Australia news LIVE More details emerge from Cleo Smiths rescue COP26 Glasgow climate change summit continues COVID-19 cases grow across the nation
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Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is doing the media rounds this morning.
He is spruiking his government’s latest round of tax cuts. Recent figures suggest they have provided more than $5 billion in tax relief.
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg speaking in Parliament last month. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Mr Frydenberg is confident the extra money lining people’s pockets will help boost post-lockdown economies.
During an appearance on Sunrise, TV host David Koch asked whether taxes will soon have to rise so that the Government will be able to balance its books in the future. The underlying deficit in the 2021-22 budget is forecast to be around $100 billion (the equivalent of 5 per cent of GDP).
Here’s what the Treasurer had to say in response:
[Our side of politics is] about growing the pie and that is what tax cuts can help do.
By our own Treasury analysis, these tax cuts can help create 60,000 new jobs across the economy. The way you actually improve your budget bottom line is by getting less people into welfare and more people into work.
When they are in work they are paying tax and when they are off welfare they are not getting a government payment, so that is how we saw pretty much an $80 billion improvement to the budget bottom line from what I announced last October and the final budget outcome for the last financial year.
I’m pretty optimistic and confident about the overall health of the economy.
The Acting Commissioner of WA Police, Col Blanch, is doing the media rounds this morning.
He was on Sunrise moments ago and was asked for the latest on the Cleo Smith investigation. Mr Blanch said police will likely charge a man in his 30s with kidnapping later today.
Western Australia Police Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch.Credit:Peter de Kruijff
“If there are any other charges they may take some time,†he said.
“A lot will depend on what evidence if any they are able to extract from the home behind me where Cleo was allegedly held captive. There is also a possibility that specialist officers will be having a chat with Cleo today, possibly in the coming days and a lot will depend on what she tells those officers.â€
Mr Blanch said WA Police have an entire squad dedicated to interviewing children and they will make sure Cleo isn’t further traumatised.
“It is not like you would do a normal adult interview where you are basically straight into what happened, it is really about getting to know them, making them feel comfortable and they can talk when they are ready to talk,†he said.
“That’s the important part. You have to be so careful with these interviews and if they don’t want to talk that is OK too.â€
Australia’s coastline could soon be opened up to more oil and gas drilling even as the United Nations declares the world cannot afford to increase fossil fuel production if it wants to avoid catastrophic global warming and 80 nations pledge to cut methane emissions.
The federal government is preparing to begin community consultations on potential exploration activities spanning new parts of Western Australia’s Bonaparte, Browse and North Carnarvon basins and Victoria’s Gippsland Basin, which oil and gas companies have identified as areas of interest.
The International Energy Agency this year warned the world must avoid developing any new oil and gas fields in order to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees.Credit:James Davies
The launch of the annual process for releasing offshore acreage comes as Australia declined to join a pledge by 80 nations at the COP26 climate summit this week to cut methane emissions, much of which are generated from oil and gas production.
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, accounts for about half of the 1 degree net rise in global average temperature since the Industrial Revolution.
The methane agreement â€" spearheaded by the United States and European Union â€" covers six of the world’s 10 largest methane emitters and is among the most substantial achievements from this week’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow to date.
More on this issue here.
A gym, church and Bunnings stores are among the latest COVID-19 exposure sites in NSW.
People who visited the venues, located across 12 regional towns and cities, are considered close contacts and must get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
The sites visited by confirmed COVID-19 cases include: Dedicated to Fitness in Bathurst, Metro Cinemas Bathurst, Bunnings in Kembla Grange and Dubbo, and Inspire Church in Wagga.
The full list and exposure times can be found here.
Meanwhile, 12 public schools will be shut today after cases in the school communities were detected.
They are:
WA Police Minister Paul Papalia has reiterated that authorities found missing four-year-old Cleo Smith not from a tip-off but from old-fashioned detective work.
“There was not anything in terms of a tip-off from some clairvoyant or anything like that, it was just good, hard, police work,†he told Seven’s breakfast show Sunrise moments ago.
WA Police Minister Paul Papalia. Credit:Peter de Kruijff
“Some analysts did some incredible work back in Perth and that led to what was the breakthrough.
