Good morning
Today marks 100 days of the Albanese Labor government. Prime minister Anthony Albanese will mark the milestone with a speech at the National Press Club.
In a draft of the speech, seen by Guardian Australia, Albanese says he wants to move from the recovery phase of the pandemic to a period of reform and renewal:
After a wasted decade, we are not wasting a day. Government has a responsibility to plan for the future, to build for the long-term, to implement the reforms that arm people with every chance to fulfil their potential. Not change for the sake of it, reforms that help people lead better lives.
A key election promise, the jobs and skills summit, will take place this week. His aim for the two-day summit, he says, is to create “a culture of cooperation – a renewed understanding between unions and industry and small business and government and community groups”.
Albanese has already flagged support for a central ask of the Australian Council of Trade Unions submission to the summit, which is to allow industry-wide bargaining.
Also on reform, the national cabinet on Wednesday will reportedly discuss reducing the isolation period for a person who tests positive to Covid-19 from seven days to five. It comes as Australia is just recovering from the winter wave of Covid cases, which at its peak saw more than 5,000 people with Covid admitted to hospital a day. The daily hospitalisation rate now sits at about 3,000, according to our Covid data tracker.
We’ve also got an update on Australia’s long-awaited warships. There was an 18-month delay in production but that’s apparently now only six months. More on that shortly.
Let’s crack on. If we miss anything, you can reach me at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com or on Twitter @callapilla.
Key events
Thunderstorms and heavy rain expected across Victoria today
After a warm and sunny weekend, Victorians will see heavy rain and thunderstorms today.
Severe storms are expected in the west of the state, from Mildura to Hamilton and across to Ballarat, Maryborough and Kerang. There is also a likelihood of severe thunderstorms in the central and north east districts, as well as in Melbourne.
It’s currently bucketing down with a lot of thunder here in central Victoria.
Are you out and about enjoying the sunshine much of the state is seeing today?
It might be a case of enjoying it while you can, with @BOM_Vic forecasting thunderstorms (including severe – shown in red) over much of Victoria developing from late Monday morning.
1/3 pic.twitter.com/kbbIxZg9zs
— VicEmergency (@vicemergency) August 28, 2022
Fortescue Metals Group posts second-highest ever full-year profit
Fortescue Metals Group, Twiggy Forrest’s Western Australian iron ore mining company, has posted its second-highest ever full-year profit, AAP reports.
Australia’s third-biggest iron ore miner reported underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation of $A15.4 billion for the year to June 30, 2022.
Net profit after tax was $A9.0b.
Record shipments of 189 million tonnes contributed to the second-highest earnings and operating cash flow in the Pilbara miner’s history.
Outgoing Fortescue CEO Elizabeth Gaines said Fortescue was accelerating the transition to a green energy and resources company and was leading the way on decarbonisation.
She said the company had experienced a “strong start” to FY23.
Net cash flow from operating activities was $A9.6b and free cash flow was $A5.2b after investing $A4.5b in capital expenditure.
Fortescue said it has a strong balance sheet with cash on hand of $A7.6b and net debt of $A1.3b at June 30.
The fully franked final dividend of $A1.21 per share brings the total dividend declared in FY22 to $A2.07 per share.
Adam Morton on Albanese government’s mixed messages on energy
The Albanese government has to decide if it wants people to think it is taking the climate crisis seriously or whether it wants to continue supporting new oil and gas developments, writes environment editor Adam Morton.
Adam writes that while the Albanese government has made some progress in its first 100 days in government – passing legislation to enshrine a 43% emissions reduction target, supporting the offshore wind industry, encouraging the uptake of electric cars – it has also repeated the actions of previous governments in supporting new fossil fuel exploration.
He says the language from the government in supporting new oil and gas exploration permits, and a reference to the as yet unrealised promise of carbon capture and storage technology, “sounds a lot like climate denial”.
It was on display last week when the resources minister, Madeleine King, announced the release of new areas along the Australian coast for the oil and gas industry to explore and potentially exploit.
You can read Adam’s full column here:
Comanchero charged with murder
Comanchero bikie boss Tarek Zahed has been arrested and charged with the murder of a man in Sydney’s west eight years ago, AAP reports.
Police arrested the 42-year-old during a vehicle stop on New South Head Road in Edgecliff at 4.50pm yesterday, after shooting out his car windows with rubber bullets.
He was taken to Surry Hills police station and later charged with the murder of 29-year-old Youssef Assoum on 11 December 2014.
Homicide squad commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said Zahed was one of several Taskforce Erebus targets allegedly linked to serious crime:
We will be alleging this person is responsible for the killing of Mr Assoum in 2014 and that his senior position in the Comanchero OMCG links him to a number of other matters relevant to police.
Zahed – the Comanchero national sergeant-at-arms – was also charged with kidnap in company with intent to commit serious indictable offence (special aggravated kidnap).
He was refused bail and is set to appear at Downing Centre local court today.
Victoria paying more than $1.1m a day to imprison people on remand
The Victorian government is paying more than $1.1m a day to keep people on remand in prisons, Benita Kovolos reports.
The remand population in Victoria – that is, people who have not been sentenced and in many cases are awaiting trial, meaning they have not pleaded or been found guilty – has grown 140% in a decade, thanks in large part to a tightening of the state’s bail laws.
At the same time, the sentenced prisoner population has fallen, thanks in part to a reduction in jail terms due to the risk of Covid-19 in prisons.
You can read Benita’s full piece here:
NSW minister offers olive branch to rail unions
An olive branch has been offered to the NSW rail unions in a bid to end the long-running industrial stoush with the state government and avert another strike this week, AAP reports.
