Vice Admiral David Johnston to serve as new ADF chief
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to the media about a number of senior command changes within the Australian Defence Force. Subject to the governor-general’s consideration and approval, the changes will take effect in July this year, Albanese said.
The first recommended change is for Vice Admiral David Johnston to serve as the new chief of the defence force. Albanese said:
Vice Admiral Johnston is a proven leader, with the experience, intellect and resolve to lead the ADF in a complex and rapidly changing global strategic environment … In the Indo-Pacific, Iraq and Afghanistan, Vice Admiral Johnson has consistently distinguished himself with his capacity to ensure that different elements of defence work together.
His understanding of integrated defence will be critical to delivering on the priorities and recommendations of the defence strategic review, ensuring our defence force has the right capabilities and the right leadership to meet the challenges ahead.
Key events
Ola rideshare app appears to close operations in Australia
Rideshare app Ola appears to have abruptly closed its operations across Australia.
It has sent an email out to customers stating its “services will no longer be available in your area” from 12 April.
We have viewed emails sent to customers in Canberra and Queensland, alerting it would “discontinue operations”. The emails reads:
This means that you will no longer be able to book any rides through your Ola app from that date.
You must not take any rides with any vehicle purporting to be an Ola vehicle or Ola driver from 12th April 2024. Ola has not authorised any driver or any other party to use the Ola brand or provide rides on Ola’s behalf…
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support for Ola.
The email says customers can still access their account information through the app until 11 May, but will lose access after that.
The email did not state a reason for why Ola was shutting down.
Ola Australia’s last posts to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter/X were in 2021.
Supermarket chiefs to face combative Senate inquiry
Jonathan Barrett
The chief executives of Australia’s big supermarkets are scheduled to appear at a combative Senate inquiry next week to face claims food retailers have benefitted from a cost-of-living crisis by expanding corporate profits.
The planned appearances of the Coles CEO, Leah Weckert, and the outgoing Woolworths boss, Brad Banducci, on 16 April comes during a period of intense public scrutiny of a sector not seen since 2008, when it faced similar price gouging allegations.
The witness list for next week’s hearings was updated this morning.
Relentless price rises in essential items, from food to housing and utilities, has emerged as a central political issue for the next federal election, with cost relief expected to be featured prominently in next month’s federal budget.
According to an analysis of submissions and public commentary, the supermarket representatives will likely argue that supermarket profit margins are relatively slim compared with other industries, and that cost increases for shoppers have been driven by price rises imposed by major food brands.
Coles and Woolworths have been contacted for comment.
The major supermarkets are also facing a 12-month pricing probe by the competition regulator and will need to adjust to a revamped groceries code that governs how they deal with suppliers and customers.
Tropical Cyclone Olga to weaken to tropical low off Pilbara coast
Tropical Cyclone Olga is weakening over the open water north of West Australia’s Pilbara coast.
The Bureau of Meteorology says it is a category 1 system currently, forecast to weaken to a tropical low later today as it moves southwest.
Strong and gale force winds are possible around coastal areas west of the Pilbara overnight and into Wednesday, the Bureau warned.
Benita Kolovos
Jacinta Allan on violence against women, family violence rates
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has been giving a news conference and said the rates of family violence in the country are unacceptable, after the alleged murder of woman by her partner in Ballarat at the weekend.
Allan said:
It’s only the ninth of April and already 18 Australian women have been killed in 2024. This is unacceptable and it has to stop.
Women don’t just deserve the right, they must have the right to live and work and move safely around our community. It is just unacceptable that too many women are losing their lives at the hands of a violent [partner].
I think that is incumbent upon all of us to reflect on those statistics, because behind every statistic is a woman, is a family and a community who are grieving and it just reinforces the need that we have to work incredibly hard to make sure that women and all members of the community should to move safely around the community.
Residents can return with caution to parts of Gronos Point: SES
Earlier, the New South Wales State Emergency Service was warning people to avoid certain properties in Gronos Point, near Richmond, due to dangers following the recent flooding.
This has now been lifted, and people are advised to return with caution.
Peter Hannam
Consumers’ mood remains bleak with many bracing for more RBA pain
There’s not a lot of optimism among consumers, if the monthly Westpac/Melbourne Institute survey is any guide. Their latest read has sentiment firmly stuck in a negative zone that it’s occupied over the past two years – or roughly since the Reserve Bank started hoisting interest rates from a record low 0.1% in May 2022.
Australian consumers are still to shake off their funk – with confidence remaining in a narrow band at its lowest level since the 1990s recession. About 40% still expect another RBA rate rise… (Via @Westpac, Melbourne Institute.) pic.twitter.com/w5CJHDZfVN
— @phannam@mastodon.green (@p_hannam) April 9, 2024
On the positive side, consumers do expect continued “progress” on inflation with cost-of-living pressures easing as a result. Slightly at odds with that view, though, is that expectations for what will happen to interest rates have tilted slightly upwards in the past month.
