Australia news LIVE: Labor exec to decide CFMEU response; Nuclear plan puts farms in radiation zone, minister says

The unemployment rate has risen slightly - increasing by less than 0.1 percentage point to 4.1 per cent in June, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The number of people searching for work rose by 10,000 people, while the number of people who gained work rose by 50,000, helping to lift the participation rate to 66.9 per cent.

Bjorn Jarvis, head of ABS labour statistics, said the jobs market remains strong, with the unemployment rate currently 1.1 percentage points lower than it was in March 2020.

“The participation rate in June was only 0.1 percentage point lower than the historical high of 67.0 per cent in November 2023. The employment-to-population ratio rose by 0.1 percentage point to 64.2 per cent, which was also close to its historical high of 64.4 per cent in November 2023,” he said.

“The employment-to-population ratio and participation rate both continue to be near their 2023 highs. This, along with the continued high level of job vacancies, suggests the labour market remains relatively tight, despite the unemployment rate being above 4.0 per cent since April.”

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has pledged to put an end to the illegal trade of native bird eggs, after environmental crime investigators seized thousands of eggs from a Tasmanian home.

An investigation by European authorities uncovered native Australian eggs in the international trade, which led local authorities to discover the suspect trading native eggs, Tasmania’s Mercury newspaper reported.

The more than 3000 eggs seized, which were allegedly taken from wild nests, have an estimated value of up to $500,000.

Plibersek took to X to condemn the act:

An update on the state of the jobs market will help the Reserve Bank of Australia build out its picture of the economy before the next interest rate decision in August.

The June labour force readout from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, due on Thursday, follows a long run of consistently strong numbers despite higher interest rates working to slow the economy.

Yet the jobs market has been weakening gradually, with the unemployment rate at 4 per cent in May, up from the lows of 3.5 per cent reached last year and in 2022.

Other indicators point to weakening, including job ad volumes, which recorded a 1.5 per cent month-on-month fall in June according to employment marketplace Seek.

Year-on-year, ad volumes were down 17.1 per cent.

The number of applications for each job on the employment platform has also been climbing.

Stronger-than-expected monthly inflation data had stoked fears of another interest rate hike, though the more likely scenario remains rates staying high for longer.

The RBA is waiting for the more comprehensive June quarter inflation statistics – due later this month – though the state of the labour market will also inform the August decision on rates.

– AAP

Construction company CPB, the main contractor on the Cross River Rail project, is seeking a court injunction to end CFMEU industrial action on its Brisbane worksites.

In a statement, CPB said it would argue the case today in the Federal Court, amid stalled and increasingly acrimonious enterprise bargaining negotiations with the CFMEU.

“Unions are an important stakeholder in the construction industry, however we stand firm against any intimidation tactics used to exert unlawful pressure on our employees and supply-chain partners,” CPB said.

“Importantly, this includes the right of all workers to present themselves for work if they choose.

“The safety and wellbeing of everyone working on our CPB Contractors’ sites is our highest priority, and we intend for all Cross River Rail sites to return to normal operations as soon as possible.”

Jumping back to ACTU secretary Sally McManus’ interview on ABC’s RN Breakfast, where she responded to the federal opposition’s calls for the return of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

The ABCC was an independent statutory body founded by the former Coalition government, aimed at regulating the construction industry. But the Labor government abolished it in February 2023, claiming it was designed to target unions.

McManus said the Liberals were zeroing in on the ABCC to try and “make this a union-bashing exercise”, instead of focusing on the actual issues.

She said the ABCC had focused on things like “stickers and flags on construction workers’ hard hats”, and didn’t make any progress on the real problems within the construction industry.

“That organisation was there for a long period of time and we can see it was completely ineffectual because it was about politics, not about what the actual issues are.”

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt has elaborated on his warning that the Coalition’s nuclear plan will have an adverse impact on farmers, claiming more than 11,000 farms would be within a “radiation alert zone”.

Under international standards, being within a certain radius of a nuclear power plant requires landholders to take preventative measures in case of an emergency, due to the risk of exposure to radiation through contaminated food, milk and water after a nuclear leak.

Watt told ABC’s News Breakfast about what he considers “real concerns about the implications of the nuclear plan on farmers”.

“Where is the water going to come from to run these nuclear reactors and cool them? Will that water come at the expense of farmers around the country?” Watt asked.

“And what we have established from research from the Parliamentary Library [is] there are nearly 12,000 Australian farms who live within an 80-kilometres radius of one of the proposed nuclear reactor sites.”

Watt said that in several US states there are detailed plans for farmers to respond to nuclear accidents if they live within this radius.

“My question to Peter Dutton and David Littleproud: What instructions are they going to be providing to farmers if there’s a nuclear accident within that ingestion zone, what extra regulation is going to be required of farmers to make sure they keep their food production safe?” Watt asked.

– with AAP

The major telcos are under mounting pressure to ensure every Australian can connect to triple zero when the 3G network shuts down from next month.

Telstra is due to switch off the ageing network on August 31, having extended its original June deadline, while Optus will shut down from September. TPG/Vodafone shut its 3G operation in January.

But there are still 102,000 mobile phones across the nation that are incompatible with 4G, according to the latest industry figures provided to the government. These devices – often bought overseas or secondhand – use 4G data for regular calls and texts, but drop triple zero calls to 3G because they are not enabled with a technology called Voice over LTE.

Users may not realise their phone is configured this way by the manufacturer until the 3G network is switched off and they need to call the emergency line.

The telcos’ significant effort to reach affected customers is encouraging, but more needs to be done, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.

“The government is keen to see this work ramp up and continue,” the minister said in a statement on Thursday morning.

“All Australians must have confidence in the triple-zero service. I encourage everyone to check their own device, speak to friends, family and loved ones about the 3G switchover and reach out directly to their service providers for further information.”

Telstra and Optus have a service for customers to check the status of their device by texting “3” to the number 3498.

Users will also hear a pre-recorded message on non-emergency outgoing calls if they need to upgrade their phones.

– AAP

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused of choosing the “weakest possible response” to the allegations of criminal wrongdoing levelled at the CFMEU by an investigation by this masthead.

Liberal senator James Paterson told Sky News that the Labor government was going down “the path of least resistance” by refusing to deregister the union, instead opting to appoint independent administrators to take control.

“What he should have done is what [former prime minister Bob Hawke] did, which is to deregister the CFMEU,” Paterson said, referencing the Hawke government’s decision to permanently deregister the Builders Labourers Federation in 1986.

“Instead of giving it a new lease of life under administrators [who] will tinker around for a few years and then return it back to its normal operating business,” Paterson continued.

“Labor thinks that it’s somehow going to reform the CFMEU by importing a public servant to be an administrator union that’s going to clean it up, but the CFMEU is unforgivable.”

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor echoed Paterson’s call to deregister the CFMEU in an interview on ABC’s RN Breakfast, claiming only that would allow new unions to emerge.

“What’s required is deregistration, allowing other unions to move into the sector, unions that haven’t been subject to these sorts of allegations. And then we have a competition to represent workers,” Taylor said.

Taylor slammed the measure of appointing an independent administrator, saying it wouldn’t be effective because the CFMEU is “rotten to the core”.

Taylor also called for a return of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.