NSW premier Chris Minns calls Mark Latham a ‘bigot’ after ‘vile’ comments
Tamsin Rose
New South Wales premier Chris Minns has called Mark Latham a bigot and labeled his comments as vile and shameful.
Speaking at a Lifeline International lunch in the Sydney CBD on Friday, Minns said:
They’re vile and shameful comments and I think he’s revealed himself to be a bigot ... One of the things that can’t be forgotten is that comments like this, even though in and of themselves they’re terrible, they unleash ghouls on people.
He said politicians needed to join in “unambiguous and universal condemnation” of comments like Latham’s.
Minns also praised Greenwich’s work in the parliament and his poise in the wake of the comments.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns addresses the first Labor caucus of the parliamentary term, 31 March, 2023. Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone/AAP
Thanks for sticking with us today. We’ll be back bright and early to bring you tomorrow’s news, including results from the Aston by-election in Melbourne’s east.
Laura Tingle has won the vote for staff-elected director and will take up the part-time position on 1 May, sitting on the ABC board alongside chair Ita Buttrose.
The Australian Electoral Commission declared the 7.30 political correspondent the winner among a field of eight candidates after ballots closed on Friday morning.
Melbourne business journalist Dan Ziffer was a close second, securing just 30 fewer votes than Tingle after preferences were counted.
Ziffer, who campaigned hard for the position, received more primary votes than Tingle, with 615 to her 568. But after preferences Tingle had 889 and Ziffer 859.
Of the 5,450 ABC staff eligible to vote a total of 2,073 ballots were returned.
The incumbent, Dr Jane Connors, who finishes her term on 30 April, is an adviser on ABC editorial policies and a former Radio National manager.
Assistant minister says trade sanctions raised ‘in very direct way’ with China
The assistant trade minister, Tim Ayres, has confirmed he discussed ongoing trade sanctions hurting Australian industry with his Chinese counterpart while on an official visit.
Here’s what he told the ABC a short time ago:
Of course those issues were raised in a very direct way. They were raised in direct discussions between [trade] minister [Don] Farrell and his Chinese counterpart, the minister for commerce.
At a ministerial level we are engaging and trying to make sure that there is momentum towards resolving these impediments, but there are also discussions at the official level. Some of these issues are highly technical and require a highly technical approach from Australian officials and those discussions are under way.
Melbourne’s John Curtin hotel given heritage status
This one is for those who love politics and pubs. It is 5pm on Friday, after all. The John Curtin hotel in Melbourne has been given heritage status. The pub has a history as a meeting place for the Labor party. The Victorian Trades Hall is a stone’s throw a way. This tweet is from the deputy lord mayor of Melbourne, Nicholas Reece.
JOHN CURTIN HOTEL added to the Victorian Heritage Register for its “cultural heritage significance”.
A win for everyone who loves heritage pubs. Not just bc they are old or their architecture but bc of their importance to the social history and cultural fabric of Melbourne. 🙌🏼 pic.twitter.com/qRzVa8XuNk
Cultural burning expansion to reduce bushfire risk
Indigenous groups will conduct cultural burns across Victoria to reduce bushfire risk and protect habitat in an expansion of the practice across the state, AAP reports.
The burns will be carried out by Indigenous corporations under a grants program designed to support the state’s efforts towards Aboriginal self-determination.
Forest Fire Management Victoria’s Jarrod Hayse said the grants would enable traditional owners to take the lead in cultural burning on their lands and reduce bushfire risk:
The grants will strengthen existing partnerships with traditional-owner groups, as we support them to plan, implement and monitor burning projects.
The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action is spending $22.5 million over four years to support Indigenous-led cultural land and fire management practices.
Before colonisation, cultural burning was used for purposes including protecting the land, providing habitat for wildlife and the harvesting of resources.
Tasmanian health officials are figuring out what to do with an almost $23 million stockpile of personal protective equipment considered “unusable”, AAP reports.
Liberal premier Jeremy Rockliff has defended purchasing the gear, which was bought in 2019/20 and 2020/21 during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
It was revealed in state parliament $22.8 million worth of personal protective equipment (PPE) had been deemed “unusable” and the relevant department was investigating options for its disposal.
The state Labor opposition labelled the revelation “staggering and scandalous” and one of the worst wastes of taxpayers’ money in Tasmania’s history.
Mr Rockliff said the PPE was purchased at the height of the pandemic during a period of great uncertainty:
Are (Labor) seriously saying we should not have been prepared?
It’s not wasted. It has not been thrown out. There is an opportunity to utilise the PPE at a lower grade. That has not been ruled out.
We had to act and prepare in the interests of protecting our nurses, doctors and patients.
The company has more than 1,500 homes in progress across Victoria and 200 properties in Queensland, while a further 779 customers have signed contracts for new builds yet to start.
