Australia news live: Labor using Anzac Day as a ‘smokescreen’ for defence strategic review, Coalition says | Australia news
Andrew Hastie says defence review timing ‘tricky politics’
Hastie argues that today’s announcement didn’t provide any sense of urgency, and its timing on the eve of Anzac Day is “tricky politics”.
I want to make a point about this process. Today’s announcement on the eve of Anzac Day is tricky politics. The Albanese government is using Anzac Day as a smokescreen hoping the Australian people would not notice some of these trade-offs and cuts to capability.
But we are calling them this magician’s trick and we will hold them to account over coming days and months. We will be having more to say about this as we digest this large document which is only briefed to the opposition half an hour before the minister for defence went live with the announcement.
Key events
Hazy Anzac Day likely in Victoria, fire authority warns
Planned and agricultural burns across regional Victoria will likely make for a hazy Anzac Day across the state, AAP reports.
The Country Fire Authority said Victorians could expect smoke haze in Melbourne and the regions from fuel-reduction burns, agricultural burns and thousands of domestic wood heaters across the state.
CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan said the CFA and Forest Fire Management Victoria were working with the Environment Protection Authority and Bureau of Meteorology to minimise smoke impact:
Along with the important planned burns that are conducted in our forests, parks and reserves led by FFMV and the many kilometres of road, rail and grassland burns that are led by the CFA, this time of year also sees a large amount of smoke coming from the necessary burn-offs that our farmers and rural property holders complete.
These are part of traditional farming practices where burning off of crop stubble is often needed to kill off weeds and return nutrients and carbon back into the soil.
Landowners are urged to register their burn-offs online or call 1800 668 511.
More on Queensland sex work reforms
Circling back to Queensland’s plan to transition to a fully decriminalised sex work industry.
As reported by the AAP, sex-work businesses will be treated the same as other lawful businesses – with the same general laws applying to all – under law reform commission recommendations.
The plan has broad support from the state government, with changes including:
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Making it lawful to operate a sex-work business, to work as a sex worker and to obtain the services offered
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Making it lawful for sex workers to operate alone or in a group
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The same general laws, standards and codes that regulate all advertising apply to sex-work businesses
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Sex workers will be protected by anti-discrimination laws, and accommodation providers will not have specific exemptions
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Planning rules will allow sex work services to operate in commercial and mixed-use zones, not just in industrial zones
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Local governments must not use local laws to single out sex-work businesses
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Newly defined criminal offences for those who coerce individuals or involve children in commercial sexual services
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The Prostitution Licensing Authority will be abolished and there will be no sex-work-specific industry regulator
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The same work laws that apply to other workers and businesses apply to the sex-work industry, including work health and safety laws
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The same public nuisance laws and police move-on powers will apply to everyone, including sex workers
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The Queensland government will go through public consultation on any future legislation to implement a decriminalised framework.
Unit prices rise nationally for first time in 11 months, led by Sydney; rents also jump
Peter Hannam
Sydney unit prices started rising in February and the uptick has spread nationally, according to industry data group, CoreLogic.
Six of the eight capitals are now recording a rise in units, bringing the average monthly rise over March to 0.6%. Sydney’s units rose 1% for the month, with those in Melbourne up 0.4%.
Kaytlin Ezzy, an economist at CoreLogic, said:
With a median value of more than $775,000, units across Sydney are more expensive than the median house values of Brisbane ($772,020), Adelaide ($694,818), Hobart ($691,859), Perth ($593,385) and Darwin ($582,415).
National unit rents, meanwhile, continue to rise at roughly twice the pace of house rents, up 1.6% and 0.8% over the month and 3.9% and 2.0%, respectively, over the first quarter.
A spurt in overseas students and migrants meant the combined capitals recorded the strongest quarterly increase in unit rents on record, rising 4.4% over the three months to March. Average rents jumped $23 a week to $550 a week.
Ezzy said:
The mismatch between rental supply and demand has seen capital city rental growth re-accelerate, which will be unwelcome news to many tenants already struggling to find affordable rental accommodation.
Not surprisingly, the national unit vacancy rate dropped to a fresh record low of 0.8% in March. Landlords though may be cheery.
When preparing this week’s Full Story podcast on the Reserve Bank Review, we wondered whether those lambasting Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe over comments in 2021 that interest rates probably wouldn’t rise until 2024 might be worse off if they stayed renters. Listen to it here:
Daniel Hurst
Chinese officials briefed at lunchtime today on defence strategic review
Guardian Australia understands more than 30 countries were offered briefings on Australia’s defence strategic review by the Australian government. Officials from China and a number of other countries were briefed in Canberra today, sources said.
The public version of the final report did not label China a direct military threat to Australia, but said China’s assertion of sovereignty over the contested South China Sea “threatens the global rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific in a way that adversely impacts Australia’s national interests”. It labelled the competition between China and the United States “the defining feature of our region and our time”.
A spokesperson for the deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, said:
The deputy prime minister, minister for international development and the Pacific [Pat Conroy] and government officials have engaged comprehensively with our regional neighbours and key partners about of the release of the defence strategic review.
