The terrorism incident in Sydney last night saw the government, Federal Police and ASIO speaking out today in an attempt to calm Australians already unsettled by the Bondi shopping centre murders on Saturday.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has today become Australia’s 22nd longest-serving prime minister, overtaking Harold Holt’s term of 1 year, 10 months and 23 days.
Harold Holt was prime minister in 1966-1967. He disappeared on December 17, 1967 at Cheviot Beach, Portsea, whilst swimming. His body was never found.
Albanese became the 31st prime minister on May 23, 2022, following the ALP’s victory in the election of May 21.
On May 20, 2024, Albanese will overtake Tony Abbott’s term of 1 year, 11 months and 28 days.
A knife attack at the Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre in Sydney has resulted in the deaths of seven people, including the killer.
The dead include four women and one male who died at the shopping centre. The mother of a nine-month old baby subsequently died in hospital. The baby was also stabbed in the attack.
The killer, a lone 40-year-old male, known to police, was shot dead by a NSW Police Inspector who was the first police officer to arrive on the scene.
Samantha Mostyn, a lawyer,business-woman and gender equality campaigner, has been appointed the 28th Governor-General of Australia.
The appointment was announced this morning by the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. The vice-regal appointment is made by King Charles III on the advice of the prime minister.
Mostyn will take up the 5-year appointment on July 1, 2024.
Watch the Albanese-Mostyn press conference (26m):
This is Senator Dave Sharma’s maiden speech to the Senate.
Sharma, a Liberal, assumed his NSW Senate position on November 30, 2023. He filled a casual vacancy created by the departure of Senator Marise Payne. At her retirement, Payne was the longest-serving female senator, having held her seat for 26 years, 5 months and 21 days since 1997.
The Reserve Bank has left the cash rate unchanged at 4.35%, in a decision announced today.
The cash rate has now been held at 4.35% for the past four months.
In a statement released today, the RBA board says that inflation has moderated but is still high. It says the “outlook is highly uncertain”.
Watch RBA Governor Michele Bullock’s press conference (39m):
The commercial future of AI will soon be bigger than the actions of any firm, individual, research team, or open-source community. In the near term, a massive tailwind of potential use cases and nearly completed projects will determine the rate of progress in creating value for users and suppliers. Still, the source of the next frontier commercial breakthrough and the distribution of profits look undetermined and, for reasons to be explained, underdetermined.
Large language models (LLMs) have overrun commercial markets, more like a tsunami than a normal technical wave of interest. The topic is everywhere –news stories, blogs, podcasts, startup investments, analyst reports, hackathons, and government announcements. A virtual frenzy surrounds it.
The Defence Minister, Richard Marles, has announced an upgrade and expansion of the Australian Navy to give it an “enhanced lethality surface combatant fleet”.
Flanked by the Pat Conroy, the Minister for Defence Industry, Marles announced an additional $11 billion over the next decade. The money will be used to expand the Navy’s fleet of warships to 26 vessels, an increase of 15 craft.
Commitments to the construction of naval vessels in South Australia and Western Australia were reiterated, with ship workers being promised work for deacdes.
Jeremy Rockliff, the Liberal Premier of Tasmania, has announced that negotiations with two former Liberal MPs have broken down and he will call an early election tomorrow.
Rockliff said John Tucker and Lara Alexander had “failed to commit to a new, enduring agreement”, following their resignations from the Liberal Party in May, 2023. The former Liberals had concerns relating to the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium project. Their resignations sent the government into minority status in the House of Assembly.
The Chinese Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been sentenced to death by a court in China.
Yang Hengjun
Yang Hengjun, a pro-democracy activist, has been detained for the past five years. His death sentence will likely be commuted to life imprisonment after two years of “good behaviour”.
Greg Combet, a former minister in the Rudd-Gillard governments, has been appointed Chairman of the Future Fund.
Greg Combet, new Chairman of the Future Fund
The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, made the announcement at a press conference today.
Australia Day 1973 passed almost unnoticed, according to one radio news report, but Gough Whitlam used his 53rd day as prime minister to announce a search for a new national anthem.
Listen to a news report from radio 3DB in Melbourne on January 26, 1973, including a clip from Whitlam’s speech (1m)
Whitlam’s announcement of a replacement for God Save the Queen came in his Australia Day address. He said:
The Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, has responded to the Prime Minister’s Press Club appearance today.
The rhetoric could charitably be described as over-the-top: