Key events
Some context on former senator Bob Brown’s plea to Queen Mary of Denmark to intervene on behalf of high-profile anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson after his arrest in Greenland, courtesy of AAP:
In 2008, the Australian Federal Court ruled that the Japanese whaling was a criminal activity.
The Captain Paul Watson Foundation uses “aggressive non-violence” to protect whales and other marine life.
More than a dozen Danish police and SWAT team members boarded the John Paul DeJoria last month and a handcuffed Capt Watson was led off of the ship.
The vessel had stopped in Greenland to refuel, en route to the Northwest Passage on a mission to intercept Japan’s newly-built factory whaling ship Kangei Maru in the North Pacific.
The arrest was believed to be related to a former ‘red notice’ issued for Watson’s previous anti-whaling interventions in the Antarctic region, the foundation’s Ship Operations Director, Locky MacLean, said.
Japan’s Antarctic research whaling program JARPA was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2014.
MacLean said:
We’re completely shocked, as the red notice had disappeared a few months ago.
We understand now that Japan made it confidential to lure Paul into a false sense of security.
He said the foundation was imploring the Danish government to release Watson and not to entertain a politically motivated request.
He said the crew and foundation had no way to contact Watson, who is a Canadian-American citizen, and it had received no updates.
It was not known whether Denmark would allow him to be extradited to Japan.
Plea to Queen Mary after whaling activist’s arrest
The former Greens leader Bob Brown has urged Tasmanian-born Queen Mary of Denmark to intervene on behalf of the high-profile anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson after his arrest in Greenland.
The Hobart-based Sea Shepherd founder was taken into custody by police when his ship, the John Paul DeJoria, docked in Danish-controlled Greenland’s Nuuk harbour on 21 July.
A local court ordered that he be detained until 15 August after a Japanese notice for his arrest was issued through Interpol.
Brown said the case would shame Copenhagen in the eyes of the world “if it acts as the lickspittle of Tokyo, whose cruel and bloody whaling in Antarctic waters ended in 2014 because it was found to be illegal by the International Court of Justice”.
He said:
I am well aware of the constitutional restraints on the monarchy in Denmark.
But there is enormous respect for Her Majesty Queen Mary here in her native Tasmania and, at the same time, huge support for Watson, who was pivotal to getting the illegal Japanese whale-killers out of our oceans.
In his letter to the Queen, Brown writes that most Australians supported Watson’s efforts to end the cruel and illegal whale slaughter. He wrote:
We owe him a great debt.
I am drawing his plight to your attention so that you may know about the need to gain his release. Japan has withdrawn from the International Whaling Commission and has a new whaling vessel capable of resuming whaling in the south again.
More to come in the next post.
– Australian Associated Press
Nearly one in 10 young people have experienced homelessness, survey finds
Stephanie Convery
A survey of nearly 20,000 young people conducted by youth charity Mission Australia found nearly one in 10 had experienced some form of homelessness in the previous 12 months.
The charity released its youth homelessness report on Thursday, based on responses from 19,501 young people aged 15 to 19, finding that 1,508 respondents (8.6%) had experienced homelessness in the previous 12 months.
The responses showed loneliness, social barriers and strained family relationships were overrepresented among those who had an experience of homelessness.
Some 41% of respondents who had recently experienced homelessness said they had a mental health condition, compared with 13% of young people with stable homes.
Young people with a recent experience of homelessness were also more likely to find it difficult to socialise and fit in compared to their peers (46% compared with 26%), and were more likely to experience strained or poor family relationships (34% compared with 5%).
The charity is calling for $500m to be invested in targeted homelessness prevention for young people with high risk of homelessness, to increase youth housing options, including in social housing and the private rental market; and for increases to income support payments such as jobseeker and youth allowance that would support young people to live independently.
Stephanie Convery
Government needs stronger commitment to royal commission recommendations, disability discrimination commissioner says
The disability discrimination commissioner, Rosemary Kayess, has urged the federal government to make a stronger commitment to the recommendations of the disability royal commission if it wants a more equitable and inclusive nation.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, after the joint federal, state and territory government response to the royal commission was released, Kayess said Australia needed to reframe its approach to disability.
Kayess said:
People with disability have waited almost a year for the government to release its response, and it unfortunately comes without a clear plan for action or roadmap for implementation.
The findings were clear that segregation and exclusion are core enablers of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability, which impedes the realisation of people’s rights and is inconsistent with the intent and purpose of the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Ending violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation experienced by people with disability was impossible unless their human rights are embedded within law, policy and practice, Kayess said.
The federal government accepted in full only 13 of the royal commission’s 222 recommendations, and accepted 117 in principle.
The government should also strengthen laws around supported decision-making to protect the autonomy of and empower people with disability, Kayess said, as current policies and practices were falling short.
People need to know the government has taken the evidence they provided seriously, with the intention to act on key recommendations – no matter how complex or challenging.
Genuine change will no doubt take time, but if our leaders are serious about creating a truly inclusive society then we need to plant the seeds of change and act now.