The Chinese embassy in Canberra has been contacted for comment.
Queensland government to decriminalise sex work
The Queensland government is set to decriminalise sex work in response to a Queensland Law Reform Commission review.
The Queensland government says it will decriminalise sex work.
Currently, private sex workers in Queensland cannot work together, hire a receptionist or text each other for safety after a booking, under the state’s laws.
More to come @GuardianAus
— Eden Gillespie (@edengillespie) April 24, 2023
In a report released on Monday, the Queensland Law Reform Commission suggested eliminating sex work offences against consenting adults, with general work health and safety rules to apply, AAP reported.
The law reform review says advertising would not be prohibited on TV or radio, with the same codes and standards as all other businesses to apply.
An exemption that allows accommodation providers to discriminate against sex workers would also be scrapped.
The report makes a distinction between sex work and sexual exploitation, which should be subject to newly defined criminal offences for coercing individuals or involving children in commercial services.
Some more stunning images are being shared of this morning’s Aurora Australis, which was visible as far north as Dubbo!
Queensland’s double jeopardy provisions will be enacted for the second time as police seek to have a man re-tried for a 2009 murder, AAP reports.
Detectives reopened the investigation after receiving fresh and compelling evidence in December 2022.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on Monday was charged a second time over the death.
It is only the second time in Queensland the double jeopardy legislation will be exercised.
Application has been made to the Queensland Court of Appeal to apply for a previously acquitted person to be retried for the offence of murder.
Police Detective Inspector Chris Knight said this arrest showed the persistence of investigators to achieve justice for victims of crime.
Hastie ‘disappointed’ by ‘cost-shifting and cuts’ in defence review
Wrapping up Hastie’s press conference, when asked how soon Australia could expect war in the Indo-Pacific, he says “the last thing we want is war, we want peace”:
It’s no use talking about war but one thing we must do is always be prepared to defend Australia, our interests and that of our neighbours as well, which is why Aukus is such an important uplift in Australia’s capability …
That is why we are so disappointed today with the government’s response to the defence strategic review because what we are seeing is no new money being invested in defence, we’re seeing cost-shifting and cuts and a degradation to army’s capability.
When asked where this money should come from, Hastie said that is “a decision for the government”.
Andrew Hastie asked if WA should be building and hosting long-range missiles
Hastie:
WA has done incredibly well out of the Aukus announcement and we are yet to hear much from Mark McGowan in terms of advocating for WA and encouraging investment here as we uplift HMAS Stirling from a conventional base to a nuclear base over the next four years.
It is huge opportunity for education, for businesses, for the development of the supply chain in WA and he is playing silent on these issues. We want to see advocacy from the state government and that is certainly something I will be doing as I play the role of the dual opposition in the state.
When asked where long-range missiles would go, Hastie says:
That is a decision for government, but I support having the best possible defence force and that includes long-range strike capabilities.
Hastie on Mark McGowan’s ‘cold-war pills’ comment: ‘Loose lips sink ships’
Hastie is asked about criticism he’s received from WA premier Mark McGowan about his rhetoric on China.
Last week McGowan was caught on camera in China saying that Hastie “swallowed some kind of, you know, cold war pills back when he was born and he couldn’t get his mindset out of that”.
Responding to comments today, Hastie said:
I don’t want to get into another squabble with Mark McGowan.
He should know after last week that loose lips sink ships and I’m not going to get into another dispute with [him].
Suffice to say, he is well outside the consensus across government and across the opposition that we have to respond to the challenges in our region and that includes a rising China that is both expansionist and revisionist in its aims, and he is the one left without a chair now that the music has stopped.
Hastie says commitment to second dry dock ‘absolutely critical’
Hastie says the previous government committed $4.3 billion for the Henderson dry dock to be built, and the opposition wants to see the government honour this.
The second dry dock is absolutely critical. We only have one on the east coast and it’s really important, particularly with the special place that WA will be taking in our defence strategy going forward.
We have Aukus, we have the forward rotation west being established here, we’re going to see more allied ships coming alongside in Perth and it is really important that we have a dry dock that can support our own navy and also the navies of our allies in the future years.
Andrew Hastie says defence review timing ‘tricky politics’
Hastie argues that today’s announcement didn’t provide any sense of urgency, and its timing on the eve of Anzac Day is “tricky politics”.
I want to make a point about this process. Today’s announcement on the eve of Anzac Day is tricky politics. The Albanese government is using Anzac Day as a smokescreen hoping the Australian people would not notice some of these trade-offs and cuts to capability.
But we are calling them this magician’s trick and we will hold them to account over coming days and months. We will be having more to say about this as we digest this large document which is only briefed to the opposition half an hour before the minister for defence went live with the announcement.
Shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie says Labor has ‘failed’ with defence overhaul
Hastie says that the Albanese government has “failed” to deliver “the sort of action that our strategic circumstances require”:
If you are hoping for unprecedented coordination and ambition [from] the Albanese government today, you have every right to feel let down.
Hastie said we will not see a national strategy document until 2024 and because of this, “we have lost another year of defence preparedness without a guiding strategic document”.
