atlantisthemes – Decision to scrap net zero commitment shows Nationals profoundly out of touch, critics say – as it happened

And that’s where we’ll leave you this afternoon. Here’s a summary of what learned today:

• Anthony Albanese has said he’d like to see “more cooperation” between China and the US on AI, but felt that the meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping in Korea this week was “an important step forward”.

• The Nationals have unanimously decided to scrap net zero commitments after a party room meeting this morning.

• Nationals leader David Littleproud said he informed Liberal leader Sussan Ley of the details of the policy position the Nationals were considering days ago and she was “fully cognisant” of the proposal.

• Nine people attending a school fair were injured by giant hailstones in a supercell thunderstorm in Queensland yesterday and a woman attending a wedding in Biloela was hospitalised after giant hailstones, rain and destructive winds pummelled parts of Australia’s east on Saturday afternoon.

• The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, defended his current overhaul of environmental laws, including the powers of the minister to still approve projects going ahead on grounds of national interest – even if they are deemed too damaging to the environment.

• The Liberals are “not ruling anything out” when it comes to their revised energy policy – including abandonment of the Paris agreement – shadow minister for the environment, Angie Bell, has said.

• All passengers who were onboard the luxury Coral Adventurer cruise have been disembarked and flown home after the 60-day journey was cancelled after less than a week after the death of passenger Suzanne Rees, aged 80.

Thanks so much for your company this afternoon. Politics Live will be back bright and early tomorrow morning. Until then, look after yourselves.

2,500 homes still without power in Queensland after weekend’s storms

About 2,500 homes remained without power in Queensland this afternoon as the state attempts to recover after wild storms on Saturday.

Representatives for the State Emergency Service told media earlier today that it received about 226 calls in a 24-hour period with 102 requests for assistance. About 90 calls were from the Toowoomba region in the path of the supercell storm activity.

The storm brought power lines down in some parts of Queensland, and hailstones reported to be as large as 7cm.

Acoss says Nationals’ net zero abandonment will harm people in regional Australia

More reaction here to the Nationals’ decision to formally abandon the party’s commitment to net zero, with the Australian Council for Social Service (Acoss) saying the decision will harm people and communities already experiencing disadvantage.

Acoss chief executive Cassandra Goldie said:

This decision shows a reckless disregard for the climate crisis and the people already suffering its effects.

People and communities experiencing disadvantage, including those in regional and rural Australia, are bearing the brunt of more frequent and severe heatwaves, storms, floods and fires.

The community sector sees first-hand the enormous impact climate change is having on people’s mental and physical health, as well as their housing security.

Removing support for net zero will expose the people doing toughest to even greater harm.

We need all political parties to clearly support decisive action on climate change to reduce harm, safeguard communities and create a fairer, more resilient Australia.

Victoria experiences ambulance delays as long weekend and heat stretches resources

Warm weather and a public holiday long weekend have led to an influx of patients seeking emergency help, resulting in an alert being activated for Victoria’s ambulance service, AAP reports.

Ambulance Victoria activated a code orange alert on Saturday night for the Melbourne and Geelong areas following a significant increase in demand for services – about 5% to 10% cent higher than expected.

The chief executive, Jordan Emery, said:

In part, that’s been driven by the spring carnival festivities and the warmer weather, with more Victorians out and about enjoying the warm weather.

Alcohol consumption and related harms increased due to the spring carnival festivities, while elderly people and those with pre-existing medical conditions were more vulnerable to the heat, Emery said.

Yesterday we saw an increase in fainting-type episodes, more than we would ordinarily expect, and the heat, dehydration and alcohol consumption are all drivers behind some of that increased activity.

The code orange, which signalled a surge in demand, was formally stood down on Sunday morning, but Emery said the alert didn’t continue throughout the night:

It was particularly accentuated between 11pm and midnight last night, but we maintained the code orange through until 8am because it’s a very significant process, and we try and minimise disruption to our people overnight by only standing down the code orange in the morning.

Emery said there had been no reports of any harm related to the alert being activated, only that people have had to wait longer for an ambulance. A portion of those patients could have accessed healthcare through Victoria’s virtual emergency department, their general practitioner, an urgent care centre or a pharmacy, he added.

Ambulance Victoria periodically activates the alert, including during winter when respiratory illness and influenza cause increased demand on ambulance services. There is a system-wide structure in place to help free up ambulances, supported by triage teams and other health options, including virtual help services.

