Key events
Cait Kelly
People’s Commission into the Housing Crisis gets underway today
Everybody’s Home is convening Australia’s first People’s Commission into the Housing Crisis, which kicks off today.
The commission is an opportunity for individuals and organisations across the country to contribute to a national conversation about the housing crisis, its impacts and what can be done to fix it.
Co-commissioners Doug Cameron and Prof Nicole Gurran will hear from parents, domestic violence survivors, essential workers and younger and older people on day one of hearings.
The commission’s survey received 15,000 submissions, which has shown:
-
Three in five (58%) respondents are in housing stress
-
Three in four (76%) of those who rent are in housing stress
-
The top ways respondents are coping with housing costs are by reducing energy use like heating or cooling their homes (52%), avoiding the doctor and essential appointments (45%), and reducing vehicle use (39%)
-
One in three are skipping meals (32%), or relying on credit cards or buy now pay later (31%).
-
Uncertainty about the future (67%) and increased housing costs (61%) are the top reasons for concern about the housing crisis.
‘No moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas’: Husic on ICC arrest warrants
Speaking on the ICC arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials, Ed Husic said he does not see any “sense of moral equivalence” between the warrants.
Wrapping up his interview on ABC RN, the industry and science minister said:
People are being charged on the basis of individual action, there is no moral equivalence between the state of Israel and a terrorist organisation in Hamas. I mean, that simply is not the case.
But certainly, people have been concerned following Hamas’ deadly actions, the way in which 35,000 Palestinians have been killed through a campaign that has been undertaken by the Israeli government.
And I think the whole way through I’ve been saying we need to acknowledge humanity, the whole way through, and innocent people should not be targeted and should be protected – and it’s not just Palestinians on the ground, it’s humanitarian workers and it’s journalists, too, should be protected and spared the brutality of what we’ve seen since October 7.
Ed Husic labels Coalition position on ICC warrants as ‘staggering’
Ed Husic was also asked about calls for nations to boycott the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for three senior Hamas officials, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
Yesterday, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, signalled that a Coalition government may consider walking away from the ICC if it issues the warrants. Husic told ABC RN:
The Coalition talks big about law and order but then wants to pick what law and order it’ll follow, and it’s staggering that you can have a mainstream political party determine – on the basis of something that is uncomfortable to them – that they would then just turn their back on a court of law.
He noted comments from the prime minister that the courts should “be allowed to go about their business without political interference”.
It gets us away from the fact that 35,000 innocent Palestinians have been killed through the course of this conflict as a result of Hamas’ horrific actions that saw … Israelis killed and hostages taken, and what we need to get to is a situation where people aren’t being killed and that others who have done bad, done wrong, are held to account.
I’ve never, frankly, heard out of the Coalition, any signalling of concern about 35,000 people being killed. If it has been said, it’s been lukewarm, and there’s been no desire out of them or no expression out of them, that restraint, doing better, observing international humanitarian law, be observed, and I think it’s staggering again that a mainstream party could be like that.
Recognising Palestinian state part of ‘longer-term process’, Husic says
Q: Norway, Ireland and Spain have recognised Palestine as a state. Do you think Australia needs to do the same?
Ed Husic responded:
We have said as a party we are prepared to recognise the state of Palestine and we’ve said that on our platform, however, when we did – certainly when we put forward our platform last year – that was well before the events of October 7… [We] believe that the best way to manage this is through a peace process with respect to recognition, and a longer-term pace will be tended to security and peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. So we think that will be part of a longer-term process.
Ed Husic details government’s new battery strategy
The industry and science minister, Ed Husic, has been speaking to ABC RN about the government’s newly unveiled national battery strategy. As Karen Middleton reports, the strategy is aimed at turning Australia from a “dig-and-ship” economy that sells off its critical minerals into a powerhouse manufacturer of better and safer renewable energy storage.
The strategy basically aims to end Australia’s reliance on China for the batteries that power mobile phones, electric cars, scooters and heavy equipment. You can read the full story below for all the details:
Asked if Australia can compete in this space, Husic said:
China is obviously the biggest producer [and] a lot of countries are recognising that their dependency on that concentrated supply chain isn’t in [their] national interest longer-term. If there are disruptions to that supply, either accidental or otherwise, we’re left vulnerable and these are in terms of the batteries themselves – they’re complex in nature. It’s also driven by software, so we need to have safe and secure batteries, energy storage systems, longer term.
