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Amy Remeikis

Albanese government to permit new fossil fuel projects that ‘stack up’

The Albanese government will continue to support new fossil fuel projects so long as they “stack up” from an economic and environmental perspective, the federal resources minister says.

Labor rejected the Greens’ demand that there be no new fossil fuel projects during negotiations over the climate bill. The government is pushing states and territories to expand domestic gas supply as it attempts to shore up the local market.

Madeleine King, in a speech to the resources industry in Queensland on Thursday, praised the gas industry stating:

The government understands that natural gas is the ally of renewable energy and will support the addition of more intermittent energy sources.

Read the full story from blog Queen Amy Remeikis here:

Further Victorian Covid details released

Victoria’s department of health has provided further detail on today’s Covid update.

The 36 deaths notified to the department yesterday included people in their 30s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 100s.

“Almost all” occurred in the past week.

It brings the total number of deaths in the state since the pandemic began to 4,880. Some 3,269 were recorded this year.

Cameron Smith welcome at Australian Open

Cameron Smith will be welcome to play the Australian Open – and any other event down under he chooses this summer – even if the newly crowned British Open champion joins LIV Golf, AAP reports.

In a win for Australian golf fans, officials have opted against following the lead of the US PGA and Europe’s DP World Tour in banning Australasian Tour members who commit to the Saudi-backed breakaway league.

Smith continues to be linked to a $A140m move to Greg Norman’s so-called rebel tour immediately after the PGA Tour’s FedExCup playoffs conclude later this month.

The world No.2 offered a “no comment” when asked this week about his reported plans, but Australian golf officials have given Smith the green light to tee up in his national championship in Melbourne from 1-4 December.

Australian PGA Tour chief Gavin Kirkman said while LIV Golf-aligned players had been suspended from the PGA and DP World Tours for being in “breach of their (tours’) regulations”, the rules are different for Australasian Tour members:

“(Our) regulations sit underneath the constitution and the players coming home to play, as long as there’s no conflicting event, they’ll be welcome to play,” Kirkman said after revealing a record $8m prize pool for the 16-event summer schedule on Thursday.

Video posted on social media of battle-damaged Australian vehicle donated to Ukraine

In Ukraine, footage has emerged of an Australian-donated Bushmaster IFV undergoing refurbishment after combat damage.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison and former foreign minister Marise Payne announced more than 30 Bushmasters – a type of troop carrier – would be sent to Ukraine in May as part of a military support package.

According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, the policy seeds that ultimately produced the Australian-designed and -built Bushmaster armoured troop carrier were planted in the Hawke government’s 1987 defence white paper.

A reminder to prepare yourselves for renewed rainfall this weekend if you’re on the south-east coast.

No matter what species Ronald is, he’s adorable and I am very jealous of the environment minister.

Josh Butler

Digging deep to bring you the facts

Here’s one final update on Tanya Plibersek and the wombat – because we at Guardian Australia are committed to rigorous fact-checking and bringing you the whole story, just to totally confirm for you, the wombat that the environment minister hugged is indeed named Ronald.

Plibersek’s office confirmed this to us this afternoon, and also shared the extra trivia fact that the marsupial is named after the former CEO of the Port Stephens koala hospital, a man called Ron.

Federal court orders Clive Palmer pay part of Mark McGowan’s legal costs

Paul Karp

The federal court has ordered Clive Palmer to pay an undetermined sum for Mark McGowan’s costs in half of the defamation proceedings between the pair.

Earlier in August, the court found the pair defamed each other in a war of words over Covid-19 and extraordinary legislation extinguishing the billionaire’s $30bn claim against Western Australia.

Palmer received damages of just $5,000 while McGowan got a little more ($20,000) because justice Michael Lee accepted his evidence about his hurt feelings.

On Thursday, Lee ordered that Palmer pay McGowan’s costs in the cross-claim from 22 December 2021, a few days after McGowan made an offer to Palmer to walk away from the case.

Although Lee found there was an “asymmetry of responsibility” for the litigation – because Palmer launched proceedings and did not accept McGowan’s offer – he declined to award costs in the primary case.

That was because Palmer did manage to secure judgment in his favour, “curial recognition that he had been defamed and no defence was available” and that was “no small thing”. This was a more favourable outcome than McGowan’s offer, so the WA premier should not get costs for that half of the case.

The judge ordered Palmer to pay a “lump sum” that will be determined by the parties or the court registrar. Lee noted there was likely to be a “glaring disproportion” between the costs and the judgment sum, which he labelled “chump change”.

