Australia news LIVE:Bowen,energy ministers agree new plan as Andrews says Victoria won’t frack farm land;missing Sydney boy found

Live
UPDATED
Pinned post from

A summary of the day’s news

That's it for today,thanks for reading. Here are some of the headlines:

We'll be back tomorrow morning. Have a good night.

LATEST UPDATES

Chinese residents on North Korea border told to close windows in case Covid crosses the river

Such is China's paranoia about all things COVID-19 that authorities have asked residents in Dandong,a border town with North Korea,to close their windows on days with southerly winds,in case the virus transmits through the air across the Yalu River.

It highlights China's fanatical obsession with Covid-zero,considering the negligible risk of outdoor transmission even in closer confines,let alone across a river that's almost a kilometre-wide.

Meanwhile,Shanghai will lock down a district in the south-west on Saturday morning to conduct a mass COVID-19 testing drive,its first major movement restriction since the financial hub exited a bruising two-month shutdown at the start of June.

China reported 164 infections yesterday,including nine cases in Shanghai out of 25 million people.

Workers last week removing barriers previously surrounding a neighbourhood placed under lockdown.

Workers last week removing barriers previously surrounding a neighbourhood placed under lockdown.Bloomberg

The mini-lockdown is raising concerns that the city’s reopening is backsliding as officials fear a rebound in cases. While the plan is to seal the Minhang district of 2.65 million people only for the morning,residents face the risk of being confined to their homes for another two weeks if any Covid infections are discovered.

Elsewhere in the city,officials appear to be escalating curbs and placing apartment blocks back under lockdown over the slightest hint of infection risk. Some housing compounds in the central Jing’an and Xuhui districts were sealed for 14 days from Tuesday,although only close contacts - no confirmed cases - were found among residents.

Besides the lockdowns,mass testing is being rolled out at numerous housing compounds around Shanghai,which can surface infections that will lead to wholesale curbs again.

Bloomberg

Court dismisses surgeon’s second attempt to view draft stories of SMH,The Age investigation

ByGeorgina Mitchell

A court hasdismissed a cosmetic surgeon’s second attempt to view draft copies of an investigation by award-winning journalist Adele Ferguson,which is due to be published by60 Minutes,the Heraldand The Age.

Dr Joseph Ajaka,the founder of Cosmos Clinic,sued the media outlets in the NSW Supreme Court last month seeking for his lawyers to inspect the draft stories because he believed they may defame him or constitute an injurious falsehood.

Investigative journalist Adele Ferguson.

Investigative journalist Adele Ferguson.Simon Schluter

Ferguson had sent Ajaka detailed questions in an email,and he brought the court action several days later when he saw a promo for60 Minutes.

The cosmetic surgeon initially obtained an order for the stories to be handed over;however this was defeated in the Court of Appeal on Wednesday. Ajaka’s lawyers then launched fresh action seeking to inspect the drafts.

On Thursday,Justice Stephen Rothman dismissed the second application and ordered Ajaka to pay the media organisations’ costs.

Read more here.

Victorian Liberal MP stands aside for ‘outstanding woman’ to contest state election

BySumeyya Ilanbey

Victorian Liberal MP Bruce Atkinson will not recontest the November state election,saying he wants his successor to be an “outstanding woman”.

Liberal MP Bruce Atkinson.

Liberal MP Bruce Atkinson.Supplied

The upper house MP for the eastern metropolitan region wasexpected to be challenged for preselection.

In a statement to colleagues,Atkinson said he would continue supporting the Liberal Party parliamentary team.

“We have a good dedicated and experienced team and one that deserves the privilege of government,” Atkinson said.

“It is my hope that my successor will,on merit,be an outstanding woman and preferably a woman that represents the party’s commitment to diversity and someone who will strengthen our parliamentary team.”

Several Victorian upper house Liberal MPs are facing a preselection challenge.

Atkinson’s announcement two comes weeks after his controversial colleague,Bernie Finn,was expelled from the Liberal parliamentary team and the Democratic Labour Party announced Finn would be its lead candidate for the November state election.

Atkinson was first elected in 1992 and calls have been growing for him to leave Parliament to be replaced by younger talent.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy said the entire parliamentary team wished Atkinson,his wife Libby and the rest of the family a “wonderful post political life”.

“The Liberal Party will greatly miss Bruce’s energy and contribution,his intellect and passion for liberalism,” Guy said.

Cafe’s queuing customers cause stir among cranky neighbours

ByMarta Pascual Juanola

Here’s a quirky story about cranky inner-city neighbours who can’t stand customers from a popular cafe queuing outside their homes.

The “latte line” is often a reference to the demographic divide through the suburbs,but on Rathdowne Street in Melbourne’s Carlton North,the centimetres separating the cafe from its residential neighbours have become the subject of a cease and desist letter.

Yarra City Council installed the decal outside the Rathdowne Street cafe on Friday.

Yarra City Council installed the decal outside the Rathdowne Street cafe on Friday.Eddie Jim

The dispute centres on takeaway trade from Florian Eatery and the customers who queue for it in front of residents’ homes.

Yarra City Council,having received several complaints from residents,installed a red decal on the footpath last Friday,which reads:“Florian Eatery customers,please do not stand here.”

