Australia news live: Dominic Perrottet faces leadership crisis; AMA warns of ballooning elective surgery waitlist

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Key events (11)Dominic Perrottet (15)NSW (13)Australia (9)Jim Chalmers (8)New South Wales (6)

Morning Mail!

If you want to get across the national and international news quick, look no further than our morning mail!

There’s lots of news here at home which we’ve been covering on the blog you can find more in depth reporting on it. But you’ll also want to have a look at some of the breaking news abroad.

More classified documents have been found at Joe Biden’s home in Delaware, and the search of the president’s properties for secret materials from his time as vice-president under Barack Obama has concluded, the White House has announced.

Updated at 17.35 EST

Albanese: Australia and PNG ‘the greatest of friends’

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has told a state dinner the partnership between Australia and Papua New Guinea is “vital to regional security” but “also offers us tremendous opportunity for greater prosperity”.

Last night, after a busy first day of a two-day trip to PNG, Albanese was offered a state dinner in Port Moresby and he reflected on his address to the PNG parliament earlier in the day:

To be the first foreign head of government invited to address your parliament was a great honour – and not just for me personally, but for the country I lead and the people I serve.

In the state dinner speech, Albanese said Australia and PNG were “more than near neighbours” but were “the greatest of friends”. He described the moment of PNG gaining independence from Australia in 1975, before pivoting to the current joint security challenges:

We recall the joy and pride of independence, nearly half a century ago, when the Australian flag was not torn down, but respectfully lowered – and the vibrant colours of your proud and independent nation rose to fly in its place.

But our partnership is about more than history or proximity. It is a bond between equals.

It is a relationship of common values – and also shared interests: two Pacific Ocean states determined to preserve peace and security in our region, recognising the value and the importance of a family-first approach, and writing that principle of regionalism and that sense of deep trust into our new bilateral security treaty.

Yesterday Albanese and his PNG counterpart, James Marape, announced they wanted to finish negotiations on a security treaty within four months. Today the two prime ministers are due to travel to Wewak to pay respects at the resting place of grand chief Sir Michael Somare, the first prime minister after PNG achieved independence, who died in 2021.

Updated at 17.16 EST

Chalmers defends Albanese’s chopper ride saying PM has had a ‘more hands-on role’ in disasters than Morrison

Chalmers has defended the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, hopping in Lindsay Fox’s private chopper last weekend to get from Geelong to Fox’s Portsea mansion as “entirely appropriate” given the PM was visiting the flood-affected Kimberley region that day.

I think it’s entirely appropriate. I mean it’s important that the prime minister got to WA that day and he did. He was in flood-affected communities in Western Australia that very same day.

A trip like that gets declared in the usual way on the usual time frame and I think it’s important that we engage with all parts of the Australian community, including business leaders.

The Liberal party has to decide should we engage with business leaders more or less, because they say both of those things at once and they’ve got to pick one.

I think it’s appropriate that the Prime Minister spent time with Lindsay Fox. I think it’s appropriate that the trip is declared in the usual way and it’s not just appropriate but commendable that the prime minister got himself to flood-affected communities in Western Australia so quickly to make sure that he is playing a much more hands-on role in these sorts of things that his predecessor [Scott Morrison] ever did.

Updated at 17.02 EST

Treasurer ‘optimistic but realistic’ on economic outlook for 2023

Chalmers is doing the media rounds this morning ahead of his announcement in Lismore today. He’s now speaking to ABC News Breakfast.

He says it’s still his expectation Australia will avoid a recession this year.

We’ve got a lot of things going for us in Australia, low unemployment, the beginning of wages growth. Good prices for what we sell the world, but we won’t be [immune] from a global turn, the worst in 15 years, so I’m optimistic but realistic as well.

Some of those forecasts being released by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and others, make it clear that the global economy is in for choppy water in the course of 2023. We won’t escape that completely but we’ve got a lot of things going in our favour.

On the possibility of further interest rate rises this year,

No doubt [the Reserve Bank] will be monitoring, as we are, the impact of the interest rate rises that began before the election and continue through the course of 2022 … We know people are doing it tough. We know higher interest rates impact mortgage holders immediately but flow through to the economy with a lag. No doubt the Reserve Bank is monitoring that as well.

Updated at 16.54 EST

Sydney memorial service to be held for George Pell

A memorial service will be held in Sydney for the late Cardinal George Pell, but there will be no state funeral for the man who was Australia’s most senior Catholic.

The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, and Victoria’s Daniel Andrews have ruled out holding state services for the 81-year-old former archbishop of Melbourne and Sydney, who died from heart complications in Rome on Tuesday following hip surgery.

Andrews said on Thursday a state funeral or memorial would be distressing for victim-survivors, but the cardinal’s legacy would be for others to judge.

The 81-year-old was the Vatican’s top finance minister before leaving in 2017 to stand trial in Melbourne on child sexual abuse charges, for which he was jailed before his convictions were quashed.

Perrottet said a memorial service for Pell would be organised by the Catholic archdiocese of Sydney, offering his “thoughts and prayers” to the late cardinal’s family.

A service for Pell will be held at the Vatican in the coming days, followed by a funeral mass at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. His body will be buried in the St Mary’s crypt.

