Peter Dutton claims Labor party policies are making life difficult for hard-working people, Relations between Canada and India further deteriorate, and Manchester City are confident they will be able to defend their European title.
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts.
TRANSCRIPT
- Peter Dutton claims Labor party policies are making life difficult for hard-working people.
- Relations between Canada and India further deteriorate.
- Manchester City are confident they will be able to defend their European title.
----
Federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton claims rumoured changes to housing policy in Victoria are a symptom of the Labor party's poor economic management.
Victoria received nearly half a billion dollars from the federal government in June, as part of the $2 billion social housing fund.
Today the state government will detail how it intends to spend that money, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expected to join Premier Daniel Andrews for the announcement.
It is believed Victoria may also adopt policies such as putting a levy on short-term bookings with accommodation provider Airbnb.
Mr Dutton says such a change will hurt some Australians who aren't wealthy and says Labor party policies on the economy, energy, and housing are combining to cause Australians pain.
"There are a lot of families who supplement their income through an AirBnB property that they have. It might be when they go on holidays themselves, it might be that they're a retired couple, jumping in the caravan or going to visit friends. And they might rent their house out for a period to help them pay their electricity bills. So, at the same time that Labor's driving up electricity bills, they're making it harder for families to source additional income to help pay those bills. And that's why families, that's why small businesses, will always be worse off under Labor."
----
Westpac is resisting pressure over closures of some of it branches in regional areas.
A Senate inquiry is examining more than 650 closures of branches of all banks in rural and regional Australia since 2017.
It will host three hearings this week, and Westpac is amongst those who'll appear at them.
But, in its submission to the inquiry, Westpac says over-the-counter transactions in rural and regional branches have fallen by 39 per cent over the past five years.
The inquiry has previously been told that major banks do no give adequate warning of branch closures, and there should be mandated community consultation periods.
However, Westpac says these are not viable, and risk exposing sensitive commercial information to its competitors.
----
Canada has deported a senior Indian intelligence official.
The Canadian government says it has credible information linking Indian government agents to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in the town of Surrey, in western Canada, in June.
Mr Nijjar was a Sikh separatist who was designated as a terrorist by India in 2020 after advocating for a separate Sikh nation in the Indian state of Punjab.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says India has violated Canada's sovereignty in this matter.
"Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty. It is contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies conduct themselves. As you would expect, we have been working closely and coordinating with our allies on this very serious matter."
----
The European Union's chief foreign affairs official, Josep Borrell, says there is no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict other than a two-state solution.
Sixty national representatives have met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York to discuss a renewed effort for peace in the Middle East.
The meeting was co-organised with the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Secretary-General of the Arab League.
Mr Borrell says this meeting will be followed up upon with three senior level working groups that will co-operate on bilateral, regional, and global approaches to peace in the Middle East.
They will start one month from now in Brussels.
Mr Borrell says there a lot of work to do be done on the issue.
"We cannot stay idle repeating the mantra of a two-state solution without doing a lot to get it. And we have to prepare the ground for a comprehensive peace which is long overdue for the benefit of the people of Israel and Palestine."
----
In football,
Manchester City insist they are not happy just to rest on their many past achievements, as they begin the defence of their European title.
The English champions won the European Champions League for the first time last season.
Their first match in this year's competition is tomorrow against Serbian team Red Star Belgrade.
Despite all the success they've already had, fullback Kyle Walker says motivation will be no problem for his side under the watch of manager Pep Guardiola.
"It comes from within that you have to keep going and the hunger is still definitely in the changing room from us lads and I should hope in him as a manager as well that he still wants to win more. You can see what he's like on the field. You can see what he's like in the training sessions. He doesn't settle for second and we need to follow in his footsteps."