“It has been incredible work. I’m proud, but I think the entire state is incredibly proud of our WA police force. They have performed magnificently well. They were beautifully tender with her.â€
Mr Papalia stressed that, at this stage, police believe there was just one offender.
“One person has done this horrible thing. There is no reason to expect that anybody else has been involved.â€
From today, Victorian health authorities will change the way they present daily vaccination data.
Instead of sharing the vaccination rate of Victorians aged 16 and above in their daily COVID-19 updates, they will expand the criteria to include Victorians aged 12 to 15, who are also eligible to receive the vaccine.
Western Australia is also among the jurisdictions that have made the switch to include vaccinated children. The ACT has been reporting the vaccination rate for residents aged 12 and up for some time now.
Meanwhile, a pharmacy in the regional town of Warragul (east of Melbourne) has been added as a tier-1 exposure site after a COVID-positive person attended the venue.
Anyone who attended Chemist Discount Centre on 38 Palmerston Street between 11am and 11.45am on October 27 should get tested immediately and isolate for seven days from exposure if they are fully vaccinated.
Those who visited the pharmacy but aren’t fully immunised should get tested and isolate for 14 days.
A long-awaited judicial inquiry into gay and transgender hate crimes between 1970 and 2010 has been given the green light by the NSW government.
The judicial inquiry, a key recommendation of an 18-month-long parliamentary inquiry released in May this year, will have investigative powers to subpoena “persons-of-interest†and compel witnesses to give evidence in a court of law.
Shayne Mallard was chair of the committee that undertook the NSW parliamentary inquiry into gay and transgender hate crimes.Credit:James Alcock
“This is a big step,†said Shayne Mallard, chair of the Upper House committee, which undertook the parliamentary inquiry.
“It’s time the perpetrators of hate crimes were held accountable for their actions.â€
A principal finding of the parliamentary inquiry was that the NSW Police Force had failed in its responsibility to properly investigate historical hate crimes. Acknowledging past wrongs by those who failed to protect and deliver justice “is an important step towards healing,†Mr Mallard said.
Read the full story here.
Missing four-year-old Cleo Smith was rescued from her suspected abductor’s house yesterday morning, 18 days after she was snatched from her family’s tent in the remote north of Western Australia.
At 12.46am local time, four detectives forced their way into the Carnarvon property, just a seven-minute drive from Cleo’s family home. They discovered her alone, sitting inside a locked bedroom.
A still from a WA Police video of Cleo Smith minutes after she was found in the Carnarvon house. Credit:WA Police
Cleo’s mysterious disappearance from the Quobba Blowholes campsite on October 16 sparked one of Australia’s biggest police searches, with more than 100 officers assigned to the case.
A 36-year-old Carnarvon man was arrested in relation to the kidnapping but, as of Wednesday night, detectives were yet to reveal his alleged motive or what led officers to carry out the midnight raid.
More on how the rescue unfolded here.
A powerful Liberal Party committee is considering expanding its search for candidates to replace Victorian state Liberal MP Tim Smith after an extraordinary press conference in which he repeatedly refused to say whether Opposition Leader Matthew Guy had told him to stand down at the next election.
Speaking outside Victorian Parliament yesterday, Mr Smith, who crashed his car while drunk at the weekend, said he needed more time before deciding whether to recontest his plum seat in Melbourne’s east.
Victorian state Liberal MP Tim Smith is reflecting on his future.Credit:Justin McManus
“Is this error of judgment that I’ve made, this enormously terrible thing I’ve done, this selfish act I’ve done, is that worthy of losing my entire career?†Mr Smith asked.
He also kept the door open to a return to the frontbench and refused to rule out a career in federal politics as he defied his leader and cast doubts over Mr Guy’s “unequivocal†position that he should not stand at next year’s state election.
Read the full story here.
The Queensland border town of Goondiwindi has been placed on alert over fears a new COVID-19 case has emerged.
Mayor Lawrence Springborg issued a statement on social media that a recent positive case from NSW was being transferred from Goondiwindi Hospital to a COVID ward in a facility in the south-east.
“This case is in addition to the positive COVID case who passed through the Goondiwindi BP truck stop,†he said.
“The community can be assured that Darling Downs Health is working to identify and notify any close contacts, as well as exposure sites, as they become available.
“We will await advice from Queensland Health about the risk to our community, and any potential changes to restrictions in our region.â€
Read the full story here.
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