Australia news LIVE: Colleges told to stop recruiting fake overseas students; RBA holds rates steady

As Australia transitions to net-zero, a continental map of the nation’s rare earth deposits will help attract clean energy investment as a top priority in the move away from fossil fuels.

In 2022, 68 per cent of total electricity generation came from fossil fuels, with 47 per cent produced from burning coal.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Perth this morning.Credit: Trevor Collens

But to reach its climate goals, the federal government must reduce greenhouse emissions to 43 per cent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade before completely negating them by 2050.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made a range of commitments to critical minerals, clean energy and renewables manufacturing.

But today he revealed a landmark $566 million, 10-year plan to deliver a subterranean “soil and seabed” map to pinpoint where critical materials needed for clean energy lie.

The money will be allocated in next week’s budget.

Led by government agency Geosciences Australia, the plan will deliver data, charts and tools to the resources industry, highlighting deposits.

It will also identify locations in offshore areas of the nation for carbon capture and storage and possible sites for clean hydrogen projects.

“A future made in Australia relies on providing confidence to investors and supporting those who take on the task of exploring our vast continent,” Albanese said.

AAP

A woman has been rushed to hospital after she was allegedly stabbed outside a gym in Alexandria in Sydney’s inner south.

Police and ambulance were called to Crunch Fitness Alexandria on O’Riordan Street at 12.30pm.

The woman suffered multiple stab wounds to the side of her neck near her ear, and to her back.

Witnesses told police a man in his 40s had stabbed a 39-year-old woman.

Police believe the man and woman are known to each other.

The woman was rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a stable condition.

Police have established a crime scene and are calling on anyone with information about the incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Sydney-based politicians have taken to social media to condemn a council in western Sydney that voted to “rid” its libraries of books that contain same-sex parenting material.

The motion at Cumberland City Council has outraged the mayor and local families and prompted an angry NSW government to threaten a review of its library funding.

Among the politicians to slam the decision was federal Sydney MP Tanya Plibersek, who said the decision was “hurtful and narrow-minded nonsense”:

In a post this morning, Wentworth MP Allegra Spender called the move “shameful”:

Good afternoon everyone, I took over the reins of the blog from Caroline Schelle a bit earlier, but am jumping in now with a quick refresher on what we’ve covered so far today.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Western Australia to announce a $566 million commitment to a “new era of mineral exploration” to find raw materials for global renewable energy markets.The prime minister also says Australia is in disagreement with China after a Chionese fighter jet dropped flares in front of an Australian Navy helicopter.The opposition is demanding the government dramatically rein in its deportation bill with 17 recommended changes up for negotiation.The peak body for Australian banks says changing how student debts are considered in home-loan applications could play a part in helping young people break into the housing market.In Victoria, Premier Jacinta Allan has defended yesterday’s state budget, which featured soaring debt, stalled major projects and abandoned promisesIn NSW, Hunter Valley bus driver Brett Button has pleaded guilty to causing the deaths of 10 people after he rolled his charter coach while transporting guests from a wine country wedding.Overseas, Ukrainian authorities said they foiled a plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other high-ranking officials.

The United States paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah against the wishes of the US, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.

The shipment was supposed to comprise 1800 900-kilogram bombs and 1700 225-kilogram bombs, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Palestinians flee following Israeli army orders to evacuate the eastern side of Rafah, Gaza.Credit: Bloomberg

More than 1 million civilians are sheltering in Rafah after evacuating other parts of Gaza during Israel’s war on Hamas, which came after the militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7.

The pausing of the aid shipment is the most striking manifestation of the growing daylight between Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and President Joe Biden’s administration, which has called on Israel to do far more to protect the lives of innocent civilians in Gaza.

Biden’s administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military assistance as Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer toward an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House.

US officials had declined for days to comment on the halted transfer, word of which came as Biden on Tuesday described US support for Israel as “ironclad, even when we disagree”.

AP

The High Court has ruled that the Commonwealth can be criminally liable for damage to an Indigenous sacred site, in a decision that has implications for the management of national parks.

The case was about damage to a sacred men’s site near Gunlom Falls, which is owned by traditional owners but managed as part of Kakadu National Park, after construction of a walking track.

Gunlom Falls was a popular tourist spot until it was closed in 2019 due to unauthorised work on a walking track.

The area of which the track work was carried out is sacred to the Jawoyn people and is listed under the Sacred Sites Act. The director of national parks – a body corporate responsible for Commonwealth reserves – caused the works to be carried out without permission.

The director of national parks was found not guilty by a lower court on the basis that it could not be convicted of the offence under the Sacred Sites Act, but the High Court overturned this.

Ahead of significant changes slated for the NDIS, the Disability Advocacy Network Australia (DANA) has released a report with a range of recommendations it says will improve the lives of people with disabilities immediately.

The recommendations include opening a national network of hubs where people with disability can come for information and support, and creating a mass purchasing scheme, outside the NDIS, for disability aids, equipment and home modifications.

The Disability Advocacy Network Australia launched the report at an event with NDIS Minister Bill Shorten.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“We are impatient for change, after years of fighting, of telling our stories, of figuring out solutions and campaigning for an end to the abuse so many of us live with,” DANA chief executive Jeff Smith said.

“The Priorities Project Report we are launching today distils key issues from both reports, and outlines practical changes that could be up and running within a year or two.

“These changes don’t need another strategy, or more consultation, or more delay. They need to start now.”

Smith said housing was a key priority that came up in every single conversation DANA had with fellow disability advocates while writing the report.

“Accessible homes are very difficult to find in Australia, and home modifications are mostly only available within the NDIS, which excludes many people who would benefit significantly from them from eligibility,” Smith said.

“One of the actions we’re proposing is a new scheme which would make home modifications more accessible to people not on the NDIS.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton claims Education Minister Jason Clare is unfit for his job for saying the pro-Palestinian chant “from the river to the sea” meant different things to different people.

During a press conference on Sunday, Clare said any words that stoke fear were intolerable.

A protest inside the University of Melbourne arts building last Friday.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

“I’ve seen people say that those words mean the annihilation of Israel. I’ve seen people say that it means the opposite. I’ve seen people say that they’re slogans that Israeli political parties have used too,” Clare said.

Dutton has a different view. This afternoon he claimed the phrase only has one meaning, “that is the annihilation of the Jewish people”.

Here’s what Dutton had to say:

Somehow the education minister in Australia is trying to justify or explain away these words being used and try and conjure up some different contexts where that form of words is acceptable, it’s not acceptable and it’s not acceptable on university campuses to see people of Jewish faith who are being discriminated against and the level of antisemitism we’re seeing.

Jason Clare has proven himself to be unfit for his job, the prime minister not only needs to hold him into line, but he needs to make sure that he apologises and that he says that this will never happen again.”