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News live: all eyes on Albanese’s potential meeting with Xi Jinping; Ukraine appeals for more Australian coal and energy support | Australia news

G20 preview: all eyes on Albanese’s potential meeting with president Xi

Katharine Murphy

Good morning from Phnom Penh. Anthony Albanese is on his way to the airport after two days in the Cambodian capital for the Asean and East Asia Summits.

We fly today to the G20 in Bali, where today’s focus is on the critical bilateral meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. This will be Biden’s first face-to-face meeting with his Chinese counterpart since winning the presidency.

On Sunday, Biden met Albanese for about 40 minutes on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit. As we reported overnight, and senior US official Jake Sullivan confirmed with US reporters afterwards, yesterday’s conversation between the US and Australia was about comparing notes ahead of today’s bilateral in Bali.

Sullivan said Biden wanted to be “well coordinated with his closest allies”. Albanese will meet the summit host Joko Widodo shortly after we land this evening, before pushing on to a business event on the sidelines of the G20.

From the Australian perspective, all eyes will be on whether Albanese gets his own conversation with Xi during the G20 summit after breaking the ice with the Chinese premier at a gala dinner in Phnom Penh on Saturday night.

Key events

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Emergency services are providing an update in Victoria. They say there’s “still some time to go” with the ongoing flooding events.

There have been more than 650 calls for assistance in the past 24 hours, the bulk of which were from the Mornington Peninsula area.

Andrew Crisp said there’d been “significant rainfall” across the state, with a number of flood rescues and a derailed train in Geelong.

What we did see … at about 5.30 this morning near Geelong was a 1.7 kilometre train with about 55 carriages, 16 of those carriages derailed down in that area. Fortunately, we have been advised there was no-one injured as a result of that particular derailment. We know the Australian Transport Safety Bureau is on scene and undertaking investigation in relation of what caused the development itself. We do not have any further details of this at this point in time and will let them undergo their investigation.

Army helicopter sparked massive Canberra bushfire after crew stopped for toilet break

The crew on an army helicopter that started Canberra’s devastating 2020 bushfires were landing for a toilet break when they inadvertently ignited the monster blaze.

An inquest began at the ACT coroner’s court on Monday with evidence from the man in command of the helicopter that started the fire.

An MRH-90 Taipan helicopter – codenamed ANGEL21 – was scouting remote helipads that could be used by outside firefighting teams on 27 January when its searchlight ignited the blaze in the Orroral Valley.

Read more:

Sian Cain

Sian Cain

Jackie O steps away from radio show to recover from long Covid

Radio host Jackie O is stepping away from her long-running breakfast show with co-host Kyle Sandilands in order to recover from health issues months after contracting Covid-19.

While presenting the Kyle & Jackie O Show on KIIS FM on Monday, Jackie O, real name Jackie Henderson, said she had been struggling to recover after she contracted Covid-19 earlier this year, and that she had received medical advice to stop working in order to address an enduring cough and fatigue.

“I’ve been not very well ever since I’ve had Covid, I’ve been struggling with this fatigue,” Henderson said. “Ever since picking up that virus, I’ve been to the doctor several times, and he said because I’ve been pushing myself every day, after the show, all I’ve been doing is sleeping, and I’m not getting better.”

“I just have to take some time off, so I’m ending the show today. As in now … you know how much this show means to me; you know how much I push through everything, and I would not be doing this unless I absolutely had to.

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Japan offers to host Australia’s nuclear submarines

Japan has offered to host Australia’s nuclear submarines when they arrive as Tokyo’s envoy extended further defence support to Canberra, reports AAP.

Ambassador Shingo Yamagami said Tokyo stood ready to cooperate on cutting-edge defence technology with the trilateral Aukus alliance between Australia, the US and UK.

Yamagami said Japan’s place may not be obvious in an alliance between three English-speaking nations with a long history of military interoperability and integrated defence industries.

“At first glance, some may argue Japan has no skin in this game,” the ambassador told the Advancing Aukus conference on Monday. “Why should Aukus matter to Japan? Aukus matters to us a lot.”

He said the primary role of the agreement through which Australia will acquire nuclear-propelled submarines was to act as a deterrent in the Indo-Pacific. This included the prospect of hosting Australia’s nuclear submarines when the time came.

“We are a frontline state facing challenging circumstances in the dangerous neighbourhood of Southeast Asia,” he said. “Such submarines will increase regional deterrence.”

While not directly referring to China as a threat, Tokyo’s envoy spoke of the need for alliances to manage a more dangerous region, noting Japan’s future was tied to the west’s force projection. “In other words, what matters to you matters to us too,” he said.

