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PM says Labor has ‘balance right’ on super tax concessions after Greens push for lower threshold
Anthony Albanese has been answering questions in Aston, where the Labor candidate, Mary Doyle, has launched her campaign for the byelection.
The prime minister is asked why Labor won’t lower the threshold of proposed superannuation changes to $1.9m, as the Greens have suggested, instead of Labor’s proposed threshold of $3m.
Albanese says:
In terms of super changes we are proposing, the impact on people in Aston will be less than one-tenth of 1% of superannuation invested …
We have got the balance right, making a difference. It will come in after the next election in 2025.
Key events
What we learned today, Saturday 4 March
We are closing this news blog for now. Here’s a recap of the day’s headlines:
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The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said Labor has “the balance right” on superannuation tax concessions as the Greens push for a lower threshold of $1.9m.
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The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, said the party could support the Albanese government’s changes to the safeguard mechanism if Labor agreed to pause new fossil fuel developments until the parliament has dealt with planned changes to national environment laws.
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Tanya Plibersek has urged survivors of assault to reach out for help, after her daughter Anna revealed her own story of sexual and domestic violence.
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NSW police have confirmed an “unauthorised protest” took place in Sydney on Friday night, after videos circulating on social media showed a Christian march taking place in Newtown.
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Ed Sheeran broke the Australian record for ticketed concert attendance, with 109,600 tickets sold to his second Melbourne performance at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday night.
Fleur Connick
The fight over brumbies in the Barmah-Millewa forest
In the Barmah-Millewa forest, the largest river red gum forest in the world, tensions over feral horses and their fate have reached boiling point.
Guardian Australia has spoken to more than a dozen residents, business owners, farmers, community volunteers and government employees, most of whom disagree with brumbies being culled. Those who do support the eradication of the invasive species declined to be quoted, even anonymously. In a growing number of regional towns, speaking out against the brumbies is to become a social pariah.
Most of the brumbies live in the Barmah national park, on the Victorian side of the border. It is jointly managed by Parks Victoria and the traditional owners, the Yorta Yorta nation. A Parks Victoria spokesperson said:
Parks Victoria has an obligation to control invasive species in Victoria’s national parks, including feral horses, which cause long-term and large-scale damage to native plants and animals, many of which occur nowhere else in the world.
Read the full story here:
⚠️🌧️Severe Weather Warning for heavy rainfall continues in the North West and Gulf Country. Rainfall totals over 100mm were recorded in the last 24 hours, with riverine flooding occurring throughout the region. https://t.co/FBmpsInT9o pic.twitter.com/vxpZfMoYpK
— Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) March 4, 2023
Ben Smee
Using Queensland’s own laws to highlight the government’s youth justice failings does not make judges soft – analysis
Queensland has set new records for child imprisonment. More kids than ever before are in the state’s youth detention system, with prisons so crowded that up to 100 a night are being housed in adult police watch houses.
Yet of course the prevailing community view remains that the courts are too soft on crime.
The tired old myth about soft judges is littered through submissions to the Queensland government’s new youth justice laws, which experts say will result in the detention of even more children for breaching their bail.
One rails about “judges with extreme views”. Another says “often there is no sentence imposed for youth crimes”.
It’s little wonder these views prevail when politicians, like the deputy premier, Steven Miles, accuse courts of “media stunts” and claim the community is being “held to ransom by rogue courts and rogue justices”.
Read Ben Smee’s full analysis here:
Coalmining must not be allowed to pollute at rising rate, environmentalists say
The Lock the Gate Alliance has responded to the NSW government’s latest greenhouse gas emissions projections, which it says shows emissions from coalmining are predicted to increase 29% by 2030 from 2021 levels.
Lock the Gate’s NSW coordinator, Nic Clyde, said in a statement:
The coal mining industry in NSW must not be allowed to pollute at an increasing rate while other industries like transport and manufacturing do the hard yards to reduce emissions …
We know there needs to be no new coal or gas if we’re to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, but that’s only part of the picture.
We also need existing coal mines to up their game, reduce their onsite emissions, and work with other industries to make NSW’s, and Australia’s, contribution to global warming as low as possible.
The terrifying impacts of climate change are already here in the form of unprecedented droughts, bushfires, and floods. Every tonne of greenhouse gas these coal mines send into the atmosphere leads to more dangerous warming.
Leave concussion calls to clubs, not independent doctor, NRL coach Bennett says
The rugby league coach Wayne Bennett has called for the NRL to scrap the independent doctor in the bunker and to put the onus for identifying possible concussions back solely on the clubs, with fines and points penalties used to reinforce it.
