Measures to curb NDIS growth up for negotiation, says Watt

Thousands of Victoria Police officers will try to reduce state government takings from high-yield speed cameras as part of industrial action sparked by an ongoing pay dispute.

Nearly 18,000 officers across the state began to strike at 7am on Sunday after 99 per cent of Police Association of Victoria members who took part in a recent ballot voted to take industrial action.

The union and the police force have been locked in five months of negotiation over a new enterprise agreement for a 4 per cent pay rise and better working conditions, such as nine-hour shifts.

The previous agreement was struck in 2019 and expired on Thursday.

Union secretary Wayne Gatt said the state’s police officers were overworked and undervalued.

“If the government wants to attack the bottom lines of my members’ household, we’ll attack theirs, by placing police cars beside the highest yielding speed cameras in the state to warn motorists to slow down before they are forced to contribute to the state’s revenue,” he said.

“Members will also be telling the government and the community how they’re feeling, by scrawling messages on police vehicle windows about the challenges of the job they do and why they deserve to be paid for it.”

The union has planned 19 simultaneous actions by officers as part of the strike.

Mr Gatt said officers were not making unreasonable demands of the government.

“They deserve to be paid for the work they do and not be expected to work unpaid overtime every shift,” he said.

“They deserve the right to see their families more and to have enough money in their pockets to actually take care of them.”

A political stoush is brewing over expanding a detention regime that keeps terrorist offenders behind bars to also cover recently released immigration detainees.

New laws would extend the preventative detention regime in place for terrorists that allows people to be detained after completing their sentence if they’re deemed a risk to the community.

It’s an attempt to lock up some of the recently released detainees after the High Court ruled indefinite immigration detention was illegal.

The government will introduce the legislation this week and the principle is supported by the opposition.

Labor frontbencher Murray Watt said the laws would be robust and legally sound after the High Court’s ruling.

“What we want to make sure is that the worst of the worst of these people who’ve been released into the community are detained, but that’s done so in a constitutional way that stands up in court,” he told Sky News on Sunday.

The current regime only applied to “a fairly small number” of people as it was focused on those who were the greatest risk to the community and the new laws would do the same, he said.

“That decision ultimately will need to be made by the court,” he added when asked how many of the more than 140 released detainees the laws would cover.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the detention regime needed to be as strong as possible and apply to as many detainees as possible.

Mr Tehan also called for the government to re-engage with third countries to take members of the cohort.

“The High Court has made it clear, if there are real prospects that these people can be removed overseas, they can be detained,” he said.

“So we want tough preventive detention laws, and we want the government to get going again on trying to find countries to deport these detainees to.”

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the government’s handling of the ordeal had been appalling after failing to adequately draft laws and whipping up fear.

“This is knee-jerk, hysteria policymaking, it’s a moral panic that’s been designed,” she told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“There is a race to the bottom here, this is all about making refugees and migrants a group in our community that people are afraid of.”

She also branded the debate about immigration policy revolting, dangerous and a risk to social cohesion.

An almost week-long deluge of floods and thunderstorms is finally set to ease after communities in the eastern states were battered by heavy rain and winds.

Heavy rain pelted parts of Sydney, including hail in Parramatta and Eastwood, sparking 200 calls for help to the NSW State Emergency Service on Saturday night.

Thousands of festival-goers at the Good Things alternative music event were told to evacuate Centennial Park as the thunderstorm swept into Sydney’s eastern suburbs about 9.30pm.

About 7.30pm on Saturday the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall, damaging winds and large hailstones in parts of NSW.

The warning has since been cancelled, but Sydney can expect a high chance of showers on Sunday afternoon and evening with the chance of a thunderstorm.

A lingering low-pressure trough has brought showers and thunderstorms to eastern and southern areas, causing rivers to flood, with some people needing to be rescued.

The trough is expected to move offshore late on Sunday and into Monday, bringing relief.

Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms across the NSW-Victorian border area are expected to ease and move eastwards throughout the day.

Flood warnings for Victoria’s Thomson and Avon rivers have been downgraded, but moderate renewed rises were possible with further rainfall.

Parts of eastern Victoria are predicted to record rainfalls of 100mm across the weekend on top of the 200mm to 300mm received since Wednesday.

Labor cabinet minister Murray Watt says measures to rein in the spiralling cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be up for negotiation when premiers meet for national cabinet this week.

The Albanese government is trying to shift the NDIS onto a sustainable financial footing after the annual cost blew out to $42 billion, growing about 20 per cent a year over the past three years.

“Clearly there is an issue with the amount of increased spending around the NDIS,” Mr Watt said on Sunday morning.

“It is being increased at an incredibly high rate, and it is something that, for budget discipline, we need to manage sensibly.

“One of the issues we have seen over time, we have seen all the costs for providing services to people with disability, moving increasingly towards the NDIS and away from things like schools and transport and other things which the states have traditionally funded.

“So there’s got to be a discussion with the states about how we can continue to provide sustainable funding for the NDIS … We’re very proud of it and we want to support it. And the way we need to do that is to make sure that it is sustainable in the long term.”