Nationals’ dropping of net zero ‘profoundly out of touch’, says Zali Steggall

Independent MP Zali Steggall has said the Nationals decision to scrap net zero shows it is “profoundly out of touch with a modern resilient economy and captured by fossil fuel interests.”

In a statement this afternoon in response to the Nationals’ post-party room announcement, the Warringah MP said:

Climate science is unequivocal: the world must rapidly reduce carbon emissions to have any hope of averting the worst consequences of climate change.

Delaying action will cost lives and livelihoods and devastate communities, especially regional communities on the frontline of increasing drought, bushfire and flood risks and reduced agricultural yield.

The Nationals are turning their backs on the communities they claim to represent.

Regional Australia is on the frontline of climate disasters. In recent years, electorates in rural and regional Australia, including those held by the Nationals, have received the lion’s share of funding under the federal government’s disaster recovery arrangements.

While the Nationals’ decision to walk away from net-zero is disappointing, it won’t stop the climate action that is already transforming Australia and the world. The clean energy transition will continue because industries, investors and the vast majority of Australians know where the future lies.

The Nationals’ decision to abandon net zero “spells disaster for them” and their ambition to be in government, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has said.

Hanson-Young has been speaking to media in response to the Nationals’ unanimous party room decision earlier today to scrap their commitment to net zero by 2050. She said Australians “simply won’t be copping such a ridiculous policy from a party that thinks it should be in government”.

Hanson-Young continued:

This abandoning of net zero abandons taxpayers. It abandons future generations. It abandons investments. It abandons Australia’s role as a serious player in our region and our Pacific neighbours are going to be furious that they hear that this type of ridiculous snake oil of a policy is being promoted by the National party and indeed the Coalition.

The question I have for the Labor party now is how on earth can you work with such a ridiculous, out-of -touch party like the Coalition in order to pass your environment laws over the next few weeks, or indeed into next year?

And this is a party that clearly doesn’t care about the future of this country. The climate, our environment or our safety and security. The National party’s idiocy has ramifications that if it was taken on board, would put Australians lives at risk. It would put Australia’s economy at risk. It puts Australia’s safety and security in our region and around the world at risk.

The National party are living in a fantasy world where they think they can in any way be taken seriously. And this is abandoning not just net zero but any serious prospect of ever making it back to government.

Nationals yet to determine whether they’d drop out of Paris agreement on climate change

The Nationals haven’t determined that they are opposed to Australia being party to the Paris agreement, the international treaty on climate change, David Littleproud has said:

In terms of Paris, we haven’t said we [should] remove ourselves from Paris. It’s a way for us to be able to benchmark … we’re not in government and we would work through that [if we were].

David Littleproud said he informed Sussan Ley days ago of the details of the policy position the Nationals were considering – including research that had been commissioned months ago to support it – but would not divulge details of their conversation after the party room decision had been made today, only to say Ley was “fully cognisant of what we were considering”.

Littleproud asked whether Nationals willing to split from Coalition over net zero

Asked if the Nationals were willing to split from the Coalition again if the Liberal party decides on taking a different position to them, Littleproud says that’s a discussion for after the Liberal party has completed its own processes.

Littleproud said:

There’s a structured process, one in which the Liberal party has respected the sovereignty of our party room. We’ve got to our position before the Liberal party has settled theirs. So we’ll respect the Liberal party and the processes that they’re going to undertake. When that’s determined, then we’ll have those discussions after that.

‘Net zero is not the only way to reduce emissions and to address climate change,’ says Littleproud

David Littleproud says he expects that the “old arguments that we’re climate deniers and we’ve been left behind” will be trotted out in response to the Nationals’ announcement today, but that it “doesn’t advance the intellectual debate in this country at all”.

Littleproud says:

We’re up for this conversation to say to [Australians] that net zero is not the only way to reduce emissions and to address climate change. I challenge the prime minister to have that conversation without the puerile arguments […].

Littleproud then throws to deputy leader Kevin Hogan, who describes it as “an exciting day” but claims the party is “not walking away from emission reductions”:

I think Australians now have a choice. As David said, we have come up with a well-documented plan here that we think is cheaper, better and fairer. Now why do I say that we are not walking away from emission reductions? We are committed to emission reductions. That was both mentioned at our meeting yesterday, our federal council meeting, but also in our party room today.

There are there is a commitment to lower emissions. However, what we also want is we want Australian households, Australian businesses to have energy bills that they can afford.

