Pocock urges Labor to scrap tax cuts – as it happened

Penny Wong blasts Russia for ‘deliberately obstructing’ UN nuclear treaty agreement

Sarah Martin

Sarah Martin

The foreign minister Penny Wong has blasted Russia for “deliberately obstructing” a nuclear treaty conference at the United Nations amid a dispute about control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine.

Wong said that the government was “deeply disappointed” that the review conference of the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT) did not reach a consensus outcome after four weeks of negotiation between 151 countries at the UN in New York.

Russia had refused to agree to a statement of support for the NPT which aimed to reaffirm and bolster the treaty’s aims of disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

The statement included a paragraph that emphasised “the paramount importance of ensuring control by Ukraine’s competent authorities of nuclear facilities … such as the Zaporizhzia nuclear power plant”. The plant is currently occupied by Russian forces.

“Russia has deliberately obstructed progress. Its actions directly challenge core tenets of the NPT,” Wong said in a statement on Sunday.

“We condemn Russia’s ongoing unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression and call on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory.”

Wong said Australia remained “deeply committed” to the NPT goal of a world without nuclear weapons:

Australia is steadfast in our support of the NPT as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime. Irrespective of this outcome, the treaty continues to deliver tangible security benefits to us all.

Cooling towers of a nuclear power plant. Russia has blocked an agreement at the UN that was aimed at bolstering the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Cooling towers of a nuclear power plant. Russia has blocked an agreement at the UN that was aimed at bolstering the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Photograph: Guillaume Souvant/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 00.06 EDT

Key events

What happened today – Sunday 28 August

We’re going to wrap things up for the day. These were the day’s main events:

  • The foreign minister Penny Wong has blasted Russia for “deliberately obstructing” a nuclear treaty conference at the United Nations amid a dispute about control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine.

  • Crossbench senators, including the ACT senator David Pocock, are urging the government to scrap the stage three tax cuts.

  • The environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, has said green jobs offer enormous potential for the economy. The minister will host two roundtable discussions on Monday ahead of the jobs and skills summit.

  • The Greens have called for the summit to bring focus to jobs that protect and restore the environment.

  • The Victorian government will cover the costs of more than 10,000 nursing and midwifery degrees in an effort to boost the state’s health workforce.

  • Australia recorded 15 deaths from Covid-19.

We’ll see you back here tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Updated at 03.30 EDT

WA public schools to offer free tampons and pads

Free pads and tampons will be offered to Western Australian public school students in years 7 to 12 to ensure girls are not skipping class because they cannot afford sanitary products, reports the ABC.

WA is the last state in Australia to offer free period products in schools, with the program set to roll out in the first term of next year.

“It’s about bloody time we’ve done this in schools,” women’s interests minister Simone McGurk said.

“For too long, girls and young women have felt embarrassed [and] they often haven’t had access to the products they’ve needed.”

Updated at 03.29 EDT

Tomorrow:

Mystery surrounds a cluster of bowerbird deaths in the Gold Coast hinterland

Bird experts and wildlife carers have been documenting healthy birds that have fallen ill and died around Tamborine Mountain in recent weeks.

You can read the full story by my colleague Joe Hinchliffe here:

Updated at 02.37 EDT

Monkeypox vaccines on their way to Victoria as cases rise

More than 20,000 additional monkeypox vaccines are expected to arrive in Victoria in September as cases rise across the state, AAP reports

Some 53 cases have been detected in Victoria since the beginning of the outbreak in May, according to the most recent update on Friday from the state’s health department.

Eligibility has been tightened until the new shipment arrives and websites for two of the five clinics that administer the vaccine in Melbourne say they have run out of doses.

Health minister Mary-Anne Thomas said the vaccine is in scarce supply around the world and Victoria initially had a “limited number” available.

“We are awaiting supply from the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth is working hard to bring in vaccines. This is a global challenge,” she told reporters on Sunday.

“We’re certainly looking to the vaccine manufacturers to increase the supply and make sure that we can get it as available to as many people as possible.”

Victorian health minister Mary-Anne Thomas
Victorian health minister Mary-Anne Thomas. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Updated at 02.09 EDT

Nick Kyrgios to face his friend Thanasi Kokkinakis in US Open first round

Nick Kyrgios says it is “win win” drawing Thanasi Kokkinakis in the US Open first round as he grapples with home sickness, fatigue and the new-found pressures of being an in-form grand slam finalist.

