TRANSCRIPT
- Western Australia decriminalises abortion;
- Opposition leader Peter Dutton accuses the Prime Minister of breaking an election promise;
- And in sport, The AFL has struck a $2.2 billion pay deal with players.
Abortion has been removed from Western Australia's criminal code in sweeping reforms passed by the state parliament.
Premier Roger Cook says the amended laws bring Western Australia into line with other jurisdictions and remove unnecessary clinical barriers.
Under the changes, the number of health practitioners required to be involved in most abortion care has been reduced from two to one.
The requirement for mandatory counselling and ministerial and panel approval for later-term abortions has also been abolished.
—
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of breaking an election promise with his announcement of an inquiry into Australia's Covid-19 response - because decisions taken by the states will not be examined.
The terms of reference include vaccinations, treatments and key medical supplies to Australia, as well as mental health support for those affected by the coronavirus, but will not examine lockdowns and border closures announced by individual states and territories.
Mr Dutton says the Albanese government is protecting Labor state leaders, and does not have an interest in learning the lessons of the pandemic.
"I don't understand what Anthony Albanese and Daniel Andrews have to hide but - in terms of broken promises - they don't get much bigger than this one. The prime minister owes it to the Australian people to have a proper understanding of what happened at a state and federal level in relation to Covid, the policies, the decisions that were being made. If we don’t learn the lessons of what happened during the course of Covid, good and bad, by every level of government, how do we expect to go into the next pandemic not understanding what had happened in the previous one? It doesn’t make any sense."
—
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has accused Russia of using their veto-powers as part of the United Nations Security Council to protect themselves from opposition to their invasion of Ukraine.
Australian officials have joined representatives from more than 30 countries at the United Nations’ highest court as Ukraine challenges Russia’s claims its invasion was carried out to prevent genocide.
After the invasion, Ukrainian officials filed a case to the International Court of Justice alleging Russian leaders were abusing international law by using false claims of genocide in eastern Ukraine to justify its invasion.
Now, Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskyy says Russia needs to be stripped of their veto powers or measures need to be put in place to overrule a veto with a two-thirds majority.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says she agrees that more scrutiny into Russia's UN powers needs to take place.
"We didn't contemplate it. Humanity didn't contemplate that a member of the P-five the permanent members of the Security Council who were given the power of veto by the international community would use that veto to protect their own breach of the U-N Charter. So President Zelenskyy is right to identify this, as many have, as an appalling act by Russia undertaken in order to protect themselves in the face of international condemnation."
—
The New South Wales government is considering following Victoria’s lead by imposing a levy on short-stay accommodation platforms such as Airbnb.
The Victorian government announced yesterday a 7.5 per cent levy will be imposed on bookings from 2025 with the funds generated from the tax going towards the construction and maintenance of social and affordable housing.
New South Wales premier Chris Minns says his government is considering a similar levy to increase revenue and encourage landlords and investors to release properties back into the long-term rental market.
However, Professor Nicole Gurran from the University of Sydney's School of Architecture, Design and Planning says taxing short-stay accommodation is not going to make a significant impact on housing supply.
She believes solving the housing crisis will require broad reform.
"At the moment, ironically, we are subsidising investment in the existing housing stock and, in fact, encouraging people to invest in existing housing with most new investor loans going to purchase existing housing and our tax breaks incentivising people to invest more in their own homes rather than targeting our public incentives towards building the new supply that we know we need."
—
In sport,
The A-F-L has struck a $2.2 billion pay deal with players which includes longer contracts for first-round draftees and massive wage rises for women's players.
The average wage of women players will rise to $82,000 by the end of 2027, up from the current $46,000, in the first joint collective bargaining agreement covering both female and male players.
The length of AFLW seasons will also be increased to 10 games while in the men's competition, first-round draftees will now sign a three-year contract, up from two seasons.
After months of haggling, the agreement was hailed by both parties as a win for the sport.
