As it happened: Welfare payments to increase; Labor’s climate change bill reaches the Senate; Ukraine calls for more Australian war trucks – Sydney Morning Herald

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Well, that’s all from us today. It was a busy day in news, so if you’re only just joining us, here is a quick recap of the biggest news of the day:
Broede Carmody will be with you bright and early tomorrow morning to take you through all the news that Tuesday has to offer.
Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Sky News host Paul Murray that he hopes that he will continue to be the local member for Cook, despite public outcry at his multiple ministries’ saga.
Morrison told Sky News host Paul Murray in an interview on Monday night that he “looked forward to continuing being an effective local member of parliament” and “supporting a lof of my colleagues”.
The former liberal leader hinted that he was possibly doing other things “in addition” to his parliamentary duties”, but wouldn’t divulge on details.
In his first interview since the election loss, Morrison also spoke to Murray about the ministries saga, telling Sky News that “not going to get bitter” about the inquiry into the multiple ministries.
“I have made my statements, I’ve explained the situation, and I don’t expect everyone to agree with me,” Morrison said.
He said that people would undoubtedly “look back and make their judgements”, but defended his decision to appoint himself to multiple positions, citing that the COVID-19 pandemic was an “extraordinary situation”.
“Australia had a lesson in federation over the course of the pandemic. Many people thoughts I had powers that I did not have.”
The Cook MP said he was incredibly proud of what his government had achieved during his time as Prime Minister, and told Sky News that a weight had been listed off his shoulders, and he was settling back into “a routine suburban life.”
“Immediately there is a weight lifted, one I’ve been privileged to carry,” Morrison said.
Morrison urged people to throw their support behind the new Liberal Party, fronted by Peter Dutton, as Australia “rebuilds” after the election and COVID-19 pandemic.
Taxpayers will foot a $650,000 bill to cover former Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller’s claims of damage and loss suffered when she worked for former cabinet ministers Alan Tudge and Michaelia Cash.
Following the settlement of her drawn-out legal case, Miller has issued a plea to all federal MPs to fully implement the recommendations of Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins’ review of parliament’s workplace culture, citing her own “horrendous” experience in making a formal complaint.
Alan Tudge and Rachelle Miller, who worked as his media adviser for 15 months from August 2016.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The deed of settlement was dated July 19, 2022, and shows the Commonwealth reached the deal with Gordon Legal, Miller’s lawyers, but did not admit liability.
Read the full story here.
Hong Kong: China has accused a US spy agency of hacking a government-funded university with aeronautics and space research programs, in Beijing’s latest effort to hit back at Washington’s complaints of cybersnooping.
The National Security Agency’s Office of Tailored Access Operations carried out the attacks on Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi’an, China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre said in a statement.
Beijing and Washington have been engaged in increasingly testy claims of cyberspying.Credit:AP
A team from the centre and 360 Security Technology Inc. analysed the university’s information systems after an attack from overseas was reported in June, the centre added.
The NSA conducted more than 10,000 “vicious” cyberattacks on Chinese targets in recent years, collecting more than 140 gigabytes of data of “great value,” it said. Neither the US embassy in Beijing nor the NSA replied to requests for comment on Monday.
Read the full story here.
Bloomberg
Billionaire Clive Palmer has asked the Federal Court for help in dodging “draconian” laws preventing him from obtaining amounts he claims are owed to him by the West Australian government.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday, is brought against the Commonwealth of Australia, which has been threatened with arbitration over the $30 billion spat, as well as the WA government and the state’s State Development, Jobs and Trade Minister Roger Cook.
Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer.Credit:Getty Images
This marks the next chapter in Palmer’s ongoing legal battles over the development of the Balmoral South iron ore mine in WA’s Pilbara region.
A dispute first arose between two Palmer firms – Mineralogy and International Minerals – and the state government in 2012. This went to arbitration with the mining magnate emerging mostly as the victor after two decisions in May 2014 and October 2019.
Read the full story here.
AAP
The cost to home buyers of the Reserve Bank’s battle against inflation is poised to hit more than $1000 a month, with the institution ready to lift official interest rates even as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urges it to consider the impact on ordinary workers.
