Australia news live: flood warnings issued as east coast braces for heavy rain and storms | Australia news
Football Australia issues lifetime ban for fan who made Nazi salute
A football fan who allegedly made a Nazi salute during the Australia Cup final in Sydney has been given a lifetime ban by Football Australia.
Disturbing video footage emerged from Saturday night’s Australia Cup final showing Sydney United 58 fans displaying the Hitler salute.
Many people, including the NSW premier Dominic Perrottet and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, called for the fans who displayed Nazi symbols and salutes at the match to be banned for life.
Football Australia has now released a statement saying “an identified spectator” has been issued with a lifetime ban following its investigation into the incident at the 2022 final held at CommBank Stadium in Sydney on 1 October.
The spectator in question has today been issued with a lifetime ban from attending Football Australia-sanctioned football matches including all NPL, A-Leagues, Australia Cup, and national team matches. The ban is effective immediately.
The conduct in question relates to a fascist salute or similar gesture conducted during the match and captured on the host broadcast. Such conduct is a breach of the Australia Cup terms of admission and Football Australia’s spectator code of behaviour.
Football Australia adopts a zero-tolerance policy to disrespectful and offensive behaviour at sanctioned events and will not tolerate behaviour that has the potential to offend, insult humiliate, disparage or vilify spectators, players or officials.
Football Australia is continuing to collaborate with relevant stakeholders and law enforcement in identifying other individuals who may have committed similar anti-social behaviour at the Australia Cup 2022 final.
Football Australia is committed to promoting a safe and enjoyable environment for all Australians engaging with football, where the rights, dignity, and worth of every person are properly respected.
Football Australia’s chief executive officer, James Johnson, has today penned a letter to the Australian football community which can be read here.
Key events
Flood watch issues for Tasmania
A flood watch has been issued for parts of Tasmania for a number of catchments in northern parts of the state.
The Bureau of Meteorology said:
A series of troughs and cold fronts are expected to cross the state during Thursday and Friday, bringing widespread rainfall to the northern half of Tasmania.
Catchments are wet across the flood watch area and rivers will respond quickly to the forecast rainfall.
Widespread two day rainfall totals of 30mm to 50 mm are forecast for Thursday and Friday with higher isolated totals possible about the Western Tiers and the north-east highlands and with thunderstorms.
Minor flooding may develop in the flood watch area from overnight Thursday and isolated areas of moderate flooding are possible from Friday.
Sydney could have record wet year
Sydney is on track to set a new record for its wettest ever year, with more than two months still to go, as the city braces for another 100mm of rain over the next few days.
The soggy city has recorded 2 metres of rain between 1 January and 4 October – just 65mm shy of the record set in 1950, when the annual total reached 2.2 metres.
Check out charts from Nick Evershed here:
Adam Bandt (and First Dog) on stage-three tax cuts
Bandt said pushing ahead with the legislation would “turbocharge inequality” in Australia.
It would cost $244bn over the decade. The top 1% get the same as the bottom 65% combined and it means politicians and billionaires and the wealthy get $9,000 a year every year, while everyone else continues to do it tough. They are bad and they should just go.
The reason that we are pushing so hard is that they are not yet in force. So, the simplest thing to do … would be to stop them coming in. Don’t give the tax cuts to the very wealthy … we can spend the money on dental and Medicare instead.
Here’s First Dog on the Moon’s take:
Adam Bandt says Lidia Thorpe has ‘different view’ of meeting with Geraldine Atkinson
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has been on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today pushing the party’s opposition of the state-three tax cuts.
We’ll get to that shortly, but first, he was asked about the outcome of today’s partyroom meeting – the first following a report about Senator Lidia Thorpe in Nine newspapers last week that alleged she verbally abused Indigenous elder aunty Geraldine Atkinson in a meeting last year.
Bandt said he had a discussion with Thorpe who had a “different view” about what occurred at the meeting.
But I did take the actions that were requested by Ms Atkinson about making sure that parliament remains a place where people can … come and talk to us and any parliamentarian and know that it will be respectful. I didn’t get back to her – to Geraldine Atkinson as I should have but I have acknowledged that in writing to her but in terms of the actions that Ms Atkinson was requesting that we took, they were taken and I feel very confident now that we are doing our part to make sure that parliament is a place where people can come and have respectful meetings.
