Peter Dutton calls for calm following stabbing attack
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is speaking to the media from Perth after yesterday’s stabbing attack in western Sydney.
He thanked police officers for their efforts and said “violence of any form is not to be tolerated”.
Dutton said he wrote to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, this morning offering his “full support” for any measures the government believes should be implemented after the two recent stabbing attacks in Sydney.
He has also requested a briefing from Asio and the AFP commissioner in relation to the current threat level in Australia.
Dutton noted community leaders are calling for calm, and said people should heed this:
It is a volatile period. You can understand the anxiety that Australians will be feeling, particularly trying to explain what’s happening in our country in the last week to young children. What we know is that Australia is a peaceful country. We have never had civil conflict as part of our history and we don’t want to be part of our present or future. People come from all parts of the world to our country and we have been an incredible success story and if people have differences of opinion, if they disagree or agree with people, [that] needs to be done in a respectful way and we need to remind ourselves of that.
Leaders in the community … have stood up and called for calm [and] their words should be heeded by people in those communities.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
Commitment to rewrite national environment laws further delayed
Lisa Cox
The Albanese government has further delayed a commitment to rewrite Australia’s failing national environment laws.
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said the government would introduce legislation in coming weeks to create two previously announced bodies – an Environment Protection Agency and a second organisation called Environment Information Australia, which will provide public data on ecosystems, plants and animals.
But a commitment to introduce laws to address Australia’s extinction crisis, including new national environmental standards against which development proposals would be assessed, has been pushed back to an unspecified date.
The delay is likely to spark accusations that the government has broken a promise to deliver substantial environment reform in one package.
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Plibersek had initially promised new laws – initially in draft form for public consultation, and then to parliament – last year. Speaking in 2022, she said the laws were “broken” and the government would act in 2023 to introduce national environmental standards, speed up decision-making and improve trust and integrity in the system.
But in a statement today, she said key reforms recommended by a 2020 review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – including national standards focused on better outcomes for nature – had been deferred to a “third stage” of legislation.
She said the third stage of the government’s “nature positive plan” would involve the government releasing a “comprehensive draft” of new environmental laws for public consultation.
When I first announced the nature positive plan, I said it would take a bit of cooperation, compromise and common sense to deliver. That’s exactly how we’re approaching the rollout.
For the first three months of 2024, China’s economy clocked up 5.3% growth, or well ahead of the 4.8% pace expected by a Bloomberg survey (and much higher than Reuters‘ 4.6% forecast).
Given the government had set a goal of “around 5%” growth from 2024 overall, it’s fair to say that the year has begun well (at least according to official numbers).
Somewhat unusually, the national stats bureau has also revised higher the quarterly growth rate for the December quarter. (Revisions aren’t that common even though the figures are published within a few weeks of the end of each quarter and China is a rather big nation.)
Not all the readings were bullish, though. Retail sales were up 3.1% from a year earlier but shy of the 4.6% pace the Reuters survey of economists had tipped. New construction starts were also down 27.8% from a year earlier, Reuters said. That reflected ongoing weakness in that part of the economy.
Economists in Australia (especially those in treasury) will be watching reaction to today’s figures closely. If iron ore prices hold steady, for instance, that will shore up demand in Australia and revenue inflows.
The Australian dollar, meanwhile, seems to be intent on sinking below the 64 US-cent mark, trading lately at 64.1 US cents. That is about four US cents weaker than where it started in 2024.
Economists in Australia will be watching reaction to today’s figures closely. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP
Tension hangs in the air in Wakeley, around the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church that was the site of a stabbing attack last night.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was attacked at a service last night, sparking a riot in surrounding streets, with neighbours telling me they feel shaken.
Dharma Nand lives across the road from the church and said he was terrified at the crowd’s violence last night:
We heard a commotion around 7pm last night and we came out to see what was going on. We saw so many people just rushing up to the church.
At first they were standing and shouting but soon it became overcrowded and people were surging at the fence and at the walls – they wanted to get in.
They were parking in my driveway, parking anywhere and just rushing to the church, trying to get in. The police tried to hold them back and things got nasty.
Nand said he was even considering moving because of the violence and said he was feeling shaken by the whole incident.
