Key occasions
And with that, I go away the weblog within the fingers of Nino Bucci, thanks for studying.
AAP is reporting that the Excessive Commissioner to the UK Stephen Smith is to go to jailed Australian, Julian Assange, in custody.
The Wikileaks founder continues to face espionage costs in america and stays in London’s Belmarsh jail, held there since 2019 whereas preventing extradition proceedings.
It is going to be the primary time since November that yr he has accepted a consular go to and the primary time a excessive commissioner has met with the Australian behind bars.
Assange’s father John Shipton has welcomed the information in an announcement:
It would present a chance for the excessive commissioner to see the appalling circumstances Julian is stored in and the horrible toll that his ongoing incarceration is having on his well being and on his household
His son’s long-running ordeal had been particularly heartbreaking for his daughter-in-law Stella and two younger grandchildren Gabriel and Max, Shipton stated.
The glimmers of hope adopted by bitter disappointments. The humiliation of physique searches by uniformed guards and scary canine searches simply to go to their husband and father for a treasured brief time.
It may and will finish proper now.
Assange Marketing campaign spokesperson Greg Barns SC referred to as the event vital.
It’s the primary time in over a decade of detention {that a} senior Australian authorities official has visited Australian writer Julian Assange,” he stated.
The UK Authorities may finish this injustice as we speak. All it has to do is say ‘no’ to the US extradition.
Barns stated as soon as Smith had seen Assange, they might urge him to talk along with his British counterparts because it was of their energy to disclaim the extradition and free him from “the nightmare he has endured for over 13 years”.
Liberals narrowly win two seats with Ryde too near name
9 and the SMH have additionally referred to as the seats of Terrigal and Holsworthy for the Liberals, whereas nonetheless reporting that Ryde is simply too near name.
With 79.53% counted, the western Sydney seat of Holsworthy has been referred to as with only one,328 votes separating Labor candidate Mick Maroney from Tina Ayyad, amid a 2.93% swing towards the Liberals.
9 additionally referred to as Terrigal earlier as we speak with 83.17% of the votes counted. The Liberals have held onto the seat by the pores and skin of their enamel, weathering a 11.65% swing towards them.
With slightly below 85% of the vote counted, the inner-city seat of Ryde remains to be too near name, with simply over 200 votes separating ALP candidate Lyndal Howison from Liberal candidate Jordan Lane.
ABC calls two NSW seats for Liberals, ending Labor hopes of majority
In breaking information, the ABC has referred to as the NSW seats of Terrigal and Holsworthy, ending Labor’s hopes of a majority.
The ABC’s chief election analyst, Antony Inexperienced, has referred to as each Terrigal and Holsworthy for the Liberals as we speak, leaving Labor on 45 seats, two shy of the mandatory 47 to type a majority.
Inexperienced stated Terrigal was received by only one,258 votes, with postal votes pushing Liberal candidate Adam Crouch over the road.
In the meantime, Inexperienced additionally referred to as Holsworthy for Liberal candidate Tina Ayyad, who was forward by 600 votes earlier as we speak and had postal votes trending in direction of her.
Andrew Giles says Aston is an opportunity to ‘ship a message’ to Dutton
Immigration minister Andrew Giles has weighed into the Aston byelection, saying opposition chief Peter Dutton is “out of contact” with voters in Melbourne.
Giles instructed Sky Information that the byelection was a chance for voters to “ship a message” to the opposition chief:
Individuals listed below are eager to ship a message to Peter Dutton. Now this can be a seat that had a 55% Liberal main vote solely 4 years in the past and right here one thing extraordinary is occurring.
It’s a really tight race, it’s a decent race due to Mary’s marketing campaign and in addition as a result of Peter Dutton and the Liberals are simply out of contact with the values of voters within the suburbs of Melbourne.
That’s one thing I’ve heard time and time once more as I’ve been out right here with Mary.
New Victorian highway cameras to catch telephone use
New visitors cameras in Victoria will have the ability to detect cell phones and seatbelts, amid the state authorities’s transfer to cut back highway traumas.
In an announcement, Victorian police minister Anthony Carbine introduced that greater than $33m had been spent on the AI-enabled cameras that he says are estimated to forestall 95 crashes a yr.
The plan is to roll out the cameras from the center of the yr, with 200 places throughout rural and metropolitan places earmarked.
Carbine stated the cameras would detect a variety of various gadgets:
Utilizing cell phones behind the wheel places lives in danger and can lead to tragedy. We’re deterring this kind of dangerous behaviour on our roads with new phone- and seatbelt-detection expertise.
