Senate inquiry recommends more action against invasive fire ants
Australia must consider more funding for the eradication of fire ants and boost efforts into research on how to exterminate the pests, a Senate inquiry has recommended.
There should be more effort in communication and awareness programs in problem hotspots, as well as a national awareness campaign, states the report from the Senate’s rural and regional affairs committee.
Queensland farmer captures rare video of invasive fire ants building 'large floating rafts' – video
In its report out this afternoon, the committee – chaired by Nationals senator Matt Canavan – calls on the government to “establish and fund a Cooperative Research Centre encompassing independent researchers and academics, private business, industry representatives and governments to bring together the necessary diverse expertise for understanding red imported fire ants in Australia.”
Imported red fire ants are a major problem in parts of Queensland, with concerns the pests could spread more widely into other parts of the country.
The committee urged the federal government and all states and territories to “commit to further investment in research, development, and innovation to improve understanding of red imported fire ants in the Australian context and improve efficiencies through implementation of new technologies and techniques”.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, the Greens questioned why the policy’s impact on housing prices hadn’t been modelled by Treasury.
The minor party’s housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, said the scheme would result in a “terrible housing lottery” where only a few can get into the private housing market with the federal government’s help.
Chandler-Mather said:
“A scheme that will push up house prices in the middle of a housing affordability crisis, even if these effects are marginal, is a step in the wrong direction.”
To pass the laws, Labor will need the support of the Coalition or the Greens plus two other crossbenchers.
The Greens have previously warned they will not cooperate with Labor unless it budges on weakening negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts.
The Senate report on the Help to Buy scheme came with two dissenting reports from the opposition and the Greens.
In the opposition’s remarks, Liberal senators Andrew Bragg and Dean Smith boldly declared Labor had “given up on home ownership” in its “utterly underwhelming” and “entirely warped” approach to increasing home ownership.
The senators pointed to evidence from inquiry witnesses, such as the Grattan Institute and the Housing Industry Association, who said around 240,000 homes would have to be built to meet the supply challenge, and bring down soaring costs.
“This scheme is tiny compared with the 240,000 new houses required every year if the government is to fulfil its 1.2 million homes target by 2029 ... The scheme is largely trivial, and as it applies also to existing homes, it is not a supply-side policy.”
They also took issue with the idea of the federal government owning a stake in houses purchased.
“This legislation is all about helping the government buy your home, not you, which is an entirely warped approach.”
Zoe Daniel says social media ‘more of a vehicle to distress … than to inform’
The member for Goldstein said the issues on social media around the Sydney stabbings “demonstrate that current efforts to contain misinformation and disinformation are not up to the job” – but has also questioned whether the government’s planned misinformation bill will do enough.
“Social media has become more of a vehicle to distress, outrage and defame than to inform,” she said.
“The question is whether the legislation being considered by the government will cure the disease.”
In a statement to Guardian Australia, Daniel suggested whether Australia should “consider introducing an overarching and enforceable duty of dare, just as is commonplace for work health and safety law,” and whether the responsibility for harmful content should be placed on digital platforms and the algorithms they operate.
“These systems amplify and prioritise content based on how many clicks it gets, not what is in the best interests of individual wellbeing and well-informed political discourse,” she said.
ACT senator, David Pocock, said he was broadly supportive of the bills but wanted to see some tweaks.
Those changes would include increasing the cap of 10,000 eligible households per year to a floor of 30,000 households. Pocock also recommended a third of the scheme’s houses be quarantined for historically disadvantaged cohorts, such as older women and First Nations peoples.
Pocock said: “Commonwealth resources should always be put to the best possible use and I’ve put forward a series of sensible recommendations based on expert evidence to better do that.”
But that’s where the political goodwill ends because both the opposition and the Greens are firmly against it for very different reasons.
A Senate committee report into one of Labor’s main housing policies has been released and it’s got all the hallmarks of another political fight on housing.
