Senior Trump advisor replies to Rudd’s congratulations tweet with hourglass gif
A senior Trump adviser has posted a gif of an hourglass in response to Kevin Rudd’s congratulation message to the incoming president.
In a post to X on 7 November, Rudd – Australia’s ambassador to the US – shared a statement congratulation Donald Trump on his election win. This came as he deleted comments he previously made on X about Trump, saying they did not reflect the view of the Australian government.
Dan Scavino, a senior advisor to Trump, quoted the post with this gif overnight:
Key events
Multilateral trade liberalisation ‘right strategy for geo-political environment’: Leigh
Andrew Leigh was also asked about trade with the US – as has been discussed much this morning – following Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on imports. How can Australia stop that?
Leigh said “the periods of open markets have been the periods of greatest prosperity” in history, which was achieved “not just by doing cosy bilateral deals, but by engaging in broad multilateral reform.”
You see us supporting the entry of the UK into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, broadening out the networks through the World Trade Organisation. Multilateral trade liberalisation doesn’t just work better, it’s also the right strategy for the current geo-political environment.
So, engaging in that with open markets is going to be what we’ll do. You’ve seen us broadening out the trading relationships through the Asia Pacific and dealing with some of the issues that we faced with around $20bn of trade blockages to China when we came to office now being dealt with steadily, methodically, by Don Farrell as trade minister.
Andrew Leigh says he ‘absolutely’ expected domestic airfares to increase after collapse of Rex
The assistant competition minister, Andrew Leigh, was on ABC RN earlier this morning where he discussed the increase in capital city route flights.
The ACCC has found the average domestic airfare increased by 13% after the collapse of Rex flights between capital cities. Adelaide-Melbourne jumped 95% to $296, Melbourne-Gold Coast was up 70% to $432, and Canberra-Melbourne rose 54% to $298.
Leigh said he was “absolutely” expecting things to get this bad this quickly:
… when you move from a monopoly carrier on a route to three carriers on the route, then the price per kilometre is halved, goes down from 40 cents a kilometre to 19 cents a kilometre. So, it’s expected and disappointing that when you had that collapse that you immediately saw prices for flyers increase.
Asked what the government would do about the growing cost of airfares until a new airline emerges as a serious third competitor, he said it would be a “matter for the commercial market” as to who fills that gap – and “clearly the government is looking at creating settings that make it attractive for competitors”.
We’re talking now about airlines, but we’ve been talking previously about supermarkets or banks. And if you go to baby food and beer, the same challenge occurs. And that’s why the government’s focus on competition isn’t just to go sector by sector, but to revitalise national competition policy in order to see the gains right across the economy.
We had more on this from treasurer Jim Chalmers earlier in the blog, here.
South Australian CFA testing warning systems
The South Australian Country Fire Service says it is testing its warning system today from 10.30am to 1pm:
Please disregard any warnings issued during this time.
Melbourne police address media after alleged armed stand-off
Earlier, Melbourne police spoke to the media after an alleged armed stand-off with officers in Weir Views.
Yesterday, police were monitoring a stolen vehicle when a man allegedly got out of the car and fired shots at police, who were not injured. The man then allegedly entered a house where two occupants, a man and a toddler not known to him, were inside. Police negotiated with him as the occupants left uninjured.
The man allegedly fired shots at police again, with police returning fire (which did not hit him) and deploying a police dog to assist with the arrest just after 6pm.
Speaking to the media, the officer said the man – a 26-year-old man from Snake Valley – is known to police but couldn’t provide further details. He said the occupant was in his 30s or early 40s and is the father of the one-year-old. He added it is “extremely lucky” that no police were injured:
It is lucky, and it is completely unacceptable that members were exposed to such dangers.
In terms of the negotiations police had with the man, police alleged:
We attempted for him to surrender and put the firearm down. We provided safe passage for that to occur. That did not occur prior to the incident unfolding.
It was two and a half hours from when the alleged offender entered the home to when he was arrested. He said the man was jumping on a trampoline at one point and “there was a period of time where he was behaving erratically in the back yard of the premises”.
