Australia news live: cost to taxpayers of Assange’s freedom flight revealed; urgent health warning for offshore detainees | Australia news
Key events
Peter Hannam
More on the energy and climate ministers meetings in Melbourne
Continuing from our last post: Shane Rattenbury wants to include scope 2 & 3 emissions are factored into Beetaloo’s assessment, not just the scope 1 emissions result from actually extracting the gas. He’s keen on getting an update from both the federal and NT governments.
You cannot say you’re going to meet your client and emission reduction targets, but at the same time be opening up a vast array of new fossil fuel projects that will produce significant amounts of emissions.The two simply are inconsistent.
Also likely to be discussed is NSW’s work on a framework for the orderly exit of coal-fired power plants. One question is whether the work will make a difference to ensure there’s greater certainty of when a big plant might exit to limit the opportunity for companies to game the market (or use changes to extract funding from governments to stay open). Observers wonder if the work will go far enough.
Lastly there may be passing reference to nuclear energy (as in, “we don’t want it or need it”), hydrogen strategies (will Fortescue‘s cutbacks make a difference), whether the federal government needs to chip in money to to support off-shore wind developments rather than just issue feasibility licences.
And that’s just a subset of what could be a busy day of discussions.
Energy and climate ministers gather to discuss broad policy mix
Peter Hannam
Federal, state and territory energy and climate ministers have gathered for a day of meetings in Melbourne today, something they do (locations vary) every four months or so.
With the energy transition struggling a bit, and the climate risks mounting as greenhouse gas emissions rise, these meetings have a long list of “high-level” subjects that typically get ticked off so that fresh challenges can be examined.
Consumer energy resources, such as the potential for electric vehicles to be a source of stability for the grid – and not just an extra heavy load – will be among the top issues discussed by Chris Bowen, the federal energy and climate minister.
There’s only one Liberal government represented, Tasmania’s, and it’s certain Nick Duigan – that state’s energy minister – will be discussing the need for progress on a second transmission link to the mainland, the Marinus link. (The drought and a lack of wind resulting in the island drawing a lot of power lately from Victoria may also feature.)
The only Greens minister, the ACT’s Shane Rattenbury, will be raising the not-very-small matter of how scope 2 and 3 emissions from gas extraction in the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory will be handled. That’s the emissions caused by the processing, transport and combustion of fossil gas.
Rattenbury notes that Beetaloo is projected to produce 34m tonnes a year of CO2-equivalent pollution, or about 10% of the nation’s emissions by 2030 (assuming our emissions drop a lot from the current annual level of about 460 mtCO2-e by then).
The Albanese government won Greens support for its revised safeguard mechanism legislation in the Senate that is aimed at reducing industrial emissions by pledging to consider Beetaloo’s impacts. That task, though, was to be handled by the energy and climate ministers – which is why it has made it to Friday’s agenda. More to come.
Firefighters on way to battle blazes in Canada
This morning, 31 members of the NSW Rural Fire Service are heading to Canada to help fight hundreds of wildfires that are continuing to burn.
The personnel will join a 116-strong Australian-New Zealand contingent going to Canada to assist with battling more than 650 fires that have burnt almost 1.5m hectares of land.
Safe travels! This morning, 31 personnel from NSW are joining a 116-strong Australian-New Zealand contingent bound for Canada. The will play vital roles helping local fire services battling more than 650 wildfires that have already burnt almost 1.5 million hectares of land. pic.twitter.com/hrD4eMHeIQ
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) July 18, 2024
Cost of flying Julian Assange to Australia revealed
Karen Middleton
Flying Julian Assange back to Australia on a private charter cost taxpayers $781,480.30, plus an extra $47,000 in commercial travel for the two ambassadors who accompanied him, according to documents provided to the Senate.
Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong has confirmed that a private organisation, Wau Holland Foundation, will be invoiced for the charter flight portion of the bill. The non-profit foundation based in German is an advocate for freedom of information.
The documents reveal that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had a further $55,402.51 in associated costs.
They also confirm further details of the plea deal reported previously by Guardian Australia, including that having Australia’s ambassador to the UK, Stephen Smith, accompany Assange on the flight from London to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands was a condition of Assange’s bail from the London court and that the ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, met them in Saipan to ensure nothing went wrong at the final court stage.
Wong wrote in a letter to the Senate in response to an order for the production of documents initiated by Liberal senator Dave Sharma:
A condition of Mr Assange’s bail was that he would be accompanied by High Commissioner Smith to a United States jurisdiction, while Ambassador Rudd has played a central role in bringing the two sides together and travelled to Saipan to ensure arrangements with the Department of Justice proceeded as agreed.
The Australian Government facilitated all arrangements for the flight following an agreement for the costs to be reimbursed by the [WHF]. [Dfat] expects payment to be made by the end of August 2024, which is in line with the terms of the payment schedule.
