Australia won’t be banning Russian tourists: Marles
Marles also won’t be drawn into making calls for Russia to leave Crimea and restore Ukraine’s border to where it stood in 1991, saying only that the Ukrainian government must be “empowered” to determine its future “on its own terms”.
Marles is also asked about whether Australia will follow other countries and prevent Russian tourists from entering the country.
We have a range of sanctions in place and the focus of our sanctions is on the Russian government, those who are perpetrating what has happened in relation to Ukraine, not focused on the Russian people themselves, so this is not something we are considering at the moment, but we are very much a part of the global base of sanctions against the Russian regime.
Similar visa bands in Europe have been contentious with critics charging that their implementation binds the Russian people closer to the Russian government by cutting off avenues of escape from crackdowns on dissent.
Key events
Anthony Albanese announced earlier today that Anthony Callea would be performing at the Queen’s memorial service in Australia on Thursday.
AAP has some more details on that, saying the appearance of the former Australian Idol contestant comes after he met and sang to the Queen in 2006.
Melbourne-born Callea performed The Prayer, his cover of Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli’s song, for the Queen at a church service in Sydney’s St Andrew’s Cathedral that marked Commonwealth Day in 2006.
He also performed it at Bert Newton’s state funeral in November 2021 and Shane Warne’s memorial service at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March.
Callea said in a statement to AAP:
The passing of Queen Elizabeth II has obviously resonated throughout the world, especially in Australia.
Having previously had the privilege to perform for her, and after receiving the call from the Prime Minister’s office, I look forward to performing again, this time to celebrate her incredible life.
We mentioned earlier that Australia won’t ban Russian tourists from entering the country as requested by Ukraine’s ambassador but is “assessing” whether to reopen the Australian embassy in Kyiv.
The acting prime minister, Richard Marles, also said on Sunday that Australia was considering sending further military aid to Ukraine to bolster existing commitments.
Here’s the full story on those developments from Josh Butler:
Flood warnings issued for parts of Tasmania
Tasmanian SES has issued flood advice warnings, urging people to monitor conditions in the areas of Fingal, Avoca, Llewellyn, Powranna and surrounds, where minor flooding is occurring.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a minor flood warning for the South Esk river.
In a media release, the state organisations say flooding in nearby streams and rivers is likely during the next few days, and some low-lying properties may become isolated by flood waters.
Property, livestock, equipment, and crops in low lying areas may be at risk and driving conditions may be dangerous.
Those who live or have farming properties in the areas of Fingal, Avoca, Llewellyn, Powranna and surrounds are advised to check their flood emergency plans, monitor conditions and, if you are not well prepared, plan to move to safety.
For flood updates, locals are advised to visit TasALERT.com or listen to ABC local radio.
A few notes on the housing market this week.
There were 2,190 auctions held across Australian capital cities this week, according to analytics firm CoreLogic, up from 1,918 the previous week and 1,672 this time last year. That’s the busiest it’s been since late June.
So far, properties in 62.5% of those auctions sold, which is a reduction from this time least year, when 75.1% of them were successful.
The clearance numbers are broadly down in most capital cities, with the exception of Melbourne, where preliminary numbers have a clearance rate of 64.4%, up from 58.5% last year.
But the biggest drop is in Perth, where the 30% clearance rate this week pales in comparison to the 77.8% rate they were experiencing this time last year.
Kieran Pender
More from the UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong:
Australia’s Grace Brown is currently in the hot-seat, having clocked the fastest time yet in the women’s individual time trial this morning.
Brown, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the discipline, rode a stunning time of 44:41.33 across the 34.2km course. But it was a long and nervous wait ahead for Brown – the race wouldn’t finish until around 12.30pm, with a dozen or so riders still on course.
Dutch legend Annemiek van Vleuten, an Olympic and two-time world champion in the time trial, has recently come in well off the pace, at 46:11.62 – good news for Australia’s Brown.
On Melbourne’s Nicholson Street – also home to another northside landmark, the 96 tram – is one of the city’s most beloved institutions. An embodiment of this great town. Not a building but a whole personality.
Triple R is a community radio station that has, since its origins at RMIT in 1976, done exactly what it says on the box: been part of the community.
Clem Bastow, Christos Tsiolkas and Casey Bennetto are Superfluity, punching earholes on 102.7 FM and online from 8pm every Tuesday. This year they broadcast their 500th episode after 12 years on the air. An astounding feat by anyone’s standards, but also testament to how large this station has loomed in their lives for decades.
Bastow says:
We call it community radio because someone at some point was like, the community puts this radio station to air. But what I take from it is that it’s radio that provides a sense of community, too.
Read the full story from Anna Spargo-Ryan here:
NZ museum returns Indigenous Australian artefacts to country
A New Zealand museum will return six Warumungu objects to their traditional owners in the Northern Territory more than a century after they were first taken, AAP reports.
The objects include a kalpunta (boomerang), palya/kupija (adze) and a selection of marttan (stone knives).
They were originally acquired in Tennant Creek the 18th or 19th century by telegraph station master James Field and British-born anthropologist Baldwin Spencer, and came to the Tūhura Otago Museum through exchanges with Museum Victoria and anthropologist Frederick Vincent Knapp.