Other neighbours refused to speak, shutting the door and asking reporters to get off their lawns as they watched police continue their investigation in the church.
Wendy, who asked for her surname to be withheld, lives up the road from the church and said she heard the commotion but stayed indoors to protect her children. She said they could smell the pepper spray and could hear people screaming.
It was terrifying and very loud. We stayed inside and tried to watch from the balcony but the smell of pepper spray became overwhelming.
The roads became blocked by the crowds very quickly. No one could get in or out. They kept chanting ‘let him out’ and yelling at police to allow them to enter the church.
Amy MacMahon returns to Queensland parliament after car crash injuries
A Queensland Greens MP has made an emotional return to state parliament, two months after being seriously injured in a car crash, AAP has reported.
Amy MacMahon on Tuesday said her recovery was far from over despite medical leave stint since the two-car collision at a busy Brisbane intersection on 12 February.
But she was grateful to be back at work after suffering head and suspected spinal injuries in the Kangaroo Point crash.
MacMahon was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition after her Toyota Prius and a Hyundai i30 collided.
She told parliament:
I returned to parliament today after two months of medical leave following a car crash and I have some recovery ahead of me but I’m feeling immensely grateful to be back at work.
The MP had left a function and was on her way to another community event when the collision occurred.
The member for South Brisbane, Amy MacMahon, at Queensland parliament in Brisbane. Photograph: Darren England/AAP
Sun shines on rooftop solar as wind hits a bit of a lull
Australian households now have more than 20 gigawatts of solar panel capacity on their rooftops, according to a new half-yearly report on the sector by the Clean Energy Council.
That was enough to supply 11.2% of Australia’s electricity last year, or about one-ninth.
Queensland, dubbed the sunshine state for a reason, has passed the million rooftop systems mark, while the not-very-cloudy New South Wales hit 970 megawatts for new installations last year – a record in itself.
The Albanese government has lately launched a $1bn SunShot program to make more solar panels in Australia, and there’s also the “Future Made in Australia” package that will get more details in next month’s budget. (We looked at the economics of these ideas in this weekend piece.)
The CEC also noted that households added 57,000 so-called behind the meter batteries last year, as the economics of such devices keep on improving. Since 2020, more than 150,000 batteries have been added.
Still, slightly fewer than one-in-five new solar systems came with a battery in 2023, a ratio that offers potential to increase – particularly if battery prices keep falling and power prices don’t look like retreating very far.
Meanwhile, relatively calm mid-autumn weather in eastern Australia is creating a bit of a lull in wind energy generation, according to Paul McArdle, an energy expert.
The current lull in aggregate wind harvest across the NEM has been running for a full week, and has a number of days more to go ...https://t.co/NAEwir8lEg via @WattClarity
Aboriginal language names for Art Gallery of New South Wales buildings
A new Art Gallery of New South Wales building has been given the Aboriginal name Naala Badu, meaning “seeing waters” in the Sydney language.
The original art gallery building, with its 19th-century sandstone facade, has also received a Sydney language name Naala Nura meaning “seeing Country”.
The name of the 153-year-old institution is unchanged as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, according to a statement.
Art Gallery trustee and inaugural chair of the art gallery’s Indigenous advisory group, Tony Albert, said of the new names:
As an Indigenous Australian for whom English is my second language, having not had the opportunity to learn my first language, I applaud the gift of living, breathing language for the Art Gallery’s two buildings.
With the spotlight on the Art Gallery’s new initiatives for Aboriginal art and culture, we’ve created a globally renowned art destination where visitors can experience the best art and culture Australia has to offer.
The new names are displayed on both buildings as of today, and will be reflected online.
Graffiti on wall dedicated to Israeli hostages ‘deeply distressing’, Zionism Victoria says
Zionism Victoria has expressed “deep distress” after a wall dedicated to hostages held in Gaza was vandalised overnight.
A wall in St Kilda which displayed images of hostages held in Gaza alongside the phrase “bring them home now” appears to have been painted over in black, with the words ‘Free Palestine’ painted in white.
Executive director Zeddy Lawrence said it was a “deeply distressing act of graffiti”:
Targeting a memorial established by members of the Jewish community does nothing to advance the cause of peace and only serves to fuel tensions, further undermining the multiculturalism that Victoria is supposed to pride itself on.
