News live: Biden says Australia has supported US and UK air strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen | Australia news

Australia is supporting American forces, along with forces from the UK, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands in strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The US president, Joe Biden, released a statement on the strikes – highlighting the support from the countries involved:

Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces – together with the United Kingdom and with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands – successfully conducted strikes against a number of targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels to endanger freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most vital waterways.

These strikes are in direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea – including the use of anti-ship ballistic missiles for the first time in history.

He goes on to say in the statement:

Today’s defensive action follows this extensive diplomatic campaign and Houthi rebels’ escalating attacks against commercial vessels. These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes. I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.

Aldi has joined Woolworths in choosing not to sell Australia Day merchandise ahead of the national holiday, according to AAP.

The supermarket giant will not sell themed products such as thongs in the lead-up to 26 January.

It comes as Opposition leader Peter Dutton called on shoppers to boycott Woolworths over its decision not to sell Australia Day wares.

The federal government has slammed Dutton, accusing him of trying to start a culture war.

Cabinet minister Murray Watt said the Liberal leader was out of touch with the concerns of regular Australians dealing with cost of living pressures and high food prices.

Watt told ABC News Breakfast on Friday:

It is an extraordinary statement from Peter Dutton … his desire to always be negative, always be divisive, divide Australians, find political point scoring opportunities, rather than trying to bring the country together.

His priority is starting another culture war about the kind of thongs and flags that supermarkets sell.

Senator Watt reaffirmed the government’s commitment to Australia Day, saying they supported keeping the public holiday on 26 January.

He said he planned to attend a citizenship ceremony and celebrate it with a barbecue.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black told The Australian newspaper Mr Dutton’s boycott call was unjustified.

Black said:

Businesses shouldn’t be boycotted because they make commercial decisions based on demand for products from their customers.

Nationals frontbencher Barnaby Joyce said Woolworths should focus on reducing prices to help Australians. He told Sky News:

I can’t see why people should go shopping there until they realise that your job is a retailer, not a politician.

Peter Hannam

Government releases draft legislation to prompt climate risk disclosures by big firms

Timely perhaps given the latest threats of deluges across much of northern Australia, treasurer Jim Chalmers has today released the government’s draft legislation to set up a climate risk disclosure framework for businesses.

Chalmers had touted the changes as aimed at helping “Australia maximise the economic opportunities of cleaner, cheaper and more reliable energy and manage climate change risks”.

With almost unmatched renewable energy resources, Australia is no doubt well-placed in a decarbonising world. On the other hand, as one of the world’s biggest exporters of fossil gas and coal, many firms (and communities) have “downside” risks should we get serious about cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

And as the extreme weather events of the past couple of months (eg flooding from cyclone Jasper and severe storms around Brisbane) remind us, Australia has its fair share (and probably more) of disasters to deal with.

Since the global Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) was set up in 2017, firms had been voluntarily disclosing risks. The shift, though, is increasingly to mandate such reporting.

For Australia that will mean amending the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act 2001 and the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) to “introduce standardised, internationally-aligned reporting requirements for businesses, to ensure they are making high quality climate-related financial disclosures”, the government said.

According to the accompanying information, the option preferred by the government would cover about 1800 “entities”. On-going annual costs of compliance would initially be between $1m-$1.3m, treasury estimates, falling to about half that over time.

The government will take submissions until 9 February.

Sticking with this stoush over Woolworth’s decision to remove Australian Day merch, two MPs have weighed in on X, formerly Twitter, criticising opposition leader Peter Dutton for his calls for a boycott.

First up is Labor MP Julian Hill, who echoed Murray Watt’s condemnation below, and reflected on how some people chose to be more positive in January, and others chose to be more negative.

Some people enter January with positive resolutions.

Exercise. A diet. A few little changes to make life a bit better.

Peter Dutton has decided to bring in the new year by starting a stupid culture war with a supermarket over what colour hats they stock. What a flog.

Elsewhere, independent MP Zali Steggall asked if we needed “more plastic crap made in China?”

Instead of focusing on foreign made symbols of national pride, Steggall argued, we should be focused on the “cost of essential items like food”.

