Australia news live: nonstop Sydney-London flights delayed again; anti-abortion bill blocked in SA | Australia news
important events
good morning, this Nick Visser I’m here again to tell you the news of the day. There’s a lot on deck, so let’s get started.
kelly burke
Joyce stops short of endorsing outright ban on some immigrants
When pressed on whether One Nation’s evolving immigration policy included a complete ban on immigration from all Muslim-majority countries, Joyce avoided outright endorsing the ban and instead said Australia should not accept immigrants living in “hot parts of the world”.
On the economy, Joyce refocused the party’s priority on small business owners, backing Hanson’s criticism of recent childcare fee increases and worker-friendly industrial relations reforms.
The biggest driver of our economy is small businesses. If you arbitrarily say, we’re just going to put in wages and somehow magically say the already struggling small business will somehow be able to charge $10 for a cup of coffee and everyone will buy it, they won’t.
He said One Nation’s policies would be announced closer to the election date as the party continues its grassroots efforts to transition from a small protest group to a government party.
kelly burke
Barnaby Joyce defends tough immigration policy after Pauline Hanson’s speech
A Nation’s Treasury spokesperson, Barnaby JoyceFollowing Pauline Hanson’s wide-ranging speech at the National Press Club yesterday, she defended the party’s hardline stance on immigration.
In a combative interview with ABC sarah ferguson Last night Joyce backed Hanson’s call for a monocultural Australia, arguing that immigration should be tightly limited to preserve “Australian culture”.
When Ferguson pointed out that 51 per cent of Australians were born overseas or had parents born overseas, Joyce denied the party had alienated more than half the country.
What we say is this; Australia needs to have the capacity to bring an Australian culture, a culture that has guardrails, a culture that can assimilate people, so that we can have harmony, peace and unity of purpose.
If you have a Balkanization in Australia where you have a lot of people in a lot of different corners and they’re basically living their own culture and not the Australian culture, then inherently that doesn’t work.
Conservative Shepherd
Continuing from the last article…
All major medical bodies opposed the bill, including the Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (Ranzcog), the Australian Medical Association and the College of Midwives.
The vast majority of abortions (more than 90%) are performed in the first trimester.
SA Health data shows that in 2023, less than 1% (47) will occur after the 23rd week of pregnancy.
“Of these 47 terminations, 37 were for the physical or mental health of the mother and 10 were for fetal anomalies,” SA Health said.
“In the first 18 months after the law came into force, there were fewer than five terminations after 27 weeks and no terminations after 29 weeks.”
“Any abortion performed at this stage is due to the life-limiting condition of the fetus and/or serious threats to the health and life of the pregnant woman. It also requires the approval of two doctors,” Ranzcog said in a statement.
Anti-abortion bill blocked in South Australia
Conservative Shepherd
The first bill in the country’s history to recriminalize abortion passed South Australia’s upper house last night, but failed in the lower house despite support from the prime minister and opposition leader.
Abortion is decriminalized in all states and territories by 2024, but there have been numerous recent attempts to put it back into the Criminal Code.
The latest bill criminalizing late-term abortion passed South Australia’s upper house by one vote last night, with the help of votes from three newly elected One Nation MLCs.
MLC Sarah Game introduced legislation created with anti-abortion activists Joanna HoweHe was barred from the SA parliament for allegedly bullying during the debate on previous similar bills.
Game was elected as a One Nation MP but left the party to form his own party, Fair Go. On Tuesday night, before introducing the bill yesterday, he announced he would leave his own party to join Family First.
Originally, the bill banned all abortions from 25 weeks onwards, regardless of threat to maternal health (the only exception was the possibility of maternal death) or level of fetal abnormality. One change included exemptions for serious fetal abnormalities.
However, despite the support of the prime minister, the bill failed to pass the lower house last night. Peter Malinauskasand opposition leader Ashton Hurn.
Non-stop Sydney-London flights postponed again
Qantas has set a new date for the launch of its non-stop service between Sydney and London: October 2027.
The first Project Sunrise Sydney to London services, operated by a purpose-built A350 aircraft built by Airbus in France, will shave four hours off travel time, Qantas said in a media release.
It also released new photos of the first of 12 planes it has ordered, with increased fuel capacity to fly non-stop.
The delivery of the planes has been postponed many times. The project was suspended in 2020 with the emergence of Covid. Then-CEO in 2021 Alan Joyce Commercial flights are expected to begin in 2024. In November last year, Qantas announced that the first commercial services would begin in the “first half of 2027”.
The airline now says the first Project Sunrise Sydney to London tickets will go on sale in February 2027.
Qantas said Project Sunrise will eventually connect Australia’s east coast to other international destinations, with Sydney-New York confirmed to be the next service to follow Sydney-London. The airline said the launch timing of these services will be announced next year.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I Martin Farrer with the best night stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
The first bill in the country’s history to recriminalize abortion passed South Australia’s upper house last night, but failed in the lower house despite support from the prime minister and opposition leader. More details coming soon.
Barnaby Joyce He subsequently defended One Nation’s hardline stance on immigration. Pauline Hanson In a wide-ranging speech to the National Press Club yesterday, the party’s treasury spokesman said the country “must have the capacity to bring Australian culture”. More is coming.