‘Governments have not done well enough’ on closing the gap, PM concedes
Addressing the Closing the Gap report released today, Anthony Albanese says “governments have not done well enough in the past”.
My government is committed to closing the gap, working with Indigenous communities, listening to Indigenous communities across the full range of issues, whether it be economic empowerment, [or] the decision that we made just in the last days about no mining at Jabiluka in response to the wishes of the traditional owners and its significant to the Kakadu national park …
There are other examples as well. The agreement in the Northern Territory about education – it will significantly benefit students from those remote communities.
We put $4bn into remote housing … That is the key, you cannot get improvements in health and education if you have overcrowding in communities and you have homelessness and people being crowded, multiple families, into tiny places relatively.
We have provided record funding in places like central Australia, a $250m program that is looking at health with increased access to dialysis support.
I will be at the Garma festival in the Northern Territory in Arnhem Land tomorrow with the new minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy. We are committed to making a difference.
The challenges are there. You cannot resolve intergenerational inequity overnight but what you can do is be committed to making a difference. My government is.
Quite clearly governments of all persuasions at all levels have not done well enough in the past but we are committed to working with those communities and also, of course, working with the private sector as well to make a difference.
‘We want to see a de-escalation, we want to see a ceasefire’: PM
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is now speaking, warning about potential escalation of tensions in the Middle East.
We want to see a de-escalation, we want to see a ceasefire, want to see the hostages released and we want to see a plan for peace and security in the Middle East where both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security with prosperity. That is the objective that my government has.
He also reminds Australians to not travel to Lebanon, and urges any Australians there to take the opportunity to leave:
We will continue to play a constructive role in that but, as well, I take the opportunity to say to Australians, do not travel to Lebanon at the moment.
We have a very clear statement that has been issued through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and for those Australians that are overseas, they should take the opportunity to come home to Australia.
There is a risk that the Beirut airport might not be open for commercial flights and, given the numbers of people that are there, there is no guarantee that … people will be able to come home through other means if that airport is shut.
Asked about priorities in her new role as the minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy says her goal is to “bring different political allegiances together”:
This weekend it is getting out of Garma festival, listening to First Nations people, it will be the first real gathering since the referendum about regrouping and working with the prime minister on his targets going forward but again, as I said, working with crossbenchers in the parliament.
It is really important to elevate Indigenous affairs in a way that brings a lot of harmonious responses. We have high rates of suicide as First Nations people, the highest rate of incarceration.
I will be reaching across a parliamentary divide to ensure there are some certain areas of Aboriginal affairs where we should be untouched in terms of it being a political football, and I will be striving to do my best to bring different political allegiances together on that issue.
New minister says she will ‘reach across the aisle’ to ‘elevate Indigenous affairs’
The new minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, is speaking in Darwin, after the Closing the Gap report found “deeply troubling trends”.
She says bipartisanship in the parliament is an area “we need to improve on”:
I will be working very hard to try to reach across the aisle to Coalition members, the Greens, the teals and crossbenchers, that we have to elevate Indigenous affairs, especially around these areas of Closing the Gap targets.
We need to work together as a parliament, just as we are trying to do with first ministers in Indigenous affairs in every state and territory jurisdiction, so I will certainly be wanting to do that.
What I will also do is reach out to the Productivity Commission. I know the report that came down earlier this year also had some directions that we should be looking at. There will be quite a lot of people attending Garma festival this week and it will be my first event to be having these discussions.
Healthcare hardly mentioned in government’s disability report, physicians say
Natasha May
The peak body for physicians is adding its voice to advocates criticising the government’s response to the disability royal commission.
The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) says the response delivered yesterday does not adequately address healthcare for people with disability, with the word healthcare “hardly mentioned” in the report – used less than 50 times across the 312 pages.
The report also failed to accept the implementation of the findings of the Tune review, which would ensure the advice of physicians (doctors who specialise in internal medicine) is included in all aspects of patient assessments, the college said.
Prof Jennifer Martin, the president of the RACP, says that while the college welcomed the government’s in-principle acceptance of the recommendation to improve specialist training and continuing professional development in cognitive disability healthcare, more is needed:
Physicians have an important role to play in the healthcare of people with a disability and we were hoping to see a greater emphasis on the value they bring.
In particular, the federal government must ensure that Australians who need extra support have effective and inclusive communication channels, particularly with and between healthcare providers, to access the information they need for themselves and for their loved ones to get the care they need.
Addressing health literacy has been overlooked in the government’s response, which is disappointing. People with disability should always be able to understand information and communicate their needs in the way that is best for them.
Senator wants Australian Olympics not to replicate supposedly ‘satanic, degenerate and disgusting’ Paris opening ceremony
Senator Ralph Babet has written an open letter to the Australian Olympic Committee, seeking “assurances from those planning the Australian Olympic Games that our event will honour tradition, history and culture”.
Babet, of the United Australia Party, called out the Paris games’ opening ceremony “that was in my opinion satanic, degenerate, and disgusting,” he wrote in a post on Twitter.
My open letter to the Australian Olympic Committee. I’ve been one of the only Australian politicians to call out an opening ceremony that was in my opinion satanic, degenerate, and disgusting. Stand with me. Fight with me. Together we will change the world.
Do you part, Join The… pic.twitter.com/lPAN5FSdh6
— Senator Babet (@senatorbabet) July 31, 2024
His letter calls for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games to “avoid the mistakes of Paris – where organisers used their opening ceremony to make cheap political and religious points”.
It continues:
I do not for one moment believe the claims of Paris organisers that they were trying to create inclusion in highlighting diversity. It was clear they used the platform afforded them to shock and outrage. In doing so, they let down their own people and outraged many around the world.
By focusing on sexual preferences, radical gender theory and a rejection of Christianity, the French organisers created outrage and division …
I am desperately keen that we in Australia do not allow the same to happen to us.
An opening ceremony is a chance to showcase history, tradition and culture while emphasising everything good about our nation.
To that end, I am writing to seek assurances from those planning the Australian Olympic Games that our event will honour tradition, history and culture rather than undermine them, that it will be something that all Australians will be proud of rather than just a niche and fringe few.
Jacinta Allan says state government to host housing summit on Monday
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has been asked whether the increases in land, vacant property taxes and a Covid-19 levy on investment properties are to blame for Melbourne’s housing prices falling four months in a row. She replies:
The vacant residential land tax … was designed in a way to not have properties and land left vacant for long periods of time … [and] to deal with some of the challenges around land banking. But also providing a bit of encouragement for property owners to consider the best use of that property.
This is another example of how we are using every lever we can to build more homes [and] make more homes available to more Victorians.
Allan said the government would be hosting a housing summit with stakeholders and ministers on Monday:
A number of ministers are coming together with a large number of organisations and people who represent all parts of the building industry but also local government representatives. Again, we’re wanting to use every lever to build more homes, we’re wanting to make sure every voice every organisation that can be part of that work … I want it to be an ideas factory on how we can continue to build on the work we’ve done to date to build more homes for more Victorians because we know there’s more to do. We have released the housing statement, but there’s more that needs to be done.
Asked whether it was a good or bad thing that property prices were falling, she says:
That is a little bit in the eye of the beholder in terms of where you sit … in the world of ownership or otherwise of real estate.
Graham Readfearn
Australia ‘deeply disappointed’ by Japan adding massive fin whales to hunt
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, says Australia is “deeply disappointed” by Japan’s decision last month to add fin whales to its commercial whaling program.
In a statement, she said the move expanded Japan’s long-running whale hunts beyond the Bryde’s, minke and sei whales that are already killed. She said:
Fin whales are the second largest of all whales and are considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Australia is opposed to all commercial whaling and urges all countries to end this practice. Australia’s efforts through the international whaling commission have contributed to a whaling-free southern ocean and a decline in commercial whaling around the world.
Australia will continue to advocate for the protection and conservation of whales and the health of our ocean for future generations.
Benita Kolovos
Jacinta Allan provides update on legionnaires’ disease outbreak
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, is providing an update on the legionnaires’ disease outbreak in the state. She says she spoke to the chief health officer yesterday about the “increasing number of cases”.
She continues:
I spoke with the chief health officer yesterday and she advised very clearly and requested that I reinforced the message that if people are experiencing symptoms to go and seek urgent medical care, because particularly for people who may have other underlying conditions or who may be vulnerable or immunocompromised this can be quite a severe illness. And many of there are many people in ICU and many who have are currently hospitalised as they’re getting treatment for this illness.
Allan says the source of the outbreak is yet to be identified other than the general location of north-west Melbourne, but the process takes time.
People who present with the illness provide tests – they take between five to seven days to be processed. And obviously firstly someone has to first be identified as having legionnaires’, and then there’s that further testing that’s undertaken. And so that is why a very strong a precautionary message is to be delivered around people who may have been in that broader geographic exposure area to go and seek medical attention if they feel that they have those symptoms that can be quite debilitating.
Financial complaints surge as scams take hold
Jonathan Barrett
Australians have lodged a record number of complaints against their financial institutions, with scams and insurance issues driving a 9% increase to 105,000 disputes, according to the financial ombudsman.
Fiscal year data from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority shows scam-related complaints increased by more than 80% in 2023-24, averaging 913 a month compared with 504 a month the previous financial year.
That was reflected in disputes related to personal transaction accounts, which were the most complained about financial product overall.
Consumers typically lodge complaints with AFCA after receiving an unsatisfactory response from their bank or lender.
“Our view is that firms could be resolving more complaints themselves, or preventing them in the first place,” chief ombudsman David Locke said.
We continue to take steps to be able to keep up with the increasing demand for our service, but it’s in everyone’s interests that rising complaints are tackled at the source.
In 2023, Australians lost $2.74bn to scams, according to the competition regulator, and there are fears the sophistication of such schemes will escalate through AI advances, such as voice cloning.
Consumer groups have described the federal government’s reforms to help consumers as “too vague” and “a mess”.
