Good morning
And welcome to another Sunday morning Guardian live blog.
Flood-affected communities in NSW have been urged to take care as people return to their homes and begin the process of cleaning up. Residents of Camden and Ellis Lane south-west of Sydney were allowed to return to their homes on Saturday but authorities have warned of widespread damage.
Perth brothers Callum and Jake Robinson have been farewelled at an emotional memorial service on Saturday. The two brothers were killed while on a surfing trip to Mexico, with an investigation ongoing into what happened. The service was held at Sacred Heart College in Sorrento, in Perth’s north-western suburbs, where their parents described the brothers as full of life and determined to follow their dreams.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs and I’ll be taking the blog through the day.
With that, let’s get started …
Key events
Benita Kolovos
Western Victorian power lines plan faces community backlash
The Victorian government is facing vocal backlash from communities across western Victoria over two proposals to build high-voltage transmission lines to transport energy between states as more renewables come online.
They are the Victoria to NSW Interconnector West – known as VNI West – and the Western Renewables Link, a transmission line intended to carry wind and solar-powered energy from a power station in Bulgana in western Victoria to Sydenham in Melbourne’s north-west.
For several years, communities have campaigned against the lines, which will travel hundreds of kilometres and include owners as high as 85 metres in some locations. They argue they should be built either underground or along different routes.
Consultation on the government’s proposal is open until 16 June, with a final plan to be published late this year. A bill creating the community benefit scheme is expected to be introduced to the Victorian parliament in early 2025.
Benita Kolovos
Neighbouring properties that are “significantly impacted” by upgrades or new lines could receive up to $40,000. This includes rural blocks within 400 metres of projects and urban properties within 200 metres.
To be eligible for the payment, the property owners must demonstrate a “significant loss of visual amenity, including surrounding natural landscape”.
The power lines would also need to be “clearly visible from the point of the dwelling, home occupation or other site of sensitive land use”, with payments to decrease in size the further owners are from the lines.
VicGrid is also seeking feedback on “exceptional circumstances” under which property owners could be paid more than $40,000, such as “impacts to culturally significant sites or practices”, or hospitality and tourism businesses that may lose income as a result of the change.
Under the scheme, funds will also be directed to regional communities and traditional owners.
Benita Kolovos
Victoria mulls payments for properties affected by power line upgrades
Victorian landowners with power transmission lines on their properties could receive payments of up to $200,000 and their neighbours up to $40,000, under a plan being considered by the state government.
The state government’s new transmission planning agency, VicGrid, has opened consultation on a program that would collect funds from power companies to pay communities affected by new transmission lines.
Under the proposed community benefits scheme, landowners with lines on their properties will be paid $200,000 per kilometre – paid in annual instalments of $8,000 over 25 years and indexed to inflation – by the state government.
Coleman denies double standard over deportation direction
Coleman is being interrogated about his actions as immigration minister relating to direction 79, which was cited by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in “a number of cases” to justify allowing those with criminal convictions remain in Australia.
The direction required decision-makers to take into account the bests interests of a child when considering whether to deport a convicted criminal from Australia.
Coleman, who has repeatedly attacked the government and Labor minister Andrew Giles for “weakening” the immigration system, said the direction “strengthened the system” and made it “stronger than previously”.
However, Speers pointed out that it allowed a heroin trafficker to remain in Australia, asking whether Coleman would “take responsibility for that”.
Coleman:
I’m not familiar with the specific examples.
Coleman also denied a double standard.
I don’t agree at all. I made it stronger. That’s the decision I made. The decision that Andrew Giles made was, how do we ensure that people who would otherwise go back to New Zealand get to stay in Australia? That was a shameful decision and that’s why he sought to reverse it in direction 110. But he still kept the connection to the Australian community as a primary consideration, which is the whole problem with direction 99 in the first place. These guys have no idea how to manage the immigration system. That’s why we have seen such terrible results.
Coleman, who gave his maiden speech about how Australia’s national foundation was “made stronger” by migration, is asked about whether he was “comfortable” with the Coalition’s plan to cut back the country’s immigration intake.
I’m very comfortable. We have to cut immigration.
Coleman has also attacked the government for issuing a direction that, in his words, would “let criminals stay in Australia”.
Asked about the reality that people will be able to circumvent the age verification system, Coleman says “that’s true of just about every law”.
We don’t say, oh, some people might try to traffic illegal material, so we won’t have a law to stop it.
