Australia news live: Penny Wong arrives in China for talks; vandalism of ancient Nullarbor Plain cave art ‘shocking’ | Australia news
SA minister condemns ‘shocking’ vandalism of ancient Indigenous cave art
Kyam Maher, South Australia’s minister for Aboriginal affairs and attorney general, has condemned the vandals who have destroyed sacred Aboriginal cave art.
Adelaide Now reported this week that vandals have destroyed 30,000-to-40,000-year-old Nullarbor Plain cave art that is sacred to the Mirning people of the Great Australian Bight:
Traditional owners have been left “devastated” by the destruction of “fluting” designs carved into chalk limestone walls in Koonalda Cave, which is protected by locked steel gates.
Maher spoke to ABC Radio this morning saying the perpetrators deliberately vandalised the “irreplaceable art,” going through barbed wire to do so.
It is a shocking thing.
Describing what occurred, Maher said:
From what I’ve been told and shown photos, on the very soft rock inside the cave, the vandals finger fluted, used their finger and drawn on top of very old art work.
Maher said that at the very least there was a penalty for breaching the Aboriginal Heritage Act, but that the penalties could be more severe.
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NSW parliament recalled today
The New South Wales parliament has been recalled to enable the federal government to enact new laws to lower the cost of power bills, as Labor and the Greens try urgently to pass laws to provide relief to renters.
Legislation was passed by the federal government last week to put downward pressure on power bills, but requires legislation by the states to come into full effect.
Premier Dominic Perrottet said MPs would be recalled to debate amendments to an existing bill.
The parliament disbanded last month ahead of the 25 March election.
The bill allows the government to force coal companies to cap prices at $125 a tonne and gas companies at $12 a gigajoule.
Australians can expect to pay about $230 less on their power bills once the laws come into effect, about midway through next year.
Until then, power bills will likely continue to rise.
The premier, who is on leave, will return to help get the legislation through the parliament.
MPs who are unavailable or on leave have been granted pairs, allowing them to be absent without any repercussions.
– from AAP
Public memorial for Queensland constables starting in half hour
Eden Gillespie
Thousands of people are expected to attend a public memorial service today to honour the lives of two young Queensland officers who were murdered in a premeditated attack last week.
Rachel McCrow, 26, and Matthew Arnold, 29, were showered with bullets during an ambush at a Wieambilla property. They had arrived with two other officers to investigate a missing person’s report.
Both officers had recently graduated from the police academy – Const Arnold in 2020 and Const McCrow in 2021.
The Boondall Entertainment Centre in Brisbane will hold the event, which begins at 10am AEST. The event will be broadcast on free-to-air TV and live-streamed at King George Square in Brisbane, Townsville Stadium, Mackay Entertainment Centre, Chinchilla Country Hope Church, Dalby Event Centre and Tara Memorial Hall.
Guardian Australia will also be on the ground and live-blogging the event.
Thousands of police officers will then form a guard of honour after the service to pay respects.
A private funeral will be held on Friday for Alan Dare, who was also killed in the shooting.
Vehicle kills 11-year-old in NT
A vehicle struck an 11-year-old child yesterday around a shopping centre in the Northern Territory city of Palmerston.
Police and St John Ambulance attended the scene but the child was unable to be revived.
Northern Territory police said:
The 54-year-old driver was arrested for the purpose providing a blood sample and has been released pending further investigation.
The family of the child is being provided support.
Det Snr Sgt Brendan Lindner said:
This is a tragic incident and major crash detectives are currently investigating the cause of the crash.
We urge all motorists to take care over the holiday period.
Morning Mail: conspiracists build Wieambilla alternate reality, Victory fans banned, Azealia Banks ‘disgrace’
The morning mail put together gives you all the important stories at home and overseas in one digestible read.
A couple of the stories Martin Farrer has highlighted:
Get across all of them here:
SA minister condemns ‘shocking’ vandalism of ancient Indigenous cave art
Kyam Maher, South Australia’s minister for Aboriginal affairs and attorney general, has condemned the vandals who have destroyed sacred Aboriginal cave art.