Employee relations minister Damien Tudehope says the government has withdrawn its requirement that a new enterprise agreement be reached before it begins modifications the union wants on the New Intercity Fleet (NIF). The sticking point in the protracted negotiations has been the government’s insistence the agreement be locked in before the modifications begin.
Tudehope said:
After appropriate testing and warranty confirmation, the government will immediately authorise the commencement of work to make the alterations to the NIF. The offer is conditional upon the rail unions agreeing that, pending the finalisation of the new enterprise agreement, all unions will call off any further industrial action.
The mothballed NIF has been at the centre of negotiations with the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, which maintains the trains are not yet safe to operate in NSW.
Transport minister David Elliott has put the price of modifications to the fleet at $1.1bn, or $264m “depending on how you account for the cost”.
The union has been conducting extensive industrial action including targeted, rolling stoppages throughout August. The action is due to culminate with workers refusing to operate foreign-made trains on Wednesday, which would affect about 70% of the fleet.
The offer will be discussed at a meeting between rail unions and government officials today.
The government statement said:
The NSW government urges the rail unions to accept this offer, and put a stop to its industrial action, today.
Push for full employment
Acoss, the ACTU and the Business Council of Australia have released a joint policy paper saying that achieving and sustaining full employment should be the “guiding framework” of the jobs and skills summit.
That would include “reducing inequity and removing barriers to participation in the labour market”.
Which, according to Acoss acting CEO Edwina MacDonald, would mean raising the jobseeker rate.
In a joint statement with the ACTU and BCA, MacDonald said:
If the hundreds of thousands of people who are looking for paid work are supported to join the workforce, that will be a win for those currently left out, a win for employers, and a big step towards Full Employment in Australia.
We proudly stand with unions and business ready to work together with Government to find less brutal ways to contain inflation and address labour shortages, so that our incomes can grow again, the quality of jobs – including in essential care services – improves, and no one is left behind.
Jobseeker rate lobbying
As mentioned earlier, the jobseeker rate will be among reforms discussed at the jobs and skills summit this week.
The Australian Council of Social Skills has said it will lobby the government to make the reform a “core goal” in a bid to reduce the social harm of joblessness, particularly for 750,000 long-term unemployed people.
Acting Acoss CEO Edwina MacDonald said:
With ambition and commitment we can create an economy where people secure the jobs and paid working hours they need, wages and other incomes – including jobseeker payment – are growing again, and no one is left behind.
You can read Peter Hannam’s article on this here:
Australia announces $31.5m in medical research grants
Sarah Martin
New Covid-19 treatments, hospital trials, and further research into long Covid are among more than a dozen projects that will be funded by a $31.5m boost from the Medical Research Future Fund.
The health minister, Mark Butler, will announce the grants on Monday, saying the government is committed to supporting medical researchers to drive innovation and contribute to global efforts to understand Covid 19.
Monash university will receive more than $10m from the grant pool across three different projects, including $4m for a hospital trial on antivirals, and more than $6m for the Prophecy study which compares the immune response between healthy and vulnerable people and children to evaluate their protection against future variants.
The study will go towards better understanding how to improve the vaccine response in vulnerable patient groups.
The University of Melbourne has successfully secured four research grants, the largest of which is $3.8m to test a new nasal spray for elderly Australians for whom vaccines may lose potency. The new medicine, called INNA-051, is seen as complementary to vaccines, and strengthens natural defences against Covid-19 in the nose where infection starts.
Researchers at the university have also secured $3m for studies into the immune response across age groups and vulnerable populations, $1m for the development of an mRNA-based antiviral therapeutic, and about $1m to study airborne transmission of the disease.
This study will include experiments to determine how aerosolised particles and viruses move through complex spaces, and will also examine the effectiveness of various mitigation measures.
The University of NSW will also receive $1m to look at aerosol transmission, including to model the movement of the virus inside a hospital ICU ward.
Along with grants for new treatments and medications, the government will also announce $3m for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to establish a Australian COVID-19 Register and linked data set.
The new platform will integrate for the first time Covid-19 case information with a range of relevant existing health data sets. The new data set will help inform public health planning, but will also be made available to external researchers.
Butler said the research would give insights into the longer-term impact of Covid-19 on the health of Australians and help inform disease prediction, diagnosis and treatment.
Hamilton bound for Brisbane
Hamilton is coming to Brisbane, and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda spoke to ABC News Breakfast this morning from inside what appeared to be a space capsule.
Hamilton has already opened in Melbourne and Sydney.
Miranda told the ABC:
Hamilton always kind of surpasses every hope I had for it. I remember thinking as I was writing it, ‘I hope there are enough history teachers that will take their classes that we’ll hopefully run for a few years and make our money back for our investors’ … it just continues to resonate with people and I can’t explain that.
He said he was proud the show had supported and promoted hundreds of non-white actors around the world:
That’s one of the things I think I’m proudest of is that so often Hamilton is the first entry in an incredibly talented actor’s CV. And I know that from anecdotal evidence, that the Australian cast are like rockstars in Australia and I can’t wait to see what they do next and I’m thrilled that we get to be a footnote in their journey as artists.
John Farnham in intensive care after cancer surgery
The singer remains in a stable condition in intensive care, according to a statement released by his family this morning.
The Farnham family said they wanted to acknowledge and thank everyone for their ongoing messages and well wishes that have been shared throughout the last week:
It really lifts our spirits knowing that everyone is thinking of John.
Jill Farnham said:
John remains in a stable condition in ICU following the removal of a cancerous tumour in his mouth on Tuesday. He is awake and responding well to the care he’s receiving.
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