UN working group raises concerns over Indigenous over-representation in Australian prisons
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has raised major concerns about the detention of Indigenous people, children and migrants.
The experts urged Australian authorities to engage in comprehensive reforms to reduce the imprisonment of First Nations peoples, raise the minimum age of detention to at least 14 years, and end the mandatory detention of persons with irregular visa status.
The working group wrote in a statement:
The gross overrepresentation of First Nations peoples in the prison population, the shocking detention of children as young as 10, and the punitive approach to migrants are human rights crises that continue to plague Australia.
First Nations people make up just 3.8% of Australia’s population, yet they account for 35% of those imprisoned in the country.
Addressing this crisis requires authorities to work in genuine partnership with First Nations communities to co-design solutions, from early intervention, including prior to contact with the criminal justice system, through to reintegration after detention – rather than relying on punitive approaches.
Key events
King plays down Rowland travel entitlement repayments
The minister for infrastructure, Catherine King, was speaking to the media earlier, where she was asked about the attorney general, Michelle Rowland, repaying part of the cost of taking her family on a holiday to Western Australia after the independent watchdog found her spending breached the rules.
King said:
I understand community concern about this. But again, the reason this authority was set up in the first place was to provide that independent advice to parliamentarians. Whether you’re a backbencher or whether you’re a whether you’re a minister or whether you’re a shadow minister, to make sure that you’re actually following the rules.
And that’s really what the authority is doing at the moment. It’s also why the government has asked for some further advice to try and make sure that there’s some clarity around family reunion payments, in particular, and the way in which people are using them.
Alleged hit-and-run on Sunshine Coast leaves pedestrian in critical condition
A 23-year-old woman is fighting for her life, and a man is in custody, after an alleged hit-and-run on the Sunshine Coast.
Emergency services were called to Aerodrome Road at Maroochydore just before midnight on Saturday after a Toyota Yaris ploughed into eight pedestrians.
The driver of the Yaris, a 38-year-old man, allegedly fled the scene in the car after the crash, but was found by police a short time later at a nearby house. Investigations are ongoing.
The woman was airlifted to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a critical condition.
Labor promotes $20bn in savings before mid-year budget update
Tom McIlroy
Ahead of Wednesday’s mid-year update to the federal budget, Labor is talking up $20bn in savings.
This weekend, the government has also moved to stop huge blowouts in the cost of its home battery program, with changes due to come into force in May.
Already over subscribed, the assistance for households to add storage options for their home solar systems is costing about $2bn. Another $5bn will be spent, but without changes to taper some of the rules, the cost was on track to hit $14bn. The changes announced on Saturday will slow that spending.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, has separately listed various savings being included in the mid-year fiscal and economic outlook.
She says they include $6.8bn in savings from reduced spending on consultants, contractors and labour hire and non-wage expenses such as travel, hospitality and property.
Another $1.8bn will be saved from lifting the freeze on social security deeming rates to pre-pandemic settings.
About $882m will be saved from changes within the Department of Veterans Affairs, while the defence portfolio will see $574m in savings.
Then there’s $425m in uncommitted funds from the Hydrogen Headstart program, as well as $286m from additional childcare subsidy integrity activities.
“Delivering savings isn’t just good fiscal management, it’s about guaranteeing that the services our communities depend on remain strong and sustainable, while also dealing with the significant spending pressures we are facing,” Gallagher said.
Phone of Belgian woman missing in Tasmania since 2023 found in Tarkine wilderness
Tasmania Police resources will formally join an independent search for missing Belgian woman, Celine Cremer, after her mobile phone was located at Philosopher Falls in the north-west of the state yesterday.
It has been two and a half years since Cremer disappeared, with her friends and family arranging a privately organised search of the area this weekend, with Tasmania Police’s support.
Inspector Andrew Hanson said the private search party located a mobile phone, which has been confirmed as belonging to Celine and which will undergo further forensic examination.
Inspector Hanson said it’s believed Cremer walked off the track to take a more direct route back to her car as daylight faded. He said:
In the days since Celine’s disappearance, the winter weather in the area included sub zero temperatures, snow and rainfall.”
Expert medical advice at the time indicated those conditions were not survivable for the duration she is believed to have been exposed.
Tom McIlroy
Opposition MP repays money spent on family trips
Opposition shadow assistant minister, Philip Thompson, says he has repaid taxpayers for family flights taken in Queensland.
Thompson, and the attorney-general Michelle Rowland, are among the first MPs to repay money in the current expenses scandal.
