Hobsons Bay council has this evening confirmed that the number of parks where asbestos-containing material has been found is now 14 – up from eight yesterday.

The six sites where recent testing of suspicious material has confirmed asbestos traces are:

Truganina Park, Altona Meadows
Newport Lakes Reserve
Cherry Lake Buffer Mound, Altona
Kororoit Creek Reserve, Altona North
Grieve Parade, Altona
Federation Trail, Brooklyn

It means asbestos fragments have been found in at least 17 parks across four council areas (Hobsons Bay, Brimbank Council, Merri-bek Council and Casey) in Melbourne since the start of April.

“While the risk from any materials found is low, the council is working closely with a material
hygienist and the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria to conduct remediation works on these sites,” a Hobsons Bay statement read.

“The EPA has advised that, so far, material confirmed as asbestos-containing material is bonded asbestos, not the more dangerous friable asbestos, and is considered low risk. Bonded asbestos is generally made up of a small amount of asbestos fibres that are tightly bound in a product such as resin or cement.”

It was revealed this week that a team of 100 EPA staff is working seven days a week to track the source of asbestos contamination in Melbourne parks.

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6.40pm on Apr 18, 2024

Today’s headlines at a glance

By Josefine Ganko

Thanks for reading today’s national news blog, and thanks to Caroline Schelle and Esther Han for leading our coverage through the day.

I’m here to close up shop with a look back at what we covered.

The unemployment rate rose in March by 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.8 per cent as the number of jobless people increased by 21,000.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government could do better on dealing with HECS debt, signalling potential changes to the indexation of student loans.
Australia has joined a coalition of 47 countries to “unequivocally” condemn the 13 April attacks on Israel by Iran and its militant partners.
China’s Foreign Ministry has accused the Australian government of stoking bloc confrontation and inflaming tensions in the South China Sea after Defence Minister Richard Marles released its $50 billion defence strategy.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has backed proposed federal laws to thwart falsehoods on social media platforms, following mass misinformation spread after the Bondi Junction and Wakeley stabbings.
In overseas news, British actor Hugh Grant has settled a lawsuit against the publisher of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspaper The Sun.

Thanks again, our national news coverage will be back first thing tomorrow.

Pinned post from 6.01pm on Apr 18, 2024

Six more confirmed asbestos sites in Melbourne

By Rachael Dexter

The Melbourne council at the centre of the asbestos mulch issue has just revealed a further six public sites have been confirmed to have asbestos.

Hobsons Bay council has this evening confirmed that the number of parks where asbestos-containing material has been found is now 14 – up from eight yesterday.

The six sites where recent testing of suspicious material has confirmed asbestos traces are:

Truganina Park, Altona Meadows
Newport Lakes Reserve
Cherry Lake Buffer Mound, Altona
Kororoit Creek Reserve, Altona North
Grieve Parade, Altona
Federation Trail, Brooklyn

It means asbestos fragments have been found in at least 17 parks across four council areas (Hobsons Bay, Brimbank Council, Merri-bek Council and Casey) in Melbourne since the start of April.

It was revealed this week that a team of 100 EPA staff is working seven days a week to track the source of asbestos contamination in Melbourne parks.

5.17pm on Apr 18, 2024

GLAD not glad: bag maker taken to court over claims

The consumer watchdog is taking the parent company behind GLAD to the Federal Court over alleged misleading claims its products were made from recycle plastic taken from the ocean.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched the legal action against Clorox Australia, alleging it had breached consumer law over “ocean plastic” claims on GLAD kitchen tidy and garbage bags.

The watchdog started proceedings as part of a campaign on misleading environmental claims on products, often labelled greenwashing.

While the product claimed the bags were made from 50 per cent recycled plastic taken from the ocean, the watchdog alleges it was instead taken from communities in Indonesia up to 50 kilometres away from the shoreline.

The commission’s chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the case was part of enforcement action against misleading environmental claims on products.

“We are concerned that, by its alleged conduct, Clorox deprived consumers of the opportunity to make informed purchasing decisions, and may have put other businesses making genuine environmental claims at an unfair disadvantage,” she said.

“Increasingly, consumers choose the products they buy based on their environmental impact, and in doing so they must be able to rely on the environmental claims made by businesses being accurate.”

A spokeswoman for Clorox told AAP the company was examining the issue brought by the watchdog in the legal action.

“GLAD takes seriously its obligation to package and market our products with claims that are truthful and substantiated,” the spokeswoman said on Thursday.

“We are considering the ACCC’s concerns raised by their court proceedings.

“The proceedings relate to the 50 per cent ocean bound plastic recycled bags product line only, which was discontinued by GLAD in July 2023.”