‘Regional Australia is being torn apart’ by energy policy, Littleproud says

Nationals leader David Littleproud claims “regional Australia is being torn apart” by the government’s energy policy, and that there is “a better, cheaper, fairer way” to reduce emissions than net zero.

In justifying the Nationals’ policy change away from net zero, Littleproud said:

What we want to do is be responsible, be better in terms of the policy of getting practical measures on the ground to address climate change and our environment, empowering local communities to have a stronger, more resilient environment around adaptation. We’ve been focused solely on mitigation. And when you’re only a bit over 1% of total global emissions, you can hardly mitigate the world’s emissions. We should be looking and putting more into adaptation, empowering landholders to be able to have those environmental outcomes.

We need to prioritise cheaper energy and that is where we’ve made it very clear, very clear, around using technology, not just having an all-renewables approach.

The Nationals have unanimously decided to scrap net zero commitments after a party room meeting this morning.

Nationals leader David Littleproud is speaking to media now:

I’m proud to say that our party room has got to unanimous position of scrapping net zero commitments by 2050.

He goes on:

A little while ago we informed the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, of the National party’s decision to scrap net zero by 2050 and to set a policy platform predicated on principles about a better, cheaper, fairer way to reduce our emissions and to have an energy policy that will actually work for Australians.

All passengers who were onboard the luxury Coral Adventurer cruise have been disembarked and flown home after the 60-day journey was cancelled after less than a week after the death of passenger Suzanne Rees, aged 80.

Rees was left on the Great Barrier Reef’s Lizard Island and wasn’t found until the next day.

On 25 October, the luxury cruise ship arrived on Lizard Island as part of a circumnavigation of Australia. Rees had to pull out of a planned hike to the island’s Cook’s Look summit.

The Coral Adventurer left Lizard Island at 3.40pm. It was five hours before authorities were alerted that she was missing, and a land and sea search-and-rescue operation was launched. Rees was found dead the next day.

The vessel stayed near Thursday Island from Wednesday until Saturday while it disembarked passengers. As of Sunday, all had disembarked and been flown home.

Coral Expeditions was expected to return to Cairns early this week, where the cruise ship was based. As of Sunday afternoon, it was tracking just south of Haggerston Island, near the Great Barrier Reef marine park off far north Queensland.

A spokesperson for Queensland police said the death, which would be investigated by the coroner, was “non-suspicious”.

Dfat trying to find out whether Australians affected by a mass stabbing attack on UK train

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is working to determine whether any Australians were affected by a mass stabbing attack on a London-bound train in the UK overnight.

British police said 10 people have been taken to hospitals, nine of them with life-threatening injuries, and two people have been arrested after the attack near the town of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, England.

A spokesperson for Dfat said in a statement:

The Australian Government is closely monitoring developments following a mass stabbing on a train in Huntingdon, UK. Our thoughts are with those injured and their loved ones.

Australian officials are urgently making enquiries with local authorities to determine whether any Australians have been affected. We stand ready to provide consular assistance.

Australians in need of emergency consular assistance should contact the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135, or +61 2 6261 3305 (if calling from overseas).

Ballarat Grammar board issues unreserved apology to its community after regulator imposes conditions on its boarding school

The board of Ballarat Grammar has issued an apology to its community after the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) banned the prestigious school from accepting new boarding students until it could prove it complied with child safety standards.

On Friday evening, VRQA’s CEO, Stefanie Veal, announced the regulator had imposed six interim conditions on the school’s boarding premises registration while it continued a review.

She said the conditions included that until the review was complete, “Ballarat Grammar is prohibited from enrolling or accepting any new students at its school boarding premises”.

As part of the conditions, Ballarat Grammar must notify the VRQA of any incident or complaint relating to child safety within 24 hours.

Ballarat Grammar has previously announced changes to its school leadership team and stronger boarding supervision after media reports in the ABC and Nine Newspapers alleged a hazing culture was operating at the school’s boarding houses by older schoolmates, prompting investigations by police and regulatory agencies.

In a statement on Sunday, the board said it accepted the “seriousness of the findings and the impact on students, families and the wider school community”.

We recognise that the events this year have not met our school community’s expectations, we unreservedly apologise … The school will continue to undergo a period of transformation as we take sustained action to demonstrate that the School has addressed the VRQA’s findings and, most importantly, that students and families can continue to have full confidence in our commitment to safety, wellbeing, and care.