Australia news live: SA algal bloom a climate change ‘wake-up call’, ex-treasury head says

Can Australia reach its 2029 housing construction target?

Australia will have to build housing at a significantly faster rate than it has in the last couple of decades to meet the government’s target of 1.2m new homes between June 2024 and 2029.

To hit the target we need about 240,000 new dwellings every year, and new data shows we are already falling behind. The most recent State of the Housing System report predicts we will fall short of the target by more than 260,000 homes, an even bigger miss than was predicted the year before.

See the “one big chart”, devoted to the housing target, here:

Woman faces court accused of murder of seven-month-old son

A mother has faced court accused of the murder of her seven-month-old son in what police allege is a domestic violence homicide.

Jacinta Beth Sells briefly appeared in the Western Australian magistrates court today, AAP reports.

The 31-year-old allegedly murdered her son in the early hours of Monday at the family’s home in the suburb of Balcatta, in Perth’s northern suburbs.

Police and paramedics were called to the residence about 3am after reports of a serious assault.

The lifeless infant was found with critical injuries, believed to be stab wounds, and declared dead at the scene.

Parks and Wildlife crews escort stray humpback in Sydney Harbour

The New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service, the Port Authority and Transport for NSW are urging all vessels on Sydney Harbour to take care and give a stray humpback whale “plenty of space”.

A spokesperson for NPWS says the humpback whale in Sydney Harbour is being escorted by a NPWS crew to make sure it, and the public, are safe.

NPWS crews have been out in small boats moving alongside the whale as it swims freely in the harbour, they say. Bright orange buoys were attached to a line between the two crews to draw the attention of other vessels and to alert them that the whale is nearby.

“This is done to avoid any accidental collisions and to keep the animal safe in this very busy city harbour,” they say.

At this stage, there is nothing to suggest the whale is injured or entangled, it appears to have just taken a detour on its journey north. We expect it will leave the harbour when it is ready, and thank everyone for their cooperation.

The service says about 40,000 humpback whales are now on their annual migration from Antarctica to Queensland.

Thank you Nick Visser. I’m Daisy Dumas and I’ll be with you for the remainder of today’s live news coverage – including humpback whale updates, of course.

That’s all for me. Whale aficionado Daisy Dumas will be your blog guide for the rest of the afternoon. Take care.

Sydney’s most curious nautical visitor has now made its way over to Balmoral on the city’s north shore.

The sub-adult humpback was first spotted in Sydney Harbour at about 8am today and has swum close to Fort Denison, Circular Quay, Garden Island and Watsons Bay since.

Whale expert Dr Vanessa Pirotta, who is on a New South Wales Maritime boat shadowing the creature, said the animal was highly inquisitive and appeared to be relaxed.

Just now, it was seen swimming close to a paddle boarder with onlookers watching on from Balmoral beach in the background.

Pirotta told Guardian Australia:

This whale continues to surprise me. It’s just hanging out and in such shallow water – I’d expect this from a southern right whale, not a humpback whale.

More than 400 drones fall into Yarra River during Women’s World Cup light show – video

Here’s a video of the moment all those drones fell from back in 2023.

NSW police seek information after major Sydney tunnel shut down during car fire

A major arterial road tunnel in Sydney was closed for about an hour this morning after a car caught fire, but police are now searching for the drivers of the vehicle after saying drugs were found inside.

NSW police said emergency services responded to reports a silver Audi was on fire in the M5 tunnel in Sydney at around 6.20am. Two occupants reportedly left the vehicle and walked out of the tunnel before Fire and Rescue NSW arrived to extinguish the fire. All eastbound lanes and one westbound lane were closed until about 7.50am, prompting major traffic delays.

Police allege officers later found methamphetamine and cannabis inside the car. They are appealing for information about the occupants, noting the vehicle was not reported stolen.

Strong winds blamed for 427 drones falling into Yarra River during Women’s World Cup light show

Strong winds have been blamed for more than 400 drones that fell from the sky into Melbourne’s Yarra River during a light show celebrating the Matildas before the Women’s World Cup.

The light show, using 500 Damoda drones, was scheduled for the evening of 14 July 2023 over the river in Docklands, in Melbourne’s CBD.

The drones, part of a show celebrating Australia’s women’s football team, launched at 6.30pm. Less than two minutes later many began showing critical errors indicating an autopilot failure, according to an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report into the incident, released this week.

Read more here:

Childcare educator workloads include many unpaid hours, impacting quality of care, study finds

Childcare educators are spending only two-and-a-half hours of undistracted time per day with children due to heavy workloads and unpaid hours, according to an Australian-first study.

AAP reports the study, published on Wednesday, also found more than three-quarters of educators work an average of nine unpaid hours per week, directly impacting the quality of care they can give to children.

University of Sydney lead researcher Erin Harper said the findings paint a stark picture of a sector in crisis:

Many educators said they spend a lot of time working away from children in their care and are often interrupted by multi-tasking, administrative work, or cleaning duties.

The research, which surveyed 570 educators, indicates unpaid hours make up a significant portion of the overall workload.

Henry was just asked about the devastating toxic algal bloom in South Australia that has fouled beaches and devastated marine life over the last few months. Henry said the event was not an early warning of the impacts of climate change, but a late one that scientists had been warning of for decades.

He told the National Press Club:

It’s well past time that we, and others in the world, dealt properly with the threats of climate change and the warming of the oceans. …

It’s another wake-up call, but it’s not an early wake-up call. We should have been well awake decades ago. And of course, some people were. Some people were awake decades ago, and were calling for action decades ago. And I think that that is how we should treat this.

Read more here:

Ken Henry, ex-treasury head, says ‘of course’ Australia needs a carbon tax

Ken Henry, the former treasury secretary who now leads the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, is speaking before the National Press Club, where he was just asked if it was time for the nation to reconsider the need for a carbon tax. He had this to say:

It still boggles the mind that we had the world’s best carbon policy, and then, for purely political reasons, decided that we could afford to do without it. A country that’s capable of creating the best and then decides that it doesn’t need anything at all – well, my God. Of course we need a carbon tax.

But in the meantime, we’ve got something else, and we’ve got to make this something else work … I am not of the view that without a carbon tax we should give up. Clearly I am not of that view and that’s why I’m here. We’ve got to make what we’ve got work.

Read more here: