Australia news live updates: student debt cut for teachers who go rural; WA to ban display and possession of Nazi symbols | Australia news

Police are now holding a media conference in Queensland about the shooting incident after which four teenagers were taken into custody in Tara, in the state’s south-east, last night.

Police said on Wednesday night police were dispatched to the scene after reports of a shooting and identified a particular house that was believed to be where the shots were being fired from.

We cleared that particular address and during that search, we located a 0.22 calibre rifle and a number of discharged .22 calibre projectiles and cartridges at the scene.

We later took four juveniles into custody and they were detained and brought back to the Tara police station for further investigation. And as a result of the police investigations to date, two 16-year-old boys have been charged with seven offences each. Four weapons offences and three counts of wilful damage.

A 14-year-old boy was dealt with the same offences by the provisions of the Youth Justice Act and cautioned, and a 15-year-old boy was released without charge at this stage. And our investigations are ongoing.

Police said the teenagers’ alleged conduct is “extremely concerning” and as part of their investigation, they will be attempting to identify a motive:

Two of the alleged offenders have declined to be interviewed. So the actual motivations at this stage, it’s still unclear, but that is part of the ongoing investigation.

But it’s certainly concerning. Guns are extremely dangerous. Any discharge of a firearm in a public place creates significant risk to the community. People could have been seriously injured or worse as a result of this incident yesterday. It’s completely unacceptable and reckless behaviour.

Jobless rate tipped to hover near half-century lows for December

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is scheduled to release its labour market numbers for December later this morning, and economists expect a fairly static story at least as far as the jobless rate is concerned.

In November, the unemployment rate was 3.4% and a similar number is expected today, leaving it at a 48-year low. Attention will probably focus on how many new jobs the economy generated last month.

The CBA has estimated 25,000 new jobs, St George 30,000 and ANZ 35,000. In November, the economy added 64,000 positions, and it’s expected those higher interest rates from the Reserve Bank of Australia will sooner or later prompt companies to halt hiring – if not start letting people go.

Speaking of the RBA, investors are still tipping the central bank will make it nine interest rate rises in as many board meetings at their next gathering on 7 February.

Another issue to watch for will be the participation rate. Some economists expect that to edge higher at 66.8% from 66.7%, a minor change but one reason the jobless rate may remain unchanged even as more jobs are added by employers.

Watch out for the numbers to land at 11.30am AEDT.

Michael McGowan

NSW Labor promises to create ‘great koala national park’ if it wins power

The New South Wales Labor party will establish a new national park stretching from Kempsey to Coffs Harbour in a bid to save the state’s endangered koala population.

On Thursday the opposition leader, Chris Minns, will announce that the party will re-commit to establishing the “great koala national park” on the NSW north coast, which could see an area of about 300,000 hectares of key habitat for the native species protected from logging.

The park, which Labor has promised in the past two state elections, is likely to anger the timber and logging industry, which has previously claimed it would cost the state thousands of jobs. Other estimates claim the park would add about $1bn to the state’s economy over 15 years.

Read more:

The Western Australian government plans to criminalise the display and possession of Nazi symbols, with some exceptions, AAP reports.

The display of such symbols was offensive to many people, particularly the Jewish community, Holocaust survivors and those who fought against fascism, the government said in a statement on Wednesday night.

Nazi symbols such as the swastika were not only used in association with antisemitism but have been used in vilifying other groups in the community, including Muslims and LGBTQIA+ groups, the statement said.

The legislation will extend to the display of Nazi symbols on tattoos.

The WA attorney general, John Quigley, said the state government would not tolerate “hate groups which seek to spread fear, division, and violence in our multicultural society”:

We will continue to work with stakeholder groups during the drafting of the new laws to ensure we strike the right balance between banning offensive behaviour and preserving legitimate uses of the swastika.

The reforms, once passed, will prohibit the display and possession of Nazi symbols in certain circumstances, and will provide penalties, including jail, for any person who contravenes the law.

The government said it recognised there were legitimate purposes for the display or possession of a Nazi symbol, such as genuine academic or educational purposes, buying or selling bona fide the second world war memorabilia, or publishing fair and accurate media reports of matters of public interest.

Victoria and New South Wales passed legislation recently to criminalise the display of Nazi symbols, and Queensland and Tasmania have recently announced the intention to do the same.

Student debt to be cut for teachers who go rural

Teachers who choose to spend time in rural schools will have their student debt wiped in a bid to cover shortages, AAP reports.

The government will clear the HELP debt for those who spend four years teaching in a very remote location at a primary or secondary school, day care centre or preschool, in a move expected to save teachers an average of $35,000.

Eligible teachers will have waived either the debt of their initial teaching degree or whatever debt remains when they start the teaching position, whichever is less.

It will initially be open to teachers who have been in remote locations since 2019, meaning those already teaching in those areas can get a head start.

The education minister, Jason Clare, said the measure is one part of the government’s plan to improve educational outcomes for remote and very remote students:

The program is designed to attract and retain a high-quality teacher workforce, provide critical educational continuity, and support for students in very remote areas.

The places covered by the scheme are those defined as “very remote areas” by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, including large parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland and north-west NSW.

Paul Karp

Mark Dreyfus on privacy, defamation and LGBTQI+ rights

After the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, accused Peter Dutton of asking questions he already knows the answer to about the Indigenous voice, today we’ve published the second half of our interview with Dreyfus.

In it, Dreyfus leaves the door open to legislating a European-style right to be forgotten and a tort for breach of privacy, saying these will be considered in the next tranche of privacy law reforms.

Asked if Australia needs a federal defamation act, Dreyfus said:

It’s an ongoing discussion among attorneys general which is being facilitated by the fact we now have a standing council of attorneys general which is meeting quarterly.

We also asked Dreyfus about comments by the sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, in November that the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is “not resourced” to do LGBTIQ+ human rights work, while the president, Rosalind Croucher, told Senate estimates the AHRC “would dearly like to be able to put such a specialist role back in”.

Dreyfus said:

I saw those comments and I think I’d say that the scope of work of the [AHRC] is something that remains under active consideration.

Rodney Croome, a Just.Equal spokesperson, welcomed that remark:

It’s good to see Mark Dreyfus is actively considering a response to the fact that the [AHRC], by its own admission, doesn’t have the capacity to deal with LGBTIQA+ human rights. The AHRC hasn’t issued a report or media statement on LGBTIQA+ issues since October 2021.

Meanwhile, attacks on our rights continue, especially on the rights of trans and intersex people. In the view of Just.Equal Australia the best response would be to appoint an LGBTIQA+ Human Rights commissioner. Given there are commissioners for sex, race, age and disability discrimination and Indigenous social justice, the absence of an LGBTIQA+ commissioner sends the message that our human rights matter less or not at all.

Four teenagers have been taken into custody in a small town in southeast Queensland following reports of shots being fired in the area, AAP reports.

Police were called to reports of a shooting in Tara about 3.30pm on Wednesday and declared an exclusion zone covering several blocks in the centre of town at 5.30pm.

Officers said initial information indicated that a vehicle had been shot at on Smallacombe Street. Authorities later revoked the emergency declaration and said four local boys, aged 14, 15, 16 and 16, were assisting police with their investigations.

Police said the teens were found at a Tara residence on Wednesday night and taken into custody without incident.

No one was injured.

Tara, in the western downs region, is about 40km south of Wieambilla which was the scene of a deadly ambush that ended with the deaths of six people, including two police officers, in December 2022. You can read our earlier report on the shooting here: