Minister announces $14.4m for emergency food relief
Josh Butler
Social services minister Amanda Rishworth has announced $14.4m for emergency food relief programs nationwide.
In recognition of Australians going through “hard times”, with spiralling numbers of people reaching out to food banks in this cost of living and housing crisis, the government says it is “strengthening the support available for Australians experiencing financial crisis”.
Rishworth’s announcement includes funding to be shared between 192 Commonwealth-funded emergency relief providers and all three Commonwealth-funded Food Relief providers.
The minister said there had been “increased demand for their services”, and that the services also helped respond to natural disasters like the recent Queensland floods.
“It is essential we have a strong system of relief to help Australians through the hard times,” Rishworth said.
“We are taking action to ensure the rising number of Australian households reaching out for aid, can access support as they contend with rising cost of living pressures.”
Key events
AFP officer said he would authorise surveillance on autistic boy again
Deputy commissioner Ian McCartney, the senior AFP officer who authorised an undercover counter-terror operation against an autisitic teenager, told a Senate hearing last night that he would “sign that [authorisation] again” if the circumstances were repeated.
Guardian Australia revealed earlier this month that a Victorian children’s court had granted a permanent stay in the case of the boy, given the pseudonym Thomas Carrick, with magistrate Lesley Fleming making a raft of serious findings against police, including that they had fed his fixation with Islamic State.
Deputy commissioner Ian McCartney said that attempts to deradicalise the boy after his parents approached Victoria police in April 2021 had failed, and he was thought to be becoming a greater threat when McCartney authorised the major controlled operation.
That operation involved Thomas being targeted by an undercover officer online.
McCartney, whose conduct was not directly criticised in the magistrate’s decision, told the Senate late on Tuesday that “if I had the same set of circumstances, I would sign that [authorisation] again.
“He’d expressed a desire to carry out a violent act, he had expressed a desire to carry out a school shooting, he was researching material on how to build a bomb, he was engaging with likeminded individuals.
Read the full story by our courts and justice reporter Nino Bucci here:
CSIRO chief appointed to government’s AI panel
The government’s consideration of mandatory rules for artificial intelligence programs begins in earnest today, with the CSIRO’s chief scientist among experts appointed to a panel group.
Industry and science minister Ed Husic will announce more details at a press conference in Canberra later today, but his office overnight shared details of the new AI Expert Group, which Husic flagged last month as part of the government’s work on the fast-growing new tech space.
There will be 12 appointees to the group, including CSIRO Chief Scientist, Professor Bronwyn Cox; Ai expert Prof Toby Walsh; and legal practitioner Angus Lang SC, an expert in intellectual property law.
The group is a temporary one, operating until 30 June at this stage, with more long-term arrangements still under consideration. Husic said the group’s first task about be to “consider options for mandatory guardrails for high-risk AI settings”, such as rules to apply to all platforms, as well as defining “high risk AI”, issues around transparency on how AI models are trained, and watermarks on AI-generated content.
Husic said the group “brings the right mix of skills to steer the formation of mandatory guardrails for high-risk AI settings.”
“It’s imperative sophisticated models underpinning high risk AI systems are transparent and well tested,” he said.
Minister announces $14.4m for emergency food relief
Josh Butler
Social services minister Amanda Rishworth has announced $14.4m for emergency food relief programs nationwide.
In recognition of Australians going through “hard times”, with spiralling numbers of people reaching out to food banks in this cost of living and housing crisis, the government says it is “strengthening the support available for Australians experiencing financial crisis”.
Rishworth’s announcement includes funding to be shared between 192 Commonwealth-funded emergency relief providers and all three Commonwealth-funded Food Relief providers.
The minister said there had been “increased demand for their services”, and that the services also helped respond to natural disasters like the recent Queensland floods.
“It is essential we have a strong system of relief to help Australians through the hard times,” Rishworth said.
“We are taking action to ensure the rising number of Australian households reaching out for aid, can access support as they contend with rising cost of living pressures.”
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight and breaking stories before I hand over to Amy Remeikis.
Peter Dutton has attacked Labor’s handling of the release of people from unlawful immigration detention last year – now his own record as home affairs minister has come under the microscope – including now how he personally intervened to extend the stay of someone with criminal convictions by two months. Although his department refusing on three previous occasions, Dutton granted a visitor visa to the person despite there being no evidence of a required change in circumstances since earlier refusals, Senate inquiry documents show.
The government’s consideration of mandatory rules for artificial intelligence programs begins in earnest today, with the CSIRO chief scientist among experts appointed to a panel group. Industry and science minister Ed Husic will announce more details at a press conference in Canberra later today, but we have some details coming up.
A tax on fossil fuel production could help fund the transition to becoming a carbon-free energy giant, lower the cost of living and assist the world to cut greenhouse emissions, veteran economists Ross Garnaut and Rod Sims will tell the National Press Club today. A so-called carbon solution levy would raise $100bn in its first year alone if introduced in 2030-31 and set at Europe’s five-year average price of $90/tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent, they estimate.
The Australian federal police officer who authorised an undercover operation that resulted in an autistic boy being charged with terror offences told a Senate estimates hearing late last night that he would do so again under the same circumstances. More coming up.
And with the cost-of-living crisis, the housing crisis, and multiple natural disasters, food banks are fielding rising demand. The government has thrown them a financial lifeline: more on that in a few minutes.
