Australia news live: Burney says NT government ‘admitted that they got it wrong’ on Alice Springs, Fyles points finger at Coalition

‘NT government admitted that they got it wrong’: Burney

Linda Burney, the minister for Indigenous affairs, is now speaking with ABC News Breakfast and says the NT government has admitted “they got it wrong”.

I think that the NT government admitted that they got it wrong yesterday, which is why there’s this immediate response to additional alcohol restrictions here in Alice Springs starting today.

When the questions turn to the federal government’s responsibility in the matter, as the alcohol ban legislations expired in June when the Albanese government was in office, Burney emphasises the issue is one which has been on her agenda since it was raised with her.

Central Australian Aboriginal Congress chief Donna Ah Chee wrote to Burney in June pleading for her not to allow the legislation to lapse.

Burney says:

There were 40 alcohol management plans that were not signed, by not the previous minister but the minister before that.

Donna and some people did write to me and I have been in constant discussion, direct discussion, with the chief minister and the attorney general as far back as August last year and I have also been in constant discussion with the community organisations here in Alice Springs. This is not something that has come up overnight. This is something that has been brewing for a very long time.

You only have to look at the commitments that the Albanese Labor government made in last budget to see that we were very cognisant of what was needed here in central Australia and I have also had direct discussions with the mayor as well. So this is something that has been on the agenda for some time. Yesterday was the beginning of some very direct action and it will not be the end. We will stay with this right through.

Updated at 17.57 EST

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University of Melbourne adopts Holocaust alliance’s antisemitism definition

The University of Melbourne has become the first tertiary institution in Australia to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism as part of its broader “anti-racism commitment”.

The university said it would use IHRA as an “important educative tool” to “understand what constitutes antisemitism, and thus support its prevention”.

The Australasian Union of Jewish Students said in a statement:

This announcement comes a few days before 27 January, which is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. IHRA was created to remember what can happen if hate and discrimination are not called out. In order to ensure that antisemitism and all forms of discrimination have no place on our campuses, we must be able to define it by amplifying the voices of those who experience it.

The Zionist Federation of Australia president, Jeremy Leibler, said it was a “strong step forward” in the “fight against antisemitism”.

This is an example of real leadership … by adopting the working definition, [the University of Melbourne] is taking a meaningful step to demonstrate to Jewish students that antisemitism on campus will not be tolerated.

The Australian government gave bipartisan support to adopt the IHRA working definition in 2021. Since then, a number of states have adopted or endorsed it.

The move follows controversy over a student union motion passed – and later withdrawn – in August last year, which called on the university to divest, boycott and cut ties from “Israeli institutions, researchers and academics who support the Israeli oppression of Palestine”.

In a statement, the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) said the motion was “robust [and] supported by appropriate consultation” with pro-Palestinian and Jewish bodies on campus.

UMSU and its predecessor organisations, has maintained a 130-year tradition of students standing up for human rights issues, including those relating to international affairs.

Updated at 18.27 EST

Hipkins takes office as New Zealand prime minister

Chris Hipkins has been sworn in as New Zealand’s 41st prime minister in a ceremony at government house, AAP reports.

Hipkins was sworn in alongside his deputy PM, Carmel Sepuloni, today in Wellington, just minutes after the resignation of the outgoing PM, Jacinda Ardern.

The pair were congratulated by the governor general, Dame Cindy Kiro, who signed their warrants of appointment.

Family and friends of Hipkins and Sepuloni, including several cabinet ministers, packed government house’s ballroom for the occasion.

Hipkins’ first comments after the official photo, asked how it felt to be sworn in, were “it feels pretty real now”.

Chris Hipkins and Carmel Sepuloni are sworn in by the New Zealand governor general. Photograph: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images Jacinda Ardern embraces Carmel Sepuloni as she leaves parliament for the last time as prime minister. Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Updated at 18.18 EST

Images from space show flood waters surging south

Nasa have this morning shared images showing the the flood waters in northern Queensland moving south.