NSW Shadow Minister for Health Matt Kean has poured cold water on federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s push for nuclear power, saying the technology will not be ready for years.

“Look, I think nuclear does have a role to play in our energy mix,” Mr Kean told Sky News radio on Sunday morning. “The question is, when will the technology be available?

“Peter Dutton has rightly said that there’s interesting technology being developed around small modular nuclear reactors that technology is a while away. Of course, we should be open to all forms of energy that will deliver cheaper, cleaner and more reliable electricity. We know that small modular nuclear reactors have some potential. They’re not going to be ready until the end of the next decade.”

Mr Kean, who is attending the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, added: “In the meantime, we need to get on with rolling out technology that will deliver cheaper energy bills, help us grow our economy, and also help us meet our commitments to delivering a planet that’s better for our children.

“So that’s something that we should be rolling out currently but, obviously, with a mind to the future, we should be interested in technologies that could also help us with our heavy industry, and help us delivering cheaper energy for families and businesses across the nation.”

The COP28 climate summit can show Australia has changed on climate change, says the Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management, Murray Watt.

“[Climate Change Minister] Chris Bowen is there representing the government at the moment, and it’s a good opportunity for us to demonstrate to the world that Australia has changed when it comes to climate change,” Watt told Sky News radio on Sunday morning.

“It’s something that we’re taking seriously. We’re investing in trying to get us to a renewable future as quickly as we can to provide cheaper and cleaner energy for Australians and that of course is relevant for natural disasters as well.

“We did see the fire outlook issued this week for summer, and it’s still a very concerning picture of the map in Australia with lots of the country facing above-average fire risk.

“The rain that we’ve had recently has certainly taken some of the immediate pressure out when it comes to bushfires. But with hot and dry conditions expected over the next couple of months we will be in for a difficult season, and that’s why we’ve been doing so much work over the last few months to be prepared.”

The Albanese government has thrown its weight behind a flurry of declarations and initiatives at the COP28 climate summit, despite being one of the few countries not to field a political heavyweight at the conference’s all-star opening plenary.

Australia joined 100-plus countries signing up for headline declarations on renewed climate action in farming and healthcare, and also backed a pledge to triple the world’s renewable energy generation capacity by 2030.

The Albanese government also swung behind the formal launch of the 36-country Climate Club, which will be serviced by the OECD in Paris. Its members are ultimately looking to work more closely in policy lockstep, rather than in a disjointed or competitive way.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not join more than 160 other leaders at the summit. But the government still hopes to co-host COP31 in 2026 with the Pacific countries, and is keen to be perceived globally as a good climate citizen.

The renewable energy pledge, which was signed by 116 nations and also came with a commitment to double the rate of average annual improvements in energy efficiency, was feted by climate activists. They said it could help tilt the COP28 outcome more towards green energy and away from fossil fuels.

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Sir Keir Starmer heaped praise on Margaret Thatcher for effecting “meaningful change” in Britain as he launched an explicit appeal to Conservative voters to switch to Labour.

In his most audacious bid yet to woo centre-Right support, reminiscent of the New Labour years, the Labour leader accused the Tories of a “betrayal” of their promises to control migration.

In a shift from his staunch opposition to Britain’s departure from the EU before becoming leader, Sir Keir added that the Conservatives have “failed to realise the possibilities of Brexit”.

Writing for The Telegraph, he praised Mrs Thatcher for “setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism” and warned that public was again fed up with politicians “hectoring”.

His intervention is likely to fuel Tory MPs’ concerns about disillusionment among many 2019 Conservative voters with the government’s approach to key areas such as immigration, inflation and crime.

It comes as Rishi Sunak prepares to decide how radical an approach to take with a new law to secure deportation flights to Rwanda before the next election.

A plan – a radical version of which would allow ministers to ignore the European Convention on Human Rights with regard to asylum – could be finalised within 24 hours and put to the Cabinet as soon as Tuesday.

The Biden administration on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the US oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming as President Joe Biden seeks to advance his climate legacy.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the rule will sharply reduce methane and other harmful air pollutants generated by the oil and gas industry, promote use of cutting-edge methane detection technologies and deliver significant public health benefits in the form of reduced hospital visits, lost school days and even deaths. Air pollution from oil and gas operations can cause cancer, harm the nervous and respiratory systems and contribute to birth defects.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan and White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi announced the final rule at the UN climate conference in the United Arab Emirates. Separately, the president of the climate summit announced on Saturday that 50 oil companies representing nearly half of global production have pledged to reach near-zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in their operations by 2030.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the top American representative at the summit, said the US and other nations must act boldly to confront the fallout from climate change.

“The urgency of this moment is clear,” Ms Harris said. “The clock is no longer just ticking. It is banging. And we must make up for lost time.”

The US rule on methane emissions is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration that includes financial incentives to buy electric vehicles and upgrade infrastructure – spending that Ms Harris said would total roughly $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) over 10 years.

Oil and gas operations are the largest industrial source of methane, the main component in natural gas and far more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term. It is responsible for about one-third of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Sharp cuts in methane emissions are a global priority to slow the rate of climate change and are a major topic at the conference, known as COP28.