Australia news live: extra $1.8bn for veterans in mid-year budget update; police investigating Islamophobic graffiti in western Sydney
Nuclear ‘a distraction from what Australia needs’: PM
Asked whether Labor would consider dropping a moratorium on nuclear power if voters supported it, Albanese said that would “make no sense” to do so, and reminded reporters that the national ban on nuclear energy had been introduced by John Howard’s government.
John Howard introduced the moratorium on nuclear energy because it doesn’t make any sense here. And last term, Peter Dutton, Barnaby Joyce, Angus Taylor, are all on the record with quotes saying, ‘It’s too costly, it takes too long, and it’s a distraction from what Australia needs.’
They, in their own words, wrote this off. What you have here is a National Party tail wagging the Coalition dog, and Peter Dutton being too weak to stand up to the ideologues who dominate the Coalition, too weak to stand up to them and say, “No, this does not make sense for Australia” …
Every energy expert in this country is saying it doesn’t make sense and that’s why Friday’s so-called release of costings didn’t last an hour.
Key events
Minns slams Islamophobic graffiti
NSW Premier Chris Minns has condemned the Islamophobic graffiti seen in Chester Hill this morning.
Police are investigating the incident, after three pieces of Islamophobic graffiti were seen at an underpass in the multicultural western Sydney suburb.
Minns said that such vandalism was “disgusting” and “designed to incite hatred”:
Vandalism like this that is aimed at particular religions is designed to incite hatred and is completely abhorrent.
This racism and Islamophobia is disgusting and corrosive to the very fabric of the successful multicultural state that we have built here in New South Wales.
Division and conflict from around the world cannot be allowed to be imported onto the streets of Sydney.
I would encourage anyone with information related to these incidents to report them to Crime Stoppers and those responsible will face the full force of the law.”
Olivia Newton-John’s Grease jacket fetches $750,000 at auction
A black leather motorcycle jacket worn by Olivia Newton-John in Grease has sold at auction in Beverly Hills for $476,250 (A$749,646).
Worn in the final scene of the 1978 musical where Newton-John and John Travolta performed You’re the One That I Want and We Go Together as Sandy and Danny, the jacket was expected to sell for between $80,000 and $100,000.
Newton-John had saved the jacket for over 40 years, and had previously sold it at a charity auction in 2019 for $243,200, to raise money for her cancer centre. The buyer intended to give the jacket back and “returned [it] to her in a moving tribute”, according to the listing.
The jacket was among dozens of items from Newton-John’s estate sold by Julien’s Auctions in California. Also auction was a blue Steinway baby grand piano that sold for $158,750 (A$249,882), and a Recording Industry Association of America Platinum Record Award for “Physical” ($16,250, A$25,578).
Newton-John died in 2022 after a recurrence of breast cancer.
Some tips on keeping cool from the Victorian Department of Health amid the heatwave that will bring sweltering temperatures to much of Australia today and into early next week.
Ministers visit UK for annual security talks
Karen Middleton
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, and defence minister, Richard Marles, are headed to the United Kingdom on Sunday for Aukmin talks with their British counterparts, the first since the Starmer government took office.
It is the second set of Australia-UK ministerial talks on security this year, after Wong and Marles hosted counterparts from the Sunak government in Adelaide in March.
The ministers announced they would also visit Naval Base Devonport, where the UK trains naval personnel and conducts submarine maintenance, before travelling to Strasbourg and Brussels for meetings with the European Union and Nato.
Marles said:
In an increasingly complex strategic environment, it is critical we collaborate with partners as old and close as the United Kingdom …
Together we will continue to advance and strengthen our defence relationship, including through discussions on the updated agreement on defence and security cooperation, signed in Canberra earlier this year.”
More details on fatal crash in NSW
NSW police have provided more details about a fatal crash in Armidale on Saturday afternoon that left one dead and three injured when a car collided with a group of several cyclists.
One of the cyclists, a man in his 60s, died at the scene and is yet to be formally identified.
Three other cyclists – aged 57, 39 and a teenage boy – were treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to John Hunter hospital and Armidale hospital in a stable condition.
After crashing into the cyclists, the car continued and hit a tree. The driver of the vehicle, a woman in her 30s, was trapped and released shortly after emergency services arrived on the scene. She was airlifted to John Hunter Hospital in a critical condition.
