Magnitude 4.1 earthquake recorded near Melbourne
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake was recorded near Melbourne in the early hours of this morning.
According to Geoscience Australia, the earthquake occurred in Woods Point at 3.48am today, and there have been 1717 “felt” reports so far.
VicEmergency says the earthquake was felt in Wangaratta, Benalla, South Morang, Healesville, Yarra Junction and Dargo.
It said minor damage may have occurred in these areas, urging people to avoid any damaged buildings, roadways and bridges, and fallen trees and powerlines.
This Advice is for an Earthquake in Woods Point and surrounds.
A 4.0 magnitude earthquake occurred at Woods Point at 3.48am Wednesday 7 August 2024, felt in Wangaratta, Benalla, South Morang, Healesville, Yarra Junction and Dargo.
More details at https://t.co/X27kFi7NOu pic.twitter.com/gr4RSfv2Is
— VicEmergency (@vicemergency) August 6, 2024
Key events
‘Labor cannot let this project proceed’: Greens on the Browse gas project
Greens leader Adam Bandt says that Woodside’s proposed Browse gas project off the coast of Western Australia should not proceed, given the environmental concerns laid out by the EPA. In a post to X, he said:
The WA EPA has deep concerns about Woodside’s Browse gas project. It would lock in gas until the 2070s [and] is the most significant climate destroying project that minister [Tanya] Plibersek can stop.
If we want any chance at a safe future, Labor cannot let this project proceed.
Female teacher arrested for alleged sex with student
A teacher will face court after she was arrested at a school, accused of having sex with a teenage student, AAP reports.
Detectives arrested the 30-year-old woman at a school in southwest Sydney after investigating reports a 17-year-old boy had been sexually touched by a teacher.
She is due to face Liverpool Local Court today after being refused bail and spending a night in custody.
She was charged with sexually touching a person aged between 17 and 18 under special care, and sexual intercourse with a person between the same ages while under special care.
The NSW Education Department has been contacted for comment on the status of her employment.
Bowen congratulates ‘good friend of Australia’ Tim Walz on VP pick
The energy and climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has congratulated Tim Walz on being selected as Kamala Harris’s running mate in the upcoming US election.
In a post to X, Bowen wrote:
Congratulations Mate! Being chosen by any party as candidate for Vice President of the United States is a great honour, so huge congratulations. And it’s good to have a good friend of Australia running for such an important position.
Congratulations Mate!
Being chosen by any party as candidate for Vice President of the United States is a great honour, so huge congratulations
And it’s good to have a good friend of Australia running for such an important position.
🇦🇺🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ZvjB1ZWPaM
— Chris Bowen (@Bowenchris) August 6, 2024
US plans more frequent bomber deployments to Australia
Earlier this morning, Daniel Hurst brought us updates from Ausmin talks in the United States, attended by the foreign minister, Penny Wong, and the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles.
Here’s his full story, looking at the US plan for “more frequent” deployments of bomber aircraft to Australia:
Peter Hannam
Westpac mulls dropping November RBA rate cut prediction, while CBA stays put for now
The Reserve Bank left its cash rate unchanged at 4.35% yesterday, where it’s sat since November last year. The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, also made it clear the bank is not likely to cut the rate for six months, at least on the current forecasts (which it updated yesterday too).
CBA and Westpac were two of the big four banks to predict an RBA rate cut in November. (The ANZ had tipped February and NAB was “pencilling in” May.)
In the immediate washup, CBA was sticking to its call, reckoning “data will continue to evolve in a way that sees the RBA cut the cash rate in November”.
Westpac, though, looks like it’ll revise its prediction.
“Given the Board apparently does not see its way to cutting rates this year, our expectation of a November rate cut is unlikely to be achieved,” said Luci Ellis, Westpac’s chief economist who was formerly in that role at the RBA.
Our rate forecasts are under review while we assess the basis for the RBA’s own economic outlook.
