Australia news LIVE: Labor backs Snowy 2.0 project despite ballooning costs; PM begins Voice referendum campaign

That’s all for tonight folks.

In case you missed anything, here is a wrap-up of the top’s today headlines:

• Australia’s 2023 winter has been announced as the warmest on record; 1.53 degrees warmer than the long-term average.
• NSW bus drivers are set to receive free public transport as part of a state government bid to get more workers behind the wheel.
• Former Reserve Bank deputy governor Guy Debelle has become the third high-profile departure from mining giant Fortescue this week.
• Beekeepers will seek millions of dollars in compensation in a potential class action after their hives were destroyed in a bid to stop the varroa mite.
• The head of the consumer watchdog says Qantas should be hit with a fine big enough to act as a deterrent to other companies.
• Defence Minister Richard Marles says all his private flights on government jets can be justified, and he would like the details made public, but there were “genuine security concerns”.
• Former judge Walter Sofronoff has hit back at claims by ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr that he breached the Inquiries Act by releasing his report into Bruce Lehrmann’s aborted trial to two journalists before it was published.
• PwC’s partners have copped a hefty pay hit, despite the embattled firm’s full-year revenue rising 11 per cent to $3.35 billion.
• Snowy Hydro 2.0 chief executive Dennis Barnes has apologised to the Australian public, after costs for the project blew out to $12 billion.
• Business groups are warning of higher prices for consumers and job losses under federal workplace laws to be put to parliament next week.

All the best for the weekend. Sarah Keoghan, signing off.

It’s official – Australia’s 2023 winter was the warmest on record.

The record was released by the Bureau of Meteorology today, revealing this winter was 1.53 degrees warmer than the long-term average. It marks Australia’s hottest warmest winter since official records began in 1910.

It beats the previous record of 1.46 degrees warmer than the long-term average, which was set in 1996.

This year’s winter beats out the previous record set in 1996. Credit: Luis Ascui

Queensland has become a hot spot of investor activity, recording a 6.8 per cent surge in new lending for housing investments in July.

While investor lending has been more hit-and-miss in the other states, Australian Bureau of Statistics data revealed a 31 per cent lift in the value of investor lending in Queensland since February.

The state’s capital city also reported the strongest monthly growth in property values of all the major urban centres in August, according to new data from CoreLogic.

Looking nationally, the fresh ABS lending indicator data revealed a 1.2 per cent fall for new loan commitments in the broader housing category.

Housing-related lending is now 14.1 per cent lower than a year ago.

Data on housing prices was also released today, with the CoreLogic index revealing a further 0.8 per cent increase in August.

The result was bolstered by a 1.5 per cent lift for Brisbane and robust 1.1 per cent increases in the Sydney and Adelaide markets.

Lower than average advertised supply levels have put upwards pressure on home values across most capital cities, while flatlining interest rates are boosting buyer confidence.

CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless said the trends across different regions were mixed.

“Sydney has led the recovery trend to-date with a gain of 8.8 per cent since values found a floor in January this year,” he said.

“Brisbane has also posted a strong recovery with values up 6.2 per cent since bottoming out in February.

“At the other end of the scale, some other capital cities are better described as flat, with Hobart home values unchanged since stabilising in April, while values across the ACT have risen only mildly, up one per cent since a trough in April.”

As we near the weekend, let’s take a moment to look at the work of the Herald’s photographers this week.

Thanks to the supermoon and Wednesday’s storm cell, we’ve had some crackers.

Here are a few of my favourites below, but you can take a look at the full gallery here.

A swimmer heads for cover as hail hits Bondi during a severe storm.Credit: Brook Mitchell

Hot air balloon pilot Nicola Scaife prepares for her last practice flight in the Hunter Valley before the championships next week.Credit: Janie Barrett

Students from St Andrews Ukrainian School in Lidcombe celebrate Ukrainian Independence Day with a traditional concert.Credit: Steven Siewert

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation has recommended another COVID-19 vaccine for high-risk groups.

The new advice announced this afternoon advises all adults older than 75 should receive an additional 2023 COVID-19 vaccine if six months have passed since their last dose.

For those up-to-date on their vaccines, this would make the sixth dose being recommended by the ATAGI for older adults.

The latest advice also states adults aged 65 to 74 years and/or adults who are severely immunocompromised should also consider getting another vaccine, if six months have passed since their last dose.

Former Reserve Bank deputy governor Guy Debelle has become the third senior executive this week to free themselves from the orbit of Andrew Forrest, leaving Fortescue Futures Industries (FFI) for vanadium minnow Tivan.