Adelaide Now reported this week that vandals have destroyed 30,000-to-40,000-year-old Nullarbor Plain cave art that is sacred to the Mirning people of the Great Australian Bight:
Traditional owners have been left “devastated” by the destruction of “fluting” designs carved into chalk limestone walls in Koonalda Cave, which is protected by locked steel gates.
Maher spoke to ABC Radio this morning saying the perpetrators deliberately vandalised the “irreplaceable art,” going through barbed wire to do so.
It is a shocking thing.
Describing what occurred, Maher said:
From what I’ve been told and shown photos, on the very soft rock inside the cave, the vandals finger fluted, used their finger and drawn on top of very old art work.
Maher said that at the very least there was a penalty for breaching the Aboriginal Heritage Act, but that the penalties could be more severe.
Long delays on M7 at Prestons in Sydney
Traffic is banked up on the M7 in Sydney. Chanel 7 is reporting that a truck crash has caused the long delays.
🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨
A truck has crashed on the M7 at Prestons in Sydney causing long delays, with drivers being advised to seek alternate routes. pic.twitter.com/Yjiv9eANMI— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) December 20, 2022
Leavers said the public support for police had been “overwhelming”.
They’re sharing their emotions and their grief because they believe this should never have happened.
It’s really important for us to have that public support. It inspires us to continue to do our job.
Leavers said he had noticed a toll on officers since the shooting, with many questioning “should I have gone to that job … should it have been me?”
They’ve also lost two colleagues … so they are hurting incredibly.
A lot of work to be done to assist them as we move into the future because the pain will never go away.
He said some police had woken up as early as 3.30am to make it to the memorial service in Brisbane today.
Queensland police union wants to see national gun register
Leavers said he “absolutely” wanted to see the state and federal governments come together to create a national gun register.
Leavers said currently there were “clunky” state-based systems which did not speak to each other. He said we needed “one simple system that’s across the country, so police have all available information”.
Leavers also said the Queensland Police Union had received support from both the state premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and the opposition leader for the union’s proposal to buy the site of the Wieambilla shooting.
They see the sense and they see what we are trying to achieve here in obtaining this location so it can be used for good.
‘Large show of emotion’ expected at Brisbane memorial for police after shooting
Ian Leavers, the president of the Queensland Police Union, is speaking to ABC Radio ahead of the memorial which will be held in Brisbane for constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow, killed in the Wieambilla shooting last week.
He is giving more details about what we can expect from the memorial, where he says 8,000 people are expected to attend.
Their casks will be put side by side. It will symbolise they worked together and they died together.
He said there will be eulogies from colleagues, family and friends as well as limited speeches from dignitaries.
Following the memorial, there will be a 1.5km-long honour guard, led by police pipes and drums, police dogs and other units.
Leavers said:
This will mean so much to the families and communities.
I expect a large show of emotion.
Bushfire warnings for Queensland’s Western Downs
Residents of Tara in the Western Downs region of Queensland have been told to “prepare to leave” due to bushfire warnings.
Rudd ‘can help avert war’: Bob Carr on former PM’s appointment as US envoy
Bob Carr, the former Australian foreign minister and former premier of NSW, is speaking to ABC Radio following former PM Kevin Rudd’s appointment as ambassador to the US.
When the announcement was made yesterday, Carr took to social media with a statement that “Rudd is right for Washington”.
Carr said Rudd’s knowledge of Taiwan gives him the authority to argue a case for the cross-strait status quo, guardrails, off-ramps.
Putting it bluntly: he can help avert war.
This morning, Carr told ABC Radio he had advocated for Rudd’s appointment because:
This is an argument about access – Kevin Rudd will have access to all levels of political leadership in Washington that a more conventional appointment would not be able to.
Kevin Rudd will have meetings because his American contacts think they will learn from his expertise on China.
For Australia our biggest diplomatic priority has got to be to see there is not a war between China and the US. Rudd, with his knowledge of diplomacy over the Taiwan Strait, brings value.
A strong personality is going to be an asset.
NSW driver charged over flood deaths
A 41-year-old man has been charged with manslaughter after two men travelling in the tray of his ute died when he drove into floodwaters in south-west New South Wales.
Emergency services were called to the Preston Creek Causeway on Rugby Road at Bevendale, west of Goulburn, around 11.15pm on 31 October following reports a ute had been swept into flood waters.
Two men who were in the cabin of the ute managed to swim to safety, but two others – aged 30 and 32 – who were travelling in the tray of the ute were swept downstream.
Their bodies were found in November downstream from the causeway.
Following an NSW police investigation, a 41-year-old man from Guildford was arrested at Merrylands police station on Tuesday.
He was charged with two counts of manslaughter, two counts of dangerous driving causing death and one count of driving while suspended.
He was refused bail to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday.
– from AAP
SA flooding set to be highest most people have seen ‘in their lifetime’
Joe Szakacs, South Australia’s emergency services minister, spoke to ABC News Breakfast about the state’s looming flood threat along the River Murray.
The river is peaking somewhere just outside of the South Australian/Victorian border at the moment and we’re expecting a peak to come through the Riverland in Renmark some time on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, a very tough Christmas Day for that community. And we will progressively see peak heights come through the system in the west thereafter.
The peaks that we’re currently modelling have been consistent for a number of weeks now. Some are in those 190 to 220 gigalitre range and the heights themselves do vary somewhat across communities because there is significant infrastructure and vegetation differences between now and previous major flooding events. But the heights that we’re expecting in communities are now likely to be somewhere closer to the 1931 flood peaks, so very much the highest water that most people in South Australia have seen in their lifetime.
The government has also closed down the river to non-essential activity.
Largely this has been done for safety reasons. The first is, of course, the safety of people who are in water or on water. There is as much water coming through the Murray on a daily basis as the entire South Australian community uses in potable water every year. So the flows themselves are quite extraordinary.
But secondly – there has been a significant and consolidated approach to building levees across and repairing levees across the whole of the River Murray. And the last thing we want to see is onwater activity compromise or degrade or erode those flood protections that we have built and repaired to protect river and Murray land community.
‘It’s very good to be here in China’: Wong touches down in Beijing
Here’s what the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, had to say on her arrival in China, which is the first time an Australian minister has stepped foot in the country in three years:
It’s very good to be here in China after quite a long time between visits. Can I acknowledge and thank the government of the People’s Republic of China for the invitation to be here so that we can spend the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our countries. I look forward to the meetings discussing many of the issues that are important to us.
She said the mark of the success of the trip “is the dialogue itself.”
We obviously have a lot of issues to work through, and dialogue is the prerequisite for working through them.
Prior to her departure yesterday, Wong said it would help the relationship if China released detained Australians Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun. Arriving in Beijing, Wong couldn’t say how hopeful she was of their release but affirmed her commitment to continue to advocate for them.
Asked about any signs the trade sanctions could be lifted on products like Australians seafood, Wong reiterated “what I’ve said to minister Wang Yi”.
We believe it’s in the interest of both countries for the trade impediments to be removed.
You can read more about the significance of the visit from my colleague Daniel Hurst:
Good morning!
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, as touched down in Beijing in a visit that coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Whitlam government establishing diplomatic ties between our two nations. Trade bans and the fate of detained Australians will be on the agenda.
On arriving in China, Wong said the mark of the success of the trip “is the dialogue itself”.
She said she would continue to advocate for detained Australians and that it was in the interest of both countries to see trade sanctions lifted.
You can read more about the reception from Chinese media which Wong received from our foreign affairs correspondent Daniel Hurst:
A man who drove a ute through a flood causeway in south-west New South Wales has been charged with manslaughter following the deaths of the two men travelling in the tray.
Victoria police said the two men, who were in the cabin, managed to swim to safety and contact emergency services, but the other two men – aged 30 and 32 – travelling in the tray of the ute were swept downstream with the utility.
Their bodies were located in November further downstream from the causeway, and following what police say were “extensive enquiries” a 41-year-old man from Guildford was arrested about 10am yesterday.
NSW police said:
He was charged with two counts of manslaughter and two counts of dangerous driving causing death and one count of drive while suspended.
A memorial service with full police honours will be held in Brisbane today for constables Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow, killed in the Wieambilla shooting last week. Thousands are expected to attend the service, and there will also be live viewing sites set up across the state.
Let’s kick off!
