China hawk elected as security and intelligence committee chair
James Paterson, a China hawk and Victorian Liberal senator, has been appointed chair of parliament’s powerful joint committee on intelligence and security.
Paterson said he was honoured with the appointment and indicated he would continue to attempt to work on a bipartisan basis to keep Australians “safe and free”.
“Given the powers they have been granted, strong parliamentary oversight of security agencies is essential in a democracy,” Paterson said.
“In addition to the vital legislation that the committee will consider this year, the inquiries into extremist movements and radicalism, and national security in higher education will be particularly important. We must ensure that violent extremism does not take hold in Australia, and that our universities have robust policies in place to protect their researchers and students from foreign coercion and influence.”
Paterson takes over from fellow China hawk Andrew Hastie, who was appointed assistant defence minister in Scott Morrison’s frontbench reshuffle in December.
(Paterson is close to Hastie. They were both blocked from visiting China on a study tour in late 2019.)
Updated
at 1.16am EST
I am just going to include another photo of the pygmy possums because it has been that sort of day, in that sort of week, in that sort of year.
(Graham tells me this is a fully grown female)
Updated
at 1.00am EST
Firefighters on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island are still battling a blaze on the island’s west that is threatening a vital wildlife refuge that survived last year’s fires.
The South Australia Country Fire Service has just told me it’s confident it has secured the blaze within containment lines in the Western River region. The fire started on Tuesday.
Conservationists are desperate to keep the flames out of a 4200-hectare patch that survived the 2020 fires that burned across the rest of the island’s west. A small section has already burned.
A fire service spokesman said: “We’ve had some rainfall over the fire ground this morning and there has been some back-burning campaigns taken out. At the moment we are confident it’s secured.”
As we reported late yesterday, the patch of unburned area to the immediate south of the fire is home to several threatened species, including the Kangaroo Island dunnart, the glossy black cockatoo, the southern brown bandicoot and the green carpenter bee.
The island was devastated by fires in late 2019 and early 2020. The patch, known as the Northwest Conservation Alliance, became a vital refuge for the wildlife.
The fire has burned 294 hectares. The fire service spokesman said there was potential for windy weather and potential thunderstorms later today.
Conservationists at Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife have also found Western and Little pygmy possums in the area.
Updated
at 12.59am EST
