Crews on ‘cyclone watch’ between Innisfail and the Whitsundays
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services state disaster coordinator, Shane Chelepy, was just speaking to ABC RN about Tropical Cyclone Kirrily – due to become an official cyclone late today.
Chelepy said according to the latest data from the Bureau of Meteorology, crews are on “cyclone watch” between Innisfail and the Whitsundays in Queensland.
He said people between Cairns, all the way down to Mackay, should be on alert and start making preparations:
The first thing is to stay connected with the emergency messaging and understand the alerts that may and will come out as the cyclone approaches the coast.
But more importantly, use the next 48 hours to 72 hours to prepare yourself and your family for a potential cyclone crossing and flooding event after. You can do simple things like keep the fuel in your car topped up now, make sure you have enough food in your house for 72 hours, [and] make sure you have battery charging packs for your phone. Very simple things you can do.
Key events
Speaking to the media, deputy prime minister Richard Marles said today’s move in imposing Magnitsky-style sanctions laws against a Russian citizen is a “hugely significant and unprecedented step”.
He credited the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) for their investigation to identify the alleged hacker Aleksandr Gennadievich Ermakov, as named in the sanctions notice posted on the government’s legislative instruments website overnight.
Marles:
The sanctions that are put in place on Alexander Ermakov today and publicly naming him will have an enormous impact on his activities and send a very strong message to cyber-criminals around the world that we mean business …
Medibank have been incredibly open in the way they have engaged with ASD. This has been fundamentally important in allowing ASD to do its work. And it’s a really good example of how companies being willing to share this really sensitive information with ASD allows the investigations to occur in a way that’s ended up with the result that we have today.
Wong announces further counter-terrorism and financing sanctions
Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong also announced further counter-terrorism and financing sanctions on 12 persons and three entities who are linked to Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad:
This is concurrent with further sanctions imposed on Hamas-linked targets by the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Penny Wong gives press conference about sanctions imposed on Aleksandr Gennadievich Ermakov over Medibank breach
Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong is giving a press conference about the cyber sanctions used on a Russian individual for his alleged role in the Medibank breach.
The sanctions notice posted on the government’s legislative instruments website overnight says the measure is a response to the “Medibank Significant Cyber Incident 2022”.
The government’s notice names Aleksandr Gennadievich Ermakov, a Russian citizen born on 16 May 1990, as the person facing targeted financial sanctions and Australian travel bans.
The document says this person is also known as Alexander Ermakov, GustaveDore, aiiis_ermak, blade_runner or JimJones.
Speaking at the press conference, Wong said:
As you might recall, more than nine million records of Australians, including names, dates of birth, Medicare numbers and sensitive information was stolen in the 2022 attack and the majority published on the dark web. It was an egregious violation, it impacted some of the most vulnerable members of the Australian community.
I can confirm that thanks to the hard work of the Australian Signals Directorate and the AFP, we have linked Russian citizen and cyber-criminal Alexander Ermakov to the attack.
– with Daniel Hurst
More on the 10 arrests at the Port of Melbourne amid a pro-Palestine blockade against Zim:
In a statement, Victoria police acknowledged “this protest action is of concern to some employees” with a peak of 200 police in attendance.
Police said some employees have chosen not to enter past the protestors despite “vehicle access to the dock [being] maintained during the protests”.
That is why we have made numerous offers to assist to [the Victorian International Container Terminal] and the Port of Melbourne to get employees to and from work via alternate routes.
While these offers to assist were declined on Saturday and Sunday morning, they were supported on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, we continue VICT employees to access their workplace.
Police described the protest activity as “extremely dynamic” and having escalated in recent days – “so too has our response”.
While there is no policing jurisdiction in the world that has hundreds of police on standby should there be a sudden surge in protest activity, to suggest there were not enough police officers at the dock is simply untrue.
Victoria Police can only arrest people for protesting once the property owner requests that they leave. This happened for the first time on Monday.
Ten people arrested at Port of Melbourne blockade against Zim
Ten people have been arrested during an ongoing pro-Palestine blockade being staged at the Port of Melbourne by activists.
Throughout the day yesterday, police said 10 arrests were made – nine people were arrested for trespassing and one arrested for criminal damage.
This comes as activists have been at the Port of Melbourne since Friday, staging a blockade to prevent an Israeli-owned shipping company Zim from unloading. It has been forced to anchor in the bay.