Senior Warumungu man Michael Jones thanked Tūhura Otago Museum for its response:
Them old things, they were carved by the old people who had the songs for it, too. I’m glad these things are returning back.
The museums are respecting us. They weren’t the ones who took them, they just ended up there.
We can still teach the young people now about these old things and our culture.
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies’s Return of Cultural heritage team initiated consultation between Warumungu elders and the museum’s Māori Advisory Committee to discuss the return of the items.
Aiatsis CEO Craig Ritchie said the RoCH program was giving a voice to originating communities in how their heritage is managed in collections outside of Australia:
Storytelling is integral to the transmission of our cultural knowledge.
We don’t want to lose track of such storytelling aids, and our communities want a say in how they are used.
The Warumungu community has indicated that a selection of the returned objects will be displayed at the Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre in Tennant Creek.
Josh Butler
Albanese meets with British PM Liz Truss
Anthony Albanese has also said he looks forward to working with new British prime minister Liz Truss on addressing climate change and issues in the Pacific, after his first meeting with the new leader.
The Australian PM met Truss overnight, for their first meeting as respective national leaders. Albanese said the relationship between Australia and the United Kingdom was “a critical one”, noting the Aukus military pact and the pending free trade agreement.
Albanese said:
It is important that the trade agreement be finalised and ratified between Australia and the United Kingdom. But I had a discussion with prime minister Truss last Friday to express Australians condolences to her.
That is good that we start off having built a relationship, initially, by both of us having a platform there to talk about national security, and indeed security around the globe. We share a support and commitment to the international rule of law.
Albanese also welcomed Britain’s engagement in the Pacific.
The United Kingdom has been a leader as well in acting on climate change. When I spoke with former prime minister [Boris] Johnson, he very much welcomed Australia’s commitment under my government to acting on climate change and I know that prime minister Truss is very conscious of that as well.
Josh Butler
Albanese releases details of Queen’s national memorial service in Australia
Anthony Albanese shared new details of the national memorial service to Queen Elizabeth, which will be held this coming week as soon as he returns from London.
The prime minister is in the UK for the Queen’s funeral, and overnight visited her lying in state at Westminster and met King Charles at Buckingham Palace. He will arrive back in Australia on Wednesday, ahead of the memorial service in Parliament House and the public holiday on Thursday.
In a Sky News interview on Sunday morning, Albanese detailed what would occur at the service. Melissa Doyle, the former Sunrise host on Channel Seven, will be the MC for the service, Albanese said, while singer Anthony Callea will perform at the event.
Albanese said:
It will bring together each of the premiers and chief ministers, they have all confirmed their attendance, as well as the governors from their respective states, as well as leaders of the judiciary, including all of the justices of the High Court, as well as federal members and senators.
Myself and Peter Dutton, as leader of the opposition, will both give short tributes to Queen Elizabeth. It will be an opportunity to mourn as a nation as well.
NSW Labor promises more paramedics ahead of election
More paramedics who can do more things are part of NSW Labor’s election pitch as it seeks to wrest power from the Coalition government for the first time in 12 years, AAP reports.
Labor has announced a $150m commitment for another 500 paramedics in rural and regional areas in its first term if elected.
Opposition leader Chris Minns said consultation would determine where paramedics are needed, and they would be upskilled for intensive and extended care roles that would hopefully ease pressure on emergency rooms.
Minns said on Sunday:
The NSW system cannot cope with another four years of Band-Aid solutions, it requires serious repair.
The announcement is only the beginning of the “long-term, structural repairs” his party will take to the March election, he said.
Labor’s health spokesman, Ryan Park, said regional paramedics desperately need a resources injection to fix shortages that are pushing the ambulance network to its limit:
It’s like going to work with one hand tied behind your back…
A Minns Labor government will begin the task of repairing that.
No free trips as NSW blocks deactivation of Opal readers to stop industrial action
The NSW government is headed to court in a bid to block union plans to deactivate Opal readers at train stations as part of an ongoing industrial stoush, AAP reports.
A section 418 application has been lodged in the Fair Work Commission to have the “destructive action” to turn off or short circuit the machines from Wednesday declared unprotected, transport minister David Elliott said.
The move follows legal advice received by the government that the proposed action is prima facie unlawful, he said in a statement on Saturday:
Sydney Trains and NSW Train Link believe the notified action is also unsafe and could cause financial impacts on commuters.
The submission comes after the [Rail, Tram and Bus Union and others] rejected a number of formal requests from transport officials to withdraw the action.
Elliott said the matter was expected to be heard within 48 hours.
The union plans to leave station gates open as it did last month but this time the Opal readers will also be deactivated, preventing commuters tapping on, rather than giving them an option not to.
Not all stations have gates, although the action will also deactivate stand-alone payment poles at suburban stations.
The Opal system is operated by a private company and Elliott said on Thursday he planned to seek advice on whether the union action would result in the government having to pay any penalties under its contract.
The RTBU is among unions that recently took Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink to the Fair Work Commission in a bid to keep negotiating a new enterprise agreement and modifications to a fleet of new intercity trains it says is not yet safe to operate.
Premier Dominic Perrottet declared negotiations were over at the end of August, after a month of industrial action disrupting services across several days.
He threatened termination of an enterprise agreement if there was further industrial action.
RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens said the government and senior bureaucrats were “the ones responsible for this mess, they can now live with it”.
