Ed Husic calls for government to move beyond words on Israel
Former Labor minister Ed Husic has called for the government to move beyond words to action, and said sanctions on Israel are “probably under consideration”.
After Anthony Albanese on Monday said Israel’s blockade of aid into Gaza was “an outrage”, Husic said the prime minister’s comments were important but the government should do “whatever we can”. He told ABC Radio National:
We’ve got to the threshold where there’s an expectation we move beyond words … We should be speaking up, but beyond speaking up, I think it’s important that we act, and I certainly think it’s vital our government joins with others to be able to do that.
Husic repeated his calls for the government to call in Israel’s ambassador to Australia and emphasise expectations Israel cease limits on the provision of aid. He also speculated the government may also be drafting a list of targeted sanctions after the United Kingdom, France and Canada threatened to act against Israel over its military action in Gaza.:
The third area I think we should be actively considering, and I suspect it’s probably under consideration, is drawing up a list of targeted sanctions where we can join with others … we should be ready to move when others move as well, to be able to exert maximum international pressure to stop this blockade and to help people in Gaza.
Key events
Tasmania’s new stadium has risen in cost to nearly $1bn, the state government has revealed, in estimates published ahead of Thursday’s state budget.
The stadium proposed for Hobart’s Macquarie Point will cost an estimated $945m, well above the initial projected cost of $715m when the project was announced in 2023, according to a report on draft legislation published by the Tasmanian government.
The Australian Football League demanded a new stadium in return for the state being granted a licence for a long-sought-after team in the national competition but the development has remained contentious in the two years since.
The AFL is expected to provide $15m in stadium funding but the report it would not be possible to achieve legal certainty of a licence for the Tasmania Devils team without planning and other approvals to construct the stadium.
The state government has already spent an estimated $28m this financial year and will put forward a committed $347m, with the stadium’s development agency to borrow more than $300m more to meet the latest estimated cost. The federal government in 2023 committed to provide $240m toward the development.
For context, you can read Adam Morton’s analysis of the proposal:
Tom McIlroy
Aboriginal people feel Labor isn’t listening to them after voice defeat, Uluru statement co-author says
One of the architects of the Indigenous voice to parliament says Aboriginal Australians increasingly feel the government is not listening to their views on laws and policy design, warning against closed-shop public consultations in the wake of the referendum defeat.
Megan Davis, a constitutional scholar and signatory to the Uluru statement from the heart, said the re-elected Albanese government was facing growing displays of discontent and needed a new approach to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Davis said Indigenous policy frameworks were failing and engagement with government was subject to growing “exclusivity”. She told Guardian Australia:
They consult only those who have contracts with them, or are enlisted in the Closing the Gap ‘partnership’, so to speak …
Many Aboriginal people are now saying that the no vote has been interpreted as bureaucrats and government no longer needing to listen to community voices on laws and policies.
The comments come at the start of National Reconciliation Week and on the eighth anniversary of the release of Uluru statement, the 2017 request from Indigenous leaders built around the concepts of voice, treaty and truth.
You can read the full story from Guardian Australia’s chief political correspondent, Tom McIlroy, here:
Hundreds of properties deemed uninhabitable after NSW floods
Nearly 800 buildings have been left uninhabitable after flooding devastated the mid-north coast of New South Wales, with the number expected to rise as assessments continue.
The state emergency service has confirmed 794 properties have already been deemed uninhabitable, including homes and business premises.
The SES and other government teams have carried out more than 5,300 damage assessments, a spokesperson said, warning that more buildings were likely be assessed as unliveable. They said in a statement:
Our teams will continue working through damage assessments, washouts and clean-up efforts over the coming days and it is likely the number will rise.
You can read more about how the floods have destroyed livelihoods and property here:
Woman charged with murder after child found dead
A 32-year-old woman has been charged with murder after the death of a child at a home in a Queensland coastal town, AAP reports.
Police launched a homicide investigation after the child was found unresponsive at the home at Moore Park Beach, north of Bundaberg in Queensland, about 4.45pm on Monday.
Grant Marcus, a Queensland police chief inspector, on Monday told reporters at the scene that the woman was assisting detectives with their inquiries:
We’re trying now to process this whole scene to determine what on earth has happened here this evening … This is a really tragic evening.
Investigators quickly set up a crime scene and said there was no ongoing threat to the community. The woman is due to appear in the Bundaberg magistrates court on Tuesday, May 27.
Parents of toddler Joe Massa call for state government to take over Healthscope-run private hospital
The parents of a toddler who died after attending an emergency department at a Healthscope-run hospital have called for the state government to take control and cheered the private health operator’s collapse.
Healthscope, backed by global investment firm Brookfield, fell into receivership after accruing $1.6bn in debt and defaulting on various lease payments.