Nasa’s Kathryn Hansen writes:

After several weeks of heavy rainfall in northern Queensland, floodwater has worked its way south into Australia’s Channel Country. By mid-January 2023, floodwater from the north had combined with local rainfall to cause rivers to overflow their banks.

The surge of water is visible in this false-color image (right), acquired on January 22, 2023, with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Water appears light to dark blue; vegetation is green and bare land is brown. The left image, acquired with Terra MODIS on December 10, 2022, shows the same area prior to the flooding.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology reported major flooding along parts of the Georgina River, and moderate to major flooding along Eyre Creek, on January 23, 2023. Flooding along Eyre Creek near Bedourie was expected to peak on that day and remain above moderate flood levels (4 meters) for several days.

Updated at 18.08 EST

New rules don’t properly address anti-social behaviour, Alice Springs mayor says

The mayor of Alice Springs, Matt Paterson, says he believes the new measures announced last night after the meeting with the federal ministers are not adequate. He says there are two problems in the Territory, of alcohol and antisocial behaviours, and the new rules only address the former.

Paterson told the ABC:

We did ask for a circuit-breaker and hopefully this is it.

Do I think this is everything that was required? No, I don’t. I mean, we go back to Stronger Futures, we knew that that worked. The government were begged not to let that lapse and unfortunately it has lapsed. Whilst we’re talking about alcohol reform, we certainly could go back to those restrictions.

And just remember – we’ve got two issues here. One being alcohol and one being anti-social behaviour. And this really only addresses one of those problems.

Updated at 17.47 EST

Treasurer says gas and coal price caps ‘starting to have an impact’

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the federal government’s energy market changes late last year are “starting to have an impact”, with a report due out today expected to show power prices on the way down.

The Albanese government’s caps on gas and coal prices last year, which were opposed by many in those industries, aimed to dull the pain of expected sharp rises in power bills. The Australian Energy Market Operator’s quarterly energy report for the last quarter of 2022, due out today, is expected to show significant drops in electricity futures prices, which the government is claiming as the market anticipating and responding to the caps plan.

The report is due out later today but Chalmers has gotten out ahead of it to say it’s good news for consumers, but admitted it would take time for more benefits to flow on.

He said in a statement:

It will take some time for Australians to really feel the benefits of our temporary and targeted action but it’s heartening to see that our plan is already starting to have an impact.

This report shows that – despite significant challenges coming at us from around the world – our action is beginning to make a difference.

You can read more on that report from our economics correspondent Peter Hannam:

Energy Australia’s Yallourn coal-fired power station in Victoria. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Updated at 17.49 EST

Hipkins sworn in as New Zealand prime minister

Chris Hipkins has just been sworn into office as New Zealand’s prime minister after Jacinda Ardern’s resignation. He’ll host his first cabinet meeting later today.

Updated at 17.30 EST

Calls for mandatory identity checks for all dating app users

At today’s roundtable on dating app safety, domestic violence service Full Stop Australia will call for a national domestic violence offender register and mandatory ID checks for dating app users.

CEO Hayley Foster says serious action is needed, with almost three-quarters of dating app users subjected to online sexual violence.

Whilst education is important, and there are safety precautions people can take when engaging with apps, the onus shouldn’t be on potential victims to protect themselves from perpetrators of violence and abuse.

The current lack of verification and regulation around the identity of people using dating apps limits the ability of app providers and law enforcement agencies to respond when things go wrong, and this is putting people at risk of violence.

Full Stop Australia will also be calling to establish a national domestic violence offender register, similar to the existing sex offender register, to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to monitor serious and repeat offenders.

Foster says:

We need to make it easier for service organisations like dating apps to screen out those who are abusing their platforms to perpetrate violence. We can’t leave all the responsibility up to potential victims to protect themselves.

Updated at 17.32 EST

Amanda Rishworth has been making the breakfast news rounds ahead of the government’s roundtable to address the issue of sexual violence on dating apps.