Thompson, the member for Herbert, says he asked staffers to run an internal check against the publicly available data from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority. He believes the spending on family travel was within the rules, but has opted to repay anyway.
“A few things didn’t add up – including travel listed for February when I was actually in Townsville helping with the community flood response,” he said.
“I have asked the IPEA to review those records and clear things up ASAP.
“The internal check also flagged that some Cairns flights for family visits hadn’t been reimbursed by me as I had planned. I have now fixed that and taken immediate action to make full payment through the authority.”
One of Australia’s smallest surviving newborns weighs about the same as a can of soup
Tiny Charlie Jones is a mini miracle, defying the odds as one of Australia’s smallest surviving newborns, AAP has reported.
Born at just over 26 weeks, Charlie weighed 360 grams – slightly bigger than a can of soup – when he arrived at Brisbane’s Mater hospital on 8 October. Charlie is the smallest ever born at the Queensland hospital and one of the tiniest in the country.
Doctors feared baby Charlie would be too tiny for the equipment he needed to keep him alive.
After more than two months in the hospital’s neonatal critical care unit, Charlie now weighs 1.44kg and he could be home in January.
Mum Samantha Jones, 28, has spent every day by her son’s side and knew he was special.
At times, we thought he might not make it, but he is so strong and determined. He’s a fighter for sure.
Melbourne’s West Gate Tunnel opens to fanfare
The West Gate Tunnel in Melbourne has opened today, providing an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, with new ramps, bridges, elevated roadways and a widened and upgraded West Gate freeway.
To mark the occasion, a procession of old cars drove through the tunnel. Take a look at the action:
Pressure mounts on Albanese government to control gas exports
A broad range of consumer, industry and climate and environment organisations have called upon the Federal government to put people before gas exporters as it considers a new gas policy expected to be released soon.
Kellie Caught, program director for climate and energy at ACOSS says:
Australia’s focus on gas exports has tripled domestic gas and electricity prices, driving up inflation and household bills. Multinational gas corporations are posting huge profits while people on low incomes are skipping meals, not cooling homes and going without medicines because they can’t afford their energy bills.
The government must implement gas export market controls and avoid options that effectively subsidise gas companies or incentivise new polluting gas production. It’s time for this government to prioritise people over rich gas companies.
Girl, 17, dies after falling off cliff on Sunshine Coast
A report will be prepared for the coroner after the sudden death of a teenage girl at Moffat beach on the Sunshine Coast last night.
Emergency services were called at about 6.40pm after reports a 17-year-old girl had fallen off a cliff.
Police helped to find the girl, who sustained critical injuries and was declared dead at the scene.
A second woman sustained a minor injury prior to the arrival of emergency services while attempting to provide assistance.
Tom McIlroy
Grocery and fuel retailers will have to accept cash for some purchases from January
Labor is moving ahead with plans to make businesses accept cash for payment for essential purchases from next month.
Grocery and fuel retailers will be required to accept cash for in-person transactions worth $500 or less between 7am and 9pm.
Small businesses with aggregate annual turnover under $10m will be exempt, but the rules will apply to small businesses that share trademarks with a larger retailer.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government will review the cash mandate after three years.
“You should be able to pay with cash if you need to, and that’s what these regulations are all about,” he says.
Australian supermarkets complain about government grocery prices rules
Australia’s big supermarkets are furious they are being targeted with more regulations, Australian Associated Press reports, with Coles crying poor about making about $2.50 for every $100 a customer spends.
Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters
The federal government has introduced rules to limit “excessive pricing of groceries” with changes to Australia’s Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, which was made mandatory in April.
But Coles says more regulations are not the answer to lowering grocery prices and will drive costs up for shoppers.
“At a time when the focus should be on easing cost-of-living pressures, these regulations risk doing the opposite,” a spokesperson said today.
“For every $100 customers spend at Coles, we make around $2.43 in profit – less than three cents in the dollar,” they say.
UN working group raises concerns over Indigenous over-representation in Australian prisons
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has raised major concerns about the detention of Indigenous people, children and migrants.
The experts urged Australian authorities to engage in comprehensive reforms to reduce the imprisonment of First Nations peoples, raise the minimum age of detention to at least 14 years, and end the mandatory detention of persons with irregular visa status.
The working group wrote in a statement:
The gross overrepresentation of First Nations peoples in the prison population, the shocking detention of children as young as 10, and the punitive approach to migrants are human rights crises that continue to plague Australia.
First Nations people make up just 3.8% of Australia’s population, yet they account for 35% of those imprisoned in the country.