Sydney land set for housing to grow to be nationwide park after koala discovery
AAP is reporting that Sydney land earmarked for brand spanking new housing improvement shall be was a nationwide park after koalas had been found dwelling within the space.
“At this time is about one factor and one factor solely and that’s that we have to get on and save koalas within the wild,” new setting minister Penny Sharpe instructed reporters at Wedderburn, within the metropolis’s south-west, on Saturday.
They’re on monitor to be extinct by 2050. We’ve received a 28-year window to show this round.
One week on from the NSW election, Sharpe has directed the Nationwide Parks and Wildlife Service to take management of close by land owned by Sydney Water, at Woronora Heights close to Heathcote, and switch it right into a protected hall.
Whereas the tract is comparatively small, a brand new inhabitants of koalas had been found there and defending the inhabitants was important, Sharpe pressured.
That is extraordinarily necessary.
Sydney Water was planning to place housing into this essential hall the place there are koalas, after which they had been going to flog it off.
That is additionally about not privatising public land.
Koalas had been listed as an endangered species in NSW final yr and a NSW parliamentary report discovered the marsupials had been on monitor for extinction earlier than 2050 except the federal government intervened to cease habitat loss and different threats.
Dutton says Labor’s highway funding cuts in Aston ‘a catastrophe’
Out of hiding and into the open, opposition chief Peter Dutton has been seen on the marketing campaign path in Aston as we speak.
Campaigning alongside Liberal candidate Roshena Campbell, Dutton used the chance to inform reporters what he thinks of the federal government’s determination to scrap highway upgrades within the space:
[Labor] haven’t defined to the folks of Aston why it’s that they minimize highway funding as the primary act in authorities, and it’s fairly outstanding.
It’s a catastrophe for locals and other people realise that the primary act of the Albanese authorities was to chop highway funding right here in Aston … They’ve by no means apologised for it, they by no means defined why.
Dutton went on to level to the rising value of dwelling as incentive for votes to make sure the Liberals maintain on to the seat:
There are a whole lot of Australian households who’ve heard Anthony Albanese promise earlier than the final election on 97 events that he would scale back your energy to $275. That was a promise he made earlier than the election, he’s by no means talked about it since, not as soon as.
So value of dwelling pressures are actual for households and the chance within the election as we speak is to ship a really clear message to Labor that they shouldn’t be reducing native highway funding, and so they shouldn’t be abandoning this neighborhood.
PM says Liberals’ negativity will value them in Aston
I simply needed to return to the prime minister’s feedback in Aston this morning, and extra particularly, what he thought the results of the byelection may imply for the Liberals.
Albanese stated he was “very hopeful” that Labor may put a dent within the seat, and extra curiously, stated that the present negativity of the opposition would work towards them:
For the time being it’s only a cultural downside that they’ve, of simply pretending that they didn’t have the outcome that they did in final yr’s election.
They proceed to simply say no to the whole lot. It is rather predictable what their response is. They block and say no to completely the whole lot within the parliament. They’re very adverse in the way in which that they strategy the whole lot and I feel Australians deserve higher.
Australians deserve, in our main social gathering system, an alternate authorities that places up alternate options. The present Liberal social gathering don’t put up amendments, they only say no.
What I’ve performed is run a authorities that could be a mature authorities, that features correctly, that claims what we are going to do after which does it.
That’s what as we speak’s byelection is about – it’s not about personalities, it’s in regards to the nation, and that’s the reason I’ll proceed to advertise an optimistic view, to grab the alternatives which might be there.
Australians charged as much as $6bn for unused automotive areas, examine finds
AAP is reporting that Australians are being overcharged as much as $6bn for automotive areas they don’t use, worsening housing affordability and parking availability.
A brand new examine from RMIT College has discovered unbundling parking from new flats may save individuals who don’t personal vehicles tens of 1000’s of {dollars} and free-up parking spots for many who do.
The lead researcher, Dr Chris De Gruyter, stated one in 5 households had been paying for parking they didn’t use whereas 14% of households didn’t have sufficient.
A single parking house may drive up the price of a Sydney residence by greater than $100,000.
The issue derived from flats being offered or leased with parking spots as a part of a bundle, no matter whether or not the brand new resident wanted it.
De Gruyter stated:
Individuals don’t get a say on what number of automotive parking areas they need or want. It’s already allotted for them.