The officer said it is expected the alleged offender will be charged today with a range of offences including aggravated carjacking, aggravated burglary and conduct endangering life and firearms offences.
Catholic church wins case limiting liability for abuse by priests
Christopher Knaus
The Catholic church has won a landmark case limiting its liability for the abuse of children by priests not under its direct employment.
Last year, the highest Victorian court delivered an unprecedented ruling that the church was vicariously responsible for the abuse of a five-year-old child, known as DP, by assistant priest Father Bryan Coffey.
The ruling was significant because Coffey, as an assistant parish priest, was not directly employed by the church.
Vicarious liability is typically used to hold employers responsible for the wrongful or negligent actions of their employees during the course of their employment, regardless of whether the employer is at fault.
The Victorian courts held that Coffey was a “servant of the church”, despite the lack of a formal employer-employee relationship, and that his church position gave him “power and intimacy” to access and abuse children.
The high court rejected that ruling on Wednesday morning, finding in the church’s favour, and declining to expand the concept of vicarious liability beyond employer-employee relationships. It said doing so would create uncertainty and indeterminacy.
Sydney Water working to address mosquito outbreak in south-west Sydney
Sydney Water says it has a dedicated team working to address a mosquito outbreak in south-west Sydney.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the infestation has been linked to a Warwick Farm settling pond owned by Sydney Water, and neglected pools in the area. Social media users have reported an outbreak of mozzies about the south-west, and Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun has been providing daily updates to social media on the situation.
Sydney Water said in a statement that it has taken immediate action, including herbicide spraying, larvicide deployment, helicopter spraying, and aquatic vegetation removal.
Operational staff and licenced contractors have deployed boats, helicopters, excavators, and other specialised machinery to clear around half of the aquatic material contributing to mosquito breeding.
These measures are starting to reduce mosquito populations around the Liverpool Water Resource Recovery Facility. Sydney Water staff are on the ground talking directly with customers in the impacted areas.
It said the mosquito impact is “expected to improve significantly over the next two weeks”.
Abbott defends Rudd after deleted tweets about Trump
The former prime minister Tony Abbott has defended Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd for his now-deleted tweets about Donald Trump.
Among the deleted comments, Rudd had in 2020 described Trump as “the most destructive president in history”.
On an episode of his podcast Australia’s Future with Tony Abbott, the former PM defended Rudd and said it would be “unusual for our closest ally to start being prescriptive about who can and can’t be our ambassador”.
Sure, Rudd has said some injudicious things about the incoming president, but a lot of people have. A lot of people, including a lot of people on my side of politics here in Australia, have said I think injudicious and ill-advised [things] about president Trump.
I’ve always taken the view that the American president is the leader of the free world. In effect he’s our president as well as the American president. And we should be careful, very careful, about public criticism of an American president – or indeed an American ex-president. Certainly, if we have to disagree let’s disagree on politics rather than the personalities.
Abbott also said that whatever you think of Rudd, “you couldn’t say that the guy is not hyper active”.
I am confident that Kevin has been hyper active on our behalf as he sees it in Washington. So I would be surprised if there is any pressure from the Americans to change our ambassador. I have no reason to think that Kevin is not doing a good job at present. He will do whatever he humanly can to win over senior people in the incoming administration. And he’s already done everything he humanly can to row back his previous ill-advised remarks about the incoming president.
Peter Hannam
Wages data today likely to mark one year of pay rising faster than headline inflation
Australia’s workers should receive some good news later today with ABS data likely to show wages have risen faster than the annual headline inflation rate for four consecutive quarters.
Economists are expecting the wage price index will have risen 0.9% for the September quarter alone and 3.6% from the same quarter a year ago.
Compare that increase with the 0.2% gain in the headline consumer price index numbers for the quarter and 2.8% annual rise – as we saw a couple of weeks ago – and it would be a big surprise if wages were advancing at a faster clip.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, as it happens has a speech in Sydney starting about 90 minutes after the wage price index figures land at 11.30am.
In the US it has been difficult for the Biden administration (and losing Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris) to get voter “cut-through” with real income gains. So it’ll be understandable for Chalmers to talk up any positive signs of the cost of living crunch easin, with an Australian federal election looming over the next six months.
