “as white noise, when you just had such critical decisions that had to be made every day”.

Politics is getting tougher … Those people are still following me [on social media], they’re still saying nasty things. But, you know, that’s politics nowadays, sadly, but I actually think it’s beyond politics …

The number of people who use social media to just say toxic about complete strangers is really worrying. While we’re trying to teach our kids how to behave online, there’s a whole lot of adults out there setting up pretty bad example.

D’Ath fears this will have an effect on whether people choose to enter politics:

People keep talking to me about Covid and health but as attorney general, the stuff that has come across my desk every day, you know, is horrifying. It’s distressing, and it’s something that you know, I’m glad most people never, ever get to experience.

Sydney using filtered water from kidney dialysis machines to clean streets

Clean and filtered water from kidney dialysis machines at the Royal Prince Alfred hospital are being used to clean Sydney’s streets.

According to a statement from the City of Sydney, around 50 dialysis machines, used for up to 14 hours a day, require ultrapure water – and about 500 litres of ultrapure water is needed each time a patient undergoes dialysis.

Reverse osmosis generates the ultrapure water, and during this process excess runoff is collected and stored in two on-site tanks. The council says it can save up to 1.5m litres of water each year by using the stored runoff in street cleaning.

Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, said this was “increasingly important as the climate crisis lengthens periods of drought”.

We are also reducing emissions and travel time for our trucks, which don’t have to return to depots in Alexandria or Ultimo to refill after cleaning the streets.

Ultramarathon runner Nedd Brockmann has completed his 1,000 mile (1,609.3km) charity run at Sydney’s Olympic Park.

He had aimed to complete the distance in 10 days, but finished in 12.5 days – spurred on by donations for Australians experiencing homelessness, which reached up to $2.6m.

He shared a video of the feat on Instagram, and wrote:

12 days 13 hours 16 minutes and 45 seconds. Average 128 kilometres a day. 2.6 million raised for Aussies experiencing homelessness and counting. Please enjoy the video while I enjoy putting my feet up.

Brockmann’s attempt has been streamed on TikTok Live. The record for the fastest time to cover 1,000 miles stands at 10 days, 10 hours, 30 minutes and 36 seconds, set in 1988.

Brockmann had said earlier this year he hoped to raise $10m for homelessness. He made headlines in 2022 when he ran from Cottesloe to Bondi in 46.5 days, as part of an epic 3,800km charity run.

His support team leader, James Ward, said Brockmann had been “in pain every day of this challenge”, but “so long as the donations keep coming in, he thinks all the pain is worthwhile”. You can read more about his journey on the track below:

Melbourne, south-east Queensland lead way for new jobs figures

Parts of Victoria and Queensland are leading the charge for new jobs being created, AAP reports.

Analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics labour data show Melbourne and south-east Queensland had the greatest increase in employment in the year to August.

The statistical area of West Melbourne had the largest growth in the 12-month period at 5.5%, followed by inner Melbourne at 5.4%. Ipswich, west of Brisbane, was next on the list, growing by 5.2%, followed by Queensland’s Logan-Beaudesert region at 5.2% and the Gold Coast at 5%.

Sydney’s northern beaches and Sutherland Shire had the lowest unemployment rates for the same year to August, coming in at 2.3% and 2.4% respectively. The areas had an unemployment rate nearly two percentage lower than the national figure of 4.1% for August.

Warrnambool in Victoria, inner Perth and Sydney’s eastern suburbs rounded out the top five for the lowest unemployment rate, all at 2.7%.

Man charged with 76 child sexual assault offences

A man has been arrested and charged with almost 80 historical child sexual assault offences, AAP reports.

The 54-year-old man is accused of sexually abusing multiple children in the Coffs Harbour area on the NSW mid-north coast between 1998 and 2008.

Detectives received a tip-off in November 2023 and established Strike Force Durrumbul to investigate.

Police arrested the man at Goulburn police station yesterday morning. He was charged with 76 historical child sex and physical violence offences, which police will allege occurred against eight children.

He was refused bail to appear before Goulburn local court today.

‘Amorous couple’ caused flood in Melbourne’s city loop

Benita Kolovos

Victoria’s minister for transport infrastructure, Danny Pearson, says an “amorous couple in a stairwell” caused a flood event in the City Loop last week.

Pearson said there was extensive flooding at both Melbourne Central and Flagstaff stations late on Thursday night. When Metro reviewed the footage they discovered a couple had dislodged a sprinkler. He said:

I’m advised that there was a flood event that impacted both Melbourne Central station and Flagstaff station. Initial reports were that there was an act of vandalism, I’ve been advised that Metro have reviewed the CCTV footage, and it would appear that an amorous couple in a stairwell dislodged a sprinkler.

He said police were investigating the incident, which occurred “very late at night”.

RBA paper finds inflation expectations are heading in the right direction

Peter Hannam

The Reserve Bank is less concerned about what’s in the rear mirror but what’s coming when it sets interest rates, much like stock prices are based on anticipated future profits.

To that end, a team of RBA researchers has been looking at inflation expectations as a guide to whether the 13 interest rate rises since May 2022 have done enough in restraining price increases.

Details of their paper are being presented this morning by Sarah Hunter, the RBA’s chief economist, at Citi investment gathering in Sydney.

The good news is that punters’ short-term views on inflation “appear to be converging towards long-term expectations”, and that there’s “no evidence” they are “more persistent than normal”, Hunter said.

(The paper goes into some interesting analysis about divergent trends in how wage and price rises are interpreted, and how petrol prices may have an outsized impact on inflation sentiment. More on that in a later post.)

As it happens, markets have lately become less confident about how soon the RBA will start paring its key interest rate. There’s only about a 12% chance of a cut at the bank’s next board meeting (4-5 November) and about a one-in-chance of a reduction in December.

Even next February is only a 60% chance, or so the ASX rates tracker tells us.

All those guesses, though, will be revisited on 30 October when we get September quarter inflation numbers. Actuals, rather than expectations, will then hold sway for a day at least.