Australia news live: storm smashes Sydney; Reason party progressive Fiona Patten concedes loss to Adem Somyurek

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Jacqui Lambie Network senators back energy price cap plan

The Jacqui Lambie Network’s two senators have come out in favour of the government’s plans for energy price caps, indicating they’ll back the plan when the Senate reconvenes on Thursday.

As the government continues negotiating with the Greens, the Coalition and David Pocock, the Tasmanian duo say they support changes to coal and gas prices. While they do have some questions of their own, they say they won’t block the legislation.

Jacqui Lambie told Guardian Australia:

On the face of it, this bill will give relief to those who need it. I’ve said that people need rebates to help them out. People are struggling to afford everyday groceries and they’ve got school fees hitting them at the start of next year. This will be welcome news.

I’m not going to stand in the way of people getting the help they need.

Her colleague, Tammy Tyrrell, said she was “really pleased to see the rebates in place” for those on government payments:

They’re going to help a lot of people. I’m glad small businesses are included in this; Tassie businesses have told me power bills are their number one concern right now.

However, Lambie raised questions over the ongoing consultation process that will run for several months, despite federal politicians being asked to consider and pass the bill this Thursday in a special sitting day. She said:

I am concerned that consultation for the bill doesn’t finish until the start of February and the government wants to pass the legislation this week – what’s up with that?”

I want price relief for Aussies, but I want to make sure bills are going through the proper consultation process as well.

Tyrrell said:

We’ll do our research and ask any questions that need to be asked, but we’re not here to block anything that’s going to help people.

Updated at 21.54 EST

Adem Somyurek is a little more cautious about his prospects of claiming an upper house seat, despite the concession of Fiona Patten. He tweeted a short time ago:

Whilst it’s gracious of candidates to concede before the counting is concluded I’d urge caution. LC counts are complex. Every point of elimination may throw up surprises which change the dynamic of a count. I’ll wait till the button is pressed before I claim victory.

‘Terrible decision’: A-Leagues’ move to sell off grand final sparks fan anger

The A-Leagues have sparked anger among fans after selling off the rights to host its grand finals to the New South Wales government, with Sydney to host the men’s and women’s showpiece events for the next three years in a reported eight-figure deal.

In a departure from tradition for Australian football, the title deciders could potentially be played away from the highest-placed team’s home ground.

The NSW government said the move aimed to leverage recent interest in football off the back of the Socceroos’ successful World Cup campaign and with the Women’s World Cup to be played on home soil in 2023. But the announcement on Monday was not universally well received.

You can read more on that story here:

Here’s the full story on Fiona Patten, an independent in Victoria, conceding her upper house seat to Adem Somyurek. It will be fascinating if Somyurek’s victory forces the Andrews government to instigate voting reform, as the state’s group party tickets have been widely panned as undemocratic (and worse).

Story by Benita Kolovos:

Free PCR tests only available with referral from next year

My colleague in Canberra Josh Butler is reporting that under the new federal Covid management plan, free PCR tests will only be available with a referral in 2023.

Updated at 20.54 EST

‘Introduce more gas into the system’: Dutton

A reporter asks Dutton to explain his concerns about the pricing caps:

If you’ve got a situation where you have more and more demand in the system for gas and you’re restricting supply, the prices will go up.

And we have been very clear for a long period of time now – you need to introduce more gas into the system. That is the advice that’s there from Treasury, from industry and from every economist that looks at this debate. They’re all telling the government to put more gas into the system.

And yet, in the budget, this government funded the environmentalists who are taking court action against the companies that want to bring more gas supply into the system.

You can’t have it every way. And the prime minister, on the one hand, is providing relief and on the other is making decisions to restrict supply into the system, which is going to drive up prices.

What you know in this situation that the government’s presiding over is that: if you provide more pressure on inflation, you’ll see interest rates go higher than they otherwise would be.

Updated at 20.43 EST

Dutton criticises government’s delay in delivering energy legislation

The opposition leader Peter Dutton is speaking about the government’s energy plan in Toowoomba:

You can’t trust this prime minister. He doesn’t have the instinct to make the calls on the economy. He’s had six months to come up with a plan. We find out now the plan he announced on Friday is not even properly drafted yet. He said in interviews over the course of the weekend and at the train wreck press conference he had on Friday that this was a plan that was put together. Now it turns out they’re still drafting it. I think Australians are rightly shaking their heads at a prime minister that promised so much and is delivering so little.

Updated at 20.41 EST

Roof swept off workshop part of ‘havoc’ created by Sydney storms: SES

The SES have received more than 80 jobs off the back of the intense storm and sever winds that came through Sydney about an hour ago.

The SES say the weather created “havoc” in the eastern half of the state, like the roof of a workshop in the southern Sydney suburb of Mortdale being blown on to a power line.