Whilst in Australia, High Commissioner Smith and Ambassador Rudd undertook meetings about AUKUS and other arrangements as well. Ambassador Rudd also undertook meetings with Governor Palacios of the United States Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands during his time in Saipan.
Dutton says opposition will reintroduce legislation for ABCC in August
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has flagged he will reintroduce legislation for the building construction watchdog – the Australian Building and Construction Commission, or the ABCC – in August.
Speaking to the Today show earlier, he said:
We’ll reintroduce that legislation for the building construction watchdog when we go back to parliament in August. We hope the government can support it because they abolished it at the request of the CFMEU.
The Howard-era ABCC was abolished in 2023, and had enforced workplace relations compliance in the building and construction sector. Its powers were transferred to the fair work ombudsman.
The Coalition has repeatedly called for the return of the ABCC but this may be the first time a date has been set for reintroducing legislation. Yesterday shadow treasurer Angus Taylor told ABC RN that the ABCC “needs to be brought back” and said at the time:
We need a tough cop on the beat that is independent, that is able to take action, and most importantly, that builders and contractors can go to [with the] safe knowledge that there’s not going to be intimidation as a result.
More on the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s report
Prof Suresh Sundram, the head of psychiatry at Monash University’s school of clinical sciences, said he was “very concerned” about the health of the PNG cohort because “many of these people … are now too medically unwell to be able to actively participate in decision making about their futures”.
He claimed there was “no monitoring of their health status” and that because PNG is a lower-middle income country, there were “constrained health resources to manage highly complex patients”:
The rates of mental and physical illness in people who were held offshore are higher than observed in comparable onshore populations and markedly higher than mainstream populations. This includes extremely high rates of mental disorders such as major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Thanush Selvarasa, a refugee previously held in Manus Island, described his experience needing to access medical care:
When I was in the Manus Island centre, we didn’t have a medical facility, this is why I needed to get to Australia. But now, if people need a medical facility, they can’t get to Australia under the Medevac law … I know how bad it was in PNG. I was one of them. It’s really hard to live there.
Health warning for growing cohort of offshore detainees
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre has released a health report looking at the 47 refugees held in Papua New Guinea and 96 on Nauru, demonstrating an “urgent need to medically evacuate those remaining.”
The report found the following outcomes:
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20% of refugees in PNG are so unwell their lives are at imminent risk.
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100% of the refugees in PNG, and 65% of people held in Nauru suffer physical health conditions.
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88% of the refugees in PNG, and 22% of people held in Nauru suffer severe mental health conditions.
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100% of people in PNG reported difficulty accessing medical care, including being declined care, and being asked to pay for care when they have no financial support.
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60% of people in Nauru reported concerns with the limited healthcare available in Nauru.
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100% of people detained in Nauru and in PNG have reported experiences of trauma (including persecution, the journey to seek asylum by sea, family separation, medical trauma, experiences of violence in detention).
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40% of the refugees in PNG suffer chronic suicidal ideation and a history of suicide attempts.
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10% of people held in Nauru experience suicidal ideation.
The ASRC says it has submitted more than 400 risk notifications regarding people held on offshore detention over the past 11 years and despite this “overwhelming evidence”, “successive governments have continued to prop up the brutal offshore regime at a cost of over $12bn since July 2012”.
A health crisis is now mounting in PNG and Nauru under the watch of the Albanese government and experts are clear Labor must act now to evacuate all people held offshore to ensure their safety while protection claims are processed and resettlement is prioritised.
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Welcome
Emily Wind
And happy Friday. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be with you on the Australia news live blog for most of today.
Making news overnight, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre has released a new report detailing the health status of 47 refugees in Papua New Guinea and 96 people now held on Nauru, which it says demonstrates “further evidence the Australian government’s offshore detention policy has been 11 years of costly cruelty”, putting people’s “lives and health at risk”.
The report found that 100% of people detained in Nauru and PNG have reported experiences of trauma, while 100% of refugees in PNG and 65% in Nauru suffer physical health conditions. Twenty per cent of refugees on PNG are so unwell their lives are at imminent risk, the report found. Behrouz Boochani, author and former refugee held on Manus Island, said:
Australia cannot get away from what it has done to them and obviously is responsible for this tragedy. These people are our friends, and we know how much they have suffered. The only thing I can say is that it is enough – they should be evacuated now to receive medical treatment and support to start a new life.
We’ll bring you more on this soon.
Meanwhile, energy and climate ministers are meeting in Melbourne today, AAP reports, with stubborn cost-of-living pressures and energy reliability concerns behind a push for consumers to get more out of their rooftop solar, electric vehicles and appliances. Peter Hannam will bring us more on this later this morning.
As always, you can get in touch with any thoughts, tips and questions via X, @emilywindwrites, or you can send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