He referred to as on native and state governments to permit for parking to be unbundled from new residence builds in planning coverage.
That may give potential consumers or renters the flexibility to decide on the parking proper for them and extra successfully allocate parking provide from those that didn’t want it to those that did.
The expansion in build-to-rent housing, through which a improvement is designed particularly for renting relatively than sale, promised to spice up the recognition of unbundled parking.
Individuals who used public transport saved cash and tended to be more healthy and extra energetic. Larger public transport use resulted in much less air pollution, noise and congestion and extra space obtainable for pedestrians.
De Gruyter additionally recommends eradicating minimal parking necessities for brand spanking new developments and even legislating parking maximums, which have confirmed profitable in transport-rich, walkable cities like London.
De Gruyter stated coverage change had been stalled by unfounded neighborhood fears that eradicating minimal parking necessities would scale back the provision of on-street parking.
However analysis indicated it was really residents in indifferent properties who had been the best customers of avenue parking.
De Gruyter stated:
Should you communicate to anybody within the transport trade, all of them say we ought to be unbundling automotive parking and we shouldn’t have minimal parking necessities.
What we’ve received has been round for therefore a few years and it’s actually changing into outdated.
It seems Queensland police have jumped onto the April Fools bandwagon (or they actually will use paddleboarding, you simply can’t make certain as of late):
At this time we launch our Stand Up Paddleboard Squad.
They are going to be cracking down on harmful behaviours on our pristine waterways. Should you see them, chuck a shakkas and say ‘sup! 🤙 pic.twitter.com/cJnF84e1uv— Queensland Police (@QldPolice) March 31, 2023
Albanese quizzed on cost-of-living pressures
The PM was requested a collection of questions by assembled journalists, together with one on whether or not the rising value of dwelling will harm Labor’s probabilities of profitable the seat:
It was pleasing the outcomes, the pattern, entering into the appropriate route this week with the figures, however we all know value of dwelling pressures are there. That’s the reason we now have performed measures just like the discount in prices of prescription drugs and cheaper childcare.
That’s the reason we assist folks on the minimal wage not persevering with to go backwards. In the course of the federal election marketing campaign a yr in the past, after I stated that if the Truthful Work Fee granted a pay improve of a greenback an hour to folks on the minimal wage, then I might welcome that.
The opposition, the then-government, the Liberal social gathering, stated that the sky would fall in. It’s no surprise they don’t assist photo voltaic vitality as a result of they’re all the time saying that the sky will fall in.
Anthony Albanese held a door-stop in Aston simply now, starting by saying as we speak’s byelection is a chance to “ship the Liberal social gathering a message”.
The PM additionally sang the praises of Labor candidate Mary Doyle, saying she is a neighborhood, a single mum who is aware of the pains of the price of dwelling disaster, and is a most cancers survivor.
I’ve been right here now, that is my fifth go to to the world, and on each certainly one of them I’ve been impressed by the work that Mary has performed, following on from the work that she did within the final election marketing campaign.
It’s about time that the opposition recognised that they should do extra than simply say no to the whole lot. After I was the chief of the Labor social gathering in opposition, I put ahead constructive concepts – cheaper childcare was a dedication that we made. Motion on local weather change, the Nationwide Reconstruction Fund, manufacturing jobs had been all commitments that I made very early on in my management of the social gathering.
The opposition, below Peter Dutton, simply are sitting there saying no. They’ve grow to be the observers relatively than the contributors in our nationwide parliament and that’s the reason I need Mary Doyle to be elected as we speak.
It’s powerful, oppositions typically get swing. When Labor was in authorities, the byelection swings have been between 5-6% in direction of the opposition. No authorities has received a seat off the opposition in a byelection for over 100 years. We’re giving it a crack as we speak.
Bungled surgical procedures amongst severe incidents on rise in WA hospitals
Western Australia’s hospitals have recorded an uptick in preventable severe incidents together with treatment errors and bungled surgical procedures, AAP is reporting.
Knowledge launched by WA Well being highlights a rise in sentinel occasions – severe and wholly preventable medical incidents that triggered or may have triggered severe hurt or a affected person’s demise.
There have been 26 sentinel occasions leading to two affected person deaths in 2021/22, up from 19 occasions and 6 deaths the earlier yr.
Each deaths in the latest yr had been linked to treatment errors, whereas an extra 12 medication-related incidents resulted in severe hurt.
There have been 5 cases the place a affected person had surgical or different invasive procedures carried out on the flawed website, two of which triggered severe hurt.
Different severe incidents concerned the flawed process being carried out on a affected person and the “unintended retention of a international object in a affected person” after surgical procedure or different invasive process.
Sentinel occasions are included within the whole variety of “SAC 1” occasions – medical incidents attributable to healthcare provision, or lack thereof, that would have triggered severe hurt or demise.
There have been 574 SAC 1 incidents in 2021/22, a 2% lower from the earlier yr.
Of these, 139 resulted in demise, in contrast with 147 within the prior monetary yr.
These outcomes might have been influenced by “a number of contributing components” together with advanced medical circumstances, WA Well being stated.
Well being service suppliers recorded a 3.6% improve in inpatient exercise as measured by hospital mattress days.
The chief medical officer, Simon Towler, stated different indicators of affected person security highlighted enhancements within the well being system, together with a drop in hospital-acquired complication charges for sufferers lately.
WA Well being continues to be dedicated to enhancing affected person security by reviewing incidents or potential incidents and growing medical methods to forestall these occurring sooner or later.
Nearly two-thirds of confirmed medical incidents … had a affected person final result of no hurt.
Nevertheless, we have to contemplate each potential incident as a chance to look at the place we are able to enhance.
Mark Latham doubles down on homophobic tweet
Sticking with NSW this morning, One Nation senator Mark Latham has doubled down on his homophobic tweet, saying “boo-hoo Alex Greenwich”.
In an announcement printed by the Saturday Telegraph, Latham seems unrepentant after tweeting a homophobic insult directed in direction of Greenwich, an impartial NSW MP.
Latham’s feedback come after he was referred to as a “disgusting human being” when violence erupted final week exterior a church in Belfield the place Latham was talking.
Latham, it seems, has dug his heels in:
Typically in public life once you throw out insults they arrive again at you tougher and more true … So boo-hoo Alex Greenwich.
When he calls somebody a disgusting human being for attending a gathering in a church corridor, possibly consideration will flip to a few of his habits.
Greenwich goes into faculties speaking to youngsters about being homosexual. I didn’t need to be accused of something comparable, leaving that type of content material on my socials.
NSW premier alerts pay rises to important employees above 3%
The brand new premier of NSW, Chris Minns, has given one other indication the federal government will give pay rises to important employees above 3% this monetary yr and the following.
Talking to The Weekend Australian, the premier stated he would negotiate with the unions “in good religion” and would contemplate the rising value of dwelling in any settlement.
That could be a ground, not a ceiling, and clearly we’re not going to go beneath that [3%]. It must be performed by mediation and negotiation however we’re assured, having heard from union management for the reason that election marketing campaign, that we are able to get a touchdown on these points.
Unions have gotten a proper to sit down down with the federal government and negotiate on this stuff – that’s what we promised within the election marketing campaign. The personal sector is working in entrance of the general public sector on the subject of wage will increase in NSW. In order that ought to be seen in context.
Secondly, we now have to ensure there may be assist for small enterprise. That’s one of many the explanation why we’re going to implement our rebate for small companies with $315 to deal with rising vitality payments.
Good morning
Good morning everybody, and welcome to this Saturday’s stay weblog.
We start in Victoria, the place the Aston byelection may make or break Peter Dutton’s management of the opposition. Liberal candidate Roshena Campbell remains to be anticipated to narrowly maintain on to the seat, in Melbourne’s south-east, however Labor’s Mary Doyle is pushing onerous. The seat, vacated by scandal-plagued former minister Alan Tudge, gives voters an opportunity to weigh in on Dutton’s management, and we are going to see how issues play out.
Elsewhere, One Nation senator Mark Latham has spoken out for the primary time after he posted a homophobic tweet earlier this week that sparked widespread condemnation. The senator, whom NSW premier Chris Minns labelled a “bigot”, tweeted final evening, saying “by no means apologise, by no means clarify”. It comes as specialists say {that a} sacking is “unlikely” however that Latham may face a vilification criticism for his tweet.
Counting continues in NSW after final week’s election, with Labor’s majority below menace. AAP is reporting that three seats, Ryde, Terrigal and Holsworthy all stay within the stability, with Labor on 45 seats and needing two extra to type majority. All eyes shall be on when the depend ends.
Lastly, it’s April Fools’ Day as we speak, so any and all jokes/pranks are welcome to be despatched in. We are going to maintain a watch out for any that stand out, in addition to the whole lot else that’s occurring throughout the nation.