Updated at 20.22 EST

Phone app to help with heart attacks in South Australia

A potentially life-saving smartphone app has been launched in South Australia to help people having a heart attack get access to help sooner.

The GoodSAM app will be used by SA Ambulance staff and volunteers before being rolled out to other health professionals, emergency services personnel and people with first aid training.

It sends an alert to registered users if there is a cardiac arrest near them.

The responder can accept the call for help and head to the scene to provide emergency care while an ambulance is on the way.

The system can identify if any responders are in the vicinity and alert the three closest.

If one or more of those responders accept the alert, it sends them the location details.

The health minister, Chris Picton, said:

Recruiting the help of those nearby is an important start in the chain of survival before an ambulance arrives and will save lives.

First launched in the UK, GoodSAM is already in use in Victoria, where there are already more than 11,000 registered responders.

In the Adelaide CBD, GoodSAM will alert responders who are within 400 metres, while in the broader metropolitan area and regional cities, it will alert those within 600 metres. In regional areas the response radius will be 5km for regional towns and up to 15km in more remote locations.

– from AAP

Updated at 20.14 EST

Fiona Patten concedes upper house race, reflects on ‘pretty amazing eight years’

Fiona Patten has conceded she will be ousted from the Victorian parliament’s upper house by former Labor minister Adem Somyurek, who contested the election for the conservative Democratic Labour party.

The Victorian Electoral Commission is set to distribute preferences for the upper house on Tuesday but with 3.6% of first-preference votes to Somyurek’s 4.8%, Patten says she is in an unwinnable position in the northern metropolitan region.

Patten told Guardian Australia:

Of course I’m disappointed but I also feel like I’ve had a pretty amazing eight years and I’ve been able to do so much in my time in parliament.

I didn’t take any moment for granted. I certainly won’t die wondering.

The Reason party leader, who entered the upper house at the 2014 election as a member of the then-called Sex party, helped lay the groundwork for several of the Andrews government’s signature progressive policies over the past eight years.

This includes the introduction of voluntary assisted dying laws, Melbourne’s first safe injecting room, safe access zones around abortion clinics and the decriminalisation of sex work.

Updated at 21.38 EST

Fiona Patten concedes in Victorian upper house race

The leader of the Reason party, Fiona Patten, has conceded to Adem Somyurek, who has won a seat in Victorian upper house.

Patten has taken to social media to reflect on her eight years as a member of the Victorian Legislative Council, hailing the progressive change made. She said:

I tried every day to make things a little better and fairer.

Here’s a profile Victorian state correspondent Benita Kolovos wrote on Patten earlier this year:

Updated at 20.04 EST

Government hearing Greens’ message ‘loud and clear’: Bandt

Parliament is being recalled on Thursday for the government’s proposal to cap energy prices. The plan includes compensating gas and coal corporations but it won’t be part of the legislation.

Bandt was asked by a reporter at that press conference whether that makes the Greens more inclined to support the laws on Thursday:

We’ll have to see what the legislation is. And the government, over the weekend, and again this morning, made clear they’re looking at compensating coal corporations, which we think is just wrong.

Now, the government seems to be hearing the Greens’ message loud and clear that we won’t back compensation to coal corporations.

We just have to look at the legislation. We haven’t seen the legislation. The Greens will consider our final position when our party room meets tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, if we’ve got legislation by then, we’ll be able to consider it. So we’ll just have to see what the final legislation ultimately looks like.

Updated at 19.48 EST

Time to rein gas companies in, Greens say

In Melbourne, the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, held a press conference earlier about the government’s energy market intervention.

Bandt:

The government just defers the cost on households and businesses, unless there’s a plan to get people off gas while these temporary price caps are in place. Now, the government needed the Greens’ support to recall parliament. The Greens willingly gave that support because we want to see the big coal and gas corporations reined in.

But we also want people get the support they need, including getting money to meet the upfront costs of doing things like trading in their gas cooker for an electric one, or trading in a gas heater for air conditioning so that when these temporary price caps are lifted, people have shifted over to cheaper, cleaner, renewable electricity. And we’ve helped people get off gas.

What is clear is that these big gas corporations are going to continue to gouge people and take this country for a ride, and it is time to rein them in. The public should not be compensating with big coal and gas corporations. It should be the other way around.

These big gas corporations pay next to no tax. They often get their gas for free, and now the coal corporations even have their hand out for compensation from the public purse. The public shouldn’t have to put their hand in their pocket to give compensation to coal or gas corporations. It should be the other way around.

Updated at 19.38 EST

‘Winter-type cold fronts’ begin in Melbourne

In more La Niña summer weather news, Melbourne is mourning yesterday as the last warm day across the state for a while, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The bureau is warning there will be a sequence of “winter-type cold fronts crossing the state this week.”

Updated at 19.20 EST

The intensity of the Sydney storm seems to have passed, but not without some casualties.