The watchdog said the use of blue colours on the garbage bags and wave imagery on the packaging had created the impression the bags came from waste reclaimed from the ocean when it was not the case.

AAP

5.06pm on Apr 18, 2024

Australia among 48 countries condemning Iran’s attack on Israel

Australia has joined 47 countries to “unequivocally” condemn the 13 April attacks on Israel by Iran and its militant partners.

Representatives of the United States, Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom to the United Nations issued the following joint statement condemning Iran’s attack on Israel:

We unequivocally condemn the April 13 attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its militant partners on the State of Israel, which involved launching several hundred ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones against multiple targets, and note this large-scale attack could have caused significant damage and loss of life.
We further condemn the fact that the weapons launched at Israel violated the airspace of several regional states, putting at risk the lives of innocent people in those countries, and appeared to traverse airspace near holy sites in Jerusalem.
We welcome the efforts to avert a further immediate escalation of violence in the region, following the successful coordinated efforts to defend against Iran’s attack.
We condemn Iran’s unlawful seizure of a Portuguese flagged commercial ship near the Strait of Hormuz on April 13 and call on Iran to release the ship and its international crew immediately.
We note that Iran’s escalatory attack is the latest in a pattern of dangerous and destabilizing actions by Iran and its militant partners that pose a grave threat to international peace and security.
We call on all regional parties to take steps to avert further escalation of the situation and demand that all Council resolutions be fully implemented. We will strengthen our diplomatic cooperation to work toward resolving all tensions in the region.

4.57pm on Apr 18, 2024

‘Great news’: Plibersek welcomes company’s decision to not build in wetlands

Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has welcomed Walker Corporation’s decision to withdraw its controversial Toondah Harbour development proposal at Moreton Bay in Queensland.

The company had proposed a $1.4 billion marina and apartment complex in the Ramsar wetlands.

But Plibersek said she wanted to protect Moreton Bay from the “unacceptable impacts” of the proposed development.

“These wetlands are rare, unique and important to prevent the extinction of animals like the eastern curlew and loggerhead turtle.”

Just a week after she said she planned to reject the project on environmental grounds, the company withdrew its application.

“This is great news for the animals that call his place home,” she said said in a video posted to X. Watch the full video here:

View post on X

4.44pm on Apr 18, 2024

Seven West Media’s new CEO to start job on Friday

Seven West Media has announced that managing director and CEO James Warburton will finish up today and his successor, Jeff Howard, will take over duties on Friday.

The CEO transition comes amid a difficult time for the listed company, which was embroiled in Bruce Lehrmann’s failed defamation action. Most recently, the broadcaster incorrectly identified a 20-year-old man as the Bondi Junction knife attacker, who has since threatened defamation action.

Outgoing and incoming Seven West Media chief executives James Warburton (left) and Jeff Howard.

Chairman Kerry Stokes and Howard both thanked Warburton “for this contribution to the business over many years”.

The search for the company’s new chief financial officer continues.

4.19pm on Apr 18, 2024

Family forced through ‘hoop after hoop’ over boy’s care

The parents of a 10-year-old boy who took his own life in state care were made to jump through “hoop after hoop” in their failed bid to be reunited, an advocate says.

The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died on Friday night in Perth while under the care of the Department of Communities.

WA Premier Roger Cook said the death was concerning and a tragedy and he would support expediting the coronial inquest.

National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project director Megan Krakouer said the boy was removed from his parents’ care four days before Christmas in 2020 when they were living in a tent.

View post on X

She said they had created a stable home in the years since and were working with the department in an attempt to reunite their family but it had been unsupportive and judgemental.

“Their hearts are broken,” she told AAP on Thursday. “They are good people, respectful people, loving people.”

Ms Krakouer, who is acting for the parents, said they felt there had been an incredible power imbalance and the department had ignored them as they attempted to reunite their family.

“They made them jump through hoop after hoop after hoop,” she said.

“Some of the words they used were ‘grooming’ and ‘manipulation’ and they also said ... they were being looked down upon.”

Ms Krakouer said the first time the boy’s parents had been permitted to see him as a couple since he was removed from their care was at a morgue.

She said the department had failed the family.

The Department of Communities said it could not comment on individual cases.

AAP

4.05pm on Apr 18, 2024

Petition on HECS debts collects 260,000 signatures

Pressure is growing on the Albanese government to make it easier for Australians to pay off their HECS debts.

HECS debts are forecast to rise between 4.2 and 4.8 per cent on June 1 this year, increasing the amount of an average loan of $26,494 by up to $1272. The likely indexation figures were calculated by the Parliamentary Library for the Greens.

Independent MP Monique Ryan’s petition calling on the federal government to index loans to the consumer price index or the wage price index, whichever is lower, has attracted more than 260,000 signatures.