Eloise and Danny Massa, parents of Joe Massa, who died after presenting at the Northern Beaches hospital in Sydney a month before his second birthday, said they were glad to see the private operator go under. Eloise told Channel Nine:
We are pleased that Brookfield is now finally out of the way. It can stop trying to profit from caring off our sick and injured in Australia. Brookfield has a lot of answers to provide us, including its company directors.
The hospital could only run effectively if it returned to public ownership, Danny Massa said:
Private equity shouldn’t be involved in running critical health infrastructure in Australia Their modus operandi is to fatten up the bottom line and to sell the business for a profit. … [It] needs to change and that will only occur when the Northern Beaches hospital returns to public hands.
The New South Wales health minister, Ryan Park, confirmed this morning the government still hoped to take control of the hospital and renegotiate Healthscope’s contract.
Rishworth says MPs will also be subject to super tax for those with over $3m in the end, despite deferrals
An Albanese government minister has claimed most Australians expect those with large superannuation balances would have to pay extra tax, after reports some government officials would be permitted to put off their payments.
Asked whether it was fair that some politicians, including the prime minister, will be able to defer their payments under Labor’s proposal to reduce super tax concessions, the employment minister, Amanda Rishworth, said everyone with balances over $3m would still have to pay in the end. She told Channel Nine:
I get super as a federal politician just like other commonwealth public servants, and I’ll be subject to the same tax if my balance ever reaches over $3m. So past federal and future federal MPs will be subject to this tax.
Rishworth avoided taking a stance on whether it was fair the deferral would only be accessed by some veteran public officials, thanks to the structure of their defined benefit pensions, but said it was reasonable for those with bigger balances to pay more. She said:
I would suggest that those 99.5% of people that don’t have a balance over $3m, probably assume that you would get have to pay a little bit more tax for it.
Damaging gusts expected along flood-battered NSW coast
It’s set to be a windy day around the country, the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast.
Strong to possibly damaging gusts are expected along New South Wales’ mid-north coast and Hunter, in areas battered by floods last week, as well as along the state’s south coast and mountain ranges.
Damaging winds are still expected about the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, after wild weather across the state yesterday.
Gentler but still strong winds are expected in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and south-east Queensland, as well as northern Tasmania.
NSW health minister says Healthscope public-private hospital ‘not a model that works’
The New South Wales health minister, Ryan Park, has said Healthscope’s private hospital model should never have been established, after the medical operator fell into receivership on Monday.
Park said the indebted private healthcare provider, operator of 37 hospitals including Sydney’s embattled Northern Beaches hospital, did not work as a model. He told the ABC :
This is not a model of healthcare that we should be doing in New South Wales. This is not a model that works, because the public health system is designed to deliver those acute public health services. … This model shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
The NSW government was still hoping to take back the Northern Beaches hospital, which has faced criticism amid concerns over patient care, Park said:
We need to make sure that services are delivered effectively, but also, most importantly, safely … and will continue that during what we hope to really transition [the hospital] back in to the public fold.
You can read more about the business’s collapse here:
Queensland nurses to strike over enterprise bargaining negotiations
Andrew Messenger
Queensland nurses are set to walk off the job after 96.5% of union members voted to strike this week.
The Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union has been locked in negotiations with the state government for a new enterprise bargaining agreement for months. Sticking points include the wage offer, but also over what the union says are moves to eliminate clauses guaranteeing parental leave arrangements, flexible working arrangements, and consultation rights – among others.
The state government threatened to strip nurses and midwives of eight weeks’ backpay if they took part in the ballot for protected industrial action.
The Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union secretary, Sarah Beaman, said almost all members who voted in the ballot voted yes:
This overwhelming yes vote for protective industrial action in the face of threats and the removal of rights highlights the collective strength of public nurses and midwives state-wide.
The union said it will meet with Queensland health this week to continue negotiations.
It’s the first enterprise agreement negotiated by the new Liberal National party government since it won power last October. The matter is being seen by many as setting a precedent for public sector relations broadly – the last LNP government, under then premier Campbell Newman, sacked thousands of nurses and other public servants.
Norwegian princess to study at University of Sydney
Norway’s princess Ingrid Alexandra will move to Australia to study at the University of Sydney, the Norwegian royal house has announced.
The 21-year-old is second in line to Norway’s throne after her father, the crown prince and heir apparent. She will live in a student residence at the university’s inner-Sydney campus, studying a three-year Bachelor of Arts focusing on international relations and political economy.
Ingrid Alexander, who is the niece of high-profile Norwegian princess Märtha Louise, is excited for the move, the royal house said in a statement:
Her Royal Highness looks forward to dedicating herself to her studies in the years to come.
