Australia news live: Albanese acknowledges ‘people are doing it really tough out there’ but says position on stage-three tax cuts unchanged
An 11-year-old boy has died following a single-vehicle crash in Echuca, Victoria on Sunday.
Police believe a vehicle travelling along the Murray Valley Highway left the road and struck a tree near Mt Terrick Road just after 12.30pm yesterday, subsequently catching fire.
There were three occupants in the car, including the 11-year-old Echuca boy who was taken to hospital with critical injuries but has since died.
Passenger dies and child in critical condition after car hits tree and catches fire in northern VictoriaI think the problem for the big supermarket chain is that when people look at the prices that they're paying off the farmers, and then look at what the prices they're charging, is that people can see there's a discrepancy there.
Albanese said he met with Dr Craig Emerson this morning about the direction of the inquiry he is taking to "make sure that consumers are looked after".
Annual profit is more than £1bn for Woolworths and Coles. How do they set prices and can they justify rises?According to [Dutton's comments], there was no crime 18 months ago, before the change of federal government, we know that that's not the case. Your listeners know that is not the case.
Wet weather due for already-drenched Queensland
In more weather news via AAP, northern Australia has been warned to brace for storms and a deluge of rain in the coming days.
A tropical low off the coast of Darwin and monsoonal rains in far north Queensland are expected to bring large volumes of rainfall to already sodden regions.
The Bureau of Meteorology said some areas south of Darwin could experience up to 500mm of rain between Sunday and Wednesday with widespread totals elsewhere in the region totalling 200 to 300mm.
A severe weather warning has been issued for the Top End in the Northern Territory, including Darwin and the Tiwi Islands, with damaging wind gusts and monsoon squalls also expected.
Significant rainfall over parts of the top end in the coming week...(source: @bom_au) pic.twitter.com/BiNsYrf40U[3][4]
-- @[email protected] (@p_hannam) January 14, 2024[5]An out-of-control bushfire is threatening homes and lives north of Perth, with residents told to act immediately to survive.
An emergency warning was issued early this morning for Bindoon, Breera, Gingin, Lennard Brook, Mooliabeenee and Moondah, 60km north of the city.
WA's Department of Fire and Emergency Services said:
You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive.
There is a threat to lives and homes.
Crews are struggling to contain and control the fire, which is moving in multiple directions and has already burnt about 2,600 hectares. Almost 250 firefighters and support crew are battling the blaze, with aerial support expected to join the fight at first light on Monday.
Residents were told to leave immediately if the way was clear, with an evacuation centre opened at the Bendigo centre recreation grounds on Weld Street in Gingin.
- from AAP
Circling back to the Sydney rain and with about half an hour to go before the 9am daily cut off, Sydney's Observatory Hill had recorded nearly 62mm of rain.
As noted by our own Peter Hannam, that's the wettest 24 hours for the city since early April last year, and amounts to almost two-thirds of the city's average rain for January, which is just over 100mm.
Queensland mayor says urgent need for more crews on the ground in wake of Cyclone Jasper
The mayor of Douglas Shire, Michael Kerr, spoke to the Today show earlier this morning about the ongoing recovery efforts in north Queensland following ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper.
He said there are people in his community who are "exhausted" and "broken" still waiting for assistance. He said it is not a "finger blaming game" - with visits from the premier, emergency management minister and Queensland Reconstruction having taken place - but there is an urgent need for more crews on-the-ground to help clear debris, salvage possessions and rebuild.
I don't think people truly get an understanding of how isolated these areas are.
You're getting a lot of decisions being made out of Brisbane offices rather than people on the ground up there that can see these communities. There's big distances between them. There's a lot of isolation.
There's a lot of nothing in between...
Queensland [is] great at preparing for events. That's one thing I've seen over the last couple of years. But when it comes to the events, that's after it's happened, clearly there's some fallout there that we need to get sorted.
An 11-year-old boy has died following a single-vehicle crash in Echuca, Victoria on Sunday.
Police believe a vehicle travelling along the Murray Valley Highway left the road and struck a tree near Mt Terrick Road just after 12.30pm yesterday, subsequently catching fire.
There were three occupants in the car, including the 11-year-old Echuca boy who was taken to hospital with critical injuries but has since died.
Passenger dies and child in critical condition after car hits tree and catches fire in northern VictoriaFirm words & stern finger pointing are not enough.
The international community needs to attach consequences for settlers and Israeli authorities of continued illegal settlement activity - Visa bans and other measures.
Australia should also investigate if tax-deductible vehicles can funnel money to support West Bank settler activity, and consider making it illegal for Australians to fund settlement activity.
You can
I will be focusing on advocating Australia's position, our priority on international humanitarian assistance [and] our priority on international humanitarian law.
I will be engaging with many parties in the region.
Obviously this is a conflict which has been devastating and tragic and so many Australians with different perspectives are deeply worried about it.
What I would say to Australians is - we are not a central player in this, but we have a respected voice and we will be using it to advocate ultimately the pathway out of the conflict is something that must be found by the parties to that conflict.
Wet weather in Sydney today
If you're commuting to the office in Sydney this morning, remember to bring your umbrella!
The city has received a bucketing this morning and will have a very high chance of showers until late this afternoon and evening. The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a thunderstorm early this morning, possibly severe, with rainfall up to 45mm possible.
The rain radar[9] seems to show two weather systems moving in different directions.
This is as glamorous as Sydney will get today.Rain and clouds at Darling Harbour and Barangaroo on a damp dawn. pic.twitter.com/CJlQCnBVaO[10]
-- tim ritchie (@timritchie) January 14, 2024[11]Oxfam Australia calls for stage three tax cuts to be scrapped
Circling back to comments made by Oxfam Australia's chief executive, Lyn Morgain, around the stage-three tax cuts, here is what she said on ABC News Breakfast earlier this morning.
The not-for-profit is calling for an end to - or a scaling back of - the stage-three tax cuts. Morgain descried them as a "travesty" and said:
At a time when members of the Australian community are unhoused as a result of fire, as a result of flood, it seems unacceptable ... that we could be giving large benefits to those who already have a great deal.
To us, this is simply a very poor policy choice.
This comes as new research from Oxfam found the wealth of the three richest Australians has doubled since 2020, and nearly five billion people around the world have become poorer.
Asked what factors are driving inequality, Morgain said a large part of this is the way financial markets work:
The reality is that in times of crisis, there's massive public expenditure into markets [and] often times corporations receive what we call windfall benefits [that are] well beyond what you might expect from normal profit.
We're saying when that happens, that money needs to be clawed back into the community in order to help the community deal with the very circumstances that created it.
Oxfam is calling on the government to impose a windfall profits tax.
Albanese says crowning of Hobart-born Queen Mary 'fantastic day' for all Australians
Finally, Albanese commented on the coronation of Frederik X as Denmark[12] king, and his Hobart-born wife as Queen Mary, after Queen Margrethe II formally signed her abdication.
He said this was a "fantastic day" for Mary, and for Australians:
The world is watching the coronation of Frederik and Mary this morning, and every one of those reports will mention the fact that Mary was a very proud Hobart person before becoming very much proud of her role as the Queen of Denmark, where she has carried herself in a way that I think just brings enormous support and pride to all Australians.