News live: Tanya Plibersek vows to protect 30% of Australia’s land and oceans by 2030 in press club speech

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‘Global warming multiplies environmental pressures’

Plibersek lays out some of the key “disturbing” facts she says are all multiplied by climate change.

Warming temperatures have reduced kelp beds along the south-east coast as well as threatening reef habitats and the abalone and lobster industries that they support.

At the same time, Australia is experiencing a plague of marine plastics. In Perth, scientists have found up to 60,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometre of water. In Brisbane, they found between 40,000 and 80,000. At the Top End, in the Torres Strait and Timor Sea, abandoned fishing gear has been killing marine animals on an industrial scale. These underwater hurricanes of debris are known as ghost nets and they’re strangling up to 14,000 turtles a year, turtles which are listed as threatened. Our waters are struggling and so is the land.

As a result of erosion, deforestation, intensive agriculture and climate change, Australia’s soil is now generally in poor condition and it’s getting worse. We’re losing topsoil, letting it blow away without vegetation to protect it. Making our soil less productive, less fertile and less efficient in holding water which means our agricultural output is lower than it could be. Our land is more susceptible to drought and our soil’s ability to regenerate and support life is diminished.

Australia is one of the world’s deforestation hotspots. Between the year 2000 and 2017, Australia cleared over 7.7m hectares of threatened species habitat across the country. That’s an area bigger than Tasmania. Much of this clearing occurred small increments. In fact, more than 90% of it was never assessed under our environmental laws. When we destroy these habitats and when we don’t restore them elsewhere, endangered creatures lose their home that has consequences.

In February this year, koalas were officially moved from threatened to endangered in Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT.

This disturbing list is made worse by climate change. Global warming multiplies environmental pressures everywhere.

Updated at 22.48 EDT

‘One of the most important documents in environmental science’

Plibersek says while her predecessor “chose to keep [the report] hidden”, she believes “Australians deserve the truth.”

The minister for the environment and water, Tanya Plibersek, with the State of the Environment report. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Today, as part of my statutory duty as minister, I am publicly releasing the 2021 State of the Environment Report. It’s one of the most important documents in environmental science. Every five years, a group of independent experts, some of Australia’s most respected scientists, a number of whom are with us here today, are given access to the best available tools. They’re told to show us the full national picture of the health of our environment. Or, as one of the authors put it, take a good hard look at ourselves.

This report was delivered to the government last year. The previous minister, Sussan Ley, received it before Christmas but chose to keep it hidden, locked away until after the federal election. And when you read it, you’ll know why. But while it’s a confronting read, Australians deserve the truth.

We deserve to know that Australia has lost more mammal species to extinction than any other continent. We deserve to know that threatened communities have grown by 20% in the last five years with places literally burned into endangerment by catastrophic fires. We need to know that the Murray-Darling fell to its lowest water level on record in 2019 and that, for the first time, Australia now has more foreign plant species than native ones.

Individually, every one of these revelations is dreadful, but it’s only when you think about the cumulative impact that you begin to get the full picture of environmental decline.

Updated at 23.09 EDT

Environment ‘a difficult, confronting and sometimes depressing story’

Plibersek paints a picture of how lucky Australia is for its natural beauty and just how much the country and its future generations stand to lose.

It’s been just six weeks since I started in this portfolio and on top of the usual mount of departmental briefings, I have used these six weeks to travel to some of the most remarkable parts of Australia, reminding me again how grateful I am to live in the most beautiful country on Earth. And how thankful I am for generations of activists and good governments who have protected our unique national, natural and culture heritage.

But there’s another story here, too, a difficult, confronting and sometimes depressing story. At the same time, as I have been seeing some of the most beautiful places on Earth, I have been reading the data that tells me that these places are under threat. If we continue on the trajectory that we are on, the precious places, landscapes, animals and plants that we think of when we think of home may not be here for our kids and grandkids.

Updated at 22.38 EDT

Plibersek begins National Press Club environment address

Tanya Plibersek, the environment minister, is beginning her address at the National Press Club where she will speak on the state of the environment following the release of the environment’s report card.

She begins by acknowledging traditional owners she says she is committed to learning from.

