What we learned today, Thursday 16 April
We’re going to close the live blog now, thank you for joining us.
Here are today’s top headlines:
See you tomorrow for another day of breaking news.
Cathy Freeman presented with nation’s highest civilian honour
Gold medallist Cathy Freeman has been heralded for her social impact in advancing reconciliation and her glittering athletic career at an investiture ceremony in Canberra, AAP reports.
The governor-general, Sam Mostyn, presented Freeman with a medal as a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), the nation’s highest civilian honour, at the ceremony at Government House on Thursday.
Freeman, who won the Australian of the Year award in 1998, is famously known for securing gold in the 400-metre final at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Since hanging up her running shoes in 2003, Freeman has established a foundation that boosts educational outcomes for remote First Nations children and their families.
Before their meeting, Albanese received a formal welcome outside Anwar’s office, AAP reports.
Rows of dark-suited dignitaries stood for the national anthems of Australia and Malaysia when the leaders arrived on the stone forecourt, the massive pink granite dome and gold spire of the Putra mosque looming opposite.
Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/EPA
White-and-green clad soldiers holding ceremonial rifles stood to attention as Albanese inspected the guard of honour while Anwar stayed seated.
The talks follow a 24-hour visit to Brunei during which Albanese received a guarantee the tiny sultanate was not considering restricting the amount of fuel or fertiliser shipped to Australia.
In exchange, Australia – which is Brunei’s largest trading partner – will continue to provide crucial food shipments.
CFMEU phoned safety boss over toilet spray, probe told
The former head of a state’s workplace safety regulator has told an inquiry he was intimidated by a long-time CFMEU leader after not immediately taking the construction union’s phone calls, AAP reports.
The CFMEU demanded one of Queensland’s most senior public servants take direct calls about complaints as minor as toilet air freshener cans not being registered as hazardous worksite chemicals.
Queensland’s Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU this week heard claims the union had a “hotline” to the mobile phone of then Office of Industrial Relations director-general Peter McKay.
Union officials refused to use a public 1-300 phone number to report workplace safety concerns and said “we only call the top dog”, Commissioner Stuart Wood heard.
Cait Kelly
‘I don’t want this job’: Prince Harry on losing his mother
Prince Harry said he felt “lost, betrayed, or completely powerless” at times in his life during his keynote speech at a mental health summit in Melbourne.
On day three of the “faux-royal tour”, Harry told the crowd he did not want to be a working royal, to do the job that “killed his mum”.
“After my mum died just before my 13th birthday – I was like: ‘I don’t want this job. I don’t want this role – wherever this is headed, I don’t like it,” he said.
It has been reported that the Prince did not receive a fee for the speech to business leaders, some of whom had forked out more than $2,000 to attend the two-day InterEdge Summit.
The prince spoke about his own mental health, and times that he had felt overwhelmed with the duties and expectations. He said there were times when he felt “overwhelmed”:
double quotation mark Times when the pressure – externally and internally – felt constant.
And times when, despite everything going on, I still had to show up pretending everything was OK, so as not to let anyone down.
Asked whether the government would be open to oil drilling, Bowen said:
double quotation mark We’d support it if it stacks up environmentally, economically and in engineering fashion.
Obviously, if there’s sensible proposals to drill in Australia which would replace imports, great.
We used about 150m litres a day, so Australian production isn’t going to match that.
Bowen says Geelong fire appears to be accidental with ‘no evidence’ of sabotage
Quickly going back to Chris Bowen’s press conference this afternoon.
The energy minister pushed back on questions about whether the fire was a coincidence, given its timing during a national fuel crisis.
Bowen was firm that the conclusion of the fire authorities was “equipment failure” and said: “Let’s let the inquiry and reviews and fire safety investigations take their course.”
double quotation mark I was asked this morning was it sabotage, there’s no evidence of that …
It appears to have been very accidental and equipment failure … That’s pretty self-evident …
It works safely 99.99% of the time. On this occasion, it’s bad timing. It didn’t work safely on this occasion.
I don’t accept the premise of the question that there’s been delays in maintenance in Geelong …
If there’s a suggestion that somehow there’s been corners cut, that’s just not right.
