Key events
What we learned – Sunday 30 November
This is where we’ll wrap things up for today, but first a recap of the main events:
We’ll be back with the news blog bright and early tomorrow.
Jordyn Beazley
‘It was to just say we are here’: how kayakers blocked oil tankers at Rising Tide protesters
The Rising Tide protest often feels more like a party than a protest. Thousands have gathered on the beach waving flags calling for climate action, while others watch bands playing on a stage set up in a park that peels back from the beach.
Some among the crowd on the beach are wearing animal costumes, dancing in support of the hundreds of people kayaking in and out of the water while they await their chance to block a coal ship.
Police boats hover just yellow buoys that mark the start of a maritime exclusion zone the NSW government put in place for the duration of the six-day event in an attempt to dissuade anyone from entering the shipping channel.
So far, the protesters have successfully blocked three ships from entering the port. There was an attempt to block a ship earlier on Sunday, but it managed to get through.
65-year-old Alex Barratt, a professor of public health, was among the kayakers who paddled out on Sunday morning and attempted to stop that coal ship.
Our idea was to take the channel, to peacefully protest. We’re really committed to being safe and non-violent, so it was to just say we are here. We want to stop this. So we went out beyond the yellow markers. We kayaked around in the channel … our hope was that we would block the channel for long enough that the ship would not be able to come in.
Barratt was arrested and charged for breaching the exclusion zone. Asked why she decided it was worth being arrested to send her message of wanting Australia to transition away from extracting and exporting fossil fuels, she said:
I’ve tried everything else, and it doesn’t feel like they’re listening.
I can’t abandon my children and everyone else’s children to a future of a destroyed climate. We just have to keep on fighting, even if it feels hopeless.
Ley considers language and values tests under upcoming Coalition migration policy
Krishani Dhanji
Stronger language and values tests could form part of the Coalition’s migration policy, which it will reveal within weeks.
Sussan Ley has promised to make public the Coalition’s migration principles, which she today flagged will include “issues around language and values”.
It was in response to questions on comments from her shadow home affairs minister, Jonathon Duniam, to the Sunday Telegraph that test standards “do need to be improved”.
Speaking to reporters in Tasmania earlier this morning, Ley was pushed on whether the Coalition would implement rules or incentives to get more migrants into regional areas, but she remained tight-lipped, saying the policy would be announced by the end of the year.
Ley also criticised the government for not planning and providing enough infrastructure to house migrants.
This government has not got the balance right. It is not a failure of any migrant or migrant community. It is a massive failure of Labor governments to build the infrastructure we need.
Air New Zealand Airbus planes back in service after emergency recall
Air New Zealand’s chief safety and risk officer, Nathan McGraw, has confirmed all the airline’s planes have received the required software update after A320 Airbus aircraft were recalled yesterday:
All Air New Zealand A320 aircraft currently in operation have now received the required software update, and our fleet has returned to normal operations.
Across the weekend, 27 flights were cancelled while we completed the update process. We would like to thank customers who travelled during this time for their patience. We know changes to travel plans are frustrating, and we are grateful for the understanding shown to our teams as they worked to minimise disruption, complete the updates as quickly as possible, and keep people moving wherever they could.
We do not expect any ongoing impact from the weekend’s disruption, and services are now operating as normal.
Pauline Hanson addresses crowd at Melbourne anti-immigration rally
Stephanie Convery
The One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has addressed the Put Australia First rally, which has set up a speaker truck at Flagstaff Gardens.
“We are all Australians together,” Hanson said, saying she was fighting against “those activists who want to shut us down for who we are”.
Hanson blamed “multiculturalism and globalisation” for “dividing us”, and repeated contested claims that immigration was responsible for housing unaffordability and unemployment.
That’s why you have the problems of getting jobs and the problems that we have in Australia. A lot of that comes from high immigration.
Hanson’s speech was greeted with huge cheers from the small crowd – seemingly about 200 people.
Organiser Monica Smit is in the crowd and was at the front of the rally behind the banner for much of the march. She also attended the event in Sydney yesterday.
Victoria police later said in a statement that:
Approximately 700 attended the planned protest and approximately 500 people attended the counter rally.
Police successfully kept the two opposing groups separate to avoid any violent clashes.
People arrested one person during the day.
The man was arrested on Swanston Street after officers searched him and allegedly located knuckle dusters.