Rishworth has told ABC News Breakfast:

I think this is a really important conversation but we will need to see action. I think that is the next step you. Engagement has been important but I think it is not just something the Government should tell companies to do. It makes good business sense. If you are a platform that has a better safety by design, you’re more likely to get more users. Ultimately, the aim of the roundtable is a participants the opportunity to address the gap in the system and discuss how to make these apps more safer for Australians.

Rishworth says that requiring the dating app companies to provide background checks for people who use their platforms is one of the measures the roundtable will be considering. But as well as access, Rishworth also wants to see prevention, early intervention and consultation with victims.

So – how do we use technology to pick up perhaps some trends of behaviour? Someone might not have been convicted of any crime, but may be using inappropriate behaviour, inappropriate comments. How can we pick that earlier than before a crime or abuse is perpetrated? So I think that there is no silver bullet to look at all element that is we outlined in the national plan about how to respond to that. And that includes prevention and early intervention as well as response and recovery.

The other area that we really need to get better at is making sure that those who have experienced the violence have a say in how companies respond. And we need to, for example, make sure that any complaints process is actually done with the victim or someone that could be the victim in mind. So there’s a number of different areas we do need to address to make the online area safer.

Updated at 17.22 EST

Morning Mail

Don’t forget if you want to get across the national and international headlines, the morning mail is the best place to do it.

There’s a particularly bittersweet story out of Italy where a community is mourning the death of a rare brown bear, known as Juan Carrito, who became famous for his visits to villages in the Abruzzo region, especially his raid on a bakery where he scoffed a plate of freshly made biscuits.

‘NT government admitted that they got it wrong’: Burney

Linda Burney, the minister for Indigenous affairs, is now speaking with ABC News Breakfast and says the NT government has admitted “they got it wrong”.

I think that the NT government admitted that they got it wrong yesterday, which is why there’s this immediate response to additional alcohol restrictions here in Alice Springs starting today.

When the questions turn to the federal government’s responsibility in the matter, as the alcohol ban legislations expired in June when the Albanese government was in office, Burney emphasises the issue is one which has been on her agenda since it was raised with her.

Central Australian Aboriginal Congress chief Donna Ah Chee wrote to Burney in June pleading for her not to allow the legislation to lapse.

Burney says:

There were 40 alcohol management plans that were not signed, by not the previous minister but the minister before that.

Donna and some people did write to me and I have been in constant discussion, direct discussion, with the chief minister and the attorney general as far back as August last year and I have also been in constant discussion with the community organisations here in Alice Springs. This is not something that has come up overnight. This is something that has been brewing for a very long time.

You only have to look at the commitments that the Albanese Labor government made in last budget to see that we were very cognisant of what was needed here in central Australia and I have also had direct discussions with the mayor as well. So this is something that has been on the agenda for some time. Yesterday was the beginning of some very direct action and it will not be the end. We will stay with this right through.

Updated at 17.57 EST

NT chief minister defends territory government’s path on alcohol

The question of who bears responsibility for the situation in Alice Springs continues to be a live debate, with the territory government, current and former federal governments all accused of dropping the ball.

ABC News Breakfast’s Michael Rowland presses NT chief minister Natasha Fyles on the issue.

Rowland:

Just as recently as a couple of days ago you were pushing back against the reintroduction of wider alcohol restrictions saying they were discriminatory and would disempower Indigenous communities. Have you got it wrong, chief minister?

Fyles:

I think it’s really important for people to understand the context. The intervention caused disempowerment to Aboriginal Territorians. The point of that was to have a purgative time with no alcohol in remote communities whilst alcohol management plans were developed. They were developed by community and it was the previous Coalition government that let them sit on ministers’ desks in Canberra.

Peter Dutton was part of the cabinet that let Stronger Futures lapse without any other measure so the Northern Territory government has done a huge amount around alcohol policy. We put in place a measure to support community, but I acknowledge that with six months of data, we need to do more and that’s why we will continue to work in this space with community, being careful that we don’t disempower people over what is a legal product.