The bank board meets on Tuesday with markets and economists expecting the RBA to take the official cash rate to a seven-year high of 2.35 per cent from its current level of 1.85 per cent.
The repayments on an $800,000 mortgage are on track to be $1000 higher than four months ago.Credit:Peter Rae
A half percentage point increase in interest rates – the fourth successive such hike – would lift the average repayment on an $800,000 mortgage to more than $4300 a month. In April, when the cash rate was 0.1 per cent, the monthly repayments on the same mortgage were less than $3300.
Read the full story here.
The Australian sharemarket closed higher after a mixed day with trade value 20 per cent lower than average, but still brushing off a negative lead from Wall Street.
The ASX 200 closed up 0.3 per cent, or 23.5 points at 6852.20, as energy and mining stocks led the market, rising 3.97 per cent and 1.94 per cent, respectively. The utilities and consumer staples sectors also closed in the green, as the remaining seven sectors dropped.
The ASX is off to a positive start on Monday morning.Credit:Tamara Voninski
Yancoal gained 7.26 per cent and Whitehaven Coal jumped 6.52 per cent, following Russia’s closure over the weekend of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, one of Europe’s major gas supplies.
Other energy stocks rose, with market heavyweight BHP gaining 3.18 per cent; Woodside Energy up 4.25 per cent; and Fortescue rallying 2.63 per cent despite trading ex-dividend for the first time since February.
Read the full wrap here.
The Kiribati government has suspended three appeal judges who decided a deportation dispute in favour of an Australian-born judge married to the country’s opposition leader, amid a deepening legal crisis in the tiny Pacific Island nation.
In a decision last month, the Kiribati Court of Appeal – retired New Zealand justices Peter Blanchard, Rodney Hansen and Paul Heath – declared invalid an attempt by the government to deport Australian David Lambourne, a former solicitor-general of Kiribati who was appointed to its High Court in 2018.
Kiribati High Court Justice David Lambourne, right, pictured in 2019 with Sir John Baptist Muri, a former chief justice of the High Court of Kiribati.Credit:Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute
All three Court of Appeal judges have now been suspended from office by Kiribati President Taneti Maamau, leaving the country without any appeal judges. All judges of the High Court have also been suspended, leaving only a registrar in place.
Read the full story here.
Choke points in Australia’s immigration system will be scrutinised in a snap review called by Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, as the government works to speed up visa processing and boost the number of permanent migrants by 35,000 before July 1.
Already, another 190 people are in the process of being hired to work on the visa backlog and the federal government has committed $36.1 million for 500 more visa processing staff over the next nine months, to help get a record 195,000 permanent migrants into the country this financial year.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil is holding a review into Australia’s immigration system.Credit:James Brickwood
“We have a once-in-a-generation chance to reform our immigration system and get this right,” O’Neil said.
O’Neil said the review, which does not yet have terms of reference but is slated to finish in February ahead of next year’s budget, will help give the immigration system the “love and care” it needs.
Read the full story here.
The home of the Ghanaian minister involved in negotiations over a deadly $395 million mining dispute between Australian and Chinese state-linked mining companies has caught fire, as community anger grows in response to the government’s handling of the affair.
Mining minister Samuel Jinapor was in Australia when his house in the capital, Accra, caught fire on Saturday AEST. The minister had met with officials from Australian miner Cassius in Perth hours before the blaze took hold of the second floor of his house in the suburb of Adjiringanor.
Samuel Jinapor, Ghana’s natural resources minister.Credit:Bloomberg
Jinapor and the Ghanaian Minerals Commission had agreed to investigate the alleged theft of millions of dollars worth of gold from an Australian mine in Africa by Chinese state-linked company Shaanxi and question its officials over the deaths of dozens of local miners in its pits in northern Ghana.
Ghana’s National Fire Service is investigating the cause of the fire. The blaze gutted an upstairs bedroom leaving behind a trail of blackened shoes, clothes and a Louis Vuitton labelled handbag.
Read the full story here.
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