Krishani Dhanji
ABF confirms it has restored system outage affecting airports
The Australian Border Force (ABF) has confirmed it experienced a technical system outage which has now been restored. It’s still investigating the cause of the issue.
In a statement a spokesperson for the ABF thanked travellers for their patience:
The Australian Border Force has been working to restore a technical system outage, impacting passengers nationwide this morning. The issue has been resolved at all airports and all systems are back online. The cause of the technical issue remains under investigation.”
It didn’t provide any more details on the nature of the outage.
Brisbane airport has told Guardian Australia the outage affected two flights – to Auckland and Hong Kong – which were delayed.
A spokesperson for the airport said its operations have now returned to normal.
Systems were impacted for approximately one hour, affecting both inbound and outbound passengers at the International Terminal.
Jess Wilson to remain Victorian shadow treasurer alongside opposition leader
In a highly unusual move as part of the Victorian opposition cabinet reshuffle, the new leader, Jess Wilson, opted to remain shadow treasurer.
Asked how she would carry the load, the opposition leader said she would be working every day and she was the “best person” for the job.
I’m proud to take on the role as shadow treasurer.
Because if we don’t fix the books, the rest of the issues that are facing Victoria will not be able to be fixed.
She also promoted key backer Brad Rowswell to education spokesperson, with the party’s upper house deputy, Evan Mulholland, shifting to transport infrastructure.
Former tennis professional turned Nepean MP Sam Groth, who remained the party’s deputy leader in a tight vote, has returned to his previously held position of major events, sports and tourism.
He will also pick up trade investment but loses public transport, as well ports and freight.
There was no room on the frontbench for former party leader John Pesutto or outspoken upper house MP Moira Deeming.
– AAP
Victorian Liberal leader makes frontbench peace offering to Brad Battin
Victoria’s new Liberal leader has extended an olive branch to the man she toppled, naming him in a reshuffled frontbench, AAP reports.
Under the cover of the opening of Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel, the opposition leader, Jess Wilson, unveiled her shadow cabinet on Sunday after Brad Battin was ousted from the top job earlier in November.
The 35-year-old handed Battin his old role of police and corrections spokesperson. She told reporters:
Brad has so much to offer. As a former police officer … it feels right to put him into that role.
The snap coup against Battin was partly blamed on his inability to prosecute the state government on issues apart from crime.
Former deputy David Southwick was shunted into the portfolios of housing and planning to make space for Battin.
Those roles belonged to Battin’s ally Richard Riordan, who now finds himself out of shadow cabinet. First-term MP Renee Heath was elevated to replace him.
Climate activists stop third coal ship at Port of Newcastle
Jordyn Beazley
Climate activists have stopped a third coal ship from entering the Port of Newcastle during a six-day annual climate protest.
Thousands of people have gathered at Rising Tide’s annual climate protest at the world’s largest coal port. It began on Thursday and will continue until Tuesday.
Just after 1pm on Sunday, dozens of people kayaked into the channel to block a coal ship that was scheduled to pass through the port, while hundreds stood cheering on the beach, chanting “Block the port!”. It was the second ship to be turned around by the group, after another was blocked on Saturday.
A police officer was on the shore warning people via a megaphone that they risked breaching the marine safety act if they entered the channel. The group said police arrested 28 people. It’s not yet known how many were charged.
Greenpeace activists, in support of Rising Tide’s demands, blocked another coal ship earlier on Sunday after three activists allegedly secured themselves to a ship’s anchor ships and the side.
Krishani Dhanji
Nationwide airport technical problem ‘resolved’
Following our last post about a border force systems outage, Melbourne airport has told Guardian Australia that it has been advised that the issue is now resolved.
In a statement, a spokesperson said:
Australian Border Force has advised than an earlier technical issue that affected its border processing systems nationwide has now been resolved.
We are currently prioritising flights to manage passenger flows as we work to ease congestion. We appreciate passengers’ patience as the ABF worked to resolve this issue.
Guardian Australia has contacted Australian Border Force for more details.
Border Force reports nationwide system outage
Krishani Dhanji
International travellers are facing delays at Australian airports. It’s understood Australian Border Force has been experiencing a nationwide system outage.
A Melbourne airport spokesperson has told Guardian Australia it has been affected by the outage, and has been prioritising passengers based on their flights.
We’ve contacted the ABF for more information and we’ll bring you more information as it comes.