Fyles continues to deny that in hindsight she should have brought in tougher legislation at a territory level when the federal legislation expired in the middle of last year.

We brought in legislation. It was the Coalition federal government, Peter Dutton was a part of that cabinet, that did nothing

Rowland:

But at the time, you were warned by the Country Liberal party opposition and independent member of parliament that your proposal would open the floodgates, lead to rivers of grog, have horrific consequences. Aren’t we seeing all of that now?

Fyles:

So we did put in place a measure and there is also a number of other measures, but what we are saying is we need to be agile in this space. We have had six months of those changes. So what we need to do is work with community around how alcohol is managed not just in Alice Springs, but in the broader central Australian community. It’s a very difficult issue because it’s a legal product, but we know the harm that it can cause.

Updated at 17.00 EST

Dutton on Indigenous voice: we shouldn’t ‘build up’ one group at the expense of another

Host Andrew Bolt also pressed Peter Dutton for his position on the Indigenous voice in the constitution, suggesting it divides Australians on race.

Dutton said:

I just don’t think we need to pull down one part of who we are as a culture or a people to build up the other, and I think it’s equally applicable to Australia Day, to other debates, including in relation to the voice. I think it’s important that we hear from a regional voice because there is … acute disadvantage, and people do want to see an outcome, a better outcome and a better future for those people.

This is curious. Last week Dutton told the Herald Sun he was in favour of constitutional recognition, but now he seems to be suggesting the voice “builds up” one group at the expense of others.

Dutton continued:

I’ve been very upfront and honest in relation to my approach: that is that we’re going through a discussion now, we’re going through trying to obtain all of the detail from the prime minister and from the government, and the onus is on the prime minister to provide that detail to millions of Australians. If there are fatal flaws, if there are insurmountable issues that we can’t get over, then we’ll be very clear about that, but I’m considering respectfully all of the information that is there at the moment. ‘We’re putting appropriate pressure on the government’: Peter Dutton Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Dutton had a few hints on the ultimate position: that “nobody’s in favour of racism in the Liberal party” and that “of course” all Australians have to have their say in government decisions – not adopting but not refuting Bolt’s view that the voice amounts to special treatment.

Dutton said:

I will make very clear my position in due course. There are a lot of commentators and people who are our supporters and others who were calling for us, demanding that we state a position before the government even made their announcement when it was mooted that there would be a constitutional referendum. Now, we’re in a position where I believe very strongly that we’re putting appropriate pressure on the government, which we wouldn’t have been able to do had we just raced out of the blocks and declared a position without listening to all of the facts. I think the prime minister would be saying now, he’s not releasing any detail because Liberals have already made up their mind and other parties have already made up their mind and therefore they don’t deserve the detail.

Updated at 17.54 EST

NSW government headed for election defeat, polls suggest

A second opinion poll within days has pointed to defeat for the NSW government at the March election, AAP reports.

The Resolve Strategic poll published in the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday shows Labor is ahead with a primary vote of 37%.

The coalition’s primary vote is on 34%, down from the 42% vote it recorded in the 2019 election.

However, Dominic Perrottet’s rating as preferred premier is the highest since he succeeded Gladys Berejiklian in 2021 despite his recent admission that he wore a Nazi costume to his 21st birthday party.

The premier apologised for his behaviour, describing the incident as a naive mistake that did not reflect his views.

The poll found one-third of voters favoured Perrottet as premier, while 29% backed Labor’s Chris Minns. More than one-third of voters remained undecided.

The Greens are on a primary vote of 12%, while independents are polling at 11% as so-called “teal” candidates target a series of coalition blue-ribbon electorates in the hope of repeating successes from the federal election last year.

A recent YouGov poll, published in The Sunday Telegraph, also predicted the end of 12 years of coalition government in NSW at the election on March 25.