One of those affected customers is Melbourne mum Katharyn Borg, who put down a $1,500 deposit to build her dream home on Queensland’s Bribie Island.
Borg and husband Simon were awaiting their first tender from Porter Davis when the news came through on Friday:
We’re definitely not in the worst position but it’s still devastating. We thought we had locked in our dream home.
Borg said she had already contacted another builder but was worried about the next steps:
Porter Davis, to me, was a massive company. So many people would have never thought they would go into liquidation.
Is there any guarantee for this home build now? It’s just another level of stress.
Liquidators Grant Thornton cited rising input costs, supply chain delays, labour shortages and falling demand as reasons behind Porter Davis’s collapse.
Wage rise to match inflation ‘absolutely essential’ for lowest earners, economist says
The director of the Centre for Future Work, Jim Stanford, has told the ABC that it is essential wages keep pace with inflation for the nation’s lowest earners.
The employment relations minister, Tony Burke, has confirmed the government’s submission to the Fair Work Commission will urge it to ensure the real wages of low income workers do not go backwards.
Here’s what Stanford told the ABC.
We know that inflation has accelerated dramatically since the Covid pandemic, currently running at about 7% a year. Wages, on the other hand, are going much, much slower.
So what that means is what you can buy with your pay is shrinking, year after year, and that’s tough for anyone, but for someone who can barely pay for the essentials of life in the first place, that’s a disaster.
We are seeing households in Australia that can’t buy their groceries and other essentials of life. So it’s absolutely essential that lower-paid workers at least keep up with inflation.
Victorian Covid cases up but hospitalisations stable
Victoria’s chief health officer has released weekly figures of Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations. Cases are up but hospitalisations remain stable. Here’s part of the update:
There were 5,225 Covid-19 cases reported in Victoria this week, an increase of 17% on the previous week.
The average daily number of new cases this week was 746, up from 638 last week. The seven-day rolling average of patients with COVID in Victorian hospitals is 184. There are currently 185 COVID patients in Victorian hospitals.
There are currently 8 COVID patients in intensive care. There are 4 cleared cases in ICU. There are 2 COVID patients on a ventilator. The seven-day rolling average of patients in intensive care in Victorian hospitals is 9.
In the past three months, 2,591 COVID patients were hospitalised in Victoria.
The First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria has declared its intent to begin treaty negotiations with the Victorian government before the end of the year.
The assembly has released a roadmap that outlines the steps it will take between its own elections in May and the start of negotiations with the government.
Assembly co-chair and Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung nation, Marcus Stewart, said the roadmap was the embodiment of the promise the assembly made to the Aboriginal community.
We’ve been entrusted by our communities to find a path for the important and long overdue journey towards treaty.
This statement is the map that will guide the next elected members to complete the journey and get treaty done. Treaty will benefit everyone who calls this state home.
If you’re interested, you can read the roadmap here.
John Farnham’s family have confirmed the singer is currently being treated for a respiratory infection in hospital. Farnham has been receiving ongoing treatment since undergoing surgery to remove mouth cancer in August.
In a statement, Farnham’s family say he is comfortable and receiving “the very best care”. Jill Farnham, his wife, has provided this update:
John continues his recovery following last year’s successful surgery. He’s always been a strong and determined person with everything he’s ever done and we are all so very proud of him. He is responding well to the specialist care he’s receiving.
The family has also thanked medical staff for their support over the past six months and fans from across the world, who’ve passed on their best wishes.
Review to address ‘alarming’ Sydney train problems
An independent investigation into repeated failings on Sydney’s train network will not be a “witch-hunt”, NSW’s incoming transport minister insists.
Jo Haylen said urgent briefings she received in the days since being sworn in had laid bare the dire state of NSW’s heavy rail system:
What I have learned alarms me. There are serious problems when it comes to our train network.
Sydney rail commuters have endured a year of delays, disruptions and widespread outages including a digital radio system failure on 8 March that left every train stationary for 90 minutes at the start of the afternoon peak.
Haylen promised to get to the root cause of the city’s heavy rail issues as the worst on-time running since the pandemic puts Sydney’s global city status at risk.
NSW transport minister says Latham ‘not fit for office’
The new New South Wales transport minister, Jo Haylen, has labelled homophobic comments made by the One Nation MP Mark Latham towards the independent MP Alex Greenwich “disgusting”, saying he is “not fit for parliament”.
On Friday, Haylen, the newly-sworn NSW transport minister, said:
Mark Latham’s comments were disgusting. Of course he should apologise but it’s Mark Latham [so] I don’t think anyone should be holding their breath.
Personally I don’t think he’s fit for parliament.
But asked whether Latham should face formal sanction for the comments she said:
Right now Mark Latham should apologise and apologise rapidly.
The influential Sydney MP, who is gay, addressed the comments on Friday by saying he was focused on moving legislation in the new parliament to address LGBTIQ+ discrimination, including a push to ban gay conversion therapy in the state.
