Here is a wrap of the day’s politics, in case you missed a bit:
Prime minister Anthony Albanese says legislation to impose a minimum age for teenagers accessing social media and gaming platforms will be introduced into parliament before the next election (and experts responded by saying bans, although seductive to parents, are not the answer).
Opposition leader Peter Dutton committed to overturning the live sheep export ban if elected at the next election. Nationals leader David Littleproud said it would be the first bill he would introduce as an agriculture minister.
The Greens’ Nick McKim demanded treasurer Jim Chalmersuse his intervention powers to override the Reserve Bank board and cut interest rates immediately.
Question time was hectic. Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor was ejected amid a fierce RBA debate, and independent MP Zali Steggall said a member of the public gallery “flipped the bird” and accused Littleproud of threatening her.
Thanks for tuning in, Amy Remeikis will be with you for another Australia politics live blog tomorrow morning.
Unregistered babies risk missing out on care, education
Thousands of babies won’t be registered in Australia in 2024, which could inhibit their access to education, healthcare and future employment.
Up to 12,500 births are never registered with Birth, Deaths and Marriages, a report using a combination of Australian Bureau of Statistics data has found.
The report published by Unicef Australia raises concerns about a lack of access to childcare for young people without birth certificates, but says most of the children unregistered live in remote parts of the country where childcare is not accessible.
Unicef Australia’s head of policy and advocacy Katie Maskiell said data for the Certify Hope: Rights from the Start report was pooled from a range of sources that fed into the ABS, but recognised the information could be incomplete.
It is the first time unregistered births have been measured and analysed nationally.
“We know that these are some of the barriers, the distrust of government services from a stolen generation perspective,” Maskiell said.
We know that there are barriers for remote communities in terms of accessibility to the internet, lack of services on the ground in those communities in the first place ... we’d heard all of that anecdotally, but the data now kind of confirms those barriers.
Only 22.1% of First Nations births in the most remote areas were registered more than one year after birth, according to the report.
Mother arrested and in hospital after two children found dead in Blue Mountains home
Two children have been found dead in a Blue Mountains home by their father with the boys’ mother in hospital under police guard.
New South Wales police said officers were called to the home in Faulconbridge at about midday on Tuesday over welfare concerns for a woman and two children.
The bodies of the boys, aged nine and 11, were discovered inside the home by their father, also a resident, who then contacted police, Supt John Nelson said.
Police said their 42-year-old mother had self-inflicted injuries and was taken to Westmead hospital in Sydney under police guard. She was in a stable condition and had been arrested, the NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, told reporters.
'Looking for attention': Littleproud says he did not threaten Steggall
Nationals leader David Littleproud tells ABC News that independent MP Zali Steggall was “looking for attention” after chaos erupted in question time earlier today.He says:
I think Zali Steggall is looking for attention and I think we should leave it at that.
Nationals leader David Littleproud reacts to member for Warringah, Zali Steggall on Tuesday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Zali Steggall – who was sitting at the back corner of the parliament, cannot even see where I’m sitting – made an assertion I encouraged this gentleman to make an obscene gesture to the prime minister and that’s not something [I’ll] have my integrity questioned over.
I don’t know this man, I didn’t sign in, the only person I signed in was Mia Davies, our candidate in Bullwinkel. She was in the Speakers’ gallery. These people were in the public gallery. Our people that had come in from outside protesting about what this government had done and they were very upset with the response they had [in] question time from the prime minister.
NSW health minister says hundreds of elective surgeries cancelled due to strike
The NSW health minister, Ryan Park, who told a budget estimates hearing he would apologise to any patient who missed treatment due to the strike, said hundreds of elective surgeries were cancelled.
While the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association is yet to announce further strikes, neither it nor the government have ceded any room on pay negotiations, setting the scene for further industrial unrest.
The union president, O’Bray Smith, said members cared about patients “unlike this government” and warned they would not back down from their demands.
Speakers accused government figures of hollow praise when thanking them for their service throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, suggesting real gratitude would be shown through a pay rise and improved conditions.
Nurses and healthcare workers take part in a NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association rally outside Chris Minns' office in Sydney on Tuesday. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/EPA
Protesters held signs including “fuck the praise, where’s the raise?” and “you don’t pay, we don’t stay”.
Labor has offered a 10.5% wage increase to all public-sector workers over three years, including a mandatory rise in superannuation payments.
‘Not going away’: nurses and midwives demand wage increase
Nurses and healthcare workers rally outside NSW premier Chris Minns’ office. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Nurses and midwives across NSW have walked off the job, defying the state’s industrial umpire while declaring they will “stand up and fight back” in their intensifying pay dispute.
Thousands hit the streets today for a 12-hour protest, the first major stop-work action from the cohort since Labor returned to power in NSW.
Their demands for a 15% one-off wage increase have been rebuffed as unaffordable by a state government baulking at the multibillion-dollar cost.
Rallies took place at more than a dozen locations across the state, including a major protest outside the premier’s Sydney electorate office, where a boisterous crowd accused Chris Minns of turning his back on emergency workers.
A skeleton staff was maintained at hospitals but longer waits in emergency departments were expected.
Here is a video of the chamber erupting during question time, as the independent MP Zali Steggall accuses the Nationals leader, David Littleproud,of threatening her (which Amy Remeikis reported with the full context here about an hour ago).
'Are you threatening me?' Zali Steggall accuses Littleproud as chamber erupts – video
The CSIRO chief research scientist, Pep Canadell, said the Global Carbon Project’s Global Methane Budget showed that methane emissions from human activities had increased by 20% in the past two decades.
“As a result of increased anthropogenic methane emissions, concentration in the atmosphere is now 2.6 times higher than its pre-industrial (1750) level,” he said.
Canadell warned that methane concentrations are following the trends of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “most pessimistic” illustrative future for greenhouse gas emission trajectories.
These findings would indicate global mean temperatures above 3C by the end of this century, which exceeds the target of limiting global warming by 1.5C.
If the trend of anthropogenic methane emissions continues to increase, it may jeopardise the success of the Global Methane Pledge – an international commitment to reduce by 30% methane emissions by 2030.
Concentrations of methane, a key driver of climate change, have risen faster than ever over the last five years, the Global Carbon Project’s Global Methane Budget shows.
The budget, published today in the journal Earth System Science Data, is produced by international scientific agencies, including the CSIRO.
After carbon dioxide, methane was the most important greenhouse gas contributing to human-induced climate change, the CSIRO’s chief research scientist, Pep Canadell, said.
While it remains in the atmosphere for a much shorter timeframe, it has a higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide (86 times larger over 20 years), because methane holds more heat in the atmosphere.
- Australian Associated Press
Keep an eye out for more to come in the next post.
Rafqa Touma will be taking you through the evening news, so make sure you stay tuned to the blog.
The Canberra team are also working on new stories for you, so make sure you come back for those too.
I’ll be back at sparrow’s tomorrow to continue the parliament sitting – day three has a bit more of a festive vibe than usual, as next week is a Senate-only sitting, so the house MPs can taste freedom.
You may have noticed a bit of a switch up in how the prime minister is choosing to deal with Peter Dutton this week – there are a lot more pointed comments about him being “angry” and “ranting” but he is also trying to adopt more of the “statesman” approach to dealing with him in question time. The moment there are shouts and heckles, Albanese immediately stops and walks away.
All of it points to us getting closer to an election, with the leaders working on trying to redefine themselves – and the narrative – any way they can.
We’ll continue to bring you all of that tomorrow – but until then, take care of you.
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