“Just over 40% of consumers are still bracing for rate increases [over the coming 12 months], while 24% expect no change, 21% expect declines and 15% reported ‘don’t know’,” Westpac said.
A separate weekly survey for ANZ and Roy Morgan has also recorded an uptick in what people think will happen to inflation. That gauge is at the highest for 2024.
Madeline Dunk, an ANZ economist, said:
This is the first time since November 2022 (when inflation expectations peaked at 6.8%) that inflation expectations have increased for three weeks in a row. Higher petrol prices may be contributing to this rise in inflation.
Chatter about higher fuel prices as school holiday approaches won’t help subdue those expectations (and offer another reason to get an electric vehicle with power prices likely to retreat for many in the coming year).
And, for what it’s worth, investors are still betting the RBA will slice 25 basis points off the cash rate by November, lowering it 4.1%. A blowout US inflation number later on Wednesday (eastern Australian time), though, might push that timing back a bit too.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian government supports extra reproductive leave for women in public service
Circling back to Victoria where the premier, Jacinta Allan, has been giving a press conference. Allan says the government supports extra reproductive leave for women in the public service.
The proposal of five days additional leave has been put forward by the Community and Public Sector Union during bargaining and Allan says the government will support it:
I don’t want to cut across the right of members to have their say on the in-principle agreement that’s been reached … in the instance of providing support for women. They need support to be able to fully participate in the workforce and our women’s pain inquiry is already telling us that chronic pain for women affects many women, it’s holding them back from being able to hold down a job to participate in the workforce to achieve both their full potential but also for the rest of society to benefit from their skills and talents.
And so having a workplace that understands [that from time to time we] need to provide women with additional support [with] being able to conceive a baby, [or managing] the pain that can come from time to time – or for many women all the time – with their periods.
She said the leave would also be able to be used by women undergoing menopause or perimenopause.
Rain hampers search for 20-year-old woman after cliff fall
Challenging wet conditions have made work difficult for search crews as a major, multi-agency hunt for a woman who fell from a waterfall enters its third day, AAP reports.
The 20-year-old woman was reported missing early on Sunday afternoon following reports she had slipped and fallen at Belmore Falls, in the NSW Southern Highlands region.
Chief inspector Brendan Bernie told ABC Radio conditions had made it tough to continue the search:
It is still slippery, there is a lot of water and dampness around the areas we’re searching. We are confident we can identify the location where she actually has slipped, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to determine [the exact position yet].
The extensive water- and land-based search resumed this morning after the operation was suspended yesterday evening due to low light.
Bernie said authorities would be using all available resources in an attempt to find the missing woman. Police have been talking to a male friend, who was with the woman on Sunday, as they try to work out what happened in the lead-up to the incident:
The full circumstances around why they were there that day is still to be determined. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to determine where the female has ended up.
Waste levy scrapped for flood-hit areas along east coast
Seven more local government areas in New South Wales affected by the recent east coast flooding will have the waste levy lifted for them as clean-up efforts continue.
The state’s environment minister, Penny Sharpe, said residents in the following LGAs would be able to take flood-generated waste to the tip without paying the waste levy:
-
Blue Mountains;
-
Camden;
-
Liverpool;
-
Penrith;
-
Sutherland;
-
Wingecarribee; and
-
Wollondilly
The Hawkesbury, Wollongong, Shoalhaven, Shellharbour and Kiama LGAs had already received waivers.
Sharpe said local landfill gate fees may still apply. The waiver for all 12 LGAs is in place until 30 June, with requests for extensions to be considered.
The government also left the door open for more LGAs to join this list as the clean-up progresses, if needed.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian premier takes questions on potential second safe injecting room for Melbourne
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, is refusing to be drawn on whether the government will open a second safe injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD.
Last night, Nine News Melbourne reported a long-awaited report by former police commissioner Ken Lay which recommended a new site and highlighted three areas of the city of concern.
Allan said she would not comment on the contents of the report – which was handed over last year – until the government has finalised its response:
I appreciate there is a lot of interest, there is a keenness and a desire for the government to provide its response and to release the Ken Lay report. And we are working very hard on finalising our response and finalising our decision and going through the appropriate cabinet processes to finalise our response to the Lay report.
Greens call for ‘final rejection, now’ on Toondah harbour project
The Greens are calling for environment minister Tanya Plibersek to make a “final rejection, now” on the Toondah harbour project.
As Lisa Cox reported earlier, Plibersek said:
I have made my proposed decision, which is to protect Moreton Bay from unacceptable impacts from a proposed development.
Responding to this on X, Larissa Waters, the Greens leader in the Senate, said the “proposed rejection should be made a final rejection, now”.
The community have made their voices heard, why keep them waiting with a ‘proposed rejection’?
Dredging 40 hectares of Ramsar-listed wetlands for luxury high-rise residences no one can actually afford makes no sense, except to the profits of developers like Walker Corp.
We are calling on [Plibersek] to finally reject this dodgy project and save Toondah harbour.
