Posted by First stage of the national climate risk assessment announced
Lisa Cox
The effects of climate change on water security, the natural environment, human health, infrastructure and national security are among 11 areas of Australian society the Albanese government will focus on as it develops a national adaptation plan for climate change.
The government has released the first stage of a national climate risk assessment, which identities 56 significant risks Australia is facing as a result of climate change.
From those 56 risks, the government has chosen 11 for more detailed analysis that will inform work on a national adaptation plan to help people, the economy and ecosystems respond to the effects of climate change.
The 11 risks cover the natural environment; primary industries and food; regional and remote communities; health and social support; infrastructure; defence and national security; communities and settlement; water security; supply chains; economy, trade and finance; and governance.
The assistant minister for climate change and energy, Jenny McAllister, said the adaptation plan would establish a “comprehensive framework” for adapting to nationally significant, physical climate risks:
Australians know that the climate has changed. They feel it on hotter days and experience it in extreme weather events which occur more frequently. This work will help us better prepare for the small and big challenges that climate change brings.
This national climate risk assessment is long overdue. It provides an evidence-based national picture of the emerging risks climate change poses to Australia’s community, assets and services.
The second stage of the national climate risk assessment – based on further analysis of the 11 risks – is due at the end of this year. The adaptation plan itself is due in 2025.
A discussion paper on the adaptation plan can be found here and the government is taking submissions for the next month.
Key events
Victorian police investigating fatal shooting this morning
Victorian detectives are investigating a fatal shooting in Greenvale this morning.
Police said in a statement a man was located outside a Buchanan Place home just after 4.30am today. Paramedics tried to revive the man, who is yet to be formally identified, but he died at the scene.
A crime scene has been established and police said the exact circumstances surround the death are yet to be determined.
No arrests have been made. Anyone with information was urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
Catholic Health Australia backs calls for wealthier Australians to contribute more to aged care
Catholic Health Australia has called on the government to swiftly implement the recommendations of the aged care taskforce, announced today.
Catholic Health Australia’s CEO, Jason Kara, said reforms are urgently needed, with most aged care providers running at a loss.
As our population ages and more people seek aged care, services will need additional funding to upgrade existing facilities and invest in new places.
The fairest way to deliver extra funding is to ask people who can afford it to contribute more for their accommodation and living expenses, costs they have covered over their adult lives.
Right now user contributions do not meet the cost of provision and research has shown people are willing to pay more for their aged care services.
A more sustainable funding model for the sector means services will be able to upgrade existing facilities and invest in new residential places, Catholic Health Australia says.
Using super for house deposits increases property prices by $75k: Super Members Council
Allowing first homeowners to withdraw their super for a house deposit could see property prices rise by nearly $75,000 across Australia’s five largest capital cities, according to new modelling from the Super Members Council (SMC).
Using retirement savings for housing would inflame an already-inflated property market and push the major capital city median price up by 9%, it says.
The SMC modelled a scheme that would allow first home buyers to take $50,000 from their super for a deposit, as has been proposed. It found the scheme fuelled demand and led to price increases that “quickly exceeded the $50,000 first homeowners could withdraw from super”.
The model showed prices spiking in all capital cities, with Sydney’s median ballooning by almost $80,000 and Melbourne by nearly $70,000. Perth was the highest, spiking $86,000.
The SMC’s CEO, Misha Schubert, said allowing super withdrawals for house deposits could raise prices for everyone:
We all desperately want more Australians to own their own home, but this idea won’t achieve that – it would just make that goal even harder for first home buyers by making house prices even more expensive.
SMC analysis found a 30-year-old couple who withdraws $35,000 each from their super today could retire with $195,000 less in today’s dollars – which would increase age pension costs, and likely be met with higher taxes.
First stage of the national climate risk assessment announced
Lisa Cox
The effects of climate change on water security, the natural environment, human health, infrastructure and national security are among 11 areas of Australian society the Albanese government will focus on as it develops a national adaptation plan for climate change.
The government has released the first stage of a national climate risk assessment, which identities 56 significant risks Australia is facing as a result of climate change.
From those 56 risks, the government has chosen 11 for more detailed analysis that will inform work on a national adaptation plan to help people, the economy and ecosystems respond to the effects of climate change.
The 11 risks cover the natural environment; primary industries and food; regional and remote communities; health and social support; infrastructure; defence and national security; communities and settlement; water security; supply chains; economy, trade and finance; and governance.
The assistant minister for climate change and energy, Jenny McAllister, said the adaptation plan would establish a “comprehensive framework” for adapting to nationally significant, physical climate risks:
Australians know that the climate has changed. They feel it on hotter days and experience it in extreme weather events which occur more frequently. This work will help us better prepare for the small and big challenges that climate change brings.
This national climate risk assessment is long overdue. It provides an evidence-based national picture of the emerging risks climate change poses to Australia’s community, assets and services.
The second stage of the national climate risk assessment – based on further analysis of the 11 risks – is due at the end of this year. The adaptation plan itself is due in 2025.
A discussion paper on the adaptation plan can be found here and the government is taking submissions for the next month.
PM says government ‘getting advice’ on restoring funding to UNRWA
Finishing up the interview, Albanese was asked whether Australia will be restoring funding to UNRWA.
This comes as former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans said the $6m in emergency funding should be released immediately, as Canada and Sweden have done:
Albanese said the government is “getting advice on that issue”, and added:
We doubled funding for UNRWA, we’re looking at a range of ways in which we can provide further support for Palestinians in Gaza who are suffering terribly.
We have called for a sustainable ceasefire, because what we know is that we see the pictures every night, there’s a catastrophic suffering occurring there, and we have consistently called for humanitarian aid, we’ve called for that to be able to be delivered to the people in Gaza.
