Key events
Road cycling worlds promise thrilling racing against scenic south coast backdrop
Cycling’s Road World Championships are taking place in Wollongong, kicking off tomorrow and running until next weekend.
The past five road world championships have been held in Europe, with only two editions taking place outside the heartland since the championships were first held in Australia twelve years ago.
My colleague Kieran Pender brings you this fascinating preview, detailing the challenges which have come with bringing the races back to Australian shores as well as what picturesque NSW south coast scenery is expected to be shown off:
The road race course will see the world’s best riders battle it out along a beautiful coastal road, from Helensburgh to Wollongong, including the iconic Sea Cliff Bridge at Stanwell Park, which protrudes into the ocean. The peloton will then head into the highlands to conqueror Mount Keira, before doing laps of a city circuit – 12 for the elite men, six for the women – before the world champions are crowned.
Second man charged over Northern Territory arrow death
A second man has been charged over the death of a man who was shot with an arrow in a remote Northern Territory community.
Police said the 36-year-old was shot in the chest in Peppimenarti, 320km southwest of Darwin, on Tuesday night.
He was pronounced dead after being taken to a local health clinic just before midnight.
An 18-year-old man faced a Darwin court on Thursday charged with manslaughter over the incident.
NT Police said a 22-year-old had since been charged with one count of recklessly endangering life. He will face Darwin Local Court on Monday.
Major crime detectives, crime scene examiners and officers from the NT Police tactical group were sent to the community during the week. Police said in a statement:
Police are working with elders, the local council and other government agencies to maintain community safety.
Detectives have linked the incident to ongoing unrest in nearby Wadeye, where violent clashes between rival Indigenous clans were reported earlier this year.
NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has said the government is working to address issues in the region.
West Daly Regional Council said it had closed council services in Peppimenarti until further notice as a result of the incident.
Lambie: Indigenous voice needs to be prioritised ahead of republic debate
On whether Australian should push to be a republic with the death of the Queen, my colleague Caitlin Cassidy reports that Senator Jacquie Lambie says politicians can only do “one thing at once”.
For this reason, Lambie says that the Indigenous voice to parliament needs to be the priority ahead of any debate about the country breaking ties with the monarchy.
What needs to be done before the republic is making sure Indigenous people have a bloody voice.
Lambie criticises Labor for refusing to wind back stage three tax cuts
Caitlin Cassidy
Speaking at the Festival of Dangerous ideas at a session entitled “On blowing things up”, the independent senator for Tasmania Jacqui Lambie has shot out at Labor for refusing to wind back $243bn tax cuts announced under the Coalition prior to the federal election.
Labor supported the cuts at the time.
Lambie said the tax cuts were an insult to people on jobseeker who were struggling on low payments:
We’ve got people living below the poverty line, they promised them they’d get pay rises and they haven’t done that but they’re happy to go out there … and give billions to the richest Australians. Parties encourage you to vote brand, and you get dudded when you do. Politicians aren’t on your side, they’re not your mate.
Jacqui Lambie praises teal independents as ‘breakthrough our country’s been waiting for’
The Festival of Dangerous Ideas is happening this weekend in Sydney, an event which – as its title suggests – aims to “challenge thinking on some of the most persevering and difficult issues of our time.”
My colleague Caitlin Cassidy is in the audience at Jacqui Lambie’s session, titled On Blowing Things Up.
The Tasmanian senator is praising the intervention of the teal independents, who won a sweep of blue-ribbon Liberal seats at the last federal election, as the “breakthrough our country’s been waiting for”.
More teal independents are set to challenge the major parties in the upcoming state elections:
Manhunt continues after fatal stabbing in Brisbane
A police manhunt continues for the final suspect wanted in relation to a fatal stabbing in Brisbane after a third man was charged over the attack, AAP reports.
Kyle Martin, 24, remains on the run five days after the death of Levi Johnson, who was stabbed outside a gym car park on Monday.
