Anthony Albanese claims the Coalition is hiding its plans for nuclear energy after Peter Dutton didn’t outline its policy in his budget reply. Photograph: Con Chronis/AAP
Anthony Albanese claims the Coalition is hiding its plans for nuclear energy after Peter Dutton didn’t outline its policy in his budget reply. Photograph: Con Chronis/AAP
We are wrapping up the blog for tonight. Here’s what made the news:
Millions of Australian children could be barred from using social media platforms under changes put forward by state premiers who want better protection of minors from online harm.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, has said that Australia is “standing by” to airlift the 300 Australians currently in New Caledonia.
The University of Queenslandhas warned pro-Palestine protesters they could face disciplinary action for chanting “out, out, Israel out” or displaying posters which read “intifada” at rallies.
The University of Melbourne has issued a loudspeaker announcement to pro-Palestine protesters camped within a department building, warning they are trespassing if they do not leave campus ground and could face police action.
The University of Sydneyhas underpaid casual staff an estimated $70.1m, its latest annual report released today shows.
New South Wales police have charged more than 550 people during a four-day operation targeting alleged domestic and family violence offenders.
The federal court’s JusticeMelissa Perry has handed down a decision rejecting the existence of a duty of care by the Australian government to limit the length of time non-citizens spend in detention.
The deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, says Australian radio stations should ban the music of American rapper Sean Combs (AKA Diddy) after video was published of him beating his former girlfriend in a hotel in 2016.
Queensland police and premier warn against vigilantism after former LNP MP allegedly assaulted
Queensland police and political leaders are urging people not to intervene in crime matters after alleged vigilantism, AAP reports.
Police were called to a disturbance in Holloways Beach near Cairns on Friday where officers seized weapons and arrested two people.
Four hours later police were back on the same suburban street after reports of people armed with weapons having hit several people and a car before leaving the scene on foot.
The former Liberal National party MP for Cairns Michael Trout said he was assaulted and left with facial injuries.
Police continue to patrol areas of Holloways Beach but have asked the community not to take matters into their own hands.
A 15-year-old boy and a 47-year-old man have been charged with being armed to cause fear after the first incident on Friday.
Later in the evening police said a 23-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man received non-life-threatening injuries and were treated at the scene and a 31-year-old man was taken to Cairns hospital for treatment.
The Queensland premier, Steven Miles, said there was no place in the state for vigilantism because it brought significant risk to the community.
He told reporters on Monday:
The police will constantly say that if you need their assistance call them.
You don’t want to make their job even harder and that’s what they say happens when people try to take things into their own hands.
Dutton’s migration cuts would cost $34bn over coming decades: thinktank
Peter Dutton’s cuts to migration over four years would cause a $34bn hit to the federal budget over coming decades, an independent thinktank has said.
The Grattan Institute estimate backs the treasurer Jim Chalmers’ statement that Dutton’s proposed migration cuts would cost “billions”, which the opposition leader dismissed on Monday as “voodoo economics”.
It would be “a good thing” for Papua New Guinea to get its own team in the NRL, Anthony Albanese says, again committing his government to backing an expansion of the rugby league competition.
The prime minister has also claimed the Coalition is hiding its plans for nuclear energy, telling ABC Sydney radio that the opposition “won’t tell your listeners or anybody else where they’ll be”.
Albanese dialled into ABC Sydney this afternoon, talking up the budget’s $300 energy bill rebates. He was also asked about the opposition leader, Peter Dutton’s budget reply speech, where he proposed a cut in migration. Albanese labelled as “absurd” the proposition that Dutton’s migration changes would have a major effect on Australian society, saying the changes would be small.
“You actually need serious policies rather than slogans. Peter Dutton has had three budget replies and has yet to come up with a single costed policy, whether it’s this one, or whether it is nuclear reactors, where he won’t say who will finance and how many there will be, where they’ll be, even though just yesterday, David Littleproud said that actually been done polling on the locations,” Albanese said.
Albanese rejected the idea that the budget would be inflationary. Moving on to rugby league, the NRL has said in recent days it may confirm long-awaited expansion plans shortly – including adding teams in PNG, Perth or further afield.
The government has backed a new team in the rugby league mad PNG – with its support partly thought to be about countering China’s influence in the region.
“It would be a good thing for the economic development of PNG, as well as for the relationship that our two great nations have as they approach their 50-year anniversary of independence, to have a team in the NRL,” Albanese said.
The PM, a league tragic himself, said he thought a PNG team would “go pretty well” and be a “powerhouse” in the NRL comp.
Australia ‘standing by’ to airlift nationals from New Caledonia
The defence minister, Richard Marles, has said that Australia is “standing by” to airlift the 300 Australians currently in New Caledonia.
Amid rising tensions in the Pacific territory, Marles told the ABC his government is engaging with French officials and are “monitoring the situation very closely.”
