TRANSCRIPT
- The federal government to announce an inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.
- Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces agree to a ceasefire.
- And in sport, Melbourne City's first Asian Champions League game has ended in a goalless draw.
The federal government is set to announce an inquiry into how Australia handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to make the announcement alongside Health Minister Mark Butler in Adelaide today, according to Nine media outlets.
Labor promised a royal commission into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic at last year's federal election, but the announcement is expected to fall short of a royal commission and instead propose a special commission of inquiry.
Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie told Sky News she sees an inquiry, rather than a royal commission, as a broken election promise.
"He went to the election promising a royal commission. They're not delivering a royal commission and there's only one reason why. It's because a royal commission into COVID would have to look at National Cabinet, it would have to look at how that functioned to keep us all safe through a global pandemic, but then look at the different jurisdictions' reactions.
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The Victorian Greens have criticised a plan by the Andrews government to demolish 44 public housing towers, saying it could mean the "end of public housing" in the state.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced the proposed redevelopment of the towers on Wednesday as part of a suite of housing reforms, including a levy on short-term rental accommodation and plans to build 800,000 new homes in the next decade.
Leader of the Victorian Greens Samantha Ratnam has called on the government to build 100,000 publicly-owned and managed homes, rather than privately-managed housing, which she says has been the model for previous redevelopments.
Greens State MP for Melbourne Ellen Sandell says some of her constituents who live in the towers are concerned their homes are going to be demolished without a commitment to rebuild them as public housing.
"If Labor demolishes all of these public housing towers, and allows them to be replaced them to be replaced with expensive private apartments and a small amount of public housing, that could mean the end of public housing in this state, and residents are very concerned by that."
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Australia's big four banks have warned of cyber-security risks and a higher cost of living if they are required mandates to keep regional branches open.
A Senate inquiry into increasing rural branch closures has raised the possibility of changing banks' licences, requiring them to maintain a presence in rural Australia.
Australian Banking Association Chief Executive Anna Bligh told the inquiry at Parliament House in Canberra that banks would have to divert money away from critical technology if obliged to keep declining branches open.
Australia and New Zealand Bank CEO Shayne Elliott denied that data alone was behind decisions to close branches that provide essential services to communities and small businesses.
"It's not a formula that we run through a machine and computer says 'shut the branch'. I mean, of course we get the data of who is in the branch, what are they doing, what are they talking about, how long it's taking and we consider all of those things. Again we do so, also, I mean, consultations probably not really the right word, but we do so in discussion with our people."
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Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry has said it has agreed on a ceasefire with ethnic Armenian forces in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ministry said Armenian forces in the area agreed to abandon combat positions and hand over all weapons and military equipment to the Azerbaijani army, in a deal said to have been brokered by Russian peacekeeping forces.
This comes after Azerbaijan had announced what it an "anti-terrorist operation" in the region on Tuesday after four Azerbaijani soldiers and two civilians died in landmine explosions in the area partly under the control of ethnic Armenian forces.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday said his government, which did not intervene militarily, was not involved in writing the agreement, which calls for talks on the future of the region today.
"Of course, we familiarised ourselves with the text, although the Republic of Armenia did not participate in any way in the formation of this text and was not a party to the discussions."
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In football, Melbourne City have been held to a goalless draw by J-2 League side Ventforet Kofu in their opening Asian Champions League group-stage fixture.
Rado Vidosic's side struggled to create goal scoring chances at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Wednesday, a month out from the start of the 2023-24 A-League Men's season.
City suffered from the absence of attackers Andrew Nabbout and Mat Leckie through injury, while Ventforet, who are 35 games into their season, demonstrated purpose and intent whenever they had the ball.
The Japanese side is the only second-tier side in this year's ACL, qualifying for the tournament after winning the Emperor's Cup in Yokohama 2022.