Two cars boxed in his vehicle before four men got out and started smashing his windows. Johnson ran away but two men caught up with him and he was stabbed multiple times.
Police warned members of the public not to approach Martin as he was “potentially armed and dangerous”.
Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham told reporters late on Friday:
I think time’s quickly running out for him.
We have three in custody. I’m confident within the coming days we’ll be able to place the fourth one into custody.
It’s believed Martin could be hiding out locally but authorities are on alert in case he attempts to flee Queensland.
On Saturday, Thomas Myler, 35, was charged with one count of murder (serious organised crime).
He was cornered by police during a raid at a home in Wellington Point, in the city’s east, on Friday night after a tip-off from a member of the public.
A woman, believed to be Myler’s girlfriend and earlier in his company, has not been charged but on Friday detectives said they would investigate whether she or anyone else was involved in helping him avoid detection.
Anyone assisting in harbouring Martin could be charged with being an accessory to murder, which carries a possible sentence of life imprisonment.
Final flood warnings for western NSW rivers
The bureau of meteorology has issued its final flood warnings for the Macquarie and Castlereagh rivers in western NSW.
Heavy rain on already saturated grounds and full dams had caused flooding around central west towns of Wellington, Forbes, Orange and nearby areas.
Damaging winds heading for south-west Victoria
Eleven flood rescues in western NSW overnight
NSW SES commissioner Carlene York also said western NSW is seeing the effects of increased risks of rain due to La Niña. She told the ABC this morning:
It’s been pretty much in play relentlessly for 12 months. We have around 140 volunteers or members out there helping the community and doing those flood rescues – just overnight we have had another 11 flood rescues – and so each day that adds up and really, really important for the community to understand their risk … the rivers, they come up very quickly.
‘Threat of flooding is real’ this summer with La Niña declared, SES says
This week Australians learned we’ll be in for another La Niña weather event for the third year in a row.
NSW SES commissioner Carlene York was on the ABC this morning talking about what that news means in terms of the flood risk:
Well, it is storm season between October and March and we are expecting much greater rains due to this forecast for La Niña. It is also the threat of flooding is real, is real out there in the community. And we have got to look at what weather we have had over the last 12 to 18 months.
It’s been relentless rain. The rivers are at capacity, the dams are at capacity. The ground is saturated so the water that comes from the sky just has nowhere to go and so it turns into river even flooding and touching into flash flooding. So we are expecting a lot more rain this storm season.
But, of course, we’re hoping and the bureau is saying there is a chance the rain will not be as heavy as we’ve had and particularly seen in the February-March floods earlier this year. But it will be a typical storm season with additional water. So we are very much preparing and preparing the community for what might come.
Education on Indigenous voice ‘critical’
Australians must be given details on an Indigenous voice to parliament sooner rather than later if the referendum is to succeed, Uluru Dialogue co-chair Megan Davis says and AAP reports.
Recent polling has shown voters are broadly supportive of changing the constitution to enshrine the voice but have limited understanding of what it will involve.
The Albanese government has proposed adding three sentences to the constitution outlining the creation of a body which would represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
It would advise parliament and the government on matters relating to Indigenous people but would be “subservient” to legislation.
The government will work with First Nations leaders, including Professor Davis, to determine the timing for a successful referendum and the public information needed for it to pass.
Having spent more than a decade working towards the reform as a constitutional law expert, Prof Davis said educating voters would be critical:
That polling’s not surprising but it is obviously impetus to get that detail to the Australian people as soon as possible, or at least in a reasonable time frame in the lead-in to a referendum.
Australians don’t forensically scrutinise everything the parliament and the Senate do. So there’s a lot of work that we have to do to educate the Australian community.
Prof Davis, from the University of NSW’s Indigenous Law Centre, is leading a nationwide consultation process with constitutional and public law experts on the proposed amendment and the wording of the referendum question. She said the amendment proposed by Albanese was a “starting point” for the final model, with mixed views on how simple the wording should be.