Labor’s help-to-buy scheme, which it hopes will be up and running this year, would help 10,000 prospective buyers a year over four years by the government taking equity of 30% (for an existing build) or 40% (of a new build) in their homes, meaning smaller deposits and loans for the owner’s share.
Unsurprisingly, the majority report’s recommendations - chaired by Labor senator Jess Walsh - are supportive of the policy and recommend it be passed.
The Labor-led recommendations say the policy is a “practical step” toward to increasing access to homeownership:
“The committee welcomes the Help to Buy scheme as one of the government’s policies to get Australians into a home of their own. It does this by directly addressing the access and affordability hurdles of home ownership; reducing the upfront costs of purchasing a home via a lower deposit amount and reducing ongoing mortgage repayments for the life of the loan.”
James Warburton, the chief executive and managing director of Seven West Media, will leave the company today, amid a tumultuous period for the broadcaster.
The prominent media executive was due to step down before the end of the financial year. It is unclear if the planned CEO transition was fast tracked.
Seven West, which operates the Seven Network and West Australian Newspapers, has been entangled in a number of recent controversies, which include allegations made during a defamation trial that the network reimbursed Bruce Lehrmann for money spent on cocaine and sex workers.
Seven West has denied the allegations.
Separately, a Sydney man who was wrongly named on air by Seven News as the Bondi Junction killer has hired a lawyer and is seeking damages from the network.
Seven West chairman Kerry Stokes thanked Warburton for his contribution to the business in an announcement to the stock exchange.
The company’s chief financial officer, Jeff Howard, will take over the chief executive role tomorrow.
Guardian Australia understand some parliamentary cross-benchers may have concerns about the government using the context of the Sydney stabbings to make the case for its bill – which, we hear, will be the same bill put out for exposure draft last year.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the party’s communications spokesperson, said she would “wait to see the detail of the final bill” before coming to a position, but said “the corporate tech giants need to be held accountable for their business model which thrives on mis- and- disinformation.”
“Many of these digital platforms are now the only way people consume their news, and they need to be regulated and held to account for their behaviour … a “Fit and Proper Person Test” should be enforced for large media proprietors and social media giants,” she said.
Spender, the Member for Wentworth whose electorate takes in Bondi Junction, said she was seeking discussions with the government and online regulator the eSafety commission about what more could be done.
“I was already concerned about the impact of social media on social cohesion and the mental health of young people, and the events of the last week have heightened these concerns. We have seen the spread of traumatising violent imagery and misinformation that has deliberately stoked social unrest,” she said.
Government will seek to reanimate stalled bill on online misinformation
The move comes after the Sydney stabbing incidents, but it may still face pushback from those who opposed it the first time around.
“We need to recognise that our current controls are not protecting our kids or our social cohesion. I will work with the government on how to address this, while retaining the space for public debate,” said Allegra Spender, the local member representing Bondi Junction.
Anthony Albanese and Allegra Spender after leaving flowers outside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images
Communications minister, Michelle Rowland, told the Nine newspapers today “doing nothing is not an option for any responsible government”, adding “the events of the last few days highlight the importance of digital platforms having systems and processes in place to address seriously harmful misinformation and disinformation on their services.”
This was the bill that the government put up last year, but pulled in the face of concerns from political opposition and the Human Rights Commissioner, Lorraine Finlay, about its potential effect on freedom of expression.
Major report released on alcohol-related incidents in hospital emergency departments
The Australian College of Emergency Medicine’s latest report, ‘Alcohol-Related Harm in Australasian Emergency Departments‘ has just been published, and includes a survey of emergency specialists, trainees, nurses, doctors and other staff across Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia.
Key findings of the report include;
43.5% of emergency department staff frequently or often experienced alcohol-related physical threats, intimidation, harassment, or violence, and 70.5% alcohol-related verbal or written abuse, threats, intimidation or harassment from patients.