Severe storms caused flash flooding in New South Wales, with the town of Forbes receiving 118mm – its heaviest rain on record this months.

River levels have risen sharply as a result of the recent weather events.

Footage of flooding at Safety Beach on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, according to Channel 7 reporter Paul Dowsley.

Reports of Iran protester sentenced to death ‘deeply disturbing’, Wong says

Foreign minister Penny Wong has responded to reports that a protester in Iran has been sentenced to death as “deeply disturbing”.

In a tweet, Wong reiterated that Australia opposes the death penalty in all circumstances.

“We continue to support the people of Iran and their right to freedom of expression and equality for women and girls,” Wong said.

Reports a protester has been sentenced to death in Iran are deeply disturbing.

Australia opposes the death penalty in all circumstances for all people.

We continue to support the people of Iran and their right to freedom of expression and equality for women and girls.

— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) November 14, 2022

Ukraine asks Australia for more coal, energy generators

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has made an appeal to Australia for coal supply and energy infrastructure including generators, after the war-torn country suffered recent damage to its energy system.

Kuleba asked Anthony Albanese for the assistance in person when the pair met at the Asean summit in Cambodia in recent days, following missile attacks last weekend that damaged more than 40% of Ukraine’s energy network and led to blackouts and “catastrophic” problems with heating and water supply, according to the Ukraine government.

In a statement released by the embassy of Ukraine in Canberra, ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko said Albanese and Kuleba had a “very positive” discussion in Phnom Penh.

Myroshnychenko said:

It shows the mateship of Australia and Ukraine in standing up for democracy and sovereignty against autocracy and illegality. Ukraine really needs the mateship now.

Our goal is to help our people through immediate recovery of critical energy supply, diversification of energy sources, and the development of crisis stock.

It would be invaluable to Ukraine to again receive coal supply from Australia, a world leader. It is also a great engineering nation, and can help us with generators – to keep essential services like hospitals and water treatments plants going – and via transformers to restore the overall system.

While Ukrainians are determined to survive this hard winter, and while our troops are making advances on the battlefield, the additional support we request from Australia would have life-saving impact.

Paul Karp

Paul Karp

Australia could free a third of its prisoners with little risk to community, new research finds

Exclusive: Australia’s prison population could be reduced by one-third with little risk to community safety, according to research conducted for the Institute of Public Affairs.

The research paper by Prof Mirko Bagaric, the dean of law at the Swinburne University of Technology, recommends law reform to prevent imprisonment of non-violent offenders.

It adds to calls from Labor’s assistant treasury minister, Andrew Leigh, and the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia to tackle Australia’s rising incarceration rates, particularly among women and Indigenous women.

Read more:

Free NSW pre-kindergarten year to start in 2023

A landmark program introducing universal free childcare the year before New South Wales children start school will be rolled out next year, with “childcare deserts” the first to benefit, reports AAP.

Premier Dominic Perrottet says families in Mount Druitt in Sydney’s west, Wagga Wagga in the Riverina, Kempsey and Nambucca in the north, Bourke in the far west, and Cobar and Coonamble in the central west will be first to get on board with the program.

Early childhood services in the seven locations will begin rolling out the first stage of the universal pre-kindergarten policy early next year, with interested providers urged to register now.

The $5.9bn 10-year investment in universal pre-kindergarten was the centrepiece of the NSW 2022-23 budget, and was touted as a way to get women back into the workforce and tackle the gender pay gap.

The government promised places would be created in Sydney’s west, south-west and regional NSW, where there is less than one childcare placement for every three children. More locations will be added ahead of the state-wide implementation of a full new year of education for children by 2030.

That’s it from me for today – you have the wonderful Elias Visontay with you for the rest of the afternoon.

In more official tweet news…

Although the prime minister Anthony Albanese is overseas, he’s taken to social media to acknowledge the extreme weather in the country’s south east over the weekend.

Many Australians have experienced extreme storms over the weekend.

In SA the storms have downed power lines, caused blackouts for tens of thousands and closed schools. In parts of NSW and VIC, flash flooding is creating dangerous conditions.

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) November 14, 2022

We know these repeated extreme weather events are very tough on people. We’re working closely with state and local government on clean up and recovery.

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) November 14, 2022

Please stay safe and listen to advice from authorities. Call 000 in a life-threatening situation, and the SES on 132 500 for emergency assistance.

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) November 14, 2022

Australia sends condolences to Turkey following explosion in Istanbul

Six people have been killed and 81 injured in Istanbul after an explosion that Turkey’s president described as an act of terrorism.

