Personnel increase, but no ship to Red Sea: Marles

A $3000 subsidy for buyers of new electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be scrapped from January 1 by the South Australian government.

The scrapping of the subsidy was announced on Thursday by SA Treasurer Stephen Mullighan as part of a mid-year budget update. He said the measure would save $12 million and came after the Federal government made large changes to electric car incentives through fringe benefits tax exemptions.

The SA government is forecasting a surplus of $154 million for 2023-24, compared with a forecast of a $250 million surplus made in its June budget.

It lifted its projections for inflation by one percentage point to 4.75 per cent for 2023-24. Mullighan said house values had “held up beyond Treasury’s expectations” and so the estimated stamp duty take for 2023-24 has been revised up by $110 million to $1.09 billion.

European leaders have ridden the wave of populist pressure on immigration, with the European Union and France setting down heavily beefed-up measures to deter and remove migrants.

The EU on Wednesday ended an epic 27-country wrangle with a set of measures that some leaders lauded as “historic” and “a major breakthrough”. The new rules would quickly shift illegal migrants into detention centres, process their claims within 12 weeks then rapidly deport those whose bids fail.

Meanwhile, the French parliament passed a law that looks to put a dampener on legal migration: it introduces immigration quotas, restricts migrants’ access to some welfare benefits, and makes it harder for the children of migrants to become French citizens.

French President Emmanuel Macron had to toughen up the law – at risk of fracturing his own centre-right coalition – to get the support of resurgent populist leader Marine Le Pen and her MPs. She hailed the vote as “an ideological victory”.

The two sets of measures come as an economic downturn and rising living costs have spurred resentment towards migrants, fuelling support for populist and far-right politicians.

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Israel’s campaign to root out Hamas from the Gaza Strip needs to shift from a large-scale military attack to a more precise operation that will reduce the toll on Palestinian civilians, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said.

“It’s clear that the conflict will move – and needs to move – to a lower-intensity phase,” the top US diplomat told reporters on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) in Washington. “And we expect to see, and want to see, a shift to more targeted operations, with a smaller number of forces, that’s really focused in on dealing with the leadership of Hamas, the tunnel network and a few other critical things.”

Blinken’s comments added fresh weight to Biden administration efforts to prod Israel to end the wide-scale destruction it has conducted in Gaza in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas that Israel says left 1200 people dead. Almost 19,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

At the same time, US officials have resisted telling Israel what to do – at least publicly. Speaking at a briefing in Tel Aviv on Monday, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US would not “dictate timelines or terms” to Israel, but could provide insight on counterterrorism operations and transitioning to “more surgical operations”.

Blinken, who said previously that there was a “gap” between US expectations for civilian protection and the reality of Israel’s conduct, said on Wednesday that the reduced intensity of Israeli operations would see “the harm done to civilians also decrease significantly”.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, standing alongside Austin on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), said that once the country’s military achieved its aims in a given area of Gaza, “we will be able to transition gradually to the next phase and start working on bringing back local population”.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has said Australia will not send any military hardware to international efforts to guarantee shipping in the Red Sea, but will “almost triple” the number of ADF officers deployed at an international navy headquarters in Bahrain.

“We won’t be sending a ship or a plane,” Marles said on Thursday. “That said, we will be almost tripling our contribution to the Combined Maritime Force.”

Marles reiterated the government’s position that “we need to be really clear around our strategic focus, and our strategic focus is our region – the north-east Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Pacific.

“What comes from the Defence Strategic Review is an urgency around Australia maintaining a strategic focus on our immediate region, and that’s what we will do.”

Australia will send up to six additional defence force officers to the Combined Maritime Force in the New Year to assist a US-led 39-country mission to halt attacks by rebel Houthis in the critical Middle East shipping route.

In addition, it is understood that next year the total number of personnel will double to about 10 under a separate mission known as Operation Manitou, which promotes maritime security and stability in the Middle East and East Africa regions.

Together this will take the total contribution to as many as 16 officers.

Saudi Arabia was conspicuously – perhaps surprisingly – absent from a list of countries the United States announced as part of its new naval coalition protecting Red Sea shipping from Yemen’s Houthi group.

Although it has a US-equipped military, has been waging war on the Houthis for nearly nine years and relies on Red Sea ports for 36 per cent of imports, Saudi Arabia along with Gulf ally the United Arab Emirates has proclaimed no interest in the venture.

The main reason for its absence appears to be a concern that participating would detract from a long-term strategic goal: extricating itself from a messy war in Yemen and a destructive feud with the Houthis’ principal backer, Iran.

The Houthis, who control much of Yemen, have been striking at ships in the Red Sea for weeks in response to Israel’s war with the Palestinian Hamas group in Gaza.

Whether their attacks are having much direct impact on Israel – shipping companies say several targeted vessels were not headed there – their campaign has hit Israel’s Western allies by complicating global trade. On Wednesday, their leader threatened to expand this campaign to US naval vessels.

US officials have avoided saying outright that the two countries will not take part, and spokespeople for both the Saudi and Emirati governments did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the matter.

But whether they are completely uninvolved or have some background role, both countries want to avoid being seen as participants in a campaign that could upset their long-term regional strategy – and turn Arab anger over Gaza against them.