Activists said in a statement that it “condemn[ed] the police violence today and throughout the last [four] days”, including the use of pepper spray and “excessive use of force”.
Many dock workers were stood down without pay for refusing to work in unsafe conditions. The community has donated generously to cover the pay their bosses have docked from them. We thank them for their solidarity.
Police confirmed the use of pepper spray on protestors. As of 7.30am AEDT police could not confirm if any charges had been laid yet.
In a statement, Melbourne Activist Legal Support said it would be making a detailed statement of concern in the next 24-48 hours and releasing this to police, Victorian Equal Opportunity and the Human Rights Commission.
Paul Karp
Albanese confirms intent to give middle Australia cost-of-living relief
The prime minister Anthony Albanese has spoken to KIIS FM, again all but confirming that middle-income earners will be given more cost-of-living relief this week.
But the prime minister is still noncommittal about whether stage-three tax cuts will remain in their current legislated form or could be modified.
Albanese said:
I support tax cuts and everyone will be getting a tax cut. You will always be looked after, Kyle, because I know that you’re struggling.
Look, what we need to do across the board – what we’re doing is looking at how we can help low- and middle-income earners. Middle Australia particularly is doing it really tough … people who have a mortgage. So we’re looking at ways in which we can provide assistance to them.
We did that last year with a range of measures. People are benefiting from cheaper medicines cheap, childcare, the energy price relief plan but we’re looking at other ways as well, are there other ways that we can provide support for people?
As reported just earlier by Daniel Hurst, the Australian government has used Magnitsky-style sanctions laws against a Russian citizen over the Medibank Private cyber breach from 2022.
If you want to learn more about these sanction laws, you can have a read of this below:
Essentially, the sanction laws include a world-leading measure to allow travel bans and asset freezes on those deemed responsible for “significant” cyber-attacks.
In late 2022 the shadow minister for cybersecurity, James Paterson, conceded the hackers were unlikely to come to Australia on holiday so would not be directly affected by travel bans, but this should not stop the Australian government from “using every tool we have available” to deter malicious cyber activity:
We should be making the world a smaller and less welcoming place for them. If we don’t put a price on it we’re going to have more of this behaviour.
Barnaby Joyce says any possible changes to stage-three tax cuts would be ‘breaking a promise’
Earlier, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce was asked about possible changes to the stage-three tax cuts while speaking to ABC TV.
He criticised the government for any possible change to the tax cuts and said “when you modify a promise, you are breaking a promise”.
In Australia, we’re all paying more and more tax. We’re going up through the tax brackets. It’s not the government’s money. It’s our money … [people] want to work more for themselves and less for the government.
When asked about the Labor caucus meeting called for tomorrow to discuss the cost of living, Joyce asked: “Well, what have they been talking about for the last 1.5 years?”
How [have they all of a sudden] understood something that’s been front and centre of their own polling?
You can read more on this issue below:
Queensland premier speaks ahead of expected tropical cyclone
Queensland premier Steven Miles just spoke to ABC TV as Tropical Cyclone Kirrily is expected to develop off the coast of Queensland late today or early tomorrow.
He said emergency services are preparing for either a cyclone or very heavy rainfall from late this week, through the weekend and into early next week.
Miles acknowledged that Kirrily may impact places that were already hit by ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper last year:
Some of the models predict more than a metre of rain and that’s a massive amount of water on already saturated catchments.
If you can imagine as far north as just south of Cairns, all the way down to the south-east, we expect the cyclone to cross somewhere between Innisfail and Airlie Beach. We have very populated areas there, places like Townsville and Mackay. We have pre-positioned emergency services there and we continue to look to the bureau to guide us about where our emergency services should be.
Miles said emergency services are “stretched” after a busy December. The cost of Jasper alone is expected to cost the state “multiple billions” and Queensland is facing “effectively” a repeat of that:
It could double the impact of natural disasters. But that’s not our focus right now, our focus is always on getting Queensland ready, on making sure we protect lives and as much property as possible, but first and foremost, lives.
David Pocock said it was a positive move to see the major parties “talking about the lack of competition in Australia” around groceries, and is hoping to see a full ACCC inquiry – rather than “parliamentary inquiry’s that come and go”.
When you look at it you have airlines, groceries, the banking sector, are so concentrated here in Australian and everyday Australians pay the price for that.
