Australia news live: Malcolm Turnbull says trusting Aukus is ‘stark staring bonkers’; Minns considers banning ebikes for under-12s

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NSW premier says government is examining minimum age of 12 for ebikes

Penry Buckley

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says the government is examining introducing a minimum age of 12 to ride ebikes in the state, the strongest indication yet of where the government will land following an independent expert review.

Minns appeared this morning to cut a gold ribbon on the debut of Kyle Sandilands Live, the new digital radio show hosted by the former Kiis FM host after the cancellation of the Kyle and Jackie O Show in March.

The premier told Sandilands “I was worried for you” following the show’s cancellation, while the pair joked about running into each other recently at an ice-cream shop in the Blue Mountains. Sandilands said:

double quotation markI thought you were a meth head because you had had the beanie on, you were you all rugged up.

But the conversation did turn towards policy, after Sandilands said he had bought his 11-year-old godson an ebike. The premier said the government is “examining an … age limit of 12” for ebikes.

“We haven’t finalised the details yet,” he said.

After a surge in injuries and an incident in which 40 or so e-bikes swarmed the Sydney Harbour Bridge in February, an expert review was asked to recommend an age limit of between 12 and 16, and was due to report back to the government in June.

Key events

• 13m ago

  Australian faith in Aukus ‘stark staring bonkers’: Turnbull

• 45m ago

  Remains found in suitcase not human, police say

• 1h ago

  NSW premier says government is examining minimum age of 12 for ebikes

• 2h ago

  NSW begins roll out of smart rental bonds, allowing transfer of bond from one rental to the next

• 3h ago

  Health minister says bulk billing rate has increased to 84%

• 3h ago

  Federal transport minister ‘not happy’ after near-miss between two planes at Sydney airport

• 3h ago

  NSW deputy premier asks for moratorium on take-home assessments for students amid AI review

• 3h ago

  Good morning

Australian faith in Aukus ‘stark staring bonkers’: Turnbull

Ben Doherty

Australia’s blind faith in the Aukus submarine deal is “stark staring bonkers,” the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has told a public inquiry, arguing the asymmetric deal with the US and UK will likely result in no submarines at all for Australia:

double quotation markThere is a cargo-cult mentality in Canberra about these Virginia-class submarines where people clearly feel that if they acknowledge that there is a real risk that they won’t arrive, that will prevent them arriving: so you have to keep on believing.

Turnbull – the prime minister whose deal to buy submarines from the French group Naval was torn up by Scott Morrison in favour of Aukus – has long argued the Aukus agreement has always been irretrievably lopsided in the US’s favour.

Giving evidence to a public inquiry into Aukus in Sydney, Turnbull focused on the three second-hand Virginia Class submarines the US is proposing to sell to Australia from 2031 (the first tranche of Aukus’ Pillar One).

Turnbull said the US’s capacity for building submarines has remained stubbornly laggard and that its navy would not have enough boats to sell to Australia.

The US is prevented by its own legislation from selling any submarines to Australia if that would “degrade” its own fleet. It currently needs to nearly double its submarine production rate, from 1.2 to 2.3 a year.

Police investigating suitcase ‘remains’ do not believe a crime has been committed ‘at this stage’

Bradbury wouldn’t provide details about what was inside the suitcase, aside from describing them as “the remains or the object”, saying she only received the information that they were not human about 15 minutes before the press conference.

double quotation markWe’ll still continue our inquiries to see how this came about, of course, and see what we can find out from the remains or the object there. And we’ll continue and probably update then.

She said she had “no regrets” in police officers’ actions, saying they undertook the necessary processes to maintain the integrity of a reported crime scene.

double quotation markWe don’t necessarily like to disturb any crime scenes because that’s our link to make sure that offenders are brought before the court.

So we followed our processes to that T to a high level, and I think that it is no regrets at all. I couldn’t be actually more proud of them, of my team, than I am.

Remains found in suitcase not human, police say

Police say the remains found in a suitcase near Goulburn are not human.

Supt Linda Bradbury with NSW police said:

double quotation markSome good news here that we don’t have a suspicious death of a human on our hands. … We are still undertaking more forensic work to identify what they are. But we can identify that they’re not human.