This week’s decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to disqualify former President Donald Trump from holding office again was the first victory for a sprawling legal effort that is still unfolding across the the United States.

At least 16 other states have pending legal challenges to Trump’s eligibility for office under the 14th Amendment, according to a database maintained by Lawfare, a non-partisan site dedicated to national security issues. The lawsuits argue that he is barred because he engaged in an insurrection with his actions surrounding the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

Four of these lawsuits – in Michigan, Oregon, New Jersey and Wisconsin – have been filed in state courts. Eleven lawsuits – in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, New York, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming – have been filed in federal district courts.

Cases in two of these states, Arizona and Michigan, were initially dismissed by a lower court but have been appealed. Another challenge has also been made in Maine.

The Trump campaign has said it will appeal against the ruling in Colorado, in which the state Supreme Court said it would put its decision on hold – meaning that it is not in effect – until January 4, in hopes of receiving guidance from the US Supreme Court.

“We are also cognisant that we travel in uncharted territory, and that this case presents several issues of first impression,” the Colorado justices wrote, noting that their decision could change based on “the receipt of any order or mandate from the Supreme Court”.

If the US Supreme Court agrees to hear the appeal, the Colorado Supreme Court’s hold will be temporarily lifted and Trump will be eligible to be placed on the state’s Republican primary ballot until the nation’s top court reaches a decision, according to the Colorado Department of State.

Such an appeal would also most likely freeze the other lawsuits.

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) it was “self-evident” that former president Donald Trump had supported an insurrection on January 6, 2021, but that the courts would decide whether he should be on the ballot next year.

“It’s self-evident. You saw it all,” Mr Biden said.

He was responding to a reporter’s question about the Colorado Supreme Court decision that said Trump was disqualified from being on the 2024 ballot in the state’s Republican primary because he was part of an insurrection.

Trump is appealing against that decision – which draws on the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution barring anyone from holding office if they have tried to overthrow the government – in the US Supreme Court.

Read more here.

The remote Cape York community of Kowanyama is bracing for major flooding as Queensland’s north continues to feel the impact of ex-tropical cyclone Jasper.

Vulnerable residents have already left Kowanyama but Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy says he is prepared to evacuate the whole town if necessary.

“The advice of the Bureau of Meteorology and the advice from the mayor and the local disaster co-ordination group is that won’t be necessary, but that’s what I’ve planned for,” he said.

He said the community was “well and truly prepared” for the predicted flooding.

The bureau is predicting river levels in the area to reach or exceed major flood levels.

“Our expectation is that the tropical cyclone Jasper will continue to meander around the Gulf of Carpentaria for the next few days,” meteorologist Sue Oates said.

Some areas in the state’s north have had two metres of rain since the system made landfall before being downgraded from a category 2 cyclone to a tropical low.

Hundreds were forced to flee their homes or seek refuge on rooftops as communities were inundated.

The cleanup has begun in Cairns but Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said it was going to be a huge effort.

“We face a really massive clean-up exercise here in far north Queensland,” he said.

“The water, the mud, the smell, it’s going to take a lot of work from a lot of people.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to visit flood-hit areas with the premier on Friday.

The leader of Yemen’s Houthis warned on Wednesday they would strike US warships if the Iranian-backed militia was targeted by Washington, which this week set up a multinational force to counter Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

The Houthis, which control vast amounts of territory in Yemen after years of war, have since last month fired drones and missiles at international vessels sailing through the Red Sea, attacks it says respond to Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.

The US-led security initiative will see Washington and ten other, mostly NATO countries patrol the Red Sea to deter and respond to future Houthi attacks that have so far led to major global shipping lines rerouting around Africa instead.

“We will not stand idly by if the Americans are tempted to escalate further and commit foolishness by targeting our country or waging war against it,” Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said.

“Any American targeting of our country will be targeted by us, and we will make American battleships, interests, and navigation a target for our missiles, drones, and military operations,” he said in a televised speech.

The attacks have disrupted a key trade route that links Europe and North America with Asia via the Suez Canal and caused container shipping costs to rise sharply as companies seek to ship their goods via alternative, often longer, routes.

“As long as the Americans want to enter into a direct war with us, they should know that we are not those who fear them, and that they are facing an entire people,” al-Houthi said.

He warned the Americans against sending soldiers to Yemen, saying they would “face something harsher than what they faced in Afghanistan and what they suffered in Vietnam.”

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham has said that strategic partnerships “cut both ways”, and Australia should send a ship to support a US mission to protect shipping in the Red Sea.

“We encourage visits to our region by the United States and other European partners, and they would not unreasonably expect that it cut both ways,” Birmingham told the ABC’s AM program.

The government declined to join a US-led taskforce in the Red Sea this week, preferring to keep defence assets closer to home, and focus on diplomatic support.

Birmingham said that, despite its distance from Australia, “the Middle East is a region where we have deep interests because of the vast volume of trade between Europe and Asia that flows through [the Red Sea].

“We are an Asian trading nation, and we rely directly or indirectly on our imports and exports.”

Birmingham called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to explain what, if any, operation limitations had prevented the deployment of a ship to the Middle East, or “explain why it is that Australia is missing in action”.