Housing should be affordable, not an investment vehicle, Pocock says
Turning back to David Pocock’s earlier interview on ABC RN:
He argued that broader tax changes are needed in Australia to address the cost of living, with housing playing a large role with things like the capital gains tax:
We live in a country where it’s easier to buy your second house than your first house and I think most Australians would say that that is not how it should be.
We should be viewing housing as something that everyone in our community can afford, not as an investment vehicle and our tax system has been set up for investors. We need to turn that around.
Unfortunately, the major parties don’t want to have that conversation. But I’m hearing loud and clear from from the people that I represent, that they are ready for that, they they want us to turn things around when it comes to housing.
Russian citizen sanctioned over 2022 Medibank hack
Daniel Hurst
In breaking news, the Australian government has used Magnitsky-style sanctions laws against a Russian citizen over the Medibank Private cyber breach from 2022.
It is believed to be the first time the significant cyber incident section of the Magnitsky laws have been used.
A document posted on the government’s legislative instruments website shows the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, signed the sanctions listing yesterday.
The attached explanatory notes say one person will be subject to targeted financial sanctions and a travel ban under the significant cyber incident criteria:
This listing demonstrates Australia’s ongoing commitment to deterring and responding robustly to malicious and significant cyber incidents. The listing acts in our national interest to impose costs on, influence and deter those responsible for malicious cyber activity.
The government is due to hold a press conference at 8.30am with Wong, Richard Marles and Clare O’Neil.
Stage-three tax cuts ‘wrong policy for the current economic environment’: Pocock
Speaking on ABC RN, David Pocock argued that putting money into the pockets of lower- and middl- income earners would see them spend this on essential items, which is different to the “discretionary” spending of high earners.
They’re probably going to spend it on essentials – on groceries, on paying for school excursions and ensuring that the kids can play community sport. I think that’s very different from high-income earners being able to spend that money on discretionary items.
Pocock said for him, this position is about “fairness”.
We had the low- and middle-income earner tax offset come in and help a lot of people at the bottom end, and expire. Why have we got these tax cuts that are across $300bn plus dollars?
Yes, bracket creep is a real issue that the government does need to address but stage three in its current form is poorly designed. I think it’s the wrong policy for the current economic environment. You can address bracket creep in other ways.
ABC RN host Patricia Karvelas pushes back: don’t people also want governments to be true to their word?
Pocock:
Well, I would argue that redesigning them would have a lot more support than scrapping them.
He argued the stage-three tax cuts benefit “people like [him] – a senator on a really good wage” – at a time when so many Australians are doing it tough.
Why are we going ahead with this sort of change to our tax system?
This is a tough one for government, but I’m really concerned that if you continue with these … we’re then going to have to find other money to deal with cost of living, which it’s hard to [do].
David Pocock responds to speculation about stage-three tax cuts
Independent senator David Pocock is speaking to ABC RN about speculation the government is planning to scrap, or change, the stage-three tax cuts.
This comes as the prime minister Anthony Albanese has called the Labor caucus to Canberra for a snap meeting tomorrow to discuss cost of living measures.
Pocock said he has been advocating for the stage-three tax cuts to be redesigned since the election:
I don’t think they should be scrapped, but there’s a way to make these fairer. And yesterday … modelling that was commissioned by the Greens shows we’re looking at $323bn over the next 10 years, that’s baked into the budget.
Let’s use that to actually address cost of living, let’s use that to have a fairer Australia going forward. Not an Australia where someone earning $45,000 is paying … the same rate of taxes as someone earning $200,000.
Pocock acknowledged that the opposition is already labelling this as a “broken promise” on the part of the government, but he argued the Australian people “want governments to have integrity” and “respond to the challenges”:
This is an opportunity to change the policy to be fit for the current economic environment.
Tropical Cyclone Kirrily forecast to become category two storm
Senior forecaster Miriam Bradbury from the Bureau of Meteorology spoke with ABC TV just earlier, and was first asked to provide an update on the tropical low which is set to become Tropical Cyclone Kirrily.
She said the low has “slowed down very slightly in its development”, expected to develop into a cyclone overnight or into early tomorrow morning.
We still expect this system to continue intensifying as it approaches the coast, making landfall some time late Thursday going into Friday morning.
The current cyclone watch area extends from Cairns down to St Lawrence. There may be further changes, because tropical cyclones can slow down or speed up, or change that direction of their track.
The cyclone may become a severe category three by the time it reaches the Queensland coast, but the current forecast map suggests it may only be a category two.