(As we noted here recently, there are some indications of things improving.)
Anyway, stay tuned for the numbers to land here later this morning.
Wrap of commentary on US-Australia relationship this morning
There’s been much talk this morning about the Australia-US relationship under a second Trump presidency, and the future of Kevin Rudd’s role as ambassador after his now-deleted tweets.
In case you missed it: opposition leader Peter Dutton said Rudd had “an incredible work ethic, but he’s made disparaging comments, and that’s an issue for for the government to deal with”. Dutton said:
Following [Rudd’s] term, that’s an issue for the government of the day to decide who would be in that role. I think Joe Hockey, for example, did a great job when he was ambassador.
Australia’s former ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos described Trump as a “transactional figure” and suggested he would be focused on the relationship going forward and “it would not be a good look to just suddenly yank the ambassador out.” You can read more earlier in the blog, here.
As we flagged just earlier, a senior Trump adviser has posted a gif of an hourglass in response to Rudd’s congratulation message to the incoming president.
And as AAP reports, Anthony Albanese said he remained optimistic about the trading relationship under a Trump presidency, telling ABC Radio Sydney that he and the president-elect discussed trade in their first phone call.
I pointed out the United States has a trade surplus with Australia so it’s in the United States’ interest that they trade fairly with Australia. The United States is a major investor here in Australia [and] that investment creates economic activity and creates jobs.
‘Nurses and midwives are more than disappointed with this government’
The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association’s secretary, Shaye Candish, has spoken with ABC News Breakfast amid the strike action, which began this morning.
The union has been negotiating with the state government since April, with the government not budging on a blanket 10.5% pay rise offered over three years for all NSW public-sector workers. Candish said nurses and midwives were asking for 15% and “it comes at a time when Queensland and Victoria are paid at least 18% above nurses here in NSW”.
Nurses and midwives are more than disappointed with this government. This government committed to sit down in good faith and negotiate on pay and conditions for nurses and midwives, but has not happened … We have been bleeding nurses and midwives and that has been part of the problem.
After the strike ends tomorrow morning, Candish said she hopes “the government comes to the table and finds a way to resolve this issue and put new money on the table”.
That is ultimately where we hope this goes but should that not be the case, our members are determined to continue undertaking action. It will not stop until we are in a situation where members can actually have parity with other states.
Natasha May
School anti-vaping program will teach ‘how to say no’ and to recognise addiction in friends
Continuing from our last post, Mark Butler said kids often vaped thinking it wasn’t harmful:
We know from our research is that teenagers think vaping is harmless. They think smoking’s bad, and they think vaping is a relatively harmless product. … The real facts about vaping [is there are] 200 very harmful chemicals in them.
But also it’s a pathway to smoking … that’s important.
The program goes on to teach them how to say no effectively, how to recognise addiction in friends who might be addicted to vapes and to talk to them about it. It really is an important sort of socialisation about not just how to recognise risky behaviour or risky products like vapes or alcohol or drugs for that matter, but also how to go through the process of resisting peer pressure, resisting temptation, and taking the healthy choice.
Anti-vaping program for schools to begin in 2025
Natasha May
A new anti-vaping program for teenagers will be run in high schools across Australia next year.
The health minister, Mark Butler, gave more details about the program the government in launching today on ABC Brisbane Breakfast:
This is a program targeted at year seven and eight students, a really formative age as you’re starting to be exposed to some of these risky behaviours, but also take decisions about whether you go into them or whether you say no.
The program is a partnership with the University of Sydney who have been working with kids for years in areas of alcohol and illicit drug use and have now reshaped their program to around vaping.
The launch of the program nationally comes after trialling it with about 5,000 high school students over the past year Butler said was “extraordinarily positive” with very high ratings from students.
But also, importantly, teachers who’ve been crying out for some supports, given that they were saying right across the country vaping is now the number one behavioural issue in schools, not just high schools, too in primary schools as well, increasingly, which is just terrifying.