Addressing this crisis requires authorities to work in genuine partnership with First Nations communities to co-design solutions, from early intervention, including prior to contact with the criminal justice system, through to reintegration after detention – rather than relying on punitive approaches.
Tom McIlroy
Chalmers says ‘really strange’ for shadow treasurer to miss mid-year budget update
The shadow treasurer, Ted O’Brien, is on leave this week and will miss the government’s mid-year budget update.
O’Brien is in the United States on a trip with family members.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will release the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook on Wednesday, set to give a new snapshot of the government’s budget position and update key economic forecasts.
Chalmers says it will include about $20bn in new savings to help the bottom line.
Speaking on Sky News on Sunday morning, he said there must be a good reason for O’Brien to miss the annual statement.
It would be really strange, if not unprecedented, for the shadow treasurer to go on holidays during the mid-year budget update, particularly when we’ve said for some time now, it will be in the middle of December.
So it’s up for Ted O’Brien to explain to his colleagues. I can’t imagine they’re happy about it, but from my point of view, I’m not going to have a shot at him, because I’ve got more important things to worry about than where Ted is in the country or in the world.
I’m very focused on delivering this mid-year budget update, whether he’s here or not.
Tom McIlroy
Federal government pushes ahead with controls on grocery price gouging
The federal government has taken the next step on plans to stop supermarkets from price gouging their customers.
Promised during the federal election campaign, the new ban is designed to prohibit retailers such as Coles and Woolworths from charging prices that are excessive when compared to the cost of the supply plus a reasonable margin.
The new ban, delivered through the Food and Grocery Code, will come into effect on 1 July next year. The competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, will police the laws.
If Coles and Woolworths breach the laws, they face penalties of whatever amount is greater: $10m or three times the value of the benefit derived, or 10% of the company’s turnover during the past year.
“These changes give the regulator the powers and the penalties it needs to hold supermarkets to account,” Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.
“Whether it’s boosting funding for the regulator, banning price gouging or making the food and grocery code mandatory, we’re doing everything we can to ease pressure on Australians.
“One of the best ways to ease the cost of living for Australians is to help people get fairer prices at the checkout and that’s what this is all about.”
Michelle Rowland to make repayment for 2023 family trip found to be partly outside guidelines
Tom McIlroy
The attorney general, Michelle Rowland, has become the first MP to make repayments for family travel amid growing controversy about politicians expenses, after some of her claims for a 2023 trip were found to be a breach of the rules.
Rowland used family reunion travel entitlements to take her children on a trip to Perth. The independent parliamentary expenses authority has found some of the expenses should not have been paid for by taxpayers.
“During the trip to Perth, the attorney-general had at least 10 official engagements,” a spokesperson said.
IPEA finalised its advice on Friday 12 December and conveyed a portion of the family reunion travel expenses were outside the guidelines.
The attorney-general has formally accepted that advice on Friday and commenced steps to make a repayment.
Rowland did not claim travel allowance payments for the days she did not have official engagements on the trip, and paid for her own expenses and accommodation in Western Australia.
Rowland’s trip cost $21,000, which included about $16,000 for business-class air fares.
Police investigating shots fired in Sydney’s west
An investigation is under way after an alleged public place shooting in Sydney’s west overnight.
NSW police said that just after 12.30am on Sunday, police were called to a home on Hunt Street, Guildford West, following reports of shots fired.
Officers attached to Cumberland police area command were told a number of shots were fired at a house before a white hatchback left the scene.
The three occupants of the house – two women and a child – were not injured.
About 3.20am on the same day, emergency services were called to James Street, Guildford West, following reports of a car fire. On arrival, police located a white hatchback well alight.
Multiple crimes scenes have been established, and police commenced an investigation if the two incidents are linked.
Welcome
Good morning, and welcome to the blog! I am Cait Kelly and I will be with you throughout the day.
A few things around this morning :
Australia is experiencing severe weather across the country – with heatwaves in the west and cool fronts in the east. Western Australia is in the grips of a heatwave, with Perth forecasted to reach 39C and surrounding suburbs could exceed 40C on Sunday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The federal government has introduced rules to limit “excessive pricing of groceries” with changes to Australia’s Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, which was made mandatory in April. The ban will prohibit very large retailers from charging prices that are excessive when compared to the cost of the supply, plus a reasonable margin, the government said on Sunday.
And Australia’s koala population could be many multiples higher than previous estimates -New tools such as heat-detecting drones and acoustic recorders uncovered an additional 244,000 of the furry marsupials nestled in trees across NSW. That’s a significant jump from previous figures, which put the state’s koala population anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000.
Let’s get into it!
