[ad_1]
Key events
Filters BETA
Good morning
A very big thank you to Martin for kicking us off today.
Welcome to parliament Thursday – it’s the last sitting day of this first fortnight and while there is no legislation being passed (the Senate is tied up in estimates) there are all sorts of negotiations going on.
The safeguard mechanism. The national reconstruction fund. The affordable housing fund. It’s all happening.
You’ll have Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Josh Butler and Paul Karp to take you though it, with me, Amy Remeikis, on the blog for most of the day.
It’s going to be at least a four-coffee day. I have two running at once.
Ready?
Let’s get into it.
Plastic pollution
About two-thirds of the rubbish volunteers plucked from the environment last year was plastic, a jump of almost 20% in one year, Australian Associated Press reports.
Clean Up Australia’s national rubbish report for 2022, released today, says 366,144 pieces of rubbish were picked up by the organisation’s volunteers last year. Of those, 63% was plastic of some sort.
That’s up 17% on 2021, driven by a rise in finds of soft plastic, hard plastic and polystyrene.
Soft plastics topped the list at 18%, followed by cigarette butts at 14%. Then came single-use plastic bottles, takeaway food containers, drink cans, and pieces of glass and plastic packaging at 5% to 6% each.
The top 10 were rounded out by chips and lolly bags, bottle caps and lids, and face masks – counted for the first time in this report – at 3%.
Volunteers found about one-third of what they recovered on roadsides and footpaths, one-third in waterways and 20% in parks.
Queensland bushfires rage on
Efforts to contain bushfires in Queensland’s Western Downs have stretched into a fourth day with emergency warnings in place for residents north of the town of Miles, Australian Associated Press reports
Residents of Kowguran and Guluguba were told to prepare to leave last night as a large, fast-moving fire travelled from Welshs Road and L Tree Creek Road towards the Leichhardt Highway.
The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service warned conditions could get worse quickly.
Multiple warnings were also in place for Myall Park and Hookswood.
Martin Farrer
Toowoomba residents vent anger about crime
Youth crime is a huge issue in Queensland and last night police minister Mark Ryan, youth minister Leanne Linard and the state’s police commissioner Katarina Carroll attended a community forum in Toowoomba’s Armitage Centre to hear the concerns of locals.
A packed audience told harrowing stories about crime levels and called on the ministers and police chief to take action, some admitting that they had considered vigilante action themselves.
Eden Gillespie was there for Guardian Australia and has the full story:
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of what promises to be another lively day in Canberra and beyond. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll bring you some of the main overnight stories before Amy Remeikis takes over.
The big political question question is whether the Greens will back the government’s reform of the safeguard mechanism to help reduce industry emissions. Tanya Plibersek says Greens voters would be shocked if the party goes ahead with its threat to “sabotage” the government’s plan and votes alongside the Coalition to torpedo the scheme. The Greens, who want the government to ditch all coal and gas projects in exchange for their support, say their stance is more an offer than an ultimatum.
We’re setting the news agenda today with an excellent investigation that shows the number of Australians who are fully bulk-billed by their GP has dropped significantly in just three years, with one electorate experiencing a decline of 18%. A former senior federal health official says the data shows that where you live matters but also that bulk-billing practices can be successful.
Australians would be able to opt out of targeted ads, erase their data and sue for serious breaches of privacy, under a proposal to be unveiled today by attorney general Mark Dreyfus. He will argue that our privacy laws have not kept pace with the changes in the digital world and need reform.
And two miners were missing in Queensland after their ute plunged into a huge hole after a “ground collapse”. The accident happened at Dugald River near Mount Isa yesterday. Drones are being used to find the men and we’ll keep you updated with the search effort.
With all that, let’s get going …
[ad_2]
Source link