A crime scene has been established and police are are urging any witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage to contact local police or Crime Stoppers.
Chalmers: Coalition’s nuclear plan will result in $4tn hit to economy
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has warned the Coalition’s nuclear plan will result in a $4tn hit to Australia’s economy over the next 25 years, based on its assumption that the economy will be smaller with less need for energy.
Chalmers conceded the mid-year budget update, expected to be released on Wednesday, would reveal bigger deficits than the May budget.
Chalmers said the Coalition’s nuclear proposal was a recipe for shrinking the economy to $294bn by 2050. He told Sky News:
What we saw from the opposition was a recipe for lower growth, a smaller economy, less energy and higher prices, and it raised more questions than it answered …
In terms of the lost output between now and then for people who rely on the national energy market, it’s about $4tn.
Read Karen Middleton’s full story here:
Coalition making ‘nuclear look cheap’ by basing costing on less industry: Bowen
The minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, has said that only way the coalition could “make nuclear look cheap” was to base their costings on less Australian industry.
Bowen posted a graph to social media on Sunday morning showing the coalition’s nuclear plan projected a drastic drop in energy use by heavy industry from 2030 onwards.
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Islamophobic Graffiti spotted in western Sydney
Mostafa Rachwani
Police have closed off a main street in Chester Hill, in Sydney’s west, after three pieces of Islamophobic graffiti were spotted overnight.
A photo provided to Guardian Australia of the underpass on Hector Street shows two pieces of graffiti reading “Fuck Islam” and one reading “Cancel Islam”.
Police have cordoned off the underpass, established a crime scene and are investigating the incident.
Chester Hill has a high proportion of Muslim residents, with the underpass close to an area with a large number of Halal restaurants and grocers.
Police said they had only just been notified, and that inquiries were ongoing.
Two men sentenced over 622kg drug haul
Two men have been sentenced over a failed plot to import 622kg of methamphetamine into Australia by hiding them inside a shipment of toilet rolls.
The men were sentenced on Thursday to a combined maximum of 16 years and six months’ imprisonment, police said in a statement on Sunday morning.
For attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drugs, the pair pleaded guilty in July and October 2024, police said.
The county court of Victoria sentenced one of the duo, a 33-year-old Hong Kong national, to 11 years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of seven years and six months. A 31-year-old Malaysian national was sentenced to five years and six months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years.
They were arrested in October 2023 as part of Operation Improcco, a multi-agency investigation led by the Victorian Joint Organised Crime Taskforce, with members from the Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force and Victoria police.
The taskforce located and seized 622 green and gold tea packages inside a shipment that arrived in Melbourne via sea cargo on 4 October 2023. The packages, each weighing 1kg and containing a white crystalline substance, were concealed within a pallet of toilet paper.
Two Chinese nationals, who were also arrested in relation to the investigation, remain before the courts and will face trial next year.
Third Test against India continues
In cricket, the rain has cleared in Brisbane and day two of the third test match against India has begun at the Gabba. You can follow live on our sport blog here:
Australian fashion week to go ahead in 2025 after future secured
Australian fashion week will go ahead in 2025 following weeks of doubt after its former operator announced it was withdrawing from the event.
The fate of the event was thrown into limbo after IMG, the New York firm that had owned and operated the event for almost two decades, announced last month that it was withdrawing.
Australian fashion week will take place from 12 to 16 May next year at Carriageworks, Sydney. Event founder Simon Lock has been confirmed to play a crucial role in delivering the event.
The NSW arts minister, John Graham, said the week was an essential showcase of one of the country’s largest creative industries. He said in a statement:
The industry has come together swiftly, pulling together its great expertise, to ensure that fashion week can go ahead in 2025. The NSW government is pleased to confirm its continued support of the event.
Australian fashion week chair, Marianne Perkovic, thanked the NSW government and the “entire fashion industry” for their commitment and collaboration:
Fashion week 2025 will mark a crucial milestone in the journey towards a truly industry-led event for Australian fashion. Our consultation has reinforced that the AFC is best positioned to lead this transformation, much like its successful international counterparts. A further announcement will be made on other appointments soon.