After four months on the road, Kyrgios says he cannot return home to Canberra quickly enough to see his family and sick mother.

But first the Wimbledon runner-up has another slam to attend to, starting with an uncomfortable centre-court meeting with his friend and Australian Open-winning doubles partner on Monday night (11am Tuesday AEST).

“Obviously you never want to play a good mate first round,” Kyrgios said before an early evening practice session at Flushing Meadows. “I’ve played a lot of mates this swing – Alex de Minaur in Montreal, [Frances] Tiafoe in Washington, [Jack] Sock in doubles.

Updated at 01.52 EDT

National Covid Summary

Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 15 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

NSW

Northern Territory

Queensland

South Australia

Tasmania

Victoria

Western Australia

WA records one new Covid death

One person with Covid-19 has died in Western Australia overnight, with the state recording 1,055 new cases on Sunday morning, 228 people in hospital, and six in ICU.

Updated at 01.50 EDT

Paul Karp

Paul Karp

The peculiars of pecuniary interests in Canberra

By almost any measure the 47th parliament is the most diverse ever and the same seems true judging by the weird and wonderful collection of interests parliamentarians have declared.

The register of interests is designed to provide transparency around interests that may conflict, or may be seen to conflict, with MPs’ and senators’ public duty.

But it also provides a window into the world of our 227 elected leaders, their hobbies, passions and side hustles. Here’s what we found while peering in.

For more a dive into what the declared interests of our elected representatives reveals about the people who represent us, read the full story from Guardian Australia’s political reporters Paul Karp and Josh Butler.

Updated at 00.48 EDT

More on Melbourne shooting: hospital locked down as police searched area

A hospital was locked down for two hours after a shooting near a fast-food restaurant in Melbourne’s north-west, as a police hunt continues.

Three people got into a verbal dispute near the St Albans shop on Sunday morning before a shot was fired into the back windscreen of a blue Holden Commodore.

A man and woman inside the car fled towards Sunshine Hospital on Furlong Road and crashed into a responding marked police vehicle.

They ran away on foot in different directions, with the woman arrested inside the hospital and the man a block away.

The woman suffered an injury to her foot but police are unsure whether it occurred in the shooting or in her efforts to evade officers.

Acting Senior Sergeant Ben McGibbon said the hospital was locked down while police searched a nearby construction site and surrounding areas. It resumed normal operations after about two hours.

The pair have been taken to a police station as detectives look to uncover what triggered the initial altercation.

“Not many things like this occur at this time of the morning on Sunday,” McGibbon told reporters.

“But for this to have occurred something has sparked it, and there’s either been an altercation or disagreement or something has happened.”

The third person remains on the run and police believe they may be carrying a small handgun.

“The investigation is in its infancy,” McGibbon said. “We’re still hoping for some other witnesses to come forward to tell us an independent version of what’s actually occurred.”

– via AAP

Updated at 00.33 EDT

Two arrested after shooting and police pursuit near Melbourne restaurant

A gun has been fired and two people arrested after a fight near a fast-food restaurant in Melbourne’s north-west, AAP reports.

A blue Holden Commodore was hit by a gunshot during an incident between three people at St Albans on Sunday morning, police say.

A man and woman fled in the car towards a hospital along Furlong Road and collided with a responding marked police vehicle.

They tried to run away on foot in different directions but the woman was arrested inside the hospital and the man about a block away, before being taken into custody.

The third person remains on the run.

Updated at 00.10 EDT

Penny Wong blasts Russia for ‘deliberately obstructing’ UN nuclear treaty agreement

Sarah Martin

Sarah Martin

The foreign minister Penny Wong has blasted Russia for “deliberately obstructing” a nuclear treaty conference at the United Nations amid a dispute about control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine.

Wong said that the government was “deeply disappointed” that the review conference of the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT) did not reach a consensus outcome after four weeks of negotiation between 151 countries at the UN in New York.

Russia had refused to agree to a statement of support for the NPT which aimed to reaffirm and bolster the treaty’s aims of disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

The statement included a paragraph that emphasised “the paramount importance of ensuring control by Ukraine’s competent authorities of nuclear facilities … such as the Zaporizhzia nuclear power plant”. The plant is currently occupied by Russian forces.

“Russia has deliberately obstructed progress. Its actions directly challenge core tenets of the NPT,” Wong said in a statement on Sunday.

“We condemn Russia’s ongoing unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression and call on Russia to immediately withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory.”