Asked if it led to an internal investigation, Bandt said “Thorpe had a different view” but “people are entitled to meet in a respectful way”.
Since then of course there has been a further matter that has been raised with someone else who was in that meeting … I have asked … for that issue to be independently looked at by the department. We await outcome of that. There are different views about what happened in that meeting but I think we’re agreed that, in parliament, people are entitled to have respectful and safe meeting. That is something all of us agree on.
He reiterated Thorpe had his support and a review of the party’s processes had been done “well before” the present issues were raised.
Since becoming leader, what I have done is conducted a review of our party’s processes and this happened well before any of these issues were raised. That was to make sure that especially after all of the revelations we have seen over recent years about how people have behaved in parliament, I wanted it to be crystal clear that anyone who worked for the Greens or had an association with the Greens would be supported if they wanted to come forward and raise issues with us.
Haines promises anti-corruption commission will be ‘best it can be’
If you missed it earlier, Independent MP Helen Haines has been announced as deputy chair of the joint select committee on National Anti-Corruption Commission legislation, an important decision regarding her status outside the major parties.
Labor’s Linda White is chair.
Haines tweeted:
I have committed to working constructively with the government to ensure the anti-corruption commission model that is implemented is the best it can be, and I am glad to be able to continue that work in this role.
It is significant that a senior member of this committee comes from outside the major parties and it will contribute to the multi-partisanship that I hope will support the NACC.
Labor continues to support stage-three tax cuts, making Nationals happy
Labor senator Nita Green has followed Mulino on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing and is up alongside Nationals MP Michael McCormack to discuss the stage-three tax cuts.
Asked if language from senior leadership including the treasurer had changed on the commitment to the cuts, Green said Labor’s support remained firm.
I don’t think the language has changed all that much. There are some commentators and obviously the opposition [who] want to make more of some of the language that is being used. But I think the treasurer has been really clear. Our position hasn’t changed.
And we are taking into consideration all of the economic factors when we are thinking about this budget. But our position on the stage three-tax cuts hasn’t changed and we are making sure we are delivering a budget that repairs a lot of the debt we have seen and is full of cost-of-living measures.
McCormack echoed her sentiment with gusto. He said the cuts should go ahead because “why shouldn’t Australians have more of the money that they earn to spend on the sorts of things that they want to spend it on?”
After being pointed to the changes in the economy that have occurred since they were proposed, including rising inflation and cost of living, McCormack replied: “We have record iron ore prices.”
We have record prices for metallurgical coal. We’re looking like we’re going to have another bumper harvest if it would just stop raining. Things are looking bright. Yes, I appreciate that some might say the fiscal outlook globally is not good, but there are great opportunities for Australia.
Things are moving quickly in New South Wales. The severe weather warning has been expanded to cover parts of the state’s northwest including Condobolin, Nyngan, Cobar, Bourke, Wanaaring and Brewarrina.
A warning for the Riverina district has been cancelled as the rain has eased.
It comes as the state’s SES is now using the Australian Warning System for flooding events – which includes three categories, “Advice”, “Watch and Act” and “Emergency Warning”.
Labor’s Daniel Mulino says Australia’s tax cuts different to UK’s
Labor MP and chair of the House Economics Committee Daniel Mulino appeared on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today to discuss the controversial stage-three tax cuts.
Mulino said it was “important to bear in mind” the cuts won’t come into effect for two years and Labor’s priority heading into the election was taxing multinationals (even though Labor supported the tax cuts at the time).
It is important to set the context because what the government’s is grappling with in this upcoming budget is a situation both here and internationally that is worsening, internationally at least. It is also becoming more complex and uncertain in many respects … the key taxation policy that we took to the election was multinational taxation. That remains the priority … at least in the short term, a revenue raising measure we are looking at closely.