We’ve called for a sustainable ceasefire, we’ve called for Hamas to release the hostages. And we have mourned the loss of all innocent life, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian, and we’ve also called for importantly, the political solution that is required, which is a two state solution, which I’ve called for, together with the prime ministers of Canada and New Zealand.
PM says Labor not proposing any taxes or levys on aged care
Turning to aged care, and the prime minister was asked about a new report released today:
Can the government now rule out a levy to fund aged care? Albanese replied that the report has been released and “we’re certainly not proposing a new tax or levy”, and that the taskforce did not recommend this:
But we want to sit down across the parliament and get agreement going forward because this is a problem. Not for a year, or indeed for a term of government. This is a problem that arises from the ageing of the population that’s been identified for a long period of time …
The aged care sector isn’t currently in a financial position to meet the expected demand which is there to deliver on quality improvements that we need and to invest in the future that aged care needs, and we expect our older Australians to be able to live in dignity and with respect that they deserve.
Albanese refuted the idea this proposal “punishes” wealthy Australians, and said this is about making the system “sustainable into the future”.
Albanese: federal government has not given up on treaty
Q: Has the government given up on a federal treaty with Indigenous Australians?
Anthony Albanese:
Well, treaties are being negotiated by states and territories, so we haven’t changed the position that we said before is the same, those processes are underway there.
There isn’t a single Indigenous community, of course, in Australia, it’s made up of a range of First Nations and those negotiations in places like Victoria [are] probably more advanced.
Each state and territory … is progressing, moves in their own way, whether it be Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, of course, has their voice in on a state level.
PM confirms NT housing boost based on three-bedroom homes, ‘up to 270 a year’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been speaking on ABC radio this morning, discussing the $4bn Indigenous housing boost announced for the Northern Territory.
Josh Butler brought us all the details around this earlier here.
Albanese said Indigenous housing was a priority for the government because “housing is the key to other opportunities in life”.
If you don’t have a secure home over your head, if you have overcrowding, then you will have not just housing problems, you’ll have health problems. You’ll have problems with justice issues inevitably that come from the tension that come from overcrowded homes and communities.
And you’ll have difficulty getting education – it’s hard to see yourself having a greater opportunity in life if you don’t have that security of a roof over your head … that enables you to actually go about the other things that that we need to close the gap on.
Asked if $4bn is enough to close the gap on Indigenous housing, Albanese responded it is a “major step forward”.
Q: You say “up to 270 homes a year”, could it be less?
Albanese:
Well, we think that the costings that we’ve made … is spot on the funding that is available. But of course, it won’t be one-size-fits-all. There’ll be some homes that are just for smaller families, but homes by and large, it’s based upon three-bedroom homes because we know that families in these remote communities tend to have numbers of children.
Search engines to block ‘deepfakes’ from results
Josh Butler
The eSafety Commission will from today require search engines to stamp out sexual abuse material on their platforms and bar their AI-generation tools from making such content.
As we reported last year, Australia’s online regulator will begin enforcing a new “search code” on platforms like Google and Bing, obligating them to address harmful material on their services.
Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety Commissioner, said the rapid rise of AI generation services – including those from Google and Microsoft – had rendered a previous version of the search code “obsolete”.
The new rules will require search engines to prevent child sexual abuse material being shown in search results, and block their AI tools from creating “deep fake” versions of that content.
eSafety is working on other industry standards around private messaging services and other apps that don’t fall within existing codes. Those new standards will also focus on the risks of AI-generated content.
Major boost to Indigenous housing announced for Northern Territory
Josh Butler
The federal and Northern Territory governments have pledged to build 2,700 homes in remote areas, under a new $4bn housing agreement to be announced in Katherine today.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will announce the plan in the NT, a 10-year commitment in a bid to close gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians with the goal of halving overcrowding in the territory – a problem plaguing housing in remote Australia.
The $4bn plan is split between the two governments, with some money repurposed from other plans, and a new $844m commitment from Canberra.
The homes will be built across remote areas of the territory, with the location increasing costs for construction. Government modelling shows the cost of building an average three-bedroom in such areas would top $800,000.
The funding also includes money for repairs and maintenance, with plans for it to create local jobs and support Indigenous businesses. Albanese said:
We are committed to practical actions that improve the lives of First Nations people.
This landmark agreement between the commonwealth, Northern Territory government and Aboriginal Housing NT delivers a significant investment in remote housing in the NT over the next decade.
The Indigenous Australians minister, Linda Burney, called it “an historic investment that will make a difference to the lives of so many Aboriginal people living in remote communities”:
Increasing housing supply will ease overcrowding, which we know is a major barrier to closing the gap.
Welcome
Emily Wind
Good morning, and happy Tuesday – welcome back to another day on the Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be bringing you our live coverage today.
Making news this morning: the federal and NT governments have pledged to build 2,700 homes in remote areas as part of a $4bn housing agreement to be announced in Katherine today by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese. The plan is split between the two governments, with some money repurposed from other plans and a new $844m commitment from Canberra.
From today, the eSafety Commission will require search engines to stamp out sexual abuse material from their platforms and bar their AI generation tools from making such content. We’ll have more on both these stories from our own Josh Butler shortly.
Moving to another announcement, and the government has released the first stage of a national climate risk assessment, identifying 56 risks the country is facing as a result of climate change. The government has selected 11 risks for more detailed analysis that will inform work on a national adaptation plan to help people, the economy and ecosystems respond. Lisa Cox will have more on this soon.
See something that needs attention on the blog? You can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
Let’s get started.