Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Firefighters call for national summit
Former emergency leaders have called for a national summit to address how to resource bushfire containment in a changing climate. “What we’re saying long term is there needs to be a paradigm shift for how we deal with these fires,” former chief of NSW Fire and Rescue Greg Mullins said. “A big national conversation needs to be had. We need farmers, councils, the military, politics.” Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday rejected calls for additional help for volunteer firefighters who have been battling blazes since August. The New South Wales coastline is expected to again be blanketed by bushfire smoke today from 83 fires, after Sydney’s air quality hit 12 times hazardous levels on Tuesday, although conditions should be cooler. NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean made the strongest comments yet from a NSW government representative on the link between climate change and bushfires, saying “no one can deny” that climate change is to blame for the smoke haze. “This is not normal and doing nothing is not a solution,” he said. Sky News host Paul Murray said “most people in Australia" are not “losing their minds” over the bushfire smoke, and won't be fooled by “climate change politics”.
Volcano victims: The official death toll from the volcanic eruption at White Island has risen to six, with New Zealand authorities today hoping to attempt recovery of the bodies of a further eight people believed dead on the island. Of the 31 injured still in hospital, 27 suffered burns to at least 30 per cent of their bodies, with many suffering burns to their lungs. Three Australians are believed among the dead. The Advertiser reports Adelaide engineer Lisa Hosking, 48, is among those critically injured in hospital. Her husband Gavin Dallow and daughter Zoe Hosking are missing. White Island Tours manager Paul Kingi has been lauded for his efforts rescuing tourists in a rubber dinghy. A coroner’s investigation into the circumstances of the deaths and injuries is under way, in parallel with a WorkSafe investigation, as the decision to allow tourists onto the volcano comes under scrutiny.
Euthanasia victory: Western Australia has become the second state in Australia to legalise euthanasia. All 55 amendments proposed by the state’s legislative council were passed by the lower house on Tuesday evening in emotional scenes. To be eligible a person would have to be terminally ill, experiencing intolerable suffering, and likely to die within six months, or 12 months for a neurodegenerative condition. A person would have to make two verbal requests and one written request, which would have to be signed off by two independent doctors.
Trump impeachment: The United States House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday revealed two articles of impeachment, which charge President Donald Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Committee chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat, said Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” by soliciting foreign interference in next year’s election and engaged in a “cover up” of his own alleged misconduct. The judiciary committee reportedly plans to approve the articles later this week, with a full House of Representatives vote expected next week.
|
This week
What led to Victoria’s extraordinary shutdown
The Andrews government cannot identify any legislation it needed to override, but experts say that is the point.When Daniel Andrews signed a declaration for a state of disaster in Victoria at 1.43pm on Sunday, it was a part of a final salvo in a battle to control a resurgent and invisible enemy.
Super funds transformed by Liberal ideology
The Morrison government’s superannuation changes risk turning the scheme into ‘privately funded unemployment insurance’.
Opening the Ghislaine Maxwell files
New files ordered released in the Ghislaine Maxwell case reveal the depth of her involvement in child sex-trafficking offences that implicate Prince Andrew, the former leader of the US senate and others.
Murray–Darling could need Reserve Bank-style regulator
As the ACCC hands down its interim report on the Murray–Darling water markets, one architect of the current system says a Reserve Bank-like body is needed to manage the rights.
Wiradyuri conceptual artist Amala Groom
For Amala Groom, making art is a collaboration between herself and her Wiradyuri ancestors. Drawing on her history and culture, as well as her legal training, she seeks to subvert the colonial project. “Colonialism affects all of us … To be change agents we have to be inclusive, and Aboriginal culture is inclusive.”
Policing as part of the national psyche
There are two striking aspects of Australia’s response to coronavirus: the first is that it’s being increasingly led as a police issue, and the second is that this is happening while the rest of the world works to reform and curtail police powers. As other democracies talk about abolition, we’re sending armed officers into housing blocks and calling it public health.
Morrison backtracks on WA border closure
Scott Morrison keeps misreading the mood of a nation gripped by fear. Nowhere is this more obvious than his now-abandoned legal case against state border closures – or, to be more precise, against the lockouts in the Labor-governed states of Western Australia and Queensland. The Liberal-governed states of Tasmania and South Australia escaped his censure.
It was quite something to tune in to the first episode of Bunter and Georgina Downer’s geopolitical podcast, where they discussed the recent AUSMIN meeting, the upcoming United States presidential election and the future of war. Father and daughter get along famously as they take us on a wide sweep through the trickiest global thickets, with memos about Condoleezza Rice’s determination to play golf, China’s dominance in the rare earth market, Joe Biden’s “flaky” interviews, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, fishing quotas in British waters and Russia’s anti-satellite rocket program.
Andrew Bolt has made a career finding vulnerable people and devising new ways of punishing them. When you consider this, his views on the elderly are not surprising, just inhumane. Bolt doesn’t want the old to die, but he believes we overstate the tragedy of their deaths. “Note: 40 per cent of aged-care home residents die within nine months. The average stay is just under three years,” he writes. “So Victoria’s bans are doing huge damage to – essentially – save aged-care residents from dying a few months earlier.” Quixotically, the column is titled “How to save Victoria from the coronavirus”.
Could Adani drop its Qld mine and head to NSW?
As fossil fuel prices collapse, there is growing speculation that Adani might throw in its Carmichael operation to buy BHP’s massive Mount Arthur thermal coalmine instead.
Pandemic and inequality keys to November poll
Presidential candidates adjust convention plans due to Covid-19. US death toll passes 158,000. Democrat Joe Biden has lead in latest polls.
As a dark comedy about self-absorbed millennial killers, Search Party focuses heavily on the lies that bind. In doing so, it also tells a lot of insightful truths.
Bill watches Joyce gather the kids for a photo. He’s seated on the front lawn, next to the overgrown bougainvillea, an oxygen tank by his side, tubes to his nose. He watches Joyce arrange the children – their adult daughters who both turned up in striped jumpers and jeans. The two of them are laughing about the coincidence. Ratty sneakers too, which can apparently be edited out on the computer. Would a dress have killed them? But he should be kind. Mel and Jennifer kissed him fondly, and Jennifer even slipped him a half-pouch of Drum. Luke, always the youngest child, is doing that funny thing where he picks up one of the small children and plays them like a guitar. It may be their last photo, although nobody is saying that.
The beverage director for Andrew McConnell’s restaurants recommends her current favourite drops.
In August 1981, MTV began its very first broadcast with which song?
Test your general knowledge with our weekly quiz.
Take a stand
while sitting down.
Subscribe to The Saturday Paper
for less than $2 a week.