The owner of a nearby bar said:“If you don’t like it,don’t live in the inner city. There’s traffic,there’s noise,and autumn leaves filling in the gutter. This is where we live.”

Read more about the dispute here.

Will WA have to lose forests to fuel a renewable energy future?

ByPeter de Kruijff

About an hour’s drive north from Perth is the Julimar State Forest.

The 29,000-hectare conservation park was logged until the 1970s but has been left alone since as an important refuge for threatened species like the Carnaby’s cockatoo and the chuditch – otherwise known as the western quoll,Western Australia’s largest marsupial carnivore.

Mining interests border and transect the Julimar State Forest an hour’s drive from Perth. The forest is one of the strongest refuge’s for the threatened species chuditch,a type of quoll.

Mining interests border and transect the Julimar State Forest an hour’s drive from Perth. The forest is one of the strongest refuge’s for the threatened species chuditch,a type of quoll.Supplied

At the northern extremity of WA’s jarrah forests,the park finds itself in a unique situation as it faces the risk of ecological collapse from a drying a climate,while also being on the front line of the search by miners for the rare metals needed in the global energy transition to renewables.

Underneath the forest lies what could be the nation’s greatest modern mineral discovery of critical minerals that are important for defence and new energy technologies.

Click here to read the story.

Booster for some at-risk children aged 12 to 15 recommended:ATAGI

ByMary Ward

Younger teenagers who are at greater risk of severe illness from COVID-19 will be able to book in for a booster shot from next Tuesday.

National vaccine advisory group ATAGI announced the update to its advice on Thursday to recommend the third shot for children who are severely immunocompromised,have a disability with significant or complex health needs or have complex or multiple health conditions.

Children in these categories will be eligible for the additional vaccine provided three months has passed since their second dose.

ATAGI stopped short of recommending a booster for other children in the age group,noting the overall risk of admission to intensive care and death in this age group was very low and no deaths among children aged 12 to 15 from COVID-19 had occurred during the Omicron wave.

“There is insufficient evidence of severe disease in otherwise healthy adolescents in this age group who have already received two primary doses of a COVID-19 vaccine,” it said in a statement.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said he had accepted ATAGI’s recommendation and eligibility criteria would be updated.

Booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine were already recommended for all adults aged 16 and over. Adults aged 65 and over and people with certain other health conditions or circumstances are also eligible for a second booster,to be given four months after their first or three months after a COVID-19 infection.

Handing over

ByRoy Ward

That’s all from me for today. I’ll hand you over toJosh Dyeto take you through to tonight.

Thanks for all the messages and interactions.

Please have a lovely afternoon. Bye for now.

King says gas security mechanism will be renewed

ByRoy Ward

Resources Minister Madeleine King says Australia’s domestic gas security mechanism will be extended and improved.

In place since 2017 and due to expire on January 1,2023,the mechanism aims to secure enough natural gas for domestic needs in Australia at times the resource is in short supply. It can do that by imposing an export limit on the nation’s liquified national gas projects or allowing them to find new gas sources.

“We have resolved today as a cabinet to make sure that mechanism remains a tool of government to ensure future supplies of gas in this country,” King said.

Resources Minister Madeleine King with Governor-General David Hurley.

Resources Minister Madeleine King with Governor-General David Hurley.Alex Ellinghausen

“We will move as quickly as possible and make sure that the gas security mechanism for domestic suppliers is renewed as soon as possible through regulation.

“At the same time,we will be conducting an urgent review of the domestic gas security mechanism to make it actually work ... Right now,it is a long and complicated,convoluted,ineffective mechanism that takes a very long time for it to produce results.

“We are determined to change that,and we’re determined to make sure that this mechanism,as well as the other tools available to us,are all on table so that we can ensure that gas supplies are appropriate,adequate and affordable for Australians right across the country.”

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) gas reserves wouldn’t be available to help ease the current issues,but would be invaluable in future.

He said AEMO would be in charge of purchasing the gas and storing it. Although based in south-east Australia,any gas fed into the system would ease prices everywhere,he said,promoting its benefit across the whole country.

“We’re not going to be able to purchase and store gas overnight,” Bowen said.

“That is true. There are some rule-making changes[that need to happen before it can be purchased]. But if we had this capacity last week,it would have helped.”

‘Complete junk’:Bowen denounces opposition calls for nuclear power

ByRoy Ward

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has shouted his disagreement with the opposition’s call for the new government to make nuclear power part of its energy plan.

Bowen,speaking at a press conference on Thursday,barely contained his frustration at the suggestion,claiming it had “no credibility” considering the former government didn’t do it while in government for the past nine years.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said nothing would be ruled out in finding solutions to the gas crisis.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said nothing would be ruled out in finding solutions to the gas crisis.James Brickwood

“Nuclear is the most expensive form of energy. We have a cost of living crisis,energy prices going through the roof and that’s their big,bright idea,” Bowen said,his voice rising.

“They say let’s have the most expensive form of energy we can possibly think of and let’s put that in the system because that’s going to make power prices cheaper.

“They want that debate? They really want to argue that? Bring it on. It’s just complete junk.”

Josh Dye is a news reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald.

Roy Ward is a sports writer,live blogger and breaking news journalist. He's been writing for The Age since 2010.

Most Viewed in National