Australia news live: Michelle Rowland to make repayment for 2023 family trip found to breach entitlements | Australia news
important events
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has expressed significant concern about the detention of indigenous people, children and migrants.
Experts have called on Australian authorities to introduce sweeping reforms to reduce imprisonment of First Nations peoples, raise the minimum detention age to at least 14 years and end compulsory detention of people with irregular visa status.
The working group wrote in a statement:
The overrepresentation of First Nations peoples in prison populations, the shocking detention of 10-year-olds and the punitive approach to immigration are human rights crises that continue to plague Australia.
First Nations people make up just 3.8% of Australia’s population, but they account for 35% of those incarcerated in the country.
Addressing this crisis requires authorities to work in true partnership with First Nations communities to co-design solutions from early intervention, including before contact with the criminal justice system, to post-detention reintegration, rather than relying on punitive approaches.
Tom McIlroy
Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien is on leave this week and will miss the government’s mid-year budget update.
O’Brien is on a trip with his family members in the United States.
Finance Minister Jim Chalmers will publish his mid-year economic and fiscal outlook on Wednesday, which will provide a new snapshot of the government’s budget position and update key economic forecasts.
Chalmers says this will include about $20 billion in new savings to help profitability.
He said there must have been a good reason why O’Brien missed the annual announcement.
“It would be really strange, if not unprecedented, for the shadow treasurer to go on holiday during the mid-year budget update, especially when we have been saying for some time that this would happen in mid-December.
“So it’s up to Ted O’Brien to explain to his colleagues. I don’t think they’ll be happy about it, but from my perspective I’m not going to give him a chance because I have more important things to worry about than where Ted is in the country or the world.”
“I’m very focused on delivering this mid-year budget update, whether he’s here or not.”
Tom McIlroy
The federal government has taken the next step in its plans to end supermarkets price gouging their customers.
The new ban, promised during the federal election campaign, is designed to ban retailers including Coles and Woolworths from charging excessive prices compared with the cost of supply plus a reasonable margin.
The new ban, introduced through the Food and Grocery Law, will come into force on July 1 next year. Competition watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will oversee the laws.
If Coles and Woolworths breach the law, they face fines no matter how large: $10 million, or three times the benefit received, or 10% of the company’s turnover last year.
“These changes give the regulator the powers and penalties it needs to hold supermarkets to account,” said Finance Minister Jim Chalmers.
“Whether it’s increasing regulatory funding, banning price gouging or making food and grocery laws mandatory, we’re doing everything we can to ease the pressure on Australians.
“One of the best ways to ease the cost of living for Australians is to help people get fairer prices at the checkout, and that’s what we’re all about.”
Michelle Rowland’s refund for 2023 family trip was found to be partially against the rules
Tom McIlroy
Chief Public Prosecutor, Michelle RowlandHe became the first MP to issue refunds for family travel amid growing controversy over politicians’ spending after some of his claims for the 2023 trip were found to be a breach of the rules.
Rowland used her family reunion travel rights to take her children on a trip to Perth. The independent parliamentary expenditure body found that some expenses should not be covered by taxpayers.
“During his trip to Perth, the attorney general made at least 10 official engagements,” a spokesman said.
IPEA finalized its advice on Friday, December 12, stating that some family reunion travel costs are outside the rules.
The attorney general formally accepted that recommendation Friday and took steps to issue the refund.
Rowland did not request a travel allowance for days when he was not on official duty and covered his own accommodation and expenses in Western Australia.
Rowland’s trip cost $21,000; this includes about $16,000 in business class airfare.
Police investigating shooting in Sydney’s west
An investigation is continuing into an alleged shooting in a public place in Sydney’s west overnight.
NSW police said police were called to a home in Hunt Street, Guildford West, just after 12.30am on Sunday following reports of shots fired.
Officers attached to Cumberland Police District Command were told multiple shots were fired into a house before a white hatchback left the scene.
The three occupants of the house (two women and a child) were uninjured.
At around 3.20am the same day, emergency services were called to James Street, Guildford West, to reports of a car fire. On arrival police found a white hatchback on fire.
Multiple crime scenes have been identified and police are investigating if the two incidents are linked.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to the blog! I’m Cait Kelly and I’ll be with you all day long.
A few things going around this morning:
Australia is facing severe weather across the country, with heatwaves in the west and cool fronts in the east. Western Australia is in the grip of a heatwave; According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Perth is expected to reach 39°C with surrounding suburbs expected to exceed 40°C on Sunday.
The federal government has introduced rules to limit “grocery overpricing” with changes to the Australian Food and Grocery Code of Conduct made mandatory in April. The government said on Sunday that the ban would prohibit very large retailers from charging excessive prices compared to the cost of supply plus a reasonable margin.
And Australia’s koala population may be many times higher than previous estimates. -New tools such as heat-sensing drones and acoustic recorders have revealed an additional 244,000 furry marsupials nesting in trees across NSW. This is a significant jump from previous figures, which showed the state’s koala population at between 15,000 and 30,000.
Let’s get into it!