View post on X

“If the government does not listen to the 260,000 Australians calling for fairer HECS debts, they will hear them at the ballot box next election,” she said on X.

“I urge the government to make HECS debts easier to pay off.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday a government announcement was imminent on a recommended overhaul of HECS as calls spread along the crossbench for Labor to look at wiping student debt.

“I think there’s a range of areas where we need to do much better with the younger generation basically, and HECs is one of them,” Albanese told central Queensland radio station HIT.

3.34pm on Apr 18, 2024

‘There is a real sense of disparity with Bondi’: Imams council

By Eryk Bagshaw

The National Imams Council says the rush to declare the Wakeley stabbing a terrorist attack risks undoing years of progress on religious tolerance in western Sydney, as the community reels from a teenager’s assault on a local church.

Bilal Rauf, a senior Muslim leader and Imams Council spokesman said to label it as religious terrorism completely overlooks a more primary factor: mental health.

A teenager was arrested after Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and Father Isaac Royel were stabbed at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley on Monday night.X/@AustralianJA

“There is a real sense of disparity with Bondi,” he said.

“There it was very quickly said to be related to mental health but here where it is a 16-year-old boy they said this must be religious terrorism.”

The National Imam’s Council is Australia’s peak Islamic body and selects the Grand Mufti of Australia to lead Australia’s more than 800,000 mostly Sunni Muslims.

Rauf said the Muslim community was on edge.

“Everyone else is looking at them - thinking he is a terrorist that has come from among you - when that does not appear to be the case at all,” he said.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb declared the incident a terror attack after the 16-year-old boy stabbed Christ the Good Shepherd Church Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel multiple times during a Monday night service in Wakeley. The teenager cannot be named for legal reasons.

Webb said the teenager allegedly made comments “centred around religion” in the lead-up to the attack. Gamel Kheir, a lawyer and secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said the boy’s father had noticed increasing signs of mental illness but had not seen any evidence of him becoming radicalised.

“This is hateful and violent conduct, but it is not necessarily religiously driven,” said Rauf.

“If anything in the community there is a real sense of disappointment that there was a rush to designate it a religious terrorist event. The designation was made even before police had spoken to the boy or his parents.”

Rauf said the terrorism declaration had generated cynicism about how these decisions are made and put at risk years of positive progress on religious tolerance made with the state government.

That confidence was dented by revelations in February that the Australian Federal Police had encouraged a 13-year-old autistic boy’s fixation with Islamic State before charging him with terror offences once he turned 14.

“People in the community are perplexed and disappointed,” said Rauf.

Follow our live coverage of the aftermath of the stabbing attacks in Bondi Junction on Saturday and in Wakeley on Monday.

2.28pm on Apr 18, 2024

Ticketmaster, Splendour in the Grass owner investigated by US government

By Karl Quinn

The world’s biggest concert promoter and ticketing company could be broken up by regulators in the US, in a move that could have significant repercussions for the Australian live music sector.

Live Nation – the Saudi-backed multinational whose Australian arm stages the Falls and Splendour in the Grass festivals, both of which were cancelled in the past 12 months – is facing an anti-trust action by the US Justice Department, which could result in it having to sell off its ticketing arm, Ticketmaster.

Festivalgoers at Splendour in the Grass in 2023.Bianca Holderness

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the move on Monday (US time). The Washington Post later confirmed the story.

Though specific details are yet to be revealed, it is likely the investigation will focus on alleged breaches of an agreement that was critical to regulators’ approval of the merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster in 2010 to not “tie” the two businesses together operationally.

According to the Post, an investigation in 2019 found Live Nation had repeatedly violated the terms of its merger.

“The federal government could file charges narrowly related to the Ticketmaster merger agreement or bring a bigger case related to Live Nation’s perceived market dominance,” the Post reported, flagging that ultimately “the government could seek to unwind the Ticketmaster merger”.

Read the full story here.

Australia news as it happened: Chalmers urged to act to counter China downturn threat; Australia condemns Iran’s attack on Israel

Key Posts

Six more confirmed asbestos sites in Melbourne

Latest Posts

Today’s headlines at a glance

Six more confirmed asbestos sites in Melbourne

GLAD not glad: bag maker taken to court over claims

Australia among 48 countries condemning Iran’s attack on Israel

‘Great news’: Plibersek welcomes company’s decision to not build in wetlands

Seven West Media’s new CEO to start job on Friday

Family forced through ‘hoop after hoop’ over boy’s care

Petition on HECS debts collects 260,000 signatures

‘There is a real sense of disparity with Bondi’: Imams council

Ticketmaster, Splendour in the Grass owner investigated by US government

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