It comes days after the NRL chief medical officer, Sharron Flahive, told a Senate committee hearing that the league accepted the association between repeated head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, an irreversible neurodegenerative disease.
AAP has the story:
The NRL’s concussions protocols were thrown back into the spotlight on Friday night after Kalyn Ponga was removed from the field late in the Newcastle Knights’ loss to the New Zealand Warriors.
Ponga claimed afterwards he was fine and did not know what incident had prompted the intervention of the independent doctor with the Knights down 14-12 before losing 20-12.
The Knights coach, Adam O’Brien, also fumed at the call, claiming the doctor was “jumping at shadows” after Ponga slid into the hip of Addin Fonua-Blake.
Ponga’s head knock was deemed serious enough by the independent doctor – who was at the game in Wellington due to its remote nature – to be a category two, requiring him to leave the field for 15 minutes to be checked.
O’Brien’s criticism comes after independent doctors were put in front of TVs at the start of last year, allowing them to review several angles of incidents quickly.
The NRL has said the positioning away from the field also helps ensure decisions are not impacted by the emotion of the game, and its independence takes the pressure off the club doctors.
But Bennett said on Saturday:
The clubs have got to own it. The game, when they had a few moments in the last couple of years, didn’t punish the clubs enough … if you make clubs more accountable you don’t need an independent doctor.”
He said the solution was for the NRL to punish clubs with heavy fines and points deductions if they left players on the field when indicators showed the need for an off-field check.
AAP was told the move to use an independent doctor was heavily supported by club medical staff.
In the role, the independent doctor works with the club doctors, with both having the power to remove players from the field.
The NRL’s head of football, Graham Annesley, hit back at coaches critical of decisions by the independent doctor last year, adamant such calls were a medical decision and not a football one.
Bennett is the NRL’s most experienced coach, but the league’s second-most experienced mentor, Tim Sheens, backed the independent doctor role on Saturday. Sheen said:
It was a fair knock and Kalyn was stunned by it, but that’s the doctor’s role.
Mary Doyle is a true champion of working people – and will be a champion for the people of Aston.
As a working mum living in the outer-eastern suburbs, she understands the pressures families are under. And as a cancer survivor, she knows the true meaning of Medicare. pic.twitter.com/MWRTRTeAo4
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) March 4, 2023
Plibersek hopes daughter sharing her story of sexual violence ‘might help someone else’
The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has voiced support for her daughter Anna, who on Saturday revealed she was a survivor of sexual and domestic violence.
Plibersek said on Twitter that her daughter had chosen to share her story “because it might help someone else”.
There’s a story in today’s papers about my daughter, Anna. A few years ago she was the victim of serious crime. Like any parent, I was devastated when I found out.
She has chosen to share her story because it might help someone else. I’m so proud of her. pic.twitter.com/riSAcnuRdK
— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) March 3, 2023
In an extract from Margaret Simons’ book Tanya Plibersek: On Her Own Terms, published in Good Weekend today, the minister said:
You ask yourself whether you could have or should have done more to protect your child. It’s not an easy question to ask yourself.
In 2021, Anna co-founded the non-profit group, The Survivor Hub, to provide support for survivors through social media and in-person meetings.
A year on from the Lismore floods, the history of the region sits hidden
The loss and damage to artefacts and art due to natural disasters is leading to a push for governments to do more to protect works, reports my colleague Tamsin Rose.
Historical artefacts – including furniture and clothing, paper records and an extensive First Nations collection – were fortunately spared when floods tore through the Lismore Regional Museum about a year ago. But the damp and the mould found them quickly, climbing the stairs along the carpet.
Museums and Galleries of NSW wants more to be done to protect cultural institutions from natural disasters.
In a recent submission to the federal government’s committee on disaster resilience, the organisation recommended the establishment of a national fund, managed at a state level, to respond more quickly during major weather events.
It also wants to see the creation of a national insurance scheme to cover the collections at smaller organisations, like the Eugowra Historical Museum and Bushranger Centre that was almost destroyed by floods in November.
Read Tasmin’s full story here:
Australian embassies across the world are showcasing their pride as we celebrate @SydWorldPride.
Cultural exchanges and events help us learn from each other and show the world who we are.
We seek to shape the world for the better, including by advancing human rights. pic.twitter.com/NoS1DQGdS8
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) March 4, 2023
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