Plibersek weighs in on social media ban for under 16s
There has been much discussion this week about the minimum age for social media use, with the prime minister Anthony Albanese endorsing a ban on children under 16 from registering social media accounts.
Asked about this on ABC RN, Tanya Plibersek she wasn’t going to “just pluck a figure out of the air”.
But she said “the longer [young people] wait, the better”.
The healthier interactions are the ones that they’re doing in person – going out playing sport, being human beings with each other. And I think this is the really sad thing about social media. It could have been such a force for bringing people together and in fact, it’s broken its promise to us. We’ve got kids who are more isolated, more depressed, more stressed than ever before.
Asked about criticism of a “nanny-state” approach, she said “we all have a responsibility for our own tech diet” and what our kids consume, but argued “highly paid geniuses [are] working on ways to get the kids hooked and keep them hooked”.
As parents on our own, it is almost impossible to push back on that, in the same way that the promoters of poker machines or promoters of tobacco [are] really great at using brain science to get people hooked and keep them hooked, because they’re driven by dollars. We know that the social media giants, they’re in the same boat. They’re getting our kids hooked, they’re keeping [them hooked] because they know getting them early means a lifetime of customers.
Plibersek on AI deepfake pornography: we needed to address this ‘yesterday’
The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, just spoke with ABC RN about the concerns surrounding young people’s social media use.
She noted measures the government is pursuing – quadrupled funding for the eSafety commissioner, discussions around the right age to use social media, an age assurance technology trial, public information campaigns – but acknowledged a lot is happening “beyond what government can do”.
I think this is something that as a society we need to confront. So there’s absolutely a role for government, we absolutely are prepared to take action, but we also as parents, as community leaders, as role models for our children, need to tackle what next?
And the what next question is really important, because AI – this new frontier – is able to, for example, generate the most convincing deepfake pornography that can be distributed to bully and harass kids. If we don’t get a handle on this now, it’s going to escape in the same way as social media escaped into society and we’re dealing with the consequences.
How soon do we need to address this? Plibersek responded, “Yesterday”.
…probably the most important thing we can do as parents and as citizens is educate ourselves about the potential for disaster here.
Living costs pose ‘difficult choices’ for young people, bank data shows
Australians in their mid-to-late 20s have cut spending by more than 7% in the year to March when adjusted for inflation, AAP reports, as they bear the brunt of high rents and elevated living expenses, cutting their spending far more than their older peers.
The data is based on an analysis of deidentified Commonwealth Bank transaction data.
While a cut to discretionary purchases is unsurprising in a strained financial environment, those in their 20s were also spending less on essentials at about the same rate. Sharp declines were recorded across health insurance, utilities and spending at the supermarket for the group.
Wade Tubman, the author of the new cost-of-living report and CommBank iQ’s head of innovation and analytics , said a split was starting to form in the 25-29 cohort between those still paying bills and those who were not.
Tubman said this suggested young people were finding ways to consolidate those costs, perhaps by moving back in with their parents or by splitting bills in sharehouses:
This highlights the difficult choices people in this age bracket are making, with some having to make larger lifestyle changes like foregoing their health insurance altogether.
At the other end of the spectrum, over-65s continued to spend above inflation, especially on activities such as travel and eating out. Those in the 65-69 age bracket recorded a 4.4% increase in spending over the year to March.
BHP has third offer for Anglo American rejected
Mining giant BHP has had a third takeover bid for Anglo American rejected as it continues to be frustrated in its attempt to swallow up a rival with strong copper assets.
BHP said overnight that it had made an “increased and final” bid of £31.11 a share (A$59.70) for Anglo, which values the FTSE 100 company at £38.6bn (almost A$74bn), earlier this week.
Anglo had already rejected two previous offers and has now rejected a third.
Stuart Chambers, the chair of Anglo American, said:
The board considered BHP’s latest proposal carefully, concluded it does not meet expectations of value delivered to Anglo American’s shareholders and has unanimously rejected it.
The attempted BHP takeover, the largest-ever in the mining sector, would create a global player in markets for commodities including copper, iron ore, potash and metallurgical coal used for steelmaking.
Read the full story from our London business team here:
Circling back to news that the University of Melbourne students occupying a building on campus in support of Palestine have said they will dismantle the camp:
The decision by the Melbourne students to take down their camp could help take the political heat out of the issue for the government, which is also under fire for its cautious response to the international criminal court prosecutor’s pursuit of the leaders of Israel and Hamas.
Our foreign affairs correspondent, Daniel Hurst, has been looking at how this compares with the Australian government’s response to previous ICC investigations. Where does Australia stand on the ICC’s jurisdiction to investigate crimes on Palestinian territory? And what happens next?