It follows dozens of flights being cancelled across Australia yesterday due to a global recall of Airbus A320 planes.
Stephanie Convery
Protesters vastly outnumbered by police at Melbourne anti-immigration rally
There’s a very large police presence in Melbourne’s CBD today. We mentioned earlier that they outnumbered protesters, but the ratio by which they exceed protesters is huge.
We’ve just watched about 100 officers walk up Bourke Street and now they have gathered at the intersection of La Trobe and Queen streets in large numbers, with riot police, horses, cars and trucks to block off what we expect is the leftwing counter protest, coming from the opposite direction to the rally (though from our vantage point we can’t see it).
Pilot dies after midair plane collision in southern Sydney
A pilot has died after a plane crash in Sydney’s south, after two plane collided mid-air, resulting in one of the planes crashing in bushland.
Police say emergency services responded to the reports of a crash in the vicinity of the Napper Field airfield at Wedderburn, near Appin, at 11.50 this morning.
Emergency services say they located the body of the pilot, who is believed to be the sole occupant of the aircraft, while the other plane landed safely at the airfield.
The other pilot was uninjured.
The other plane landed safely at the airfield, and the pilot was uninjured.
Police say officers have secured the two areas, and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) will investigate the cause of the incident.
Police revise down Sydney anti-immigration rally attendance
Police have revised down their crowd estimates at the Put Australia First rally on Saturday – to 100 attenders.
The rally, held at Belmore Park in Sydney’s CBD, was initially estimated to have about 500 attenders.
Today, the police have said there were no more than 100 people in attendance at the rally’s peak. Authorities also confirmed there were no arrests.
Government to crack down on subscription traps and drip pricing
The government will crack down on unfair trading practices, subscription traps and drip pricing, and introduce legislation next year.
These are all things you’re probably familiar with – getting stuck in subscriptions where companies make it difficult to get out, or trying to buy a ticket to an event where the price suddenly jacks up at the checkout because of extra service and processing charges (that’s drip pricing).
Assistant minister for competition, Andrew Leigh, has given a speech today talking about the unfair practices and what the government will do about them. Consultation will begin next year, before the legislation comes a bit later. Leigh said:
Australians should be able to understand what they are paying for, rely on the information presented to them and exercise a genuine choice to enter or leave a service.
The term ‘dark patterns’ emerged to describe design techniques crafted to influence behaviour … These patterns include nudging people into ongoing subscriptions where they wanted a one-off purchase, making it harder to cancel than to sign up, and hiding key information until late in the process. These techniques exploit well-known cognitive biases: loss aversion, optimism bias, inattention and fatigue.
Leigh says the ban on unfair trading practices will focus on cracking down on the underlying conduct that will, “capture practices that unreasonably distort or manipulate a person’s ability to make informed decisions, or that interfere with the exercise of choice.”
Guardian Australia journalist searched without warrant in Melbourne under new extended police powers
Stephanie Convery
A Guardian Australia multimedia journalist – who is wielding a large video camera and mic – has just been patted down and searched for weapons by police while filming at the Put Australia First rally in Melbourne.
Police conducting the search gave her a printed flyer that includes a map of the designated area explaining that until 29 May next year, police and protective services officers have the right to search “you, your vehicle or thing in your possession” for weapons.
Civil liberties groups and human rights advocates have said the extension of these law enforcement powers in the city for such a significant amount of time is a “vast overreach”.
There will be ‘ups and downs’ in public service staffing: Gallagher
Jumping back to Katy Gallagher’s interview this morning on Sky News, the finance and public service minister has been under pressure to explain a directive to all departments to find savings.
What was initially reported as a 5% cut to all departments, Gallagher has said is a directive to find the 5% of lowest priority spending.
The biggest question Labor (who went hard on the Coalition during the last election campaign for pledging thousands of public service job cuts) is facing is whether this will lead to redundancies. Gallagher says there will be “ups and downs” in staffing levels – but that the average staffing level is where it should be.
If you’re asking me, if that 5% exercise that we’re doing is going to result in job losses, I can say … that is not what this exercise is about.
As to whether there are ups and downs, and I’ve said this consistently over the last three years across departments, that will fluctuate a little, but it won’t – as programs come to an end as departments change their what they’re doing – all of that does matter on how many, you know, individual ASL [average staffing level] they have … but broadly across the APS, I would expect the APS to remain largely the same.