This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Coronavirus Australia live: more than 100,000 Victorians without power; 50,000 Covid disaster payment claims made
Coronavirus Australia live: more than 100,000 Victorians without power; 50,000 Covid disaster payment claims made
(32 minutes later)
Follow updates live
Follow updates live
A reporter notes that Morriosn has landed in the UK, where the pandemic is still
There’s no substitute for leaders getting together and doing what we’re doing now and there has never been a more important time to be doing that. That said, it is a timely reminder about how the pandemic is raging whereas back in Australia, I understand, my latest report was there was zero community cases in Victoria today
Morrison notes the events in Victoria.
Morrison says issues on the agenda include “big challenges of climate change, and the new energy economy, which Australia is determined to be a very positive part of. But of course, the Indo-Pacific and securing a free and open Indo-Pacific, so central to Australia’s interests, but increasingly so much more central to global stability”.
He says:
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is speaking live from the UK. He’s just touched down ahead of the G7 Summit.
He says:
The Northern Territory’s underfire indigenous treaty commissioner, Prof Mick Dodson, has formally resigned amid abuse allegations.
Dodson has been under pressure to step down since he was accused of verbally abusing and threatening an Aboriginal woman at an interstate football game in Darwin in January.
The 71-year-old is also alleged to have called a second woman offensive names during an angry exchange at a casino five months before he was appointed to the role.
On Friday, the former Australian of the Year agreed to step down.
“The NT treaty commissioner Mick Dodson has tendered his resignation from the role,” a government spokesman said.
“The resignation will be effective from the close of business today.”
Dodson has not admitted the allegations and, through his lawyer, has previously said he doesn’t remember the first incident but agreed the alleged conduct was disgraceful.
The Yawuru man was named the Australian of the Year in 2009 for his work advocating for the rights of Indigenous Australians.
As a barrister specialising in native title and human rights, he assisted the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in the 1980s.
In 1993, he was appointed as Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner, a post he held until 1998.
He was appointed NT’s treaty commissioner in February 2019 and is also a former chief executive of the Northern Land Council.
Dodson’s role as NT treaty commissioner was to consult with Aboriginal people and develop a framework for future treaty negotiations.
The former Liberal leader John Hewson is not holding back:
Michael McGowan has the latest on the fallout from Christian Porter’s defamation case.
The Australian Unemployed Workers Union has responded to the robodebt court judgment and settlement.
The Australian Unemployed Workers Union has responded to the robodebt court judgment and settlement.
It says:
It says:
The union backed calls for a royal commission, saying:
The union backed calls for a royal commission, saying:
Amanda Meade reports:
Amanda Meade reports:
World Vision Australia has issued a statement on the treatment of the Biloela family.
World Vision Australia has issued a statement on the treatment of the Biloela family.
CEO Daniel Wordsworth says:
CEO Daniel Wordsworth says:
The Queensland government will invest a further $270m in protecting the Great Barrier Reef and regenerating land as part of the state budget next week.
But farmers and stakeholders in the north will wait for the budget to be handed down before assessing the impact it may have.
The multimillion-dollar injection is set to build on $400m already invested in the reef since 2015.
The environment minister, Meaghan Scanlon, also announced an extra $60m would be allocated to the Australian Land Restoration Fund to “turbocharge carbon farming” in the state.
Scanlon says the large investment is part of the government’s continued push to move the dial further in protective measures for the reef.
“The $270m announcement is part of new funding to provide confidence and certainty to industry that the government backs the reef,” she said in Cairns on Friday.
“Our increased expenditure in the reef and the Land Restoration Fund will help spark Queensland’s economic recovery while also ensuring our native fauna and flora, and our cultural heritage will be preserved and enhanced for the generations to come.”
However, the Queensland Farmers’ Federation says it won’t comment on the proposed investment until all details are known.
The QFF CEO, Dr Georgina Davis, says the group believes maintaining a sustainable agriculture sector is essential to the longevity and prosperity of Queensland farmers and the environment into the future.
The deputy premier, Steven Miles, says threats such as sediment, fertiliser and nutrient runoff, climate change and ocean acidification were all part of the challenges that the government’s investment is aimed at addressing.
