Health News at Your Fingertips

In the middle of Papua New Guinea’s national elections, 18 people have lost their lives due to violence.

Miles Franklin winner reflects on award-winning book

In case you missed it, the 2022 Miles Franklin award was announced last night, with the award going to Jennifer Down for her novel Bodies of Light.

The judges praised the “ethical precision” of the Melburnian’s second novel, which unpacks the horrors of institutional failure.

Imogen Dewey spoke to the author about her novel:

Victoria demands urgent plan amid gas shortage

The national market operator needs to implement “immediate measures” that address the state’s gas shortage crisis, according to Victoria’s energy minister, AAP reports.

Lily D’Ambrosio said the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) must establish a viable plan to control gas supply levels at national storage facilities, after it was revealed that the Iona facility near Port Campbell recently dropped to record lows.

We want Aemo to develop a plan to ensure minimal storage levels are maintained at the nationally significant Iona storage facility and other national facilities – providing more transparency for the market and avoiding situations where Aemo intervenes at the last minute.

Aemo has been asked to provide options at the next meeting of energy ministers.

D’Ambrosio said:

Our expectation is that Aemo would be able to implement this plan immediately, while federal and state governments have time to introduce a considered national energy reserve.

Experts have warned that the gas shortage could plunge the electricity market into a fresh power crisis.

Iona supports the eastern states, particularly during winter and is critical to the national market. Gas supply levels at Iona dropped due to high demand amid the state’s price cap, which remains at $40 a gigajoule.

Frost, mist and snow in Tasmania

A day after he was found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct, John Sidoti is refusing to quit NSW parliament, saying he will take the fight to clear his name, AAP reports.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption made a corruption finding against the former Liberal minister on Wednesday and recommended the Director of Public Prosecutions be consulted about possible criminal charges.

The anti-corruption watchdog investigated the now independent MP for Drummoyne over his lobbying of local councillors to rezone blocks at Five Dock in Sydney, where his family owned property.

Premier Dominic Perrottet phoned his former colleague before flying to Japan on a trade trip on Wednesday night, giving him an ultimatum to resign from parliament – or face an expulsion motion.

Sidoti said his response was brief. He told Sydney radio 2GB today:

It was two words and I can’t mention them on camera..

Sidoti insists he won’t resign, will “absolutely” prove his innocence and has instructed his lawyers to lodge an application in the supreme court.

The reality is I’m innocent, I’m going to fight this … on principle.

He criticised Icac, saying it was “a ridiculous system” that needed reform adding he had endured “three years of misery” as the inquiry dragged on.

There have been many innocent people before me who have gone through what I’ve gone through, their reputation is tarnished, their life is trashed.

I’ve done everything I can in the last 11 years to wholeheartedly represent my community.

Icac found Sidoti misused his position as an MP to pressure and threaten City of Canada Bay council Liberal councillors to rezone land to benefit his family’s property interests.

Sidoti said his business interests in Five Dock, where his family owned a function centre, were well known by everyone in the area.

So the idea that somehow they didn’t know or they lost their memory is just unacceptable.

Storms lashes New Zealand capital Wellington, cancelling flights

All flights in and out of Wellington airport have been cancelled until further notice as the New Zealand capital endures a savage storm, AAP reports.

A roaring southerly wind is battering the city, with gusts of over 150kmph measured at nearby Baring Head.

Some coastal roads have been closed and emergency services are warning of storm surges as the weather worsens into the afternoon and evening, with seven metre swells forecast.

As of noon, the temperature in Wellington was 6.5C, although weather forecasters MetService have predicted possible snow in local hills.

Air New Zealand and Wellington airport have confirmed the flight hold, with an airport spokesman saying “high winds are making it unsafe for baggage handlers to operate”.

In Wellington harbour, the Cook Strait ferry Feronia has been circling as it is too difficult to dock in the high winds.

Other sailings across the treacherous stretch of water have been cancelled today.

Speculation has been rife about former treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s next move after he lost his seat of Kooyong to independent candidate Monique Ryan.

Now that move has been revealed. The investment bank Goldman Sachs just announced it has hired Frydenberg as its senior regional adviser for Asia Pacific.

Simon Rothery, chief executive officer for Goldman Sachs in Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement:

Our Australian clients will greatly benefit from Josh’s insights and expertise that have been gained from an impressive career which includes experience and perspectives across a range of sectors,.

Frydenberg said:

I am pleased to join Goldman Sachs which is the pre-eminent mergers and acquisitions and capital markets adviser to clients globally. I look forward to joining the team and contributing to the firm’s leadership, its global capability, and its strength of client franchise.