94.6% of staff reported that alcohol-affected patients had negative impacts on other patients in the waiting room and 86% said that alcohol-affected people cause other patients to wait longer for treatment.
68.2% of staff believed that incidents of alcohol-related violence in emergency departments had worsened over the last five years.
Australian College of Emergency Medicine president Dr Stephen Gourley said he did not know any emergency clinicians without a story about alcohol-related aggression in the emergency department.
“Most staff surveyed said that alcohol-related presentations negatively impacted their personal mood, increased their workload, and caused them to experience frustration, sadness, and exhaustion. In a time of workforce crisis and shortages, this is an issue that cannot be ignored.”
As the dust settles on a plan to increase overall military spending, the Albanese government has also sent some significant signals on how it sees the future of the Indo-Pacific region, writes our foreign affairs and defence correspondent Daniel Hurst.
But that’s not exactly how Australia’s top security ally, the US, might see things. Read his analysis here:
Five staff terminated at University of Melbourne after findings of sexual misconduct in 2023
Five people have left the University of Melbourne following findings of sexual misconduct in 2023, its latest annual report has shown.
The university is one of the few in Australia that releases annual reports to promote transparency regarding its response to sexual misconduct.
The report revealed there had been six sexual misconduct complaints made about staff in 2023, compared with 11 in 202. All were in relation to sexual harassment, not assault, with four remaining in progress.
Of the five people that left the university, all had their employment terminated. Two were related to misconduct investigated and substantiated in 2023 and three complaints were received in 2022 and substantiated the following year.
The report also revealed eight students were found to have engaged in sexual misconduct in 2023, leading to the expulsion of one student and suspension of three with conditions placed on re-enrolment.
Combined penalties were applied to the remaining four students, including exclusion from specified locations, mandatory regular meetings, counselling and contact bans
In total, there were 25 complaints of alleged sexual misconduct against students in 2023, a 25% increase in 2022 (20).
Environment minister welcomes developer withdrawal
Tanya Plibersek, has welcomed Walker Corporation’s decision to formally withdraw its Toondah Harbour development proposal at the Ramsar-listed wetland at Moreton Bay in Queensland.
The company said it was withdrawing its application to give it time “to appropriately consider the federal government’s proposed decision” to reject the development.
Plibersek released a video statement welcoming the news:
This is great news for the animals that call his place home, particularly those migratory birds that fly up to 12,000 kilometers every year to roost to feed and fatten up in this really important wetland.
I announced last week I proposed to block the Toondah Harbour development. This afternoon, the developer withdrew the project. Great news! pic.twitter.com/ysHrwmZhzP
Walker Corporation has withdrawn its application for an apartment and retail development on an internationally important wetland at Queensland’s Moreton Bay.
Plibersek proposed to reject the development because of the unacceptable impacts it would have on the Ramsar wetland and threatened species such as the eastern curlew.
Walker Corporation had 10 business days to provide feedback before Plibersek made a final decision.
In a media release on Thursday, a spokesperson from the company said its withdrawal of the application will allow the time it needs “to appropriately consider the federal government’s proposed decision recommendation report.”
The spokesperson said the company respected the minister’s opinion “that she does not believe the project in its current form provides the protections for the environment.”
“We need the appropriate amount of time to understand and address those concerns, to satisfy the government’s reasonable, high environmental standards.”
“We have been overwhelmed by calls and messages of support over the past week from the Redlands community as well as local, state and federal political and community leaders, who understand how critical this project is to the region’s future.”
A 10-year-old First Nations boy has died in an apparent suicide in state care in Western Australia, advocates for the family say.
Advocates for the family say the boy, who cannot be named, took his own life on Friday night, leaving his family “devastated” and triggering a coronial inquiry.
Megan Krakouer, director of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, said the family had other children in state care and had been trying for months to have them brought home. They had been promised overnight stays and unsupervised visits, but it didn’t happen.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. Help for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is available on13YARN on 13 92 76.