The First Nations peoples have the oldest continuing cultures on Earth and are the world’s most successful environmental custodians. They’ve managed land and sea country for 65,000 years, and as the minister for the environment and water, I’m committed to learning from this remarkable example.

She also acknowledges the authors of the report who are at the press club event.

Updated at 22.40 EDT

Western Australia records three Covid deaths and 455 people in hospital

There were 6,815 new cases in the last reporting period, and 20 people are in intensive care.

Authorities said the three deaths dated back to 6 July but were only reported to WA Health yesterday.

Updated at 22.26 EDT

TGA approves Moderna vaccine for children

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved a paediatric dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, which means children aged six months up to six years may soon be eligible for vaccination.

The vaccine is already approved for children aged six years and older, who can receive two doses administered at least 28 days apart, and it is also used as a booster dose for adults aged 18 years and older.

The TGA said in a statement:

As we have seen with children in older age groups, the TGA expects that vaccines for younger children will provide protection from the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, such as hospitalization and death.

As with other age groups, the vaccine in children from six months will be administered as two doses at least 28 days apart. The paediatric vaccine is made in the same way as the vaccines for older people, but contains a lower concentration of the active ingredient.

The vaccine was given “provisional approval”, which means Moderna must continue providing information to the TGA on longer term efficacy and safety from ongoing clinical trials and post-market assessment.

No detail has yet been released on when the vaccine in this age group will be available in clinics and appointments available.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation will now consider the approval and advise on how and if the vaccine should be rolled out to this age group. They will advise the government on what role the vaccine should have in a national program rollout, and how it should be administered as part of that program.

Updated at 22.20 EDT

Victoria facing gas shortage as market regulator warns of further intervention

Australia’s energy regulator has warned Victoria is facing a gas shortage which could plunge the electricity market into a fresh crisis, AAP reports.

The Iona gas storage facility in Port Campbell has dropped to record-low supply levels due to high demand amid the state’s price cap.

Shocking: State of the Environment report is now public

Environment minister Tanya Plibersek will speak at the National Press Club at 12.30 to talk about the release of the latest five-yearly State of the Environment report.

Former Morrison government environment minister Sussan Ley refused to release the report ahead of the last federal election.

Since being unexpectedly being handed the environment portfolio, Plibersek has been flagging that she had read the report and found it “shocking”. This morning, we reported on the report’s key findings.

The full report – all 12 chapters and an overview section – has just been made public. You can download individual chapters or just view it on line.

If you think you’ll be able to read it all before Plibersek stands up, bear in mind the “overview chapter” alone is more than 270 pages long.

Updated at 21.54 EDT

Plibersek to address National Press Club

Tanya Plibersek, the environment minister, is set to address the National Press Club in an hour’s time, where she will put forward the government’s plan in response to the state of the environment report.

Reports are saying Plibersek could provide details on the federal environment protection agency which Labor promised ahead of the election.

Updated at 21.42 EDT

Refugee hotel detention court case begins in Melbourne

The federal court has begun hearing the case of refugee Mostafa “Moz” Azimitabar against the Australian government, in which he alleges he was unlawfully detained for 15 months in Melbourne’s Park and Mantra hotels.

Azimitabar was seriously ill when he was brought to Australia for medical treatment and kept in the hotels between 11 November 2019 and 21 January 2021, initially in the Mantra for 13 months, then the Park.

Azimitabar told the Guardian on the eve of his hearing that the ongoing detention was traumatic and continues to haunt him.

My dream was receiving sunlight. Something that people who are free, they never think about it. They have this beautiful gift, they can walk and they have sunlight. I was dreaming of this.

His case, supported by Amnesty International, alleges the detention was unlawful. In court, barrister Lisa De Ferrari SC, said their case argued that the minister simply had no power under commonwealth legislation to designate hotels as places of detention. She said:

We say there’s no power for the minister to have done what they’ve done in this case.

De Ferrari also argued the commonwealth lacked the proper authorisation to spend money on making the hotels places of detention.

The commonwealth can’t just – under section 61 of the constitution go and set up these places and spend money on them without that expenditure being authorised in an act, and we say that hasn’t happened.

The hearing continues.

Mostafa Azimitabar in front of the federal court in Melbourne on Tuesday. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP

Updated at 21.41 EDT