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Two men are in critical conditions in hospital after being stabbed during a confrontation in Sydney’s west, AAP reports.
Police said emergency services were called to Main Street in Blacktown at about 12.15am on Saturday to find two men, aged 48 and 34, on the footpath with stab wounds.
The older man suffered injuries to his neck and shoulder while the younger man sustained back wounds. They were taken to Westmead Hospital in critical but stable conditions.
Police have established a crime scene which is being examined by specialist forensic officers.
Tony Burke announces authors to be paid when libraries hold e-books and audiobooks
AAP is reporting authors and publishers will be paid when libraries hold their e-books and audiobooks as part of the federal government’s upcoming national cultural policy.
The $12.9m move extends Australia’s existing lending rights schemes to include digital content, making it one of a handful of countries in the world to include them.
The arts minister, Tony Burke, said authors will be paid the same way they are when libraries hold their physical books.
“The law has not kept up to date. That’s why we’re changing it – to ensure that Australian authors, writers and publishers are properly compensated for their work,” Burke said. “Australia’s new national cultural policy will ensure that artists are treated fairly as workers and properly paid for it.”
The national cultural policy will be launched on Monday following a consultation process that attracted more than 1,200 submissions, about 10% of them from writers.
A recent Macquarie University survey of Australian writers found they earned $18,200 a year on average from their creative output. According to the Australian Society of Authors, most are unable to make a living from their work.
The society’s chief executive Olivia Lanchester welcomed the changes.
“We’re delighted because we’ve pushed hard for this expansion and to be honest, it is sorely needed,” she said.
The society has also called for a national plan and funding for Australian literature, tax reforms to support creators and minimum standards for Australian content in schools.
It’s not yet clear whether these measures will also form part of the cultural policy but the government has promised the lending rights changes are the first of several measures.
One of more than 150 writers who took part in the consultation process, children’s author Meg McKinlay, said lending rights made up about a quarter of her total annual income.
The lending rights scheme was introduced by the Whitlam government in 1974 to compensate authors and publishers when their work was accessed for free in libraries but had only applied to printed works.
Perrottet promises easier access to housing for domestic violence victims
NSW domestic violence victims will have easier access to housing through concessions on stamp duty and rental bond loans if the Perrottet government is re-elected, AAP reports.
The proposal aims to help get domestic violence victim-survivors into their own homes as they flee abusive relationships.
The premier, Dominic Perrottet, said one of the first steps for victim-survivors was finding a safe home.
“We want to make it easier for those people leaving an abusive relationship to be able to rebuild their lives, as well as the lives of their children,” he said.
The NSW government would waive the Rentstart Bond Loan eligibility criteria for people fleeing domestic violence.
The loan scheme allows renters to access interest-free state government loans for bonds.
Victim-survivors will also be able to access both the First Home Buyer Choice and First Home Buyer Assistance schemes, even if they previously accessed them with their abusive partner.
The choice program allows home buyers to elect to pay either a stamp duty or an annual land tax when they buy a home, while the assistance scheme provides concessions or complete waivers of stamp duty.
“It’s a small change that can make a big difference to helping victim-survivors buy a home to call their own,” women’s safety minister Natalie Ward said.
Housing has been at the centre of the major parties’ pitches for the state election in March.
Australia and Germany announce green hydrogen project funding
Reuters is reporting that Australia and Germany have earmarked A$50m ($35.5m) and €50m ($54.4m), respectively, towards a joint initiative to establish a green hydrogen supply chain, the Australian minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, has said.
The two countries, which signed a bilateral alliance on hydrogen production and trade in June 2021, announced funding for four projects under the German–Australian Hydrogen Innovation and Technology Incubator (HyGATE) initiative.
The collaboration further helps Australia strengthen its renewable energies export infrastructure, while allowing Germany to meet its growing energy needs via cleaner sources.
Green hydrogen is made by using electrolysers powered by renewable energy to split water.
Of the earmaked funds, Australian cleantech firm Vast Solar and Solar Methanol Consortium won grants worth A$19.48m and €13.2m, respectively, to develop a 10MW electrolyser producing green hydrogen for solar methanol production in Port Augusta, South Australia.
Another grant recipient, Hysata, an electrolyser company, was awarded A$8.98m to work with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology to develop a new “capillary-fed” electrolyser to deliver low-cost hydrogen in Port Kembla, New South Wales.