Family violence leave ‘really important’ focus for parliament: Rishworth

The minister for social services, Amanda Rishworth, spoke to ABC News Breakfast today before a meeting tomorrow in Adelaide with federal government ministers responsible for women and women’s safety.

The meeting will aim to table legislation ahead of the new parliament’s first sitting next week. Rishworth was asked what this legislation aims to achieve, and said:

The federal government has made it very clear we would have an intention to bring in family and domestic violence leave in the first sitting period of the parliament. This is a really important piece of legislation that allows people, no matter where they work, to get 10 days of family and domestic violence leave to perhaps attend counselling, perhaps to go to court. It’s a really important piece of legislation because it means that women that may be in these very difficult situations don’t have to choose between their job and leaving a violent relationship.

In addition, I want to talk with my state and territory colleagues about delivering the national plan to end violence against women and children. This is designed to be a 10-year plan in which we really try and address whether it is prevention, early intervention, our response and recovery.

Rishworth says community attitudes towards domestic violence are changing for the better, but its prevalence is increasing.

She says in addition to trying to stop behaviour and violence, “we also need to look at our children… that we are stopping behaviours ever eventuating”.

She says the safety of women in parliament will also be a focus for the new parliament.

I am – along with, I know, all my colleagues – very dedicated to seeing all the recommendations of the Respect@Work [report] implemented, along with the other reports that have been done. But it’s not just an issue for the parliament, it’s gotta be right across our community. Our parliament, though, should be a best-practice exemplar of what Respect@Work looks like.

Standalone cultural heritage legislation is a ‘firm commitment’: Burney

Let’s circle back to the minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, on ABC radio earlier this morning.

Burney was asked about the government stepping in to block construction threatening sacred rock art and said the government will do its “very, very best” to ensure there’s not a repeat of Juukan Gorge under her watch.

There is also a commitment that we will develop a standalone cultural heritage legislation and that’s a very firm commitment from the Labour party going forward.

Josh Butler

Albanese doesn’t know if a new mattress was brought into the Lodge

Anthony Albanese spoke on Melbourne’s KIIS radio this morning and while it wasn’t exactly a news-breaking interview the prime minister revealed a few tidbits in response to some left-of-centre questions:

• He joked that it was “rude” for a photographer to snap him on his front doorstep as he collected the newspaper in his pyjamas early one morning after the election and asked: “What sort of weirdo is taking your photo in the morning?”
• He says he doesn’t know if staff got him a new mattress for the official prime ministerial residences since Scott Morrison moved out;
• He hasn’t ordered food delivery to the Lodge yet, but anticipates “at some stage, I’ll need a pizza delivered”;
• And he’s not allowed to drive himself around in his own car, for security reasons.

New South Wales has reported 25 Covid deaths and 13,829 new cases in the latest reporting period.

The state has 2,210 people with coronavirus in hospital and 55 in intensive care.

Barilaro asked advisor to help make NY trade job a ministerial appointment, inquiry hears

Michael McGowan

The former New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro told a staff member to seek changes that would have made the lucrative $500,000-a-year New York trade job a ministerial appointment, telling him to get it done “ASAP”, an inquiry has heard.

A transcript of evidence given by former advisor Joseph Brayford behind closed doors to the upper house inquiry probing Barilaro’s now-abandoned appointment to the plum posting reveals Barilaro also indicated he would discuss the plan with other ministers in the NSW government.

Brayford told the committee:

I recall having a conversation with the deputy premier and he said to me that he would talk to the other ministers.

Prior to Barilaro’s resignation as deputy premier and trade minister last October, the NSW government passed a motion through cabinet that would have allowed ministers to appoint the senior trade commissioner positions now at the centre of a scandal that has engulfed the government.

The transcript from Brayford’s evidence reveals he was originally asked by Barilaro’s chief of staff in August to contact the head of Investment NSW, Amy Brown, to seek changes allowing the ministerial appointments to go ahead.

What I recall was she called me into her office and asked me to contact Amy Brown and to inquire as to the various methods and arrangements for commissioners overseas.

While that conversation did not directly mention the ministerial appointments, about a month later Brayford was directly told by Barilaro to seek those changes, the inquiry heard.

Brayford said:

He asked me to contact Amy Brown and request a cabinet submission converting the commissioner roles to ministerial appointments.

I believe it said ‘ASAP’.

Brayford said that prior to that his contact with the deputy premier was “infrequent”. Asked during the hearing if he was surprised by the text he replied:

Nothing really surprised me with John.

While the ministerial appointments never went ahead because the incoming minister, Stuart Ayres, decided to keep the positions as public service appointments, the new evidence alleges the deputy premier was directly involved in seeking to change the roles prior to his departure from parliament.

Barilaro has since quit the trade role, saying it was “now not tenable with the amount of media attention this appointment has gained”.