We’re rolling out the programme now to all high schools in 2025. When the new academic year begins, all high schools will be able to do that. And I know they’re really keen to do that because when we opened up the trial, we were just overwhelmed with high schools reaching out to these providers and saying, we want something, we want to be a part of the trial.
Severe thunderstorms forecast to continue across eastern Australia
Severe thunderstorms are expected to continue throughout eastern parts of the country today.
Senior meteorologist Jonathan How from the Bureau of Meteorology said thunderstorms are forecast from northern Queensland through central parts of the state, through much of eastern and inland New South Wales, eastern Victoria and potentially parts of Tasmania.
In Queensland there is the possibility of severe thunderstorms around the southeast, including the border with NSW. How said “isolated very dangerous thunderstorms” could occur in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
In NSW, severe thunderstorms are likely across the north-east – including the Northern Rivers and north of Lismore.
Senior Trump advisor replies to Rudd’s congratulations tweet with hourglass gif
A senior Trump adviser has posted a gif of an hourglass in response to Kevin Rudd’s congratulation message to the incoming president.
In a post to X on 7 November, Rudd – Australia’s ambassador to the US – shared a statement congratulation Donald Trump on his election win. This came as he deleted comments he previously made on X about Trump, saying they did not reflect the view of the Australian government.
Dan Scavino, a senior advisor to Trump, quoted the post with this gif overnight:
Muswellbrook mayor says region has experienced more than 50 earthquakes in three months
The mayor of Muswellbrook Shire council, Jeffrey Drayton, spoke with ABC News Breakfast earlier after the town experienced a 4.1 magnitude earthquake yesterday.
As Kate Lyons reported in yesterday’s blog, the earthquake was the fourth event over magnitude four in three months in the NSW Hunter region – and was likely part of an “earthquake swarm” that has been affecting the region for several months.
Drayton said the region has experienced more than 50 earthquakes in three months:
There doesn’t appear to be as much damage as there was with the first two earthquakes, it was a little bit smaller. It was 4.1 versus 4.9 earlier on. But certainly people felt it and it probably was felt … in a much wider area this time …
The mayor also said residents are reporting to council that their insurance claims are not being accepted:
There’s been a number of stories, you know, stories like … we think the damage is from movement of the earth, but it’s more likely blasting in the mines, so there was obviously an attempt to try and push away that liability … We’ve had some examples of people in the community who are in their 70s and 80s, been paying insurance all their life and tell us they’ve never, ever made a claim.
You can only imagine that people expect the comfort of what insurance brings and certainly when they do need to claim, the insurance companies should be doing the right thing and making sure they accept these claims when they are reasonable and genuine.
Caitlin Cassidy
Ministers write to principals and parents associations about social media age limit
The education minister, Jason Clare, and communication minister, Michelle Rowland, have written to peak principals and parents associations to quell concerns about Labor’s proposed ban of social media to under-16s.
The move to restrict access to social media follows the decision by education ministers last year to ban access to mobile phones in public schools, in line with OECD data indicating boosted academic performance.
Clare said schools were “seeing the difference” from the phone ban.
Ask any teacher, any principal, ask most students and they will tell you this was the right decision. And that it’s making a difference. But when school finishes, students get their phone back and they’re back in that social media cesspit. That’s why setting a minimum age limit for social media is so important.
Pat Murphy, president of the Australian Government Primary Principals Association, said more than half of his body’s students in years five and six were regularly using social media sites.
Our students are facing unprecedented challenges with social media influencing their self-esteem, relationships, and concentration in the classroom. With social media’s constant comparisons and pressures, many primary school students feel overwhelmed, and they are not mature enough to deal effectively with these pressures.
Man charged with murder of 75-year-old man
A man has been charged with murder after the body of a 75-year-old man was found at Parkes at the weekend.
The man’s body was discovered inside a home on Alluvial Street about 1.40pm last Sunday. Officers established a crime scene and following inquiries, a 28-year-old man was arrested at a home in Tullamore – about 100km north-west of Parkes – yesterday.
He was taken to Parkes Police Station where he was charged with murder. He has been refused bail to appear at Parkes Local court today.