She said the idea is to not disturb crime scenes when they are discovered, which is why it took some time to determine the remains were not human. Bradbury did describe them as “very realistic in the terms of looking like human remains”.

double quotation markBut we’ve confirmed by other means that they are not.

Jonathan Barrett

Mortgage applications fall 20% at Westpac since budget

Westpac has delivered a $1.8bn quarterly net profit even after mortgage applications fell due to a combination of higher interest rates and Labor’s property tax changes.

The bank said in an update this morning that mortgage applications were down 20% between mid-May and the end of July, representing the immediate period after Labor announced changes to negative gearing and the treatment of capital gains.

The tax changes have largely dented demand from investors, to the benefit of owner-occupiers.

Mortgage applications were already falling ahead of the May budget due to the Reserve Bank’s string of interest rate hikes, designed to subdue inflation.

Anthony Miller, Westpac’s chief executive, said ongoing housing undersupply would support prices.

double quotation markThe undersupply of housing combined with population growth is expected to partially offset the impact of higher interest rates and recent federal government policy changes on the housing market.

Overall, the bank recorded a 2% lift in lending during the June quarter, helping it increase its net profit result.

NSW premier says government is examining minimum age of 12 for ebikes

Penry Buckley

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says the government is examining introducing a minimum age of 12 to ride ebikes in the state, the strongest indication yet of where the government will land following an independent expert review.

Minns appeared this morning to cut a gold ribbon on the debut of Kyle Sandilands Live, the new digital radio show hosted by the former Kiis FM host after the cancellation of the Kyle and Jackie O Show in March.

The premier told Sandilands “I was worried for you” following the show’s cancellation, while the pair joked about running into each other recently at an ice-cream shop in the Blue Mountains. Sandilands said:

double quotation markI thought you were a meth head because you had had the beanie on, you were you all rugged up.

But the conversation did turn towards policy, after Sandilands said he had bought his 11-year-old godson an ebike. The premier said the government is “examining an … age limit of 12” for ebikes.

“We haven’t finalised the details yet,” he said.

After a surge in injuries and an incident in which 40 or so e-bikes swarmed the Sydney Harbour Bridge in February, an expert review was asked to recommend an age limit of between 12 and 16, and was due to report back to the government in June.

Safety bureau chief says near-miss at Sydney airport ‘unacceptable’

Angus Mitchell, the chief commissioner at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), told ABC Radio Sydney this morning the near-miss at Sydney airport was “a serious incident” that warranted investigation.

Mitchell said while the two aircraft were moving at very low speeds, “separation of aircraft, whether it be in the air or on the ground is of vital importance, and there are systems in place to ensure that they are always separated”.

“So what happened yesterday morning … it is unacceptable,” Mitchell said.

double quotation markSo planes should not be getting that close and we should never have to rely on, as has happened in both these instances, pilots at the last minute, making an emergency decision to prevent them coming together.

ATSB, Mitchell said, is gathering information about what happened surrounding the incident. He added that could include looking at the complexity of a new airport opening in western Sydney and new airspace design in that area.

double quotation markWe have a lot of controllers that have come in very recently that are gaining their qualifications. So, look, I certainly don’t want to say that that’s what sits behind these two incidents because we don’t have all the facts.

But we do know that that is a system that has had some significant challenges, as have airlines as well.

NSW begins roll out of smart rental bonds, allowing transfer of bond from one rental to the next

The NSW government is rolling out a new scheme of smart rental bonds, which will allow some renters to transfer their bonds from one rental to the next when they move house.

The scheme will end the need to save up thousands of dollars for a new bond before the old one is returned, and will begin with a phased rollout for renters in Parramatta, the Central Coast or Penrith local government areas.

The scheme will ultimately be rolled out across the state by the end of the year.

Renters will be notified when a new landlord or agent lodges a bond request online. They can then choose to pay their new bond upfront or use a smart rental bond to move it to the new rental for a $25 fee.

Any difference in bond is either paid by the renter, or refunded if it is cheaper and there is no agreed claim on the bond. If the landlord at an original property makes a claim, the NSW government will pay the landlord directly and the renter will then pay the government.

The premier, Chris Minns, said in a statement:

double quotation markOver two million people in New South Wales are renters – one of the highest proportions of the population ever living in rental accommodation.

For a lot of renters, moving home can mean finding another $3,000 or $4,000 before you’ve even had your old bond returned. That’s a huge financial hurdle for families already doing it tough.