We are standing by and ready to engage in airlift if it is necessary, but again, the starting point here is speaking closely with the French authorities about their work and what is happening on the ground. And we need to be obviously clear with the French authorities about how they are progressing in terms of managing law and order within Noumea and if there is any need for any kind of airlift from Australia and at this point that is an ongoing conversation.
State premiers propose raising age minimums for social media platforms
Millions of Australian children could be barred from using social media platforms under changes put forward by state premiers who want better protection of minors from online harm, AAP reports.
The leaders of NSW, Queensland and Victoria united on Monday in a push to lift age minimums on major platforms such as TikTok and the Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram.
All of the platforms require users to be at least 13 years old, but that limit could be lifted to as high as 16 under a proposal from NSW.
State leaders concede they might not have the power to legislate controls on the platforms, with several calling for a national regime.
South Australia is investigating if it can impose social media bans for children under 14 and parental permission for those under 16.
Those changes would be a national first and follow legislated restrictions on children using social media accounts in nations such as Spain, as well as some US states.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said he wanted a minimum age of 16 for social media users, while Queensland counterpart Steven Miles nominated 14.
Victoria premier Jacinta Allan did not specify a minimum age but called for the platforms’ limits to be raised or for Australia to set its own limits.
Minns said he was moved to act after seeing social media’s impact and his experience as a father of three boys.
“Obnoxious” social-media algorithms were “designed to keep children glued to the device rather than ripping it away and speaking with family and friends and getting out of the house”, he said.
The federal Labor government has indicated it supports tighter restrictions on children accessing social media, which the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has identified as a national issue.
The health minister, Mark Butler, said a potential age limit was still being worked out while a verification trial was completed using funding allocated in the recent budget.
“We’ve got to get the age right and we’ve got to get the technological implementation right,” he said.
The NSW government on Monday also announced a state summit to look at the impact of social media platforms on young people involving policymakers, academics and company representatives.
The University of Sydney has underpaid casual staff an estimated $70.1m, its latest annual report released today shows.
The annual report included an update on the university’s Employment Payment Review, which remained ongoing but has estimated the underpayment based on work taken by casual academic staff across a period of 13 semesters.
The main quadrangle building of the University of Sydney. Photograph: jimfeng/Getty Images/iStockphoto
The vice-chancellor, Prof Mark Scott, said paying staff correctly and remediating any historical underpayments was the university’s “absolute priority”, adding it remained in regular contact with the Fair Work Ombudsman since its initial self-disclosure in 2020.
We deeply regret any underpayments that have occurred and are committed to ensuring all staff are paid according to our enterprise agreement.
The annual report also showed the university recorded a surplus of $351.8m in 2023, in excess of $298.5m in 2022. Its underlying loss was $9.4m, compared with an underlying margin of $216.6m the previous year.
Scott, said the financial environment in which universities operated remained “challenging”.
There are ongoing uncertainties ahead. At Sydney, we are fortunate to have been able to build a solid future fund to support our research and education, and our staff and students. This is largely thanks to strong investment returns, as well as the generosity of our donors and our international students continuing to want to study with us.
Opposition says its not ‘good economic policy’ to ‘reply solely’ on migration
The opposition environment spokesperson, Jonathon Duniam, has claimed on Sky News that reducing migration was necessary to address the housing crisis.
He said it wasn’t “good economic policy” to “rely solely” on migration to generate economic activity, and couldn’t expand on how and where exactly migration should be cut.
I don’t think it is a good economic policy to rely solely on high immigration numbers as a means of generating economic activity.
The environment minister could well bring forward laws that make it easier to do business in this country to get more projects off the ground more quickly to provide more jobs and more economic activity.
The by-product of our high immigration numbers, people coming to this country permanently, is that houses are less affordable and less attainable for Australians and we’ve got to put Australians first here.
University of Queensland warns protesters of disciplinary action
Adeshola Ore
The University of Queensland has warned pro-Palestine protesters they could face disciplinary action for chanting “out, out, Israel out” or displaying posters which read “intifada” at rallies.
The university last week signalled its aims for its pro-Palestine camps to end, amid a wave of encampments across the country.
In an email sent to encampments organisers on Friday, the university’s deputy vice-chancellor, Prof Kris Ryan, says the expression “intifada” – the Arabic word for uprising – could be considered threatening, intimidating or harassing to some people.
The email, viewed by Guardian Australia, also warns protesters against chanting the phrase “out, out, Israel out”:
The use of the words ‘out, out, Israel out’ at the protest yesterday in the context of harassing and intimidating behaviours, and the placement of anti-Semitic stickers on windows and students, go beyond the limits of free speech.
The email urges the protesters to take “appropriate action to address the unacceptable behaviours”, warning failure to do so could result in disciplinary action.
Protester Liam Parry, from the Students for Palestine University of Queensland group, described the move as “overreach”. The university’s tertiary education union branch has also passed a motion which opposes any action by the university to “limit non-violent protest” on campus.