If found Labor led the coalition by 56% to 44% on a two-party preferred basis, while it was ahead by 39-33% on first preferences.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns. Photograph: Brett Hemmings/CA/Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Updated at 17.34 EST

Dutton’s ‘absurd proposition’ on NT crisis: ‘They don’t want to act because of race’

Peter Dutton appeared on Sky News’ Bolt report last night for an I-told-him-so type discussion about how the opposition leader went to Alice Springs in October and called for a royal commission into sexual abuse of children.

Dutton welcomed Anthony Albanese’s trip to Alice Springs, but appeared to chip him for not making it a media event, commenting: “They’re strange circumstances where you don’t tell the media you’re going, you go in just for a short period of time, and I just question who he’s been able to meet with in such a short visit.”

Dutton said:

I just don’t understand how in our country, in this year, any leader in Alice Springs can sit back – or across the country, for that matter… and tolerate the knowledge of what’s happening in Alice Springs. I mean, it kills me to think of the young children who are being sexually violated in that community or anywhere. But the prevalence is acute in Alice Springs and other parts of the Northern Territory at the moment.

There are many people who are having their lives adversely impacted, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and we hear from the Northern Territory [chief] minister and … this is a theme that runs through the prime minister’s thinking as well, is that they don’t want to act because of race. I mean it’s just such an absurd proposition. They need to act because these kids need to be protected. They need to act because people are committing offences against the law. If the rule of law isn’t applied equally, then you will get disorder and dysfunction within communities and that’s not what we want to see.

So I just think if you know that there are these abhorrent behaviours and activities taking place, I just don’t know how, as a leader, you can sit there and be quiet. We need to stand up, be heard, make sure that the response is provided, the changes take place, and the lives of these kids and women are improved.

An absurd proposition and not one I’ve heard the prime minister make – a straw man, in other words.

Updated at 17.34 EST

People of Alice Springs might say help took too long: Burney

Burney was also pressed on what was done to heed early warnings, such as Central Australian Aboriginal Congress chief Donna Ah Chee’s warning that freer access to alcohol would add “fuel to the fire” of social issues.

Burney said:

Yesterday we made important progress and that’s what I want to focus on. This is the beginning of the response. Not the end.

I have been in discussions with the Northern Territory government and community organisations here in Alice Springs for a number of months and yes I have expressed that there needs to be some very, very real thoughts put into our alcohol restrictions.

Asked if the NT government took too long, she replied:

Look, I’m not going to get into whether they’ve taken too long or they haven’t. But clearly, if you ask people in Alice Springs, the answer might be ‘yes’. But the most important thing is that we made enormous gains yesterday, [central Australian regional controller] Dorelle Anderson will report back in one week and then we will know where we will head after that report back.

Burney said the federal government had made commitments at the election related to community safety, denying that it had taken too long to get involved.

Updated at 16.32 EST

Burney believes Indigenous voice would have prevented Alice Springs crisis

Linda Burney has told ABC radio that she believes “very deeply” that the situation in Alice Springs would not have escalated had there been an Indigenous voice to parliament.

[If] the voice of the parliament had been established previously … we wouldn’t be where we are in terms of Alice Springs at the moment because we would be getting practical advice from people who are representative of the community in relation to these social issues.

I mean, it is wrong to think that the issue out here is just alcohol … There is a seasonal issue involved.

Karvelas:

Do you really think that if we’d had a voice to parliament, making recommendations, you wouldn’t have seen this situation escalate?

Burney:

I do believe that very very deeply. That’s the whole point.

Karvelas:

But the voices were telling you – they might not have been enshrined in the constitution, minister, but they were telling you and the Northern Territory government that things were going to explode.

Burney:

Which is why we are responding, which is why there was substantial money committed in the budget towards central Australia. This is not something that we walked into yesterday, Patricia, this has been something that we’ve been working with and dealing with for a very long time.

Updated at 17.18 EST