Read his full explainer here:
Another 103 Australians are repatriated from New Caledonia
Another group of 103 Australians stranded in New Caledonia following deadly riots has been repatriated, AAP reports, meaning more than half the people who want to leave the French territory have returned home.
A French plane arrived in Brisbane last night carrying 103 Australian citizens and family members after 84 Australians and 24 other nationals were repatriated to the Queensland capital on Tuesday.
A total of 187 Australians and their family members had now returned from New Caledonia, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, said in a post to X.
A further 103 Australians and their family members have landed in Brisbane tonight on a French assisted-departure flight from New Caledonia.
187 Australians and their family members have now returned from New Caledonia.
Thank you to officials for operating these flights.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) May 22, 2024
There are about 500 Australians in New Caledonia and some 300 in total had registered their interest in coming home with the department of foreign affairs, the Pacific minister, Pat Conroy, told ABC TV last night.
He said Australia would continue to work with the French government on further flights:
The primary plan is more French flights but as I’ve indicated publicly, we do have contingency plans and we do have planes on standby should there be an issue with that.
Those on board the first two flights were filled with relief after days of failing to find a way off the island, said Fadi Chemali, who was on the first plane to reach Australia.
Good morning
Emily Wind
And welcome back to a new day on the Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be taking you through our live coverage this Thursday – thanks to Martin for kicking things off.
As always, you can get in touch with me via X, @emilywindwrites or you can send me an email: [email protected].
Let’s go.
University of Melbourne students announce intention to pack up pro-Palestine camp
Stephanie Convery
Students occupying a building at the University of Melbourne in support of Palestine have said they intend to dismantle their camp on Thursday after what they have called a “partial achievement” in their campaign.
At a press conference on Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for the student coalition organising the on-campus occupation said that the university had agreed to disclose its relationships and funding ties to weapons manufacturers engaged in the current attacks on Palestinian people in Gaza.
The activists would decamp, they said, after the university made a public statement about their disclosure intentions.
The protesters had also been advocating for the university to divest from those companies and institutions. A spokesperson for the collective said that the disclosure agreement was only a “partial achievement”:
This is a first step. Divestment from those that profiteer from genocide remains our number one priority and demand and we will not rest until full divestment is achieved.
The past month has proven that when united the power of students and staff is something the university cannot hide from. We demand disclosure within one month and that an independent body of our choice oversees this process. Disclosure will not be determined by the university alone.
Last week the university threatened students with disciplinary and possible police action after hundreds of protesters flooded the Arts West building and unofficially renamed it “Mahmoud’s Hall” after a Palestinian who was killed with his family in Gaza before he could begin his studies in Australia.
The collective’s spokesperson said on Wednesday the group “rejects and will resist the misconduct measures used to threaten students” by the university, and said it would be a “gross injustice if the university were to punish students for carrying out the values of political expression and academic freedom that the university extols”.
The university released a short statement on Wednesday evening saying:
We welcome the willingness of the occupiers to leave the Arts West building and remove the encampment from our Parkville campus.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to the live blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top stories this morning before Emily Wind comes along to take care of the main business of the day.
Australia might be buying more electric vehicles, but the national obsession with SUVs and utes is expected to cancel out all the gains from cleaner cars. The transport sector “is projected to be Australia’s highest emitting sector by 2030” according to a new government roadmap on emissions, partly because drivers “increasingly prefer heavy passenger vehicles”. SUVs accounted for more than 50% of new vehicles sold in Australia in 2022, in a trend that could offset any reduction in emissions from “the increased adoption of electric vehicles”. Our Temperature Check column says the claim of a $600bn carbon capture windfall is based on heroic assumptions and selective analysis.
The pro-Palestinian protesters camped at the University of Melbourne said last night they are going to break camp today after what they called a partial success for their campaign. In a media conference last night, the protesters said the university had agreed to disclose its relationships and funding ties to weapons manufacturers involved in supplying weapons to Israel. More coming up on this breaking story.
Lachlan Murdoch has been joined in Sydney by the News Corp UK boss, Rebekah Brooks, and global chief, Robert Thomson, ahead of the announcement of a major restructure of the empire’s Australian newspapers next week. Guardian Australia understands Thomson – who is Rupert Murdoch’s right-hand man – Lachlan and Brooks held meetings in Sydney on Tuesday with News Corp’s local chief, Michael Miller, and others to sign off on the transformation of the company. More coming up.