Currently, data from the Office of the Chief Economist at the Federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources, showed hydrogen projects made up for A$266bn of potential investment from the total value of as much as A$705bn of resource and energy projects in the pipeline in Australia.
“Working hand-in-hand with our international partners will help Germany to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038 and aid Australia to reach net zero by 2050,” said Bettina Stark-Watzinger, German minister of education and research.
Libby Mettam to challenge David Honey for leadership of Western Australia’s Liberal party
AAP is reporting that the decision by Western Australia’s opposition leader to stand down has prompted one of the state’s two Liberal MPs in the lower house to challenge for the party leadership.
WA opposition leader Mia Davies announced her resignation on Friday, saying she didn’t have enough “fuel left in the tank” to go on.
Davies is also stepping down as the leader of the WA Nationals, but will remain on the backbench until the 2025 election.
Her decision has prompted Liberals deputy leader Libby Mettam to challenge David Honey for the party leadership.
The Liberals were hammered at the 2021 state election, winning only two seats in WA’s lower house to the Nationals’ four.
Both parties formed an opposition alliance with Davies as opposition leader.
Following the resignation, Mettam emailed Honey saying she was challenging him for the party leadership and requesting a special partyroom meeting for Tuesday. She forwarded the email to her seven upper house colleagues.
“I believe we have not been as effective as we should have been and change is required now to allow the Liberal party to develop a strong, diverse, connected and competitive team,” Mettam wrote.
“It is my view that a leadership change is done as a matter of urgency, as we see an increasingly arrogant and self-serving government that takes West Australians for granted.”
Davies told reporters on Friday night she had spent the summer thinking about her parliamentary career and what it would take to contest the March 2025 state election.
“I don’t have any fuel left in the tank to go beyond that election.”
Residents in Auckland are bracing for more flooding as heavy rain continued overnight, after a state of emergency was declared yesterday.
In a statement declaring the state of emergency, the Auckland mayor, Wayne Brown, said the extent of the “damage, displacement and disruption” had left emergency services overwhelmed:
The region has experienced widespread damage from flooding and torrential rain, with reports of slips and inundation.
Infrastructure and emergency services alike have been overwhelmed by the impacts of the storm.
Police said on Friday night that a body had been found on the city’s north shore, “after the body was seen by a member of the public”, but did not confirm whether the person had died as a result of flooding.
You can read more on the emergency at the link below:
Man dies after Mornington Peninsula cliff fall
AAP is reporting that a man has died and another is in hospital after falling from a cliff on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
Police said the 24-year-old men from New South Wales were climbing a cliff face in Cape Schanck, just off the Two Bays walking track at Bushrangers Bay, when they fell about 7pm on Friday.
CPR was performed on one of the men, but he died at the scene.
The surviving man was taken to hospital where he is being treated for injuries.
An investigation is under way to determine what caused the fall, however police said it is not being treated as suspicious.
First Peoples Assembly of Victoria head says ‘vast majority’ of Indigenous Australians want voice to parliament
Marcus Stewart, head of the largest elected Aboriginal organisation in Australia, the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, has spoken to the Australian today, saying that the “vast majority” of Indigenous communities around the country want a voice to parliament.
Speaking after a week in which the potential voice has faced some opposition at Invasion Day rallies, Stewart said he did not attend the rallies because he knew that a “handful of wreckers” intended to speak out.
The Aboriginal community is not a homogenous group – we have a variety of opinions and everyone is entitled to share their views, but we can’t loose perspective that the vast majority of Aboriginal people want a voice to parliament.
Having a voice is about putting Aboriginal people in the driver’s seat. We want to be able to make the decisions that affect our communities and culture and our land.
Jim Chalmers says budget will have ‘much bigger focus’ on disadvantage
Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers was on the Guardian’s political podcast, where he said he will use the May budget to push for a “much bigger focus” on addressing disadvantage in Australia’s most vulnerable communities.
He said he was working with the social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, on a new series of measures that would look to empower communities struggling with disadvantage:
I have always thought if I get a crack at a job like the one I have now, and I know Amanda [Rishworth] and others think the same way … the best way to shift the needle on entrenched disadvantage is to go where it is most prevalent.
There’s a lot of great work going on around the community, in the philanthropic sector and in other places. We want to show some leadership here if we can … [and] this is something I care deeply about.
You think about an unemployment rate of 3.5% – there are still people who are not accessing the opportunity of an economy that is creating the fastest jobs growth for the first six months of the Albanese government of any government on record.
You can read more on his interview at the link below:
Good morning, Mostafa Rachwani with you this morning, to take you through the news today.
Father was ‘misused by people’, says Novak Djokovic
Henry Belot
Novak Djokovic says his father was “misused by this group of people” after Djokovic Sr was absent from his son’s semi-final victory in the Australian Open last night.
Djokovic has admitted that the scrutiny around his father, Srdjan Djokovic, at the Australian Open affected him in the build up to his semi-final victory over Tommy Paul last night.
Djokovic Sr had been filmed after Djokovic’s quarter-final taking a photograph with a spectator who wore a “Z” symbol T-shirt and held a Russian flag containing a photo of Vladimir Putin’s face. “It has got to me, of course,” said Djokovic. “I was not aware of it till last night. Then, of course, I was not pleased to see that.”
Robert Horvath, a specialist in Russian politics at La Trobe University, said the Putin supporters who posed with Djokovic’s father were determined to “create the impression of a groundswell of overseas support for the Putin regime and its war in Ukraine”.
“Novak’s father’s actions have been misrepresented on some pro-Kremlin Russian nationalist platforms such as Tsargrad TV, which claims that he addressed Zaldostanov and declared ‘long live Russians’,” Horvath said.
“Some coverage has taken the line that the western media is vilifying Novak’s father.”
Meanwhile, a Djokovic fan who wore a black T-shirt with the “Z” symbol at the Australian Open earlier this week – a sign of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – was allowed to return to watch the semi-final on Friday night.
Ukrainian player Alex Dolgopolov has previously called for the Djokovic fan to be permanently banned from the grand slam, tweeting: “this guy will get banned for life, at least for all Australian events, right?”.
Australian Open officials escorted the man away from his front-row seats towards the end of Djokovic’s last set against American Tommy Paul, but, after a brief discussion, he was allowed to return to his seats.
Tennis Australia was contacted for comment. Earlier this week, a spokesperson urged players and their teams to avoid situations that “have the potential to disrupt” the Australian Open. Russian flags and symbols have been banned at the tournament.
The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations co-chair, Stefan Romaniw, said Tennis Australia needed to be vigilant about enforcing its rules.
“There will always be those who will constantly test the system. Tennis Australia must be diligent and remove anyone who is not abiding by the rules,” Romaniw said.
Police officers and security kept watch of celebrations outside Rod Laver on Friday night, where Novak Djokovic’s father had posed with Putin supporting Russian flags earlier in the week. One of those supporters was wearing a similar shirt with the “Z” logo.
There’s a row of police and security checking for Russian flags where they were on display earlier this week. None around, Djokovic fans having a ball. pic.twitter.com/Ll1z1B5i1q
— Henry Belot (@Henry_Belot) January 27, 2023
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to the live blog. I’m Martin Farrer and here are the main breaking stories overnight.
In an interview with Guardian Australia, Jim Chalmers has promised to use the May budget to tackle entrenched disadvantage in Australia’s most vulnerable communities to ensure people have better pathways to economic participation. The treasurer told our weekly politics podcast that he was working with the social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, on a new package that would “identify some of the most vulnerable communities in our country, work out how to empower local leaders and pool our resources and make a meaningful difference to some on the entrenched disadvantage that’s in our country”.
Hazardous material experts are combing a remote highway in Western Australia for a tiny radioactive capsule that has gone missing as it was transported from a mine. The 8mm by 6mm capsule, which is believed to have fallen from a truck as it was travelling the 1,400km between a mine site north of Newman in the Pilbara and a depot in Perth, has the potential to cause skin burns. Drones able to detect radiation have been deployed in the search.
Auckland has been placed in a state of emergency after torrential rain caused widespread flooding and brought chaos to the city. Homes have been evacuated amid a deluge that has blocked motorways, flooded roads and neighbourhoods, forced the closure of city’s airport and huge disruption to flights, and prompted organisers to cancel a scheduled concert by Elton John, leaving many concertgoers stranded.
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