As it happened: Albanese and Xi’s meeting may end $20 billion trade ban; floods continue to ravage NSW

Thanks for joining me on the blog this afternoon. For those catching up, here are a few of the main headlines today:

• There is major flooding in the NSW Central West, with towns such as Forbes and Condobolin bracing for peak river levels tonight.
• Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky did a victory walk through the liberated city of Kherson and addressed the G20 summit by video link, warning the world that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not to be trusted on any peace negotiations.
• In sport news, champion swimmer Ian Thorpe hit out against the ban on transgender women in women’s races, while tennis player Novak Djokovic will be able to compete in the Australian Open after his visa ban was lifted.
• The world’s population hit 8 billion, the COP27 climate talks in Egypt continued, and activist investor Mike Cannon-Brookes won his fight to install four directors on the AGL board.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to meet in about an hour’s time on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping are currently meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

You can watch a video of the PM and the Chinese leader shaking hands and making introductory remarks ahead of the official meeting, below.

Thanks for joining me on the blog this afternoon. For those catching up, here are a few of the main headlines today:

• There is major flooding in the NSW Central West, with towns such as Forbes and Condobolin bracing for peak river levels tonight.
• Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky did a victory walk through the liberated city of Kherson and addressed the G20 summit by video link, warning the world that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not to be trusted on any peace negotiations.
• In sport news, champion swimmer Ian Thorpe hit out against the ban on transgender women in women’s races, while tennis player Novak Djokovic will be able to compete in the Australian Open after his visa ban was lifted.
• The world’s population hit 8 billion, the COP27 climate talks in Egypt continued, and activist investor Mike Cannon-Brookes won his fight to install four directors on the AGL board.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping are due to meet in about an hour’s time on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

More on the intersection of sport and politics, and Novak Djokovic will be allowed to play in the Australian Open tennis tournament next year.

Before this year’s tournament, Djokovic had his visa cancelled because of a scrap over his vaccination status and whether he was properly exempt from vaccination requirements.

The then immigration minister Alex Hawke described the decision at the time to cancel the visa as “in the public interest”.

Djokovic, who was then the world No.1, stayed briefly at the Park Hotel in Melbourne with a number of asylum seekers before being deported.

The cancellation was accompanied by an automatic three-year visa ban. But Rachel Clun reports that the Albanese government has now overturned the ban.

Carlos Alcaraz is the current men’s world No.1 and Djokovic is ranked eighth.

Staying on the industrial relations debate, a progressive think-tank has released a report in favour of the Secure Jobs, Better Wages bill.

The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work report on collective bargaining and wage growth in Australia says the weakness of wage growth in Australia over the past decade has been “extreme by both historic and international standards”.

It blames the sharp decline in collective bargaining coverage since 2013 for suppressing wage growth, and concludes that the government’s reforms are needed to return wage growth to “a normal and healthier pace” and combat rising inequality.

The report says just one year of faster wage growth would boost annual earnings for a worker with average full-time wages by $1473. That would translate to $8300 a year after five years, thanks to the effect of compounding.

In a series of tweets, the Centre for Future Work has explained its analysis in simple language. They argue that the real reason employers hate the idea of the reforms is that they will be effective at getting wages moving.

Back to international news, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has given a dramatic and defiant speech at the G20 summit in Bali.

South-East Asia correspondent Chris Barrett reports that Zelensky, appearing via video link, vowed not to concede an inch of territory to Vladimir Putin in any peace talks.

He warned G20 leaders the Russian leader would deceive them and continue on a path of “terror and global destabilisation”.

Zelensky has been encouraged by Western nations, including the United States, to show he is open to negotiations with Russia.

But addressing the G20 summit in Bali by video link today, he declared he would not make “any compromises with the aggressor”, saying Putin could not be trusted and would violate any deal struck with Kyiv after signing it.