The minister for foreign affairs, Penny Wong, expressed Australia’s condolences to Turkey on Twitter:

Australia extends sincere condolences to the people of the Republic of Türkiye following the explosion in Istanbul.

Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and those injured.

— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) November 14, 2022

G20 preview: all eyes on Albanese’s potential meeting with president Xi

Katharine Murphy

Katharine Murphy

Good morning from Phnom Penh. Anthony Albanese is on his way to the airport after two days in the Cambodian capital for the Asean and East Asia Summits.

We fly today to the G20 in Bali, where today’s focus is on the critical bilateral meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. This will be Biden’s first face-to-face meeting with his Chinese counterpart since winning the presidency.

On Sunday, Biden met Albanese for about 40 minutes on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit. As we reported overnight, and senior US official Jake Sullivan confirmed with US reporters afterwards, yesterday’s conversation between the US and Australia was about comparing notes ahead of today’s bilateral in Bali.

Sullivan said Biden wanted to be “well coordinated with his closest allies”. Albanese will meet the summit host Joko Widodo shortly after we land this evening, before pushing on to a business event on the sidelines of the G20.

From the Australian perspective, all eyes will be on whether Albanese gets his own conversation with Xi during the G20 summit after breaking the ice with the Chinese premier at a gala dinner in Phnom Penh on Saturday night.

Paul Karp

Paul Karp

Resource sector concedes threat from corporate ‘gorillas’ was unfortunate

The Australian Resources & Energy Employer Association head of policy and public affairs, Tom Reid, has appeared at the Senate inquiry into Labor’s IR bill.

Labor’s Karen Grogan asked about comments from the AREEA chief executive Steve Knott that “corporate gorillas in the mining, oil and gas sector have said this is not on” and are threatening a multi-million dollar campaign “like the mining tax on steroids”.

Reid said the use of the term “gorilla’” was “unfortunate”:

[Knott] likes to speak freely, he is quite colourful and open when talking to stakeholders about issues that have got him animated and concerned. That media comment was in the immediate aftermath of the bill coming in – Steve [Knott] was very shocked by the size of the bill, the inclusion of things with no evidence base. It was a bit unfortunate.

But as for the campaign? Reid said:

We have the full support of AREEA’s board and broad support of the membership. We are very actively and very publicly trying to explain to the general community and parliament just how damaging parts of the bill could be. We don’t apologise [for] going ahead with that, given the enormous contribution to employment and economy from our sector.

Grogan then tried to cross-examine him on the revenue and tax paid by some of AREEA’s larger members, but Reid said he had “limited insights” to offer.

Reid said part of the industry’s campaign would highlight that the parts of the bill aiming to lift low paid workers’ pay is completely different to broader changes to greenfields agreements and the single-interest, multi-employer bargaining stream, warning that the bill risks “pulling the highest paid and most productive sectors of the economy” into increased complexity.

Labor’s chair, Tony Sheldon, then attacked the “highly profitable” and influential miners, questioning whether AREEA were “a bunch of extremists” and labelling them the “monkey grinder of corporate gorilla munsters”. There was a question in there – are they the “overpaid gorillas of the Australian economy, telling everyone else to get out of their way?”

Reid again thanked Knott for the “unfortunate use of the term gorillas in the press” and pivoted to a very gracious answer about AREEA’s concerns about the bill, refusing to take the bait.

Power outages continue in SA after storms

More than 33,000 properties across South Australia remain without power after weekend storms blacked out 163,000 homes and businesses in the worst outage since the statewide blackout in 2016.

SA was hit with more than 423,000 lightning strikes, damaging winds and torrential rain on Saturday causing widespread damage, with 500 reports of wires down, and minor flooding.

Blackouts have persisted in areas of the Eyre and York peninsulas, across the Adelaide Hills and suburbs and through the Riverland.

Head of corporate affairs at SA Power Networks Paul Roberts said:

SA Power Networks has mobilised all possible resources and has called in interstate field resources to assist. Rebuilding and repairing the network and restoring power will continue into Tuesday and possibly beyond.

Roberts said SA Power Networks understood long delays in restoring the grid were frustrating for customers but those still without power on Monday should plan for an extended outage.

– from AAP



https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2022/nov/14/australia-news-live-weather-flooding-albanese-bali-summit-housing-health-gambling-economy-nsw-victoria-qld News live: all eyes on Albanese’s potential meeting with Xi Jinping; Ukraine appeals for more Australian coal and energy support | Australia news

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