‘Time to take action’ on social media age verification – Coleman
Coleman has explained the Coalition’s plan to impose a system of age verification to allow young people to access and use social media.
I think this is one of the defining issues of our era. I think that the mental health of Australian kids is being massively damaged by social media. If you look at things like the self-harm hospitalisation rate of girls – a heavy topic, but we should talk about it – up dramatically in the last decade. There is no question in my mind social media is playing a part in that.
Coleman says the Coalition wants laws to “protect kids from the immense damage done to them by social media”.
We have a classification system, R-rated movies. No one says, “Let’s show an R-rated movie to a 10-year-old”, yet on social media they see worse things every day. Imagine if we went back 20 years and say, “You know what? We will create an environment where kids can interact with any adult on earth who can show them whatever they want and we will be OK with that.” We would have said that’s absurd. It’s time to take action.
Coleman is asked about whether the eSafety Commission be given the power to direct social media companies to remove material globally.
The question follows news that the eSafety Commissioner dropped the case against X (formerly Twitter) directing it to remove material depicting the stabbing of a priest in Wakeley, western Sydney.
Well, what the commissioner was really doing is saying that the easiest way to remove material for Australians is simply to delete it. The act is clear. It’s for Australian users, not global. So what the court case was effectively about is how do you define an Australian user online? That’s what the interim judgement was about. The commissioner has had pretty much all the other platforms deleted the materials. And she wanted to test that in court.
Coleman backed in the eSafety Commission, saying the decision to drop the case was appropriate and that the commissioner “wasn’t seeking to claim global domain over the internet”.
Coleman has largely avoided the question and is instead attacking Chris Bowen, Labor’s climate change, energy and water minister, over the potential to miss it’s 2030 climate target – by 1%.
Coleman was repeatedly asked about the Coalition’s own policies on the target, noting that the Paris climate agreement requires governments to have a target and a credible pathway to meet those targets.
Coleman refused to be drawn, saying he wouldn’t detail discussions in the party room.
Coalition ‘committed to net zero by 2050’ – Coleman
Shadow communications minister David Coleman says the Coalition will have “more to say about targets” ahead of the next election.
Coleman was asked by David Speers whether the Coalition plans to scrap Australia’s 2030 emissions reduction target.
We will make all of our policies very clear in relation to emissions, we are absolutely committed to net zero by 2050.
Asked about whether the Coalition will “leave open” the prospect of having a 2030 target, Coleman reiterated that “we are absolutely committed to the 2050 target”.
Shadow communications minister David Coleman will speak to ABC Insiders host David Speers this morning.
We will bring you all the latest as it develops.
Flood-hit NSW residents returning home urged to be careful
Flood-affected NSW communities returning to their homes have been urged to take care as they survey the damage and begin to clean up.
NSW SES acting commissioner Deb Platz has warned those returning to their homes to take precautions as residents in parts of Camden and Ellis Lane, about 65km southwest of Sydney, were allowed home on Saturday after the flooding threat reduced.
While the immediate threat of more damaging rainfall has eased, with the bureau not forecasting any further significant falls over the next few days, the SES still has a dozen emergency evacuation orders in place due to flooding.
The service will begin to survey the damage to communities when waters recede, with possible impacts to infrastructure including roads.
Our priority is to get people back to normal as soon as possible.
But Plats warned residents to remain wary around the Hawkesbury Nepean catchment.
We do not need to see significant rain to bring riverine and flash flooding.
As we have saturated catchments and full dams the rivers can rise very quickly.
The SES conducted 13 flood rescues in the 24 hours to 5am on Saturday.
For more on the floods, read the Guardian Australia’s previous report:
– with AAP
Good morning
And welcome to another Sunday morning Guardian live blog.
Flood-affected communities in NSW have been urged to take care as people return to their homes and begin the process of cleaning up. Residents of Camden and Ellis Lane south-west of Sydney were allowed to return to their homes on Saturday but authorities have warned of widespread damage.
Perth brothers Callum and Jake Robinson have been farewelled at an emotional memorial service on Saturday. The two brothers were killed while on a surfing trip to Mexico, with an investigation ongoing into what happened. The service was held at Sacred Heart College in Sorrento, in Perth’s north-western suburbs, where their parents described the brothers as full of life and determined to follow their dreams.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs and I’ll be taking the blog through the day.
With that, let’s get started …