“We’re working with landholders to reduce sediment runoff from their lands, pesticide runoff and fertiliser runoff, helping them to plan and keep more trees on their land,” he said.
“But also help to capture carbon in the soil and do our part in assisting in the effort to address global warming.”
The additional $60m allocated to the Land Restoration Fund adds to a previous $500m commitment by the state government.
Scanlon said more funding would be announced in Tuesday’s budget for environmental initiatives in the areas of waste, national parks, resource recovery and wildlife.
Former Sydney teacher Chris Dawson will face trial for his wife’s alleged murder after failing to permanently halt criminal proceedings over pre-trial publicity concerns, AAP reports.
The 72-year-old had argued his chances for a fair trial were irreparably damaged by extensive pre-trial publicity including a podcast.
The passage of time between his wife’s alleged murder in January 1982 and his trial also rendered any trial necessarily unfair, he argued.
Dawson has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife, Lynette Dawson, at Bayview in Sydney’s north on or about 8 January 1982.
The NSW supreme court in September 2020 granted a nine-month stay but denied Dawson’s bid to permanently halt proceedings.
Dawson appealed against that decision to the court of criminal appeal, which on Friday said permanent stays should be reserved for the “most extreme cases”.
That occurred where a trial judge could do nothing during the trial to relieve the unfairness, the appeal court said in a written summary.
It agreed the prejudice to Dawson caused by the pre-trial publicity and delay in this case was “very serious”, but said that could be “remedied or sufficiently ameliorated by careful directions which the judge at the trial will give to the jury”.
The chief justice, Tom Bathurst, also noted a fair trial was not necessarily a perfect trial.
While fairness to the accused was one consideration, so too was the public interest of the community in bringing those charged with serious criminal offences to trial, he said.
The court’s full reasons have been suppressed in the interests of justice, to ensure Dawson can receive a fair trial.
Evidence and submissions made in the appeal are also shielded by a court order.
A young boy is being flown to hospital after a shark bit him on the foot while he was snorkelling near Coral Bay in Western Australia, AAP reports.
The 10-year-old was attacked by a two-metre bronze whaler at Five Finger Reef, south of the remote town, about 11am, the state’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said.
St John Ambulance said the boy was being airlifted to the Perth Children’s hospital.
He was about about 75 metres offshore at the time of the attack, the department said.
The beach at Five Finger Reef has been closed for 24 hours.
Parks and Wildlife officers have travelled to the scene.
In late March, spearfisherman Jackson Howson was bitten on the leg by a two-metre shark near Coral Bay. He managed to get away after punching it.
Coral Bay is about 1,200km north of Perth.
I filed this story earlier on the robodebt court judgment.
Wiebusch says there were more than 100,000 people without power as at 2pm.
The outage is affecting homes in the Gippsland area and the Dandenong ranges.
“It could be several days in some areas before we will see the return of power to some of those locations,” he says.
Tim Wiebusch from Victoria’s State Emergency Service is on the ABC.
He says the situation in flood-affected areas of Victoria remains “absolutely dangerous”.
“At this stage, to the best of our knowledge, there are no other missing person reports during this flood emergency, but it is still very much evolving,” he says.
“The footage that we have been seeing very much highlights the fact that there is a real risk that will continue for several days, we are expecting, as you just heard from the bureau, more rainfall.”
The Australian Council of Social Service chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, has responded to the robodebt judgment.
She says:
A man has received injuries to his foot after he was attacked by a two-metre bronze whaler at Coral Bay in Western Australia.
The man was snorkelling five metres offshore at the time of the attack.
WA’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said earlier that it was investigating a “possible shark bite incident at Coral Bay in the Shire of Carnarvon”.
It received a report of the incident at 11.14am today.
It’s warned people to take additional caution in the Coral Bay area.
Asked about the court’s judgment linking the robodebt scheme to suicides, he says the issue is “complex”.
• In Australia, the crisis support service is Lifeline.
Frydenberg is asked if the government now accepts the robodebt scheme was unlawful.
He says:
It is correct the government accepts no liability in the settlement.