As we noted, the fact demand in the economy is continuing to outpace supply – which doesn’t bode well for bringing underlying inflation to the 2%-3% target band soon – has a possible upside. There’s more resilience should more shocks emerge like the severe market turmoil in the past week or so:
Amy Remeikis
RBA’s assistant governor outlines what goes in to making cash rate decisions
Back at the cost of living committee hearing, and the RBA’s Dr Sarah Hunter has once again been asked to explain what data the RBA looks at when making its decisions on monetary policy (the cash rate).
She goes through the data – it’s a mix of everything. CPI, markets, forecasts etc. Mortgages are not captured in headline inflation data. Hunter explains:
Individuals will certainly be feeling and seeing price rises in different ways. Yes, housing costs is one of the ways that it can impact different groups in different ways. Some people are facing very high mortgage costs that are going up [and] we’re very aware of that, and we hear from those people, and we’re very confident that other people who are renting for them, housing costs are captured through rents. So in a very direct sense, the level of the interest rate doesn’t really impact them in terms of their rental payments.
Other people might well own their own home outright and not really be feeling any housing costs at the moment, and so they have a different pattern of spending again. So the economy is full of lots of individuals who have their own personal experience.
The RBA is all about the aggregate, she said.
What the ABS does with its data is aggregate that up and look at sort of averages, if you like. And from our perspective, we’re of course, interested in the aggregate, so we are taking that aggregate data and working with that.
Contingent of Australian firefighters heading to the US to bolster efforts
A contingent of Australian firefighters have departed for the United States today, to bolster local firefighting efforts in Washington State and Oregon.
67 Australians are making the journey, including 21 from the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Last month, dozens of Australian firefighters travelled to Canada to help battle wildfires there, as well.
This morning, the first contingent of Aussie firefighters began departing for the USA. The 67 firefighters, including 21 from the #RFS, will be deployed to Washington State and Oregon to bolster local firefighting efforts.
📷 Nicholas Moir – The #ParkFire burning in California pic.twitter.com/vimTHXyrJ2
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) August 6, 2024
Unions want Queensland 50c fares to be made permanent
Unions are pushing for 50c public transport fares in Queensland to remain when a six-month trial ends as the state’s transport-dominated election campaign ramps up, AAP reports.
A petition by the Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) to keep 50c public transport fares has reached almost 2000 signatures since the six-month trial began on Monday. The peak body represents more than 400,000 workers across the state.
Unions are now hoping repeated calls will force the fourth-term-seeking Labor government to keep the cheap fare policy should they win in October. The QCU’s general secretary, Jacqueline King, said:
What we need next is confirmation that this trial isn’t just an exercise in vote buying but represents an ongoing commitment by the Miles Labor government to measures that will help alleviate not only rising cost of living, but also congestion on our roads and climate impact.
Amy Remeikis
RBA assistant governor predicts inflation to return to target band in December 2025
The cost of living select committee hearing has got underway with Dr Sarah Hunter, an assistant governor with the RBA. Hunter is being grilled on when the central bank believes inflation will return to the target band (2-3%).
Hunter says they don’t believe that will happen until the December quarter of 2025 now – previously they had believed it would be the middle of 2025.
This is what we heard yesterday with the updated monetary policy statement, but Liberal senator Jane Hume wants to hear it again.
Amy Remeikis
Select committee hearing on cost of living to begin in Sydney shortly
Good morning from Canberra, where the false spring continues in earnest. The sun is out and the sky is clear – but don’t be fooled, it’s 0.3 degrees right now, with a “feels like” of -3.1.
But our eyes are turning to Sydney today, where the select committee hearing on the cost of living is about to get underway. This committee, which is chaired by Liberal senator Jane Hume, was set up in late 2022.
First up is the Reserve Bank, where assistant governor Dr Sarah Hunter is appearing along with Natasha Cassidy from the bank’s economic analysis department. They’ll be asked about the current economic situation – and what it means for mortgage holders.
Tributes flow for late Maribyrnong mayor, Sarah Carter
Tributes have been flowing for three-term Maribyrnong mayor, Sarah Carter, who has died at the age of 45.
