Key events
Sussan Ley pays tribute to her mother before funeral service
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has paid tribute to her mother and “inspiration” who died just days after her daughter became the first woman to lead the Liberal Party, the AAP reports.
Ms Ley was deep in negotiations with Nationals leader David Littleproud to reach a new coalition agreement following the federal election loss, while tending to her dying mother.
Angela Braybrooks’ funeral service will be held at St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Albury, NSW on Friday morning. Ley said in a statement:
Like so many of her generation, she weathered uncertain times with strength and determination.
I have taken inspiration from her every single day of my life and I always will.
Police find body of missing fisherman on Lake Macquarie
NSW police have found the body of a missing fisherman who never returned from a fishing trip on Lake Macquarie.
Officials said they were called to the area on Thursday afternoon, where they found the 82-year-old man’s boat abandoned during a search near Summerland Point. Police found the man’s body later that evening.
Hazardous Surf Warning in place for entire NSW coastline this weekend
Surf lifesavers are warning swimmers, boaters and rock fishers to take great care on NSW beaches this weekend. A powerful southerly swell is predicted from Saturday, which has prompted a Hazardous Surf Warning for the entire NSW coastline. Steve Pearce, the chief executive of SLSNSW, said:
What we’re seeing across many of our beaches is really quite dangerous surf conditions that have the potential to cause the public harm if they’re not cautious.
We really want to stress this message to rock fishers in particular as the winter months are when we see a large number of rock fishers visiting our coastline.
There have been 49 coastal drownings in NSW since 1 July 2024.
Nick Visser
Thanks to Martin Farrer for getting the blog rolling today. I’ll be with you throughout the morning with updates on the day’s news.
Natasha May
States rated on vaping scorecard
South Australia and Queensland are leading the nation when it comes to tackling tobacco and vapes, while the Northern Territory and Western Australia are falling behind, according to a scorecard assessing the different jurisdictions.
New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT and Tasmania fall into the middle tier of performance in the scorings released by the Australian Council on Smoking and Health (Acosh) almost a year on from the federal government’s reforms.
The scorecard measured progress across nine key areas including cracking down on illegal sales and enforcing vape laws, protecting children from marketing, ensuring smoke and vape-free public spaces, investment in public education, support for high-risk groups and whether governments are keeping the tobacco industry at arm’s length.
In South Australia, the only state to achieve an A+, there have been more than 500 inspections conducted with closures of retailers who are doing the wrong thing and huge resourcing and investment into government taskforces that are seizing millions of dollars’ worth of illicit cigarettes and vapes, according to Acosh.
In Queensland, which received an A, there has been an introduction of significant penalties as well as large-scale seizures and stronger enforcement.
However, the Acosh chief executive, Laura Hunter, said “if this were an exam result, you’d have to say some states and territories are struggling. The scorecards found:
Tasmania, which received a B, is showing progress by updating state legislation, but their funding commitment to education needs to be lifted.
NSW, which received a C, has seen progress with the introduction of a licensing scheme to control supply but the focus needs to turn to resourcing compliance and enforcing.
The ACT, which also received a C, similarly needs compliance and enforcement to be strengthened.
Victoria, which also received a C, is progressing tobacco control reforms but some details are yet to be released and Acosh expects the new licensing scheme to improve the state’s score next year.
Western Australia, which received a D, has made some progress in regulations introducing the prescription-model for vaping products but is yet to update its tobacco laws, which is hampering compliance and enforcement efforts.
The Northern Territory, which received an F, needs to “urgently prioritise tobacco and vaping reforms and progress legislative changes. They have fallen behind other jurisdictions and need immediate action.”
Protests against Woodside’s North West Shelf project in WA
Community anger will show itself today after the life span of a mammoth gas project was extended for decades, the Australian Associated Press reports.
Woodside’s North West Shelf project – which hosts Australia’s biggest gas export plant – has been given the green light by the federal government to keep operating until 2070.
The Australian energy giant still has to accept conditions around heritage and air quality at the project on Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula, home to ancient rock art, before the approval is made official.
The decision has been met with anger by environmental and Indigenous groups who argue it will trash efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and have a ruinous effect on ancient petroglyphs.
Campaign group Disrupt Burrup Hub will today gather outside the WA district court, arguing the decision to extend the project’s life showed the government “cannot be trusted with protecting First Nations culture or our climate”.
The protest will double as a support rally for three people who targeted Woodside’s 2023 annual general meeting with stench gas and flares in what the group has previously said was an attempt to get the building evacuated.
Gerard Mazza, Jesse Noakes and Tahlia Stolarski have pleaded guilty to creating a false belief in their protest at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in April 2023.
They will face the district court for sentencing today, having labelled their protest “a successful hoax” when they pleaded guilty to the charges.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and his cabinet are set to head to WA next week where they are likely to face further protests.
Stephanie Convery
Greens say Woodside extension will export profits overseas’ ‘at the expense of everybody else’s safety’
More from that interview with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young last night: she noted the expansion of Woodside’s gas project was not about increasing gas supply for Western Australia but rather to export overseas for company profit, “the profits of a big company like Woodside at the expense of everybody else’s safety”.
Hanson-Young said it was a “furphy to suggest we need to create huge carbon bomb” to ensure domestic supply.
There’s plenty of gas that is already being produced in Australia for Australian use … That’s not what the purpose of this is.
This is about exports, big money going overseas and pollution being created offshore at a time when it’s already a stark problem for Australia. We are one of the largest exporters of fossil fuels in the world. That means that we have a huge role in actually reducing pollution globally if we want to. There’s an opportunity for Australia.But rather than taking that opportunity, this government has given the green light to more pollution and more damage.
Stephanie Convery
Sarah Hanson-Young condemns Labor’s Woodside decision
The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has decried the decision by the environment minister, Murray Watt, to approve the extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project as NSW residents are battling a natural disaster exacerbated by climate crisis.
Speaking to ABC’s 7.30 on Thursday, Hanson-Young said:
We know that every time a new huge gas field like this project is given the green light, or the pipeline, we know that that intensifies the pollution going into the atmosphere and therefore makes climate change worse. It just beggars belief that this week was the week that the new environment minister decided to make this decision to approve this huge pollution bomb at the same time as residents in NSW are struggling with floods. People have lost their lives, their homes, their livelihoods.
The law was “so poor, so broken” that it would allow approval for a hugely polluting project without considering the amount of pollution the project would generate, Hanson-Young said, imploring the newly re-elected Labor government to be bold in tackling climate change.
It just doesn’t make sense that in 2025 you can give an environmental approval to a project that is environmentally damaging and don’t even consider the climate damage. It just doesn’t make sense.
Look, I am hopeful. This election has provided Labor with a super majority in the house. The Greens in sole balance of power in the Senate. There is an opportunity to get the important bold reforms needed that’s done. But the government has to have the courage to do that and that means staring down the fossil fuel industry and protecting not just nature and wildlife but our children’s future.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best stories of the morning and then it will be Nick Visser to take you towards the weekend.
South Australia and Queensland are leading the nation when it comes to tackling tobacco and vapes, while the Northern Territory and Western Australia are falling behind, according to a scorecard assessing the different jurisdictions. More coming up.
After this week’s decision to extend the life of Woodside’s North West Shelf LNG facility in the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia, local activists will be out in force in Perth today. The campaign group Disrupt Burrup Hub will today gather outside the Western Australian district court against the decision and as three of their number are sentenced for a protest against Woodside. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has decried the decision by the environment minister, Murray Watt, saying it “beggars belief” in the age of climate change. More coming up.