Minister Plibersek’s announcement of a proposed rejection should be made a final rejection, now.
The community have made their voices heard, why keep them waiting with a ‘proposed rejection’? https://t.co/IAL42oDDSK
— Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) April 9, 2024
The environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, has also shared this video announcement on her Toondah harbour decision:
One serving or former ADF member contacts suicide emergency service every four hours
Karen Middleton
One serving or former member of the Australian Defence Force makes suicide-related contact with emergency services every four hours, according to new research published today by the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide.
Using linked data about Queensland veterans, the new study by the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research found that ADF veterans and serving members were 1.24 times more likely than members of the wider adult population to have suicide-related contact with police or paramedics. It found that permanent serving and former members were at greatest risk, being almost six times more likely to have such contact than reservists.
In a statement, the royal commission said the research estimated that the death rate for male veterans who had experienced suicidal ideation was almost eight times that of the general male Queensland population and, among female veterans compared with the wider female population, the rate was 10 times greater.
The royal commission’s chair, Nick Kaldas, said the findings challenged Defence’s argument that service protects against the risk of contemplating suicide. Kaldas said in a statement:
For some time, there was a reluctance to accept that issues of suicide and suicidality were impacting current serving members. This research demonstrates there is a clear link between service in the ADF and suicide and suicidality, which was accepted for the first time by military chiefs at our recent Sydney hearing.
The commission completed its public hearings recently but is still taking evidence in private session ahead of publishing its final report later this year.
Landmark Tickle v. Giggle case kicks off in federal court
Daisy Dumas
Not a seat is free – and no standing is allowed – in the federal court room that is hearing a landmark case that will test the boundaries of the Sex Discrimination Act.
Roxanne Tickle, a transgender woman from regional New South Wales, sued the women-only social media platform Giggle for Girls for discrimination after being blocked from using the app.
Known as Tickle v. Giggle, it is the first time a case alleging gender discrimination has been heard by the federal court and may have global implications.
In a lawsuit filed in December 2022, Tickle claimed she was unlawfully barred from using Giggle in September 2021 after the firm and its CEO, Sall Grover, said she was a man.
Tickle had made a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission in 2021, with Giggle – represented by former Liberal party candidate Katherine Deves – then failing to have the case thrown out of court.
The trial is not being live-streamed because of unacceptable online behaviour during an interlocutory hearing in April 2023.
Why was the Toondah harbour project so controversial?
As environment reporter Lisa Cox brought us just earlier, Tanya Plibersek has rejected the Toondah harbour project over its impact on globally significant wetlands.
Plibersek’s announcement looks set to end an almost decade-long battle by conservationists and community groups to protect the site, with long-time campaigners the Australian Conservation Foundation hailing it a “landmark decision for nature and people”.
But why was it so controversial? You can read the full explainer below:
Albanese urges transparency on Gaza aid worker deaths
Anthony Albanese has called for Israel to be more transparent and accountable in its investigation into the air strike deaths of multiple aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, AAP reports.
Yesterday, the federal government announced the former defence force chief Mark Binskin would serve as a special adviser to Australia on Israel’s investigation of the incident.
The prime minister said independent oversight was needed. He told reporters earlier this morning:
We welcome more transparency, more accountability for what is a tragic occurrence, there have been almost 200 aid workers [who] have lost their life during this conflict.
No aid worker should be at risk of losing their life when they are providing support in a humanitarian way.
Quite clearly, in Gaza, there are dire consequences for the population there. Issues of access to clean water, access to food, basic provisions, people suffering greatly. We want to make sure that that humanitarian support is available there.
The PM also said he had spoken with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on concerns about a potential ground invasion of Gaza.
We’re very concerned about the humanitarian consequences as are like-minded countries, including the United States.
Sarah Basford Canales
Human Rights Law Centre calls for whistleblower laws to come together in single regime
Federal whistleblower laws should be brought together into a single regime to give those coming forward more confidence, the Human Rights Law Centre says.
The legal advocacy group is appearing at a parliamentary inquiry this morning and has warned there are three different whistleblowing protection laws – for those in the public sector, private sector and for those blowing the whistle on issues within tax administration.
The committee is looking at proposed amendments to tax laws to close loopholes that allowed the PricewaterhouseCooper confidentiality scandal to occur, and to strengthen disclosure protections to encourage whistleblowers to come forward with wrongdoing in the taxation space.
Jade Tyrell, the law centre’s acting senior lawyer, said whistleblowers were often the only reason these scandals came to light and therefore it was essential to protect them. By bringing together the three different protection regimes, the pathway for disclosures could be made simpler.
Tyrell said:
Research has shown that whistleblowers are the primary mechanism for identifying wrongdoing about organisations. Robust, accessible protections are essential to prevent future PwC leak-equivalents. Whistleblowers make Australia a better place.
Kieran Pender, HRLC’s acting legal director, said the bill in its current form goes a step forward in the right direction but needs to address how to support whistleblowers after they’ve come forward.