Labor MP Andrew Leigh remembered her as “kind, funny [and] generous”, writing on X that she was “committed to international development [and] loved her local community.”
In 2017, I was part of a bipartisan delegation she led to Burma with [Save the Children Australia]. Sarah was a superb leader. I will miss her.
Nationals MP Michael McCormack penned a lengthy tribute and said she was “one of the most outstanding people I have ever met”.
Sarah was going places. She had so much more to accomplish … As shadow minister for international development and the Pacific, I was closely associated with Sarah and her wonderful work. My wife Catherine and Sarah were good friends, too. Sarah brightened any room she entered. She made everyone feel they were special…
Party politics aside, Parliament needs capable, strong people such as Sarah. It is a great pity Sarah will never fulfil her dream and sit in the House of Representatives.
Shocked & saddened by the passing of my good friend, the amazing Sarah Carter. Children’s lives in many developing nations have been improved due to her remarkable work. Goodbye, beautiful soul & thanks for making the world a better place.
Full tribute: https://t.co/FdsaVrhJWW pic.twitter.com/qAKp5OAzQq
— Michael McCormack (@M_McCormackMP) August 6, 2024
Scientists mapping genome of Arabica beans amid climate crisis threat to coffee supply
A major breakthrough by a team of international scientists could help deliver a new Australian brew of coffee, AAP reports.
The team has been pouring its efforts into mapping the genome of Arabica beans – the world’s most widely consumed type of coffee. The research has been chronicled in peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Genetics.
The University of Queensland’s Prof Robert Henry, who was part of the team, said the genomic sequencing would help researchers come up with new varieties of coffee in Australia, which produces very little domestically.
With global coffee supplies threatened by the climate crisis, Henry said it was important for producers to adapt:
If you look at where high-quality coffee in the world comes from, much of it is produced at high altitude in the tropics. Those environments are being lost at a great rate.
There is a real need to adapt coffee to future climates and work out how to produce it in the sort of climates we’re going to have available for agricultural production.
‘The long-term prognosis is pretty dire’, scientist says of Great Barrier Reef
Dr David Wachenfeld from the Australian Institute of Marine Science just spoke with ABC RN about that report on the Great Barrier Reef, as mentioned in our previous post.
He said researchers would be back in the water in September, and those surveys would give a clearer picture of the balance between coral survival and mortality following the bleaching event in March:
We’ll be reporting on what we find as our survey’s progress, but we won’t have a final picture for the whole Great Barrier Reef until this time next year.
Wachenfeld said that even with the changing climate, scientists expect reefs around the world to have “some good years and some bad years” – but “the balance is shifting more towards bad than good”.
Whether or not an individual year is a good one doesn’t change the fact that climate change is a massive threat to the reef, and the long-term prognosis is pretty dire.
Latest report into Great Barrier Reef shows coral cover is ‘fluctuating like never before’: WFF-Australia
A new report into the health of the Great Barrier Reef shows it is resilient, but increasingly vulnerable to climate change.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science released the latest report from its long-term monitoring program today, showing coral cover had increased in all three regions of the Great Barrier Reef.
But the results were released with a big note of caution, as noted by WWF-Australia, with most of the underwater surveys conducted before and during the recent mass coral bleaching in March. The data also had not yet captured how many corals survived or died from that event.
WFF-Australia’s head of oceans, Richard Leck, said in a statement:
The good news is this report shows the Reef is still resilient and has bounced back from the terrible bleaching events in 2016 and 2017. But it also shows the future of the Reef is uncertain.
We still don’t know the impact of this year’s mass bleaching event, which was one of the most extensive and severe on record. We can also see that coral cover is fluctuating like never before.
Leck said Australia needed to do more to stabilise global heating to 1.5 degrees:
The prime minister must commit to a federal emissions reduction target of at least 90% below 2005 levels by 2035, stop approving new fossil fuel projects, and support a global treaty to phase out all fossil fuels.
The Reef is still resilient, but the big question is how long that resilience will last as temperatures become more extreme.