Health News at Your Fingertips

Albanese is attacking Australia’s performance at COP26, saying we need to do more to work constructively with the rest of the world.

“We’ve worked with Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Brazil as one of the few industrialised countries that refused to change the 2030 target.”

Albanese is commenting on the Glasgow agreement and attacking the PM for backflipping on key policy areas.

“This is a Prime Minister who can’t be trusted who himself says, “I’m not concerned about what I said yesterday.”

“So given that he can’t give any credence to what he said just yesterday, why should Australians have regard for what he says today?”

And Anthony Albanese is addressing media now.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific has also put out a statement on the Cop26 final text, saying the agreement is far from perfect but it does send a message that coal is on the way out.

CEO David Ritter said:

This is not the deal the world needed, but it is what has been delivered – and the momentum is in the right direction.

The task ahead is relentless pressure on the fossil fuel corporations and reckless governments such as Australia’s.

And make no mistake – one clear positive is that the governments of the world have agreed for the first time that the age of coal is over.

The language could be stronger, but the message to Scott Morrison and his government is clear – Australia needs to rapidly exit coal and stop lavishing billions in subsidies on this polluting industry.

Graham Readfearn’s story from Friday night noted the modelling showed the Coalition’s “technology not taxes” plan would leave the nation relying on offsets and unknown technology breakthroughs – and the gas sector growing.

The modelling suggested the “net zero” plan would see the value of the coal industry drop by half by 2050.

The Morrison government released modelling underpinning its net-zero-by-2050 goal on Friday afternoon. Critics said it “may as well have been written in crayon” and it pointed to Australia not reaching its own mid-century target.

We had a great piece from Ketan Joshi on Saturday morning dissecting the climate modelling:

In April this year, Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, said that “we will not achieve net zero in the cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities”. This explains why he turned to the salt-of-the-Earth hard-workin’ rural folk at McKinsey – one of the biggest billion-dollar multinational consulting agencies on the planet – to produce the Australian government’s long-awaited modelling explaining the pathway to “net zero by 2050”.

A 17-year-old is in critical condition after he was stabbed multiple times in an inner Sydney park.

Police were called to Yurong Parkway at Woolloomooloo about 11pm on Saturday with reports of a physical altercation and stabbing. Officers were told three males had stabbed the teenage boy and then fled.

The 17-year-old is in St Vincent’s hospital in a critical but stable condition.

An investigation is under way with police asking anyone with relevant information to come forward.

This from AAP on last week’s job figures:

The federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, is confident of a strong rebound in the Australian labour market as Covid restrictions and lockdowns end.

Official jobs data for October released last week showed the unemployment rate unexpectedly spiking to 5.2% from 4.6%, although it did not capture the easing of restrictions in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

Frydenberg says Australian Taxation Office data shows payroll jobs rose 13% in the fortnight to 24 October. New hires were 25% up in NSW, 15% higher in Victoria and 22% stronger in the ACT.

“We are seeing thousands of new hires across the economy but also, importantly, we are going to see tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people come off zero hours and back into work,” the treasurer told Sky News on Sunday.

“We are very confident of a strong rebound in the labour market, that we can see unemployment get back to the fours, bearing in mind it hadn’t been under 5% for a decade.”

Treasury analysis using banking data shows consumer spending is now greater than it was pre-pandemic with NSW and Victoria spending an extra $150m a day after lockdowns eased. Frydenberg suggested the economy was now facing a private sector-led recovery.

“We as the government are handing over the baton to the private sector to carry Australia’s economy forward,” he said.

Queensland is just about to reach its first major Covid-19 vaccine milestone today – the state is expected to hit 70% double-dose target this afternoon.

In news that will make many separated families happy, it means border restrictions will be eased for those fully vaccinated.

Under the state’s roadmap, fully vaccinated people will be allowed to enter from interstate hotspots if they fly in after having a negative Covid test within 72 hours and can quarantine at home for 14 days.

Good morning team Guardian and many thanks to Christopher Knaus, whose capable hands have taken you through the morning.

We’ve got Albanese speaking in a few minutes and I have this fun little fact for your Sunday morning – Tanya Plibersek is now the longest-serving female in the lower house since Federation. Bronwyn Bishop of course spent quite a while, but Plibersek has taken the cake!

I’m going to hand you over now to the excellent Cait Kelly, who will take you through the rest of the morning’s developments.

Some really interesting news out of New South Wales.

Environment minister Matt Kean has announced that the Ben Boyd National Park, located on NSW’s far south coast, will be renamed in the language of its traditional custodians.

Indigenous communities had requested the park be renamed due to Boyd’s association with blackbirding, the kidnapping of Pacific Islanders to work as slaves or poorly paid labourers.

Kean said:

It is time to acknowledge the real history of Ben Boyd and remove his name from the national park that continues to hold enormous cultural significance for Aboriginal people.

It is clear from the expert historical analysis, that Ben Boyd’s association with ‘blackbirding’ should not be reflected or celebrated in any way in our national parks.

Last year, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service engaged an independent historian, Mark Dunn, to report on Boyd’s history on the NSW south coast.

The report confirmed his involvement in blackbirding was viewed by many at the time as a form of slavery.