Health News at Your Fingertips

Nick Evershed

Increase in proportion of non-religious Australians

There’s been quite a large increase in the proportion of Australians who aren’t religious, with the percentage of non-religious people increasing from 29.6% in 2016 to 38.9% in 2021.

The ABS reports that while the proportion of Christians has declined, there have also been increases in other religions, such as Hinduism which grew by 55.3% to 684,002 people, or 2.7% of the population.

Consumer sentiment shows resilience

Amid the concerns about rising prices, it’s worth keeping an eye on how consumer sentiment is faring.

Lately, perhaps surprisingly, consumers have been perking up, at least according to the weekly surveys by ANZ and Roy Morgan. The gauge remains well below neutral levels.

The underlying components are also a bit mixed. “Current economic conditions” fell 2.5%, its fourth straight weekly decline, but “future economic conditions” are up 6% – clawing back much of the 7.1% slide over the previous three weeks.

As for “time to buy a major household item”, this gauge rose 9.8%, another upbeat sign.

Also closely watched is whether expectations of higher inflation are taking hold. On this measure, too, there is some good news, with consumers paring back slightly their views of how high prices will go:

One factor that may chill consumer confidence – and expectations about higher prices – is rising interest rates. As of yesterday, here’s what investors were tipping, including a 63% chance that the RBA will lift its cash rate to 1.5% at next Tuesday’s board meeting.

Another thing to watch is what happens to property prices. Rising “home values” tend to make people feel richer (if you own a house or flat, or are paying one off), and that tends to stoke spending.

On that score, the arrow looks to be pointed lower, as we reported this morning.

And here’s a visualisation of how migration has grown since 2016.

Census reveals population growth

Would you like some more census graphs? You know you would. Here’s how the population has grown since 2016, broken down by regional and capital city areas.

Interestingly, the only state or territory in which regional growth outgrew capital city growth was in Victoria.

I’d love to know how much of that growth happened since, oh, March 2020.

Christopher Knaus

An immigration officer working in Australia’s embassy in South Africa acted corruptly by taking money in exchange for providing inside information on visa applications, the law enforcement watchdog has alleged.

The Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity on Tuesday released a report examining allegations of corrupt conduct by visa processing staff in 2017.

It alleged that a local employee engaged by the Australian embassy in Pretoria, named Officer G, abused their office and engaged in corrupt conduct by providing information to applicants in exchange for money.

Aclei also alleged the officer “inappropriately granted visa applications, a number of which were linked to the persons that Officer G was giving advice to in exchange for payment”.

The investigation also identified broader problems within the visa processing area.

The integrity commissioner, Jaala Hinchcliffe, said:

Since the establishment of the Visa Integrity Task Force, numerous vulnerabilities in relation to locally engaged employees and offshore visa processing have been identified. Operation Embla highlights the importance of robust frameworks for allocating visa applications and ensuring there is adequate management oversight of their processing.

I never thought I’d say this in all seriousness, but here’s Malcolm Roberts quite effectively making the argument about why the parliamentary staffing cuts make the job of government oversight by independents harder.

A question from Guardian’s own Sarah Martin:

In regards to the capability gap, what is your latest advice as to when you expect the first of the nuclear subs to be able to be delivered and when you say there are several options on the table, are there any other options you can tell us have been disregarded?

Marles:

That is a process that we’re working through under the framework of Aukus with the United Kingdom and the United States. Within that, there are number of options will be worked through and it is not an obvious choice.

We are seeking to expedite that as quickly as possible but I am not about to commit to a timeline now … We want to get it as soon as possible. But we are talking about a very big step that will be taken in relation to a capability to driving nuclear-powered submarines. It won’t happen soon. But we want to work out how quickly we can get it and every year counts.

A reporter asks whether, given the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia has said he would like to see more Bushmasters and armoured personnel carriers in Ukraine, would the Albanese government commit to providing those?

Marles:

In relation to the Ukraine, we are looking at continuing to look at the ways which we can help. I think as it stands now, we are closing in on almost $300m worth of assistance to Ukraine. Not all of that has been delivered and we are continuing the process of delivering it. But we’re also looking an additional way in which we can support Ukraine.

The reason for that is that while Ukraine is a long way from Australia, we really do see that the principles which are at stake in that conflict, which is essentially that the global rule-based order that Australian stands for and has helped build and protect needs to be protected everywhere. In eastern Europe and the Indo-Pacific as well.

While this is a conflict a long way away, we see it as one that very much engages Australia’s national interest and therefore stand with Ukraine against the aggression of Russia and we will continue to look at ways to support them.

The second half of the question was, could we see two nuclear submarines by 2030 from the US as part of the arrangement? Marles says they are “evaluating options”.

A reporter asks, when will the military have a female service chief?

Marles:

It is a really good question. Again, yes, there is consideration. Ultimately … the decisions have been made against the backdrop of who we believe are the most capable people to fill these roles. It is a really relevant question.

It is very important that the Australian Defence Force looks like Australia in terms of its diversity. I know that in general Campbell’s time, there has been a real emphasis on improving the diversity of the Defence Force so that it … look[s] more like Australia. But there is a way to go.

There is not gender equality in terms of the number of representatives in the Defence Force right now. Having said that, there are rising number of women within the Defence Force.

Marles is asked about the “complex strategic environment” in which he’s making this announcement, especially in relation to “defence acquisition” – think submarines.

Marles says:

We have seen a number of key procurements fall behind. We do have … capability challenges facing the country. Most significantly, delivering the next generation of submarines.

To that end, it really is important we have some continuity in respect of how we manage that through and particularly, as chief of defence force admiral Johnston and the investment committee has a really such a role in respect of that, and that continuity will serve us well [in] making sure we can deliver those as quickly as possible, because we cannot afford any more delay in terms of delivering Australia’s new submarine capability.

He doesn’t miss the opportunity to take some swipes at the previous Morrison government:

Governments procure. Governments govern, or they don’t, and the former government did not. It is the responsibility of the former government that we have seen that procurements fall behind and it is governments that procure. This new government, the Albanese government, intends to govern.

Marles is speaking to the media, and he says the new appointments and term extensions are being made at “a time when our nation faces great challenges”.

He’s asked about the Brereton Report:

The report dealt with really difficult matters that face our defence force. These are matters that are incredibly important … and the country is asking us to deal with them.

I also say that we have been very lucky to have general Campbell in place while this really difficult issue has faced our country. There remains work to be done in terms of the report and we will continue working [on that]. And to that end, the extension of general Campbell’s term, I think, is completely appropriate and will serve the nation well in the full implementation of those recommendations.

Daniel Hurst

The government has also asked the chief of the ADF to extend the term of the chief of joint operations, Greg Bilton, for two years.

And he’s announced three new appointments:

• Chief of navy: Mark Hammond
• Chief of army: Simon Stuart
• Chief of air force: Robert Chipman

They replace the outgoing service chiefs Michael Noonan (navy), Rick Burr (army), Mel Hupfeld (air force), whose terms were due to expire soon.

Australian Defence Force chiefs will have terms extended

Daniel Hurst

The chief of the ADF, Angus Campbell, will have his term extended by two years, the defence minister, Richard Marles, has announced.

Marles has also announced that the vice chief of the ADF, David Johnston, will have his term extended by two years. Marles said:

We arrive at a time which is as strategically complex as any since the end of the second world war in terms of our national security and the needs of our defence procurement.

He has also announced new chiefs for navy, army and air force. More details soon.