Wong said Australia remained “deeply committed” to the NPT goal of a world without nuclear weapons:

Australia is steadfast in our support of the NPT as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime. Irrespective of this outcome, the treaty continues to deliver tangible security benefits to us all.

Cooling towers of a nuclear power plant. Russia has blocked an agreement at the UN that was aimed at bolstering the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Cooling towers of a nuclear power plant. Russia has blocked an agreement at the UN that was aimed at bolstering the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Photograph: Guillaume Souvant/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 00.06 EDT

Australia’s tech industry has called for cyber skills to be given priority at Australia’s upcoming national skills summit to help address cybersecurity risks, AAP reports.

Global software company Elastic, which serves half the Fortune 500, says calls by Andy Penn for greater government investment in education is the bottom line for strengthening Australia’s cyber protections.

The outgoing Telstra CEO and top federal government industry cyber advisor recently warned a National Press Club audience that the online lives of Australians are increasingly vulnerable and their skills lacking.

Elastic’s regional vice-president Anna Mascarello says the technology sector can do more at the grassroots level to feed the talent pool too.

“We’re in conversation with Australian universities to understand how we can help support the curriculum and nurture the next generation of critical thinkers,” she said.

The Productivity Commission says industry certifications and short courses could help build knowledge at a time when a skills shortage is holding Australia back on adopting digital technologies and cyber safeguards.

The two-day Jobs and Skills Summit begins on Thursday.

South Australia records no new Covid deaths

No one with Covid-19 has died in South Australia overnight, with the state recording 439 new cases on Sunday morning, 153 people in hospital, and 7 in ICU.

Plibersek says green jobs are an ‘exciting growth space’ for Australia

Lisa Cox

Lisa Cox

A little more on the green jobs roundtable discussions the environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, will host on Monday to lead into the jobs and skills summit.

Plibersek says environmental jobs are an “exciting growth space for Australia’s economy” with enormous potential if the government gets the settings right.

She says:

This is particularly exciting for regional Australia, where many of these jobs will end up being based.

As an example, on Friday I visited a farm in Griffith and heard about the types of professions being utilised on the land, in agribusiness, to enhance regenerative farming practices – agronomists to improve soil health, environmental consultants to advise on native bush regeneration, small businesses turning cotton waste and food waste into compost and fertiliser.

These are the types of jobs that will drive a future green economy in Australia and I want to set our country up to be a world leader in this space.

The first of the two roundtables will focus on how to create more opportunities and better career pathways in a green economy.

The second will look at nature and productivity, how to value the environment and build new industries.

Plibersek says green jobs will be central to the government’s environmental policies and will feed into the summit.

We would welcome input from the Greens political party – or indeed any other political party – into the jobs white paper process. The summit is just the beginning. There is plenty of time and opportunity for those willing to get involved.

‘I want to set our country up to be a world leader in this space’: Tanya Plibersek on green jobs
‘I want to set our country up to be a world leader in this space’: Tanya Plibersek on green jobs Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated at 00.52 EDT

Dog rescued from flood waters in WA

Western Australian police have rescued an 80-year-old man’s bull mastiff named Max from a vehicle trapped by rising flood waters.

At 7.30am police responded to a call from a member of the public about a car stuck in flood waters on Katrine Road in Katrine, about 94km north-east of Perth.

The car was stranded about 20 metres into the flood waters and while the man was able to escape to dry land he was unable to rescue Max – who weighed 30kgs.

As the waters began to pick up speed, two officers who waded out to the car and carried Max to safety.

Max, reportedly, was very happy to be reunited with his owner.

Updated at 23.20 EDT

As the recent electric vehicle summit got under way Dr Jake Whitehead was sitting in a plane somewhere over the Indian Ocean.

The conference was intended as a reset to overcome nearly a decade of Australia’s policy inertia on electric vehicles and road transport under the former Coalition government – but Whitehead, head of policy at the Electric Vehicle Council, was on holiday.

It had been a dream trip for a longtime EV researcher: three separate stints across thousands of kilometres in three different countries with his partner – all in electric or hybrid vehicles.

As his colleagues were shaking hands and listening to keynote speeches, Whitehead was getting a first-hand education in what the rest of the world had been up to on the electric vehicle front during the two years Australia closed its borders to the world.

“You can read as much as you want online but it’s not until you’re actually over there and able to do the comparison that you can see what’s actually happening here in Australia,” he says.

“It’s amazing to see how much further these countries have come.”

For more on how the return of travel is showing Australians how the world has moved on EVs, read the full weekend feature.