[ad_1]
Key events
Filters BETA
Victorians caught in Optus data breach to get new licences
Victoria’s Department of Transport will replace nearly one million licences for free by the end of the year and all new cards will feature an extra layer of security.
Licence numbers will remain the same but an additional number will be printed on the back, similar to CVV numbers used on credit cards.
Anyone seeking to use their license for identification such as when applying for a loan or opening a bank account will need to provide the second number.
The details of more than 942,000 Victorian licence holders were compromised in the hack, according to the Department of Home Affairs.
A Victorian Department of Transport spokesperson said the state government has asked Optus to cover the cost of replacing its customers’ licences.
The second number will become a permanent feature of all new licences from November 2022.
Some five million licence holders who were not impacted by the hack will also eventually receive new cards.
– from AAP
Margaret Simons
The Daniel Andrews paradox: the enduring appeal of Australia’s most divisive premier
On 27 February 2003, the new MP for the outer suburban Melbourne electorate of Mulgrave rose to his feet to deliver his first speech in the Victorian parliament. Maiden speeches are traditionally where a new MP lays out their core motivation and their vision, but Daniel Andrews eschewed stirring prose or self-revelation.
There was nothing in this first outing to indicate that, 19 years later, he would become Australia’s longest-serving incumbent government leader and one of the country’s most significant politicians.
Politics, he said, was “an honourable profession”.
The source of that honour? “Hospitals when we are sick; schools to give our kids the best start possible and a police force that is given the resources it needs … these are the things that define state politics – at least they should.”
A former senior public servant who has worked closely with Andrews says, “I doubt if he would change the tenor of that speech today.” He would not add any grand words: “He thinks there is a limited market for visionary leaders”.
Andrews’ political methodology is a hard-boiled, pared down, practical and sometimes ruthless exercise of power, rather than the product of intellectualising or rhetorical flourish. He thinks in big pictures, but talks small and concrete.
The former public servant says: “He is a visionary. But he is a visionary without a guiding philosophy.”
For more on the unlikely star of Daniel Andrews ahead of the upcoming Victorian election, read the full story from Margaret Simons.
Here is the prime minister’s tweet on the situation in South Korea.
Our sincere condolences for all affected by this terrible tragedy – Australians can call DFAT 1300555135 or outside Australia +61261623305 if concerned about loved ones https://t.co/bQJp8C3a8c
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) October 29, 2022
Fears Australians caught in crush that killed 149 people in South Korea
The federal government is scrambling to find out if any Australians were killed or injured in a stampede that has left at least 149 people dead in South Korea.
The disaster happened as a huge crowd celebrating Halloween on Saturday night surged into an alley in a nightlife area, which is popular among young people, expatriates and travellers, in the capital Seoul.
“Our sincere condolences for all affected by this terrible tragedy,” prime minister Anthony Albanese tweeted on Sunday.
Ambassador to the Republic of Korea Catherine Raper joined Albanese in conveying Australia’s condolences to the South Korean government, describing the incident as “tragic”.
The Australian embassy in Seoul is urgently making enquiries with local authorities to find out if any Australians were involved.
“We ask all Australians in Seoul to check in with friends and family to let them know your whereabouts,” Raper tweeted.
A further 65 people were injured, many seriously, in the melee around 10.30pm in Seoul’s Itaewon district.
It was the first Halloween event in Seoul in three years after the country lifted Covid-19 restrictions and social distancing.
Many of the partygoers were wearing masks and Halloween costumes. Some witnesses said the crowd had become increasingly unruly as the night wore on.
Choi Sung-beom, head of the Yongsan Fire Station said many of the victims were women in their 20s, according to Reuters.
Two foreigners were among the dead, local authorities said.
Australians concerned about the welfare of loved ones in Seoul can call the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135. Those outside Australia can call +61 2 6261 3305.
– from AAP
Storms in SA and parts of WA as NSW braces for more rain next week
Conditions in New South Wales and Victoria may be easing after weeks of rain but all that flood water is heading west into South Australia and the Bureau of Meteorology has been warning of thunderstorms on Sunday.
Thunderstorms are also predicted over Western Australia with warnings issued across the Wheat Belt and Goldfields region.
Meanwhile in Queensland wet weather will sweep across the south of the state on Tuesday.
Showers and storms returning to western Qld Sunday will move east during Monday and Tuesday, generally clearing by Wednesday. Cold and windy conditions spreading across the south from Tuesday. Morning frost possible for parts of the southeast inland Thursday as winds ease. pic.twitter.com/dj9RSAiJrQ
— Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) October 29, 2022
Government to provide $130m in support for flood-affected communities in Victoria
Victorian communities devastated by floods will be able to access up to $130m to clear public land, just as a new gastroenteritis outbreak poses a fresh health threat to residents cleaning up after the disaster.
The funding, announced by climate action minister Lily D’Ambrosio on Sunday, includes $42m for removing hazards or carrying out immediate repair works including fixing community facilities.
A further $71m is allocated for large-scale repair works, while local catchment authorities and traditional owners groups will share in $18m.
The state government flagged planning rules will also be adjusted so businesses may operate in impacted areas and offer temporary accommodation.
Meanwhile VicEmergency has warned communities in flood-affected areas of a gastroenteritis outbreak.
Flood waters may contain sewage and other toxic waste and can also overflow into your home.
Contact with sewage can make people sick, so clean and disinfect any impacted areas.