St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Updated at 16.55 EST

Chalmers wary to expose the government’s balance sheet to the risks of natural disaster insurance

Circling back to the treasurer, Jim Chalmers’, interview with ABC Radio, he was asked about the problem of insurance for the communities in these disaster prone areas. Chalmers says the government’s focus is mitigation, because he is wary of how much the government’s balance sheet can be exposed to the risks that insurance in these areas pose.

We have made the beginnings of an investment trying to strengthen our insurance market. And we don’t pretend that there’s an easy solution here … There’s a reinsurance pool, there’s [the] beginnings of an investment that we are making.

McDonald:

Government in the longer term is going to have to play a much bigger role in the insurance market aren’t they?

Chalmers:

I think there’s a leadership role. We need to be careful about how we expose the government’s balance sheet to some of these big risks. We’re prepared to do that, in some ways. The reinsurance pool is one of the examples in the commonwealth budget, but I think the most important thing that we can do as we work on these issues and insurance is around mitigation.

It made no sense to us … over the course of our predecessor’s time in government … a lot of the effort or all the effort was on the response. We will be there to respond to natural disasters, but we also need to [recognise] they are going to become more and more frequent.

For more on this topic, here’s a report Christopher Knaus and I wrote shortly after the latest flood in Eugowra:

Updated at 16.50 EST

Man dies while swimming in NSW creek

A man who was pulled unresponsive from a creek in NSW’s Riverina region has died.

Police say that at about 12.30pm on Thursday emergency services were called to Urangeline Creek, Urana, about 63km west of Wagga Wagga, on reports an unconscious man had been pulled from the water.

Responders were told the 45-year-old man had been swimming when he appeared to have suffered a medical episode.

NSW Ambulance paramedics attempted to revive the man but he died at the scene.

A report will be prepared for the coroner.

– AAP

Updated at 16.26 EST

Jewish board of Deputies says Premier’s apology sincere but should have come earlier

Birmingham mentioned the Jewish community of NSW accepting Perrottet’s apology. While the CEO of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Darren Bark, told ABC News Breakfast they had accepted the apology, he believed it should have come earlier.

Asked what he made of the news yesterday the premier, as a 21-year-old, had put on a Nazi uniform for his party, Bark said:

I was shocked and I think it has been a very difficult 24 hours for the Jewish community here in New South Wales. There has been distress, shock and sadness at this revelation. Our focus is now on what actions can be taken. We have seen a normalisation and casualisation of Nazi [signals] in recent times and it is now [our] focus and we are now looking at what actions can be taken into the future.

We do accept the premier’s apology. It was a sincere apology and he outlined that he was ashamed of it. Could he have done this earlier? I think the answer to that is yes. However, the premier did come in, he called. He has been a supporter and friend of the Jewish community during his time in public life.

NSW premier Dominic Perrottet apologising yesterday for wearing a Nazi costume to his 21st birthday party. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Asked about the fact that Perrottet only went public when he was called by a cabinet colleague on Tuesday about a photo that could be circulating, Bark said:

We would have wanted to hear and acknowledge this sooner. The fact is that when we found out about it, our focus is on what we can do going forward now. We channel Eddie Jaku and in his words … when we have challenge and difficulty, how can we look at what we can do and work together in order to address it? That is our main focus now.

Asked how tenable is Perrottet’s position has become, Bark said “that is a question for voters.”

Our focus is on not just the Jewish community but the community more broadly who were impacted by the Nazi regime, including our diggers. Our focus is on what we can do moving forward. I will leave the commentary about leadership and politics to those better suited to do that.

Updated at 16.42 EST

‘If the Jewish community in NSW can accept the premier’s remorse … the rest of us should follow’: Birmingham

Simon Birmingham, the shadow foreign affairs minister, followed Chalmers on ABC Radio and Hamish McDonald picks up where he left off – on the NSW premier.

A government source has reportedly told the ABC that Perrottet’s leadership is untenable and that he has been encouraged to call a leadership spill.

McDonald:

Do you consider his position as premier of New South Wales tenable?

Birmingham:

I think if the Jewish community in New South Wales can accept the premier’s remorse and apology as genuine, and then that is something that the rest of us should follow and accept as well. He has obviously expressed that publicly. He also sat down with those Jewish community leaders. They appear willing to accept that apology and his remorse as being genuine.

McDonald:

Does it undermine his claim to his genuine remorse, the fact that he hadn’t said anything and wouldn’t have said anything unless a Liberal colleague and opponent had called him about it a couple of days ago?

Birmingham:

He obviously he chose to bring this matter to the public light following that conversation … I’m sure his remorse could have been very genuinely held and been there for some time and ultimately do the right thing by expressing that publicly but perhaps even more importantly, by sitting down face to face with the Jewish community to talk through the issues.

Asked whether he believes Perrottet should go to the next election as the leader of the Liberal party in New South Wales, Birmingham said it was a matter for the parliamentary party in New South Wales.

Updated at 16.15 EST

Perrottet says he wants greater Holocaust education after revelations he wore Nazi uniform at his 21st birthday

Speaking of Perrottet, the NSW premier has released another video apology a couple minutes ago.

In it, Perrottet says:

My hope is that some good can come from the terrible mistake I made. I met with the Jewish Board of Deputies and we both spoke about how important it is to continue to raise education and understanding, particularly with young people, about the horrors of the Holocaust and to ensure evil such as that never occurs again.

Updated at 16.24 EST