Smart Rental Bonds removes that barrier by letting renters transfer their bond instead of paying for two at once.

Butler confident about ‘constructive discussions’ on gambling during upcoming session of parliament

Mark Butler said evidence given before a parliamentary inquiry on gambling was shocking and the government remains set on getting legislation through parliament when it returns this week.

Butler spoke to RN Breakfast, saying the legislation proposed by the government is ambitious, but he understands concerns from the Greens and Coalition, which have both warned it does not go far enough. Labor said this weekend it was open to “sensible amendments”.

Butler added this morning:

double quotation markI’m confident again over the course of this sitting fortnight there will be constructive discussions between the government and the opposition about that. Obviously, they need to tell us what it is that they want us to consider, but once they do that, I’m sure we’ll give that good consideration.

We are convinced we need to get this legislation through. I mean, it involves a very serious set of major reforms put in place by this government or proposed by this government, the likes of which the federal parliament has never seen before. We’re determined to get these reforms through.

Health minister says bulk billing rate has increased to 84%

Josh Butler

The federal government is trumpeting “big benefits” from its Medicare investments, announcing bulk billing rates across the country are up nearly five percentage points since last year.

The health minister, Mark Butler, said the national bulk billing rate for the June quarter had increased to 84.1%, announcing increases in every state and territory.

Bulk billing was up 5.7% in Victoria (to 85.7%), up 6% in South Australia (82.5%), up 4.1% in NSW (87.5%) and up 13% in the Northern Territory to 90.8%.

Other states saw smaller increases, with the ACT coming in last, with bulk billing still lagging at 59.3% – by far the lowest rate nationally.

Butler said the Labor government’s Medicare investments had helped raise that rate.

“Across the country more and more GP practices are becoming fully bulk billing clinics meaning all patients need is their Medicare card, not their credit card,” he said.

Federal transport minister ‘not happy’ after near-miss between two planes at Sydney airport

Catherine King, the federal transport minister, has asked Air Services Australia to speak with her today about a “pathway forward” after two aircraft were involved in a near-miss at Sydney airport on Sunday.

The two planes, owned by Jetstar and Qatar Airways, almost collided at Sydney airport, the nation’s busiest, on Sunday morning. A Jetstar spokesperson said its plane was following instructions from air traffic control when the pilots were forced to break “firmly” when another aircraft came within “close proximity”.

Inquiries suggest a tug vehicle pulling the Qatar jet may not have followed instructions.

The incident came after delays to more than 150 flights passing through Sydney on Saturday as the airport struggled with staffing shortages.

Airservices Australia, which oversees air traffic control, was managing reduced air traffic movements and had been unable to roster enough staff for three consecutive days, the Airlines for Australia and New Zealand chief executive, Stephen Beckett, told the ABC this weekend.

King told 7 News yesterday:

double quotation markWe’re not happy. No one wants to see passengers disrupted in the way they have been.

That meeting is expected to happen in Canberra today, the ABC reports.

NSW deputy premier asks for moratorium on take-home assessments for students amid AI review

Prue Car, the NSW deputy premier, has asked the NSW Education Standards Authority (Nesa) to impose a ban on unsupervised take-home assessments during a broad review of AI’s impact on student learning.

Car said she has asked Nesa to “urgently” examine artificial intelligence and move to protect student learning amid growing evidence the technology is affecting student’s cognitive development. Half of students’ HSC result is based on school-based assessments, some of which is finished outside the classroom.

She said in a statement:

double quotation markArtificial intelligence has enormous potential to support teaching and learning, but it should never replace the thinking, creativity, and hard work that education is designed to develop.

The purpose of schooling extends beyond producing an assessment task. It is to build knowledge, judgment, resilience, and critical thinking over time. If students rely on AI to bypass that learning process, we risk undermining both their education and the integrity of the HSC.

Subject to Nesa’s advice, any interim changes would be applied from the beginning of term 4.

Good morning

Good morning, and happy Monday. Here’s what’s on deck:

Catherine King, the federal minister for transport, said she has asked Air Services Australia to come and talk to her today about a “pathway forward” after two aircraft were involved in a near-miss at Sydney airport on Sunday.

And the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former foreign minister Bob Carr will speak before a public inquiry into the Aukus submarine deal today. Stick with us.