Residents in towns along the Murray River had this week flagged concerns waterways had become contaminated due to a foul smell around stagnant flood water.
Anyone in flood-affected areas has been reminded to only drink or wash in known clean water.
– from AAP
Kerang residents begin recovery after flood
Residents from a northern Victorian town have been given the all-clear to return after the flood threat eased, but the damage to houses, livestock and crops won’t be known until the water recedes.
There is one road open to Kerang near the Victorian-NSW border after the town was isolated for the second time in as many weeks by floods that have battered the eastern states.
Kerang mayor Charlie Gillingham said probably 10 to 15 houses had been inundated, while losses to crops and livestock were so far unknown and some stock remained stranded.
“If they’re on a bump somewhere in water, they (owners) are going to have to get feed to them somehow,” Gillingham said.
The mayor said the town needed to report its losses in order to shore up government assistance.
That will be happening in the coming days where we need people to register their losses.
So we can start to talk to politicians and the like to get some funding through to get us back on track again.
Western Victoria is forecast to be pummelled by heavy rain on Sunday afternoon while an evacuation order remains in place at Echuca.
The Murray River at Torrumbarry Weir is expected to peak over the weekend and potentially cause major flooding, with a number of watch-and-act alerts in place for other towns in the north and northeast of the state.
Across the border in NSW more than 1,000 homes and businesses have been damaged, with the government appointing Mel Gore, Ken Harrison and Donna Argus as recovery and clean up co-ordinators.
Flood recovery minister Steph Cooke said the coordinators would ensure a timely and effective transition to recovery.
As the waters slowly recede our first priority is to undertake rapid damage assessments of flooded homes and businesses so that they can begin the mammoth task of cleaning up.
As at 28 October, 1,008 homes and businesses in NSW have been recorded as damaged and 163 deemed uninhabitable from 2,389 assessments.
Rain and storms are expected to hit various parts of NSW on Sunday through Monday after a mostly sunny Saturday.
There are more than 60 flood warnings across NSW, including emergency warnings in Murray Valley Regional park, Mathoura East, Cummeragunja and parts of Moama.
Storms and damaging winds are expected in South Australia on Sunday from the west coast all the way down to Mount Gambier, including Adelaide.
– from AAP
Coalition warns more strikes from Labor IR bill that limits strikes
The shadow workplace relations minister, Michaelia Cash, also appeared on Sky warning Labor’s IR bill will lead to “industrial and economic chaos” and that minister Tony Burke will “only be known as the minister for strikes.’
Despite the bluster the IR bill actually contains new limits on the right to strike, including a requirement for compulsory conciliation before workers can walk off the job and a power for the Fair Work Commission to terminate “intractable” disputes.
Asked about these, Cash said:
Well, there’s only one thing that Labor’s industrial relations bill will lead to and that is more strikes and less jobs … if you did not want to encourage more strike action, why would you open up the industrial relations landscape to more strikes?
So, just an assertion that that’s what the bill does, followed by this appeal to authority:
We’ve now had [Victorian construction union secretary] John Setka come out on behalf of unions in Australia saying this is fantastic. And I quote: ‘We can now go after non-unionised sites’. Blind Freddy can tell you that when every employer group in Australia, stands up united – and I don’t think that’s ever happened before – stands up united and says, the only thing that this bill does is lead to more strikes and less jobs. I know who I believe.
Government not ruling out a price cap on gas prices: Bowen
Paul Karp
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, is talking up the prospect of swift action on electricity prices, following a report on Sky that energy ministers were told on Friday any form of price cap would have to be finalised in November.
Bowen told Sky News:
Of course I do want to deal with that threat [of higher power bills] head-on. I did say to state energy ministers the same things as I’ve said, publicly … that the federal government will not stand by and allow these pressures to flow through to households and to industry without taking any prudent, responsible and careful action. And … we won’t act a day earlier until we’re sure about the policy settings and now will we wait a day longer.
I also said to the states that it’s very important we’re working together: that states have levers, the commonwealth has levers. We all have some degree of levers that are disposal. It’s very important that we’re coordinating talking to each other ensuring that any action that I take or any action that a state minister takes is not contradictory to what we’re trying to achieve and that we have the lines of communication. And I was delighted every single state and territory minister one hundred percent agree with that approach.
Asked specifically about a price cap, Bowen said:
We have very thorough cabinet processes, where we work issues through carefully methodically.
So no decision yet but not ruling it out. Bowen said it was “right to say” the problem is not just gas prices, that there are “elevated prices right around the world for both coal and gas”.
Government looking at improved pay and training for child care workers
Chalmers says:
We have already supported a pay rise for early childhood educators who got a 4.7% pay rise as part of that minimum wage decision which was what we supported as the first outcome of the new Labor cabinet.
So obviously we got to deal with skills and labour shortages. That’s why Tafe, that’s why migration, that’s why universities are so important. We have to attract more people into the sector. That’s why wage rises are important. We are acting on all of those fronts simultaneously.
And that’s a wrap.
Chalmers asked whether the economic benefits of the NDIS ‘outweigh the costs’
Chalmers:
It is. […] From memory something like there’s a 29% improvement in people who are not looking for work or not in work. There’s I think a 24% improvement in employment of parents of people who are involved in the scheme. There’s a whole range of economic benefits. They are important. But first and foremost we want to provide the service to Australians with a disability and their families. It’s really crucial that we do that.
[ad_2]
Source link