Natasha May
‘Not asking for anything radical’: CHF calls on government to treat dental care like healthcare
Asking for dental care to be treated like healthcare is not radical and should be in the upcoming budget, Consumers Health Forum of Australia CEO Dr Elizabeth Deveny says.
Support for government action was near-unanimous with 94% of respondents supporting increased federal funding for public dental services. Deveny says:
double quotation mark Australians are not asking for anything radical. They are asking for dental care to be treated like healthcare, at a minimum.
The upcoming budget is an opportunity to act on what consumers have been saying clearly for years.
CHF is calling on the federal government to fund priority oral health access schemes for older people, First Nations people and people on low incomes, and increase public dental service capacity as a first step towards universal oral healthcare – an investment of $15.7bn over four years.
Natasha May
Most Australians are financially stressed by dental costs, report finds
Most Australians – four in five – are financially stressed by dental costs, with pensioners, carers and regional communities hit hardest, a new survey has found.
The survey of 910 health consumers across the country, conducted by the Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF), found one in eight (12.5%) experienced serious strain – enough to affect their ability to pay for food and rent.
Many (14%) drew on savings or superannuation to cover dental costs, with one respondent flying to Thailand for implants and oral surgery because, even factoring in flights, it was cheaper than an Australian dentist. Another relied on charity food for several fortnights after paying for a tooth extraction.
More than one in four adults (28%) aged 60 and over had not seen a dentist in more than a year.
More than half (60%) of those eligible for public dental care delayed or cancelled treatment due to long wait times, and more than a quarter of all respondents didn’t know whether they were even eligible for public services.
The survey is reflective of the problems of the mouth being left out of Australia’s universal healthcare scheme, which Guardian Australia wrote about last year in our broken smiles series.
Bowen is asked if Geelong fire necessitates moving to stage 3 or 4 of fuel security plan
Asked whether the government will need to move to stage three or four of the emergency plan due to the Geelong fire, Bowen said: “not directly”.
double quotation mark As I’ve said, this is not a good development … but we’re managing this in and of itself, because Viva have told us that they’re very confident they can replace the petrol with imports …
We don’t know exactly what the impact on petrol production will be … To be fair to everyone, we’re still assessing the damage.
Bowen confirmed he will be convening an “energy ministers meeting” next week. He said it will include the Energy and Climate Ministerial Council, state and territory ministers, together with New Zealand “to assess the latest updates since we last met”.
He clarified this meeting was not planned in response to the fire, but “it is a timely meeting.”
Bowen on PM’s visit to Malaysia and diesel secured from Brunei and Korea
Bowen:
double quotation mark The prime minister has just announced from Malaysia we have successfully secured the first cargoes under the Export Finance Australia arrangements from Brunei, where the prime minister was yesterday, and also from Korea …
Two ships, 50m litres of diesel on each ship, 100m litres of diesel extra secured for Australia …
The government and Viva, working together to get those ships locked in, ordered, they will arrive in Australia during May.
This is a good development and the first of many I expect [with] the EFA being able to work with companies.
Chris Bowen gives update on service station outages around the country
Bowen provided an update on the number of service station outages around the country. Nationally 136 service stations are without diesel.
In New South Wales, 56 service stations are without diesel and 13 have no petrol.
In Queensland, 35 are without diesel, 17 have no regular unleaded petrol.
‘This is not good timing’: Bowen speaks live about Geelong refinery fire
Energy minister, Chris Bowen, spoke to media this afternoon, acknowledging the Geelong refinery fire is “not a positive development”.
Bowen said he has been speaking with the chief executive of Viva, assessing the impact of this fire. Viva advised him gasoline or petrol and aviation gasoline supply is most likely to be affected.
Production at the refinery is reduced for now, the minister said:
double quotation mark This is not a positive development, this is not good timing, and this is a setback …
I can say that Viva has advised me the likely impact is primarily on gasoline and aviation gasoline.
Gasoline is what we would mainly call petrol, and aviation gasoline, it’s important to note, is not jet fuel. They are separate and different things …
They’re confident at this point that any petrol, or the petrol production that has been impacted and will be impacted, can be replaced by imports of petrol and extra cargo that they intend to order.