He said he “maintained that I followed the process and look forward to the results of the review”.

Victoria has recorded 37 Covid deaths and 14,312 new cases in the last reporting period.

There are 875 people with the virus in hospital in the state and 46 people in intensive care.

The former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has appeared on Sunrise to discuss the threat posed by foot-and-mouth disease, which is spreading in Indonesia.

Joyce said if the disease enters Australia it won’t only affect regional populations:

For the people in the city who go that’s really bad for Barny in Danglemah, no, it’s really bad for you. No butter, no milk, no cheese, no yoghurt, no beef, lamb … no mince. Guess what happens to your food bill? It goes through the roof.

Joyce was critical of the Labor for not doing enough, which he says is “terrifying people in country areas”, after viral fragments were found in imported food products.

He was critical of the environment minister Tanya Plibersek for not mentioning it in her National Press Club speech about the state of the environment report.

He is calling for a better baiting program as it can be transmitted through other animals such as foxes.

The part that is in Australia is inert, it’s not live. But it got in.

This is a worry. It’s like finding a dead mouse under the fridge and saying ‘oh that’s the only one’.

No, no that’s the one that’s dead. Let’s look for the one that’s alive.

Joyce is calling for “government has to take the next step” in asking tourists in Bali to drop all their shoes and clothes in the bin upon their return.

The cost to people will be immense … It’ll destroy us. It’ll send us broke.

Abattoir workers out of a job, farms out of a job, transport operators out of a job, the money that goes into the towns gone.

Melbourne shivers through coldest morning in four years

Albanese condemns Morrison’s ‘astonishing’ anti-government sermon

Josh Butler

The prime minister Anthony Albanese says he found Scott Morrison’s comments during a church sermon on the weekend “astonishing” and unworthy of someone who led Australia.

Morrison, the former PM, told Margaret Court’s Victory Life Centre in Perth: “We don’t trust in governments. We don’t trust in the United Nations. Thank goodness.”

Albanese was critical of those words, telling ABC Melbourne:

I just thought, wow. This guy was the prime minister of Australia and had that great honour of leading the government. I found it quite astonishing,.

It provides some explanation perhaps of why, in my view, he clearly didn’t lead a government that was worthy of the Australian people – he said he doesn’t believe in government.

The idea that he’s out there and pressing the United Nations button … I’ve spent two months trying to repair our international relations and that sort of nonsense, throwaway, conspiracy line about the United Nations I think isn’t worthy of someone who led Australia.

Albanese also said the chief medical officer Paul Kelly was not recommending face mask mandates. The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee “haven’t advocated that to me at all”, and that none of the state leaders at national cabinet had either.

Weather warnings for Queenslanders amid dangerous surf conditions

More wild weather is predicted for parts of Queensland and northern New South Wales, with heavy rain, damaging winds and hazardous surf bringing the risk of coastal erosion.

The Queensland minister for emergency services, Mark Ryan, was on ABC Breakfast earlier this morning speaking about the situation:

There will be possible weather impacts in the next few days as a result of this unseasonal east coast low. Thankfully, as we’ve heard from the bureau, there’s not expected to be intense heavy rain across the region but there are some impacts associated with waves and dangerous surf, coastal erosion and strong winds.

There are predictions that there will be, in some areas, dangerous surf. Maybe if you were thinking of going to the beach in the next few days, reconsider what you might be doing over the next few days. If you were thinking about being out on the water, in those impacted areas, maybe think there’s an alternate instead of being out on the water over the next few days.

But there will also be some rain across South East Queensland. So the message for everyone who might be out and about is drive to the conditions. The roads may be wet. .

The Qantas plane that landed at Perth airport on Monday declared a fuel mayday but there was no safety issue, the airline’s chief pilot says.

Guardian Australia understands QF 933 from Brisbane was advised by air traffic control to carry an additional 10 minutes worth of fuel for expected holding in Perth, which pilots followed. But on approach into Perth the pilots were advised that holding had extended to 16 minutes.

Qantas chief pilot Captain Dick Tobiano told the Guardian:

Based on the pre-flight conditions, our pilots loaded fuel in accordance with CASA [Civil Aviation Safety Authority] requirements and Qantas’ fuel policy.

On approach into Perth, Air Traffic Control requested the aircraft hold for longer than our pilots had previously been advised, and that to be given priority to land our pilots needed to make a fuel mayday call.

The aircraft landed with 40 minutes of fuel in the tank, which is well above the minimum requirements. Our pilots followed the correct procedures and there was no safety issue with the flight.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s regulations require airlines carry 5% contingency fuel, and Guardian Australia understands Qantas carried 10% contingency fuel on this flight.

The Australian Safety Transport Bureau is investigating the incident.