Debelle left his post at the Reserve Bank less than 18 months ago to become chief financial officer of the miner’s green energy arm, FFI, but stepped down after a serious cycling accident to become a part-time director.

Guy Debelle was front runner to be the next Reserve Bank Governor before he left the RBA for Fortescue last year.Credit: Oscar Colman

Today he joined the board of ASX-listed Tivan, which is developing critical minerals deposits in northern Australia, and has a market capitalisation 600 times smaller than that of Fortescue.

Debelle’s departure follows the shock exit of Fortescue Metals Group’s chief executive Fiona Hick on Monday, which was swiftly followed by the departure of the iron ore miner’s chief financial officer Christine Morris. Both Hick and Morris had short stints at the miner, with the CEO leaving just shy of six months in the role and the CFO staying for only three months.

Fortescue shares were down 4.9 per cent today, wiping more than $3 billion from the value of the iron ore miner.

You can read more on the issue here.

Beekeepers will seek millions of dollars in compensation in a potential class action after their hives were destroyed in a bid to stop the varroa mite.

Devastated keepers say existing government compensation payouts are inadequate and fail to account for the impact of the forced destruction on their income and other agricultural sectors that rely on beekeeping.

The deadly varroa mite was first detected near the Port of Newcastle in June 2022, leading to more than 14,000 hives being euthanised in the following four months as authorities tried to halt the spread.

The parasite has since been detected around Newcastle, on the northern NSW coast near Coffs Harbour and hundreds of kilometres inland.

Keepers are seeking up to $140 million from the state and federal government over a “vain undertaking of eradication” that has never been achieved anywhere else, class action lawyer Stewart Levitt said.

“They’re not only destroying the beekeepers, they’re also threatening other industries in the agricultural and horticultural sector, and they’re doing it because of misguided and misconceived optimism which wasn’t accompanied by a fair and just attitude to compensation,” he said today.

Some businesses have been crippled after their unaffected colonies were eradicated because they were located in emergency eradication and surveillance zones.

Levitt said 100 “highly motivated and very angry” people registered their interest in the class action during a meeting on the state’s central coast to gauge reactions.

A federal Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said the honey bee industry council was a signatory to an emergency response deed that laid out the management and funding of the response to pest incidents.

“The (compensation amounts) for the honey bee industry were reviewed in August 2022 and (the industry) was consulted and supported the review outcomes,” she said.

AAP

NSW bus drivers are set to receive free public transport as part of a state government bid to get more workers behind the wheel.

The move comes following a number of recommendations made by the Bus Industry Taskforce Interim Report, which called for free Opal cards for workers.

Free Opal cards will be given to all NSW bus drivers in the coming months. Credit: Edwina Pickles

Transport for NSW is now working on the rollout of the cards, which is set to occur over the coming months.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen called the decision a “no-brainer”.

“Staff will be able to use these cards to travel across the Opal-enabled public transport network, including to and from work, and to access other facilities like train station bathrooms while they’re out on the road,” she said.

“We want drivers to be able to comfortably take breaks between shifts, before getting back on the road and fulfilling their vital roles connecting the community.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns has defended the return of shark nets to the beaches this week, arguing there are no viable alternatives to shark nets for keeping swimmers safe.

The state will set up 51 shark nets between Wollongong and Newcastle, including at many of Sydney’s most popular beaches, for the 86th year in a row from Friday despite opposition from conservationists and many local councils.

Minns said calls from opponents to use technology such as drumlines and drones instead of the so-called “walls of death” were laudable, but those measures were not advanced enough to replace the century-old netting approach.

“If you look at the alternatives that are available on Sydney beaches, they’re not going to be as effective as existing shark nets in place,” he said today.

Environmental groups, coastal councils and cross-party politicians have called on the premier to retire nets, saying they don’t make the public any safer.

Action for Dolphins chief executive Hannah Tait said the government was already using modern shark management measures widely and effectively across NSW.

“Relying on a shark net to mitigate a shark bite is as effective as placing a tissue on your head and hoping it will protect you in a hailstorm,” she said.

Greens MP Cate Faehrmann called on Minns to work with and fund councils to roll out modern solutions.

“Shark nets belong in the last century,” she said.

“They provide people with a false sense of security with many sharks and other animals caught in the beach side of the net.”

The government was internally warned in August that community groups and a large swathe of the public preferred other measures over shark nets before it recommitted to them for another year.

Labor went into the March election promising to phase them out.

Official data shows the nets catch few targeted white and tiger sharks and that most animals caught, including turtles, are threatened or protected species.

Only 24 of the 228 animals caught in the 2022-23 netting season were the targeted sharks.

AAP