Obviously one of the spin-offs of that is brevity might lead to uncertainty,” she said. And then if you have an over-elaborated provision, you might fence in the voice in a way that you don’t want for all time. You need to build in flexibility and agility.
Good morning! And thank you Caitlin for kicking the Saturday blog off in such style. I’m coming to you from Sydney where it is most definitely starting to feel like spring.
I am dipping out for a minute and will leave you in the highly capable hands of Natasha May. See you all this afternoon.
In the past 3 months, 1,619 people have died from COVID-19 in Victoria.
◼️735 (45.4%) were unvaccinated
◼️12 (0.7%) had one dose
◼️131 (8.1%) had two doses
◼️341 (21.1%) had three doses
◼️400 (24.7%) had four doses— CovidBaseAU 🦠📊🇦🇺 (@covidbaseau) September 16, 2022
When 45% of deaths and 30% of hospitalisations are from a (unvaccinated) group which makes up less than 5% of the adult population, the vaccine is clearly doing its job.
Data from VicGovDH media release https://t.co/JeFpWeLX9M
— CovidBaseAU 🦠📊🇦🇺 (@covidbaseau) September 16, 2022
Anthony Albanese will meet King Charles III during his stay in London, cementing Australia’s importance to the new monarch, AAP reports.
The prime minister, governor-general David Hurley and their partners have arrived in the British capital for a series of events commemorating the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Soon after touching down, Albanese and partner Jodie Haydon laid a floral tribute, a small bouquet of white flowers, at Green Park in London.
Albanese:
It’s a great honour to be representing Australia here. Quite clearly, what we can see all around us is the affection in which Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was held by people here in the United Kingdom but also of course in Australia and right around the Commonwealth.
Albanese said his visit to London was about “commemorating a life well-lived”.
He will view the Queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall and sign the official condolence book at Lancaster House before a brief audience with the King at Buckingham Palace.
King Charles will host the prime minister, heads of state and international VIPs at a function on the weekend.
Albanese said he would convey Australians’ deep condolences to the King.
It is of course the passing of the sovereign but for King Charles it’s also the passing of his mum. We shouldn’t forget that at the end of the day these people are humans as well as being members of the Royal Family.
In Tasmania, the SES is urging communities to monitor conditions after issuing a flood advice warning for St Pauls River, Lewis Hill and surrounds:
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a minor flood warning for the St Pauls river. Flooding in nearby streams and rivers is likely during the next few days.
Some low-lying properties may become isolated by flood waters within the next few days.Flood waters are a risk to safety. Property, livestock, equipment, and crops in low lying areas may be at risk from flood waters. Driving conditions may be dangerous.
Nick Kyrgios joins tributes to Roger Federer
With a simple paean to Roger Federer’s greatness, Nick Kyrgios has joined the chorus of laments, thanks and tributes following news of the great man’s impending retirement from tennis, AAP reports.
“No one will ever play the game like you,” Australia’s Wimbledon finalist declared in a social media address to Federer – and he was not alone as the game’s greatest players, headed by Novak Djokovic, continued the salutes to the Swiss maestro on Thursday.
Kyrgios, who’s never hidden how he believes Federer was even better than Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in the big three, added on his Instagram post: “Enjoy it @rogerfederer …… was an honour.”
Kyrgios had originally been down to play in what will now be Federer’s farewell competition, next week’s Laver Cup in London, but pulled out after his exhausting recent schedule in the US.
The Australian loves playing for the “world” team against Europe’s best and had previously played Federer three times in the three-day competition – losing on each occasion.
After his Wimbledon final defeat by Djokovic, Kyrgios had noted:
He doesn’t make you feel as bad as Federer does at times. I think Federer, out of the three guys, can make you feel really bad, like he makes you want to leave the court. He can make things seem really quick and that the court’s really small.