Asked about the situation in the UK, whereby their conservative leader was forced to backflip on a trickle-down package that would have abolished the 45% top rate of income tax, Mulino said the two situations weren’t wholly comparative:
In the UK, the tax cuts that were being put forward by the newly minted trust government were tax cuts that would have come into effect quite soon … the problem with those tax cuts quite apart from the merits of the measures themselves, which I probably don’t support in many respects … is that they were coming at a time when you had monetary that was being tightened and significant tax cuts which would have meant expansionary fiscal policy. In the UK, that would have been very confusing and was a large reason why markets reacted so adversely.
Three Australian navy ships begin regional deployment across Indo-Pacific
Daniel Hurst
The Australian government says the Royal Australian Navy will exercise freedom of navigation across the Indo-Pacific as three ships begin a regional deployment.
A statement issued by Defence says the ships will participate in maritime exercises with regional partners and conduct port visits:
During the deployment, HMA Ships Hobart, Stalwart, and Arunta will also conduct activities as part of our flagship regional engagement activity, Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2022, in the Philippines, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.
These engagements deepen Australia’s partnerships across the region and enhance our ability to operate with partner nations during security or humanitarian crises.
Australian vessels and aircraft will continue to uphold international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and exercise freedom of navigation and overflight. Defence supports others doing the same.
The statement doesn’t directly refer to the South China Sea, but Australian governments of both persuasions have long been concerns about China’s militarisation of disputed features in the region. China is engaged in territorial disputes with a number of countries in the region including Philippines and Vietnam – two of the countries named in the statement – but Beijing doesn’t accept the 2016 ruling of an international tribunal on the matter.
Rear Admiral Jonathan Earley, Australian fleet commander, described the deployments as “routine” and said they “demonstrated Australia’s commitment and engagement with our partners in the region”.
Earley added:
Australia has maintained a robust program of international engagement with countries in and around the Indo-Pacific for decades.
This deployment follows a high-activity period for the RAN fleet with HMA Ships recently taking part in Exercise Kakadu 22 and, prior to that, Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2022.
This routine deployment is aimed at strengthening practical cooperation with regional partners and enhancing interoperability, and it demonstrates Australia’s resolve for an open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific.
Tory Shepherd
Tax office whistleblower’s case again postponed
A hearing for tax office whistleblower, Richard Boyle, has again been postponed.
It’s a critical process to determine whether Boyle is protected by the Public Interest Disclosure Act (the PID). It’s the first time the PID has been tested.
Lawyers for both sides are working on a list of agreed facts in the case to present to judge Liesl Kudelka, and said they need more time. The hearing, in South Australia’s district court, was adjourned until tomorrow morning.
This brilliant Full Story podcast featuring Christopher Knaus has everything you need to know about this important case:
And you can find more details on the hearing here:
Kieren Perkins tees off on Greg Norman’s LIV golf tour
Earlier, the CEO of the Australian Sports Commission, Kieren Perkins, delivered an address to the National Press Club where he called for greater diversity in sport and foreshadowed a bright era ahead of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
The former Olympian also delivered a stinging message to Greg Norman over the golf champion’s involvement with the Saudi Arabian-financed rebel LIV tour, AAP reports.
Perkins said Norman needed to consider the people he surrounded himself with as he continued his role as the global face of the controversial golf tour.
Norman and LIV’s competitors have been widely panned, with the tour labelled a ‘sport washing’ exercise designed to clean up Saudi Arabia’s global image amid its poor human-rights record.
Asked what message he would give Norman, Perkins pointed to earlier comments he had made that Australian sport needs to be a societal leader and be more inclusive of minority groups:
Just stop and listen to the people around you, Greg, and think about some of the stuff that’s being told to you. See if actually there’s some value in it, instead of assuming you have all the answers.
Norman drew strong criticism for comments he made regarding the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s alleged involvement in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, where he appeared to defend his benefactor.
Perkins said innovation within sport could not be more important than promoting inclusivity.
I understand and appreciate the need to disrupt sport and make it better, and the opportunity to create more competitive pathways that help athletes receive the benefit they deserve. (But) opening the door for more inclusion is incredibly important.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2022/oct/05/australia-news-live-flood-warnings-rain-climate-politics-data-breach-optus-g4s-richard-marles-reserve-bank-interest-rates-stage-three-tax-cuts Australia news live: flood warnings issued as east coast braces for heavy rain and storms | Australia news