Obviously we’ll continue to work over the weekend with Viva and I will provide, as Viva will, full updates to the Australian people as soon as more information and clarity comes to hand.
Benita Kolovos
Viva refinery fire hasn’t produced ‘very large impact at this stage’, executive GM says
Back to updates on the Viva refinery fire, Bill Patterson, executive general manager of Viva Energy, is also at the press conference.
He says the affected area is part of the refinery responsible for combining LPG into gasoline-type molecules, which are later used in fuel blending and specialty products:
double quotation mark That’s what’s been damaged by the events of last night. Obviously, we’ve still got to look into the full extent of the damage as we get better and better access to the scene, and that’s definitely very much work in progress.
He said rather than shutting down operations entirely, production rates have been reduced in other parts of the site:
double quotation mark We’re still making petrol, diesel and jet fuel at pretty decent rates, so it hasn’t been a very large impact at this stage.
When asked if the affected unit was operating at increased capacity at the time of the blaze, Patterson said it wasn’t:
double quotation mark The specific part of the refinery where we had the issue last night wasn’t running in any sort of abnormal conditions that we’ve determined. Obviously, we still need to investigate the exact sequence of events last night. But in terms of how we were had been running it in the weeks running into this issue, and since the disruptions in the Middle East, there hasn’t been anything unusual or extraordinary.
Penry Buckley
Pro-Palestine group: ‘These laws were terrible’
Lees goes on to describe the Public Assembly Restriction Declaration (Pard) laws which have now been struck down as unconstitutional.
double quotation mark These laws were terrible. They were so wide ranging, and that is what the court has found today, is that they were totally unconstitutional on multiple grounds, in the fact that they unfairly and disproportionately burden our right to political communication in this state. These were laws, of course, which deemed that the police could be given, effectively, the powers to ban all street demonstrations and many other protests about whatever cause for up to three months at a time, which was, as our wonderful barristers argued, this was like using a sledge hammer to crack a walnut.
Lees references the Town Hall protest in February, during which the Pard laws were in place. He has called for all protesters charged at the protest for their charges to be dropped, and for the premier, Chris Minns to resign.
Penry Buckley
Palestine Action Group welcomes ‘resounding win’ in challenge to protest laws
The Palestine Action Group (PAG) has celebrated a “resounding win” , after the NSW supreme court ruled laws restricting the right to protest enacted after the Bondi terror attack were constitutionally invalid.
PAG was one of three groups that challenged the constitutionality of the Public Assembly Restriction Declaration (Pard) laws, which were in place during a protest against the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, in February which saw violent clashes between police and protestors.
The outcome, which was read out in a matter of seconds in the NSW supreme court a moment ago, was greeted by smiles and embraces in the courtroom by PAG and its legal team, followed by woops and cheers outside the court.
Speaking outside court, PAG organiser Josh Lees, said:
double quotation mark Today we’ve had a really resounding win in the court of appeal to strike down Chris Minns’s latest batch of anti-protest laws as unconstitutional. This is a big win for everyone who cares about the right to protest, who cares about democracy in New South Wales and, of course, who cares about a free Palestine.
Highest court in NSW strikes down anti-protest law brought in after Bondi terror attack
Jordyn Beazley
New South Wales’ highest court has struck down an anti-protest law brought in after the Bondi beach terror attack which gave police the power to restrict marches, including at the anti-Herzog rally earlier this year.
The court of appeal handed down its findings on Thursday after three activist groups – the Blak Caucus, the Palestine Action Group and Jews Against the Occupation ’48 – filed a constitutional challenge in early January against the legislation.
The law, known as the Public Assembly Restriction Declaration or Pard, was passed in the wake of the Bondi beach terror attack in which 15 people were killed. It meant protesters could not use the form 1 system in areas designated by police for up to three months after a terrorist attack, effectively meaning protesters could not march without the risk of arrest.
In a major loss for the Minns government, the law will be struck down after the court found the law does impermissibly burden the implied constitutional right to freedom of communication on government and political matters.
It is the second time in six months an anti-protest law passed by the Minns government has been found to be unconstitutional by a court.
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