Jacqui Lambie says claims process putting veterans under strain

Senator Jacqui Lambie appeared on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing earlier to weigh in on the interim Royal Commission report into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

She said it “hit on the things” that needed to change right now before the final report is released in two years time.

The claims processing … is a big one, we’ve had a revolving door of contractors for the last nine or 10 years in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, 44% of them were contracted staff.

Lambie said she “hoped” Labor would move to listen to the experts and bring them to the table in implementing the recommendations prior to 2024.

What we want to see is not just the apology, we want to see action and we don’t want to wait until the end of 2024 before you get the claims process sorted. That’s half your problems. People are trying to take their lives … and part of the problem is the claims processing. It’s putting them under financial strain and it’s not good enough.

Plibersek koala hospital visit – update

As posted in the blog earlier, minister for the environment Tanya Plibersek spent the day at the Port Stephens koala hospital – a site that, as the name implies, cares for and rehabilitates koalas.

But koalas aren’t the only animals in the hospital’s midst. Ronald, a wombat, and Errol, a possum, are also housed at the centre.

And upon closer inspection a tweeted image – which, to the unobservant eye – appeared to be Plibersek cosying up with a koala, could actually be 18-month-old Ronald the orphaned wombat.

Has Plibersek jumped ship? Where does her real allegiance lie? Only time will tell.

Senator calls for National Press Club not to host Chinese government officials

Josh Butler

Liberal senator Jim Molan has called on the National Press Club to refuse further speaking invitations to members of the Chinese government, after the controversial speech of ambassador Xiao Qian yesterday.

Molan, an army Major-General before entering politics, accused the Chinese ambassador of an “outright threat of violence” and called on the NPC to not host any further Chinese officials.

“His thinly veiled aggression, deflection and blame-shifting are, unfortunately, what we’ve come to expect from the increasingly belligerent Chinese Communist Party regime,” Molan wrote in a letter he tweeted to his followers on Thursday afternoon.

Molan called the speech a “disgraceful address” and called on the Press Club to “refrain in the future from providing the CCP with a platform to spread its lies and misinformation, and to prosecute its evil agenda.”

In the letter, addressed to NPC president and ABC 7.30 host Laura Tingle, he accused the Chinese government of a “lack of respect for Australia’s liberal democratic values, and for facts, pragmatism and reason”.

Veterans’ affairs minister to consider short-term reforms from interim report

Matt Keogh, minister for Veterans’ Affairs, just appeared on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing discussing the interim report from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

He said the commission had been a combination of “many, many reviews” into issues within defence and the Department.

This is not in any way submitted be taken lightly. It set forth … things that we as a government can get on with in the short to medium term before we get to the final report in a couple of years.

He said “certainly” something had be done to the foundations of the compensation and rehabilitation scheme for veterans, while he was also “working closely” on the backlog claims process.

But he didn’t have an “exact timeline” on when the backlog would end.

In the time I have been a minister and my engagement with veterans and service organisations, it’s one thing that comes up time and time again … it’ll see considerable improvement for veterans and serving personnel.

The department was resourced constrained and that inhibited its capacity to process claims and support veterans and that’s the key problem the royal commission has been hearing about … we’re talking about veterans, people who have served our nation and deserve to have the best service delivered to them. They can be efficiency through online portals but there has to be people involved.

More rain forecast for spring

The Bureau of Meteorology has released its latest climate outlook and its forecasting … yep, more rain come spring.

A “wetter than average” September to November is likely for the bulk of Australia, predominantly as a result of the negative IOD.

For the next two weeks, rainfall is also likely to be higher than average for the bulk of Australia, excluding the tropics.

This will continue through to November except for in western Tasmania and parts of north-western and south-western WA, the BoM says.

Maximum temperatures this spring are likely to be above median for the tropics, parts of the west and Tasmania but below median for much of the southern mainland.

Minimum temperatures for the remainder of August through to November are likely to be above median nationwide. The negative Indian Ocean Dipole event, warmer than average waters around northern Australia, and a neutral to cool phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, are likely to be influencing this outlook.

Family of NRL coach Paul Green ask for privacy after his death

Paul Green’s family have released a statement after his sudden death at 49, asking for privacy as they process their grief.

Today we are devastated.

We have lost a devoted husband, loving father and wonderful brother and son. We cannot find the words that would come close to expressing our feelings, however we would like to extend our thanks to those who have reached out to us with their love and support.

Paul was loved by so many and we know that this news will generate immense interest, however at this time we ask for privacy.

Our family is still trying to understand this tragedy and we request space and time as we come to terms with this loss.

The rugby league community is still in shock as it comes to term with the loss of Green, a legend of the sport as a player and a coach.

– with AAP.