Seriously, Australians produce 67 million tonnes of rubbish per year, only about a third is recycled. Do we need more plastic crap made in China? How about worrying about the cost of essential items like food? That’s what I want headlines about.

I am calling on @woolworths and @ALDIAustralia to put on an Australia Day price special for fresh food and veg so Aussies can have a healthy bbq instead of wasting their $ on plastic crap.

Caitlin Cassidy

Teaching degree offers jump by more than 10% in Victoria

Offers to Victorian education courses have jumped by 11% in a year, data released by the tertiary admissions centre on Friday shows, in a positive sign for “crippling” workforce shortages hitting the sector.

In September last year, the state government announced scholarships to cover the cost of teaching degrees, virtually making studies free.

The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) January round one offers showed there had been an 8.1% increase in first preference applications for education courses compared with last year – prior to the reforms being introduced.

Overall, there were 3,140 offers to education courses made on Friday, an 11.2% increase on 2023. Education courses comprised 4.3% of all offers, up from 3.8% annually.

Some 14,472 offers were made to universities, TAFEs and independent colleges across areas of study. The top courses were health (20.9%), society and culture (19.0%), management and commerce (14.6%), and natural and physical sciences (14.5%).

Including offers released last year, a total of 61,587 domestic offers for study have now been released for 2024 courses in the state after a record December round.

VTAC CEO Teresa Tjia advised applicants who were yet to receive an offer to seek support ahead of the next change of preference deadline on 18 January.

Federal emergency management minister Murray Watt was on ABC News earlier, and spoke about the weather in Queensland, beginning by urging residents of far north Queensland to stay across warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology.

Watt said that while residents in Queensland and Victoria that had faced multiple extreme weather events were resilient, this was a “new reality” for many.

Far north Queensland could be in for pretty severe weather in the coming days. The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast for areas from Wujal Wujal to Port Douglas. I was up there earlier this week, and the ground is sodden, as can you imagine. Anymore heavy rain will of course have an impact. We are keeping an eye on the monsoon trough coming through the Cape as well.

These events don’t just come out of the blue, especially a particular area being hit by compounding events in similar weeks or similar months. Even in Victoria this week, the same areas that were hit by floods 18 months ago hit again. This is a new reality that we are having to adjust to and of course, we all feel for people going through these situations.

AAP is reporting that homes remain under threat from rising floodwaters despite no rain and warm weather predicted for Victoria.

Watch and act alerts remain active for the Goulburn River from Seymour to Shepparton, as well as Bendigo and Bullock creeks downstream of Minto.

Temperatures are predicted to reach the mid-to-high 30s across the state on Friday, with the Bureau of Meteorology tipping Shepparton to hit 36C, Bendigo 35C and Seymour 34C.

Authorities believe about a dozen houses could be flooded when waters peak at Shepparton on Friday, prompting the SES to doorknock about 300 homes.

Moderate flooding is expected at McCoys Bridge over the weekend and into next week, according to the Vic Emergency website.

Flash flooding hit parts of the state on Sunday and Monday, while more than 180mm of rain was recorded in the central Victorian town of Heathcote, amounting to three months’ worth in 24 hours.

Redesdale’s more than 117mm in 24 hours was a daily record for any month, from 120 years of data. The 92mm recorded in Bendigo broke 90-year records.

Towns in central Victoria endured an intense 24 hours as the region faced its fourth major rain event since Christmas.

The Goulburn River is not expected to have any significant rainfall over the coming days, offering some relief to communities impacted by the emergency.

Caitlin Cassidy

Queensland tertiary admissions says delaying university offers was ‘not a move made lightly’

The Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) says the decision to delay its largest release of university offers was “not a move we made lightly”, apologising for any impact it may have on applicants and families.

The four-day delay in releasing the first January offer round was announced by QTAC, the body responsible for course applications for the state, on Wednesday – hours before it was due to land.

QTAC’s chief executive officer Dr John Griffiths said delay to Monday would allow the body to “deliver the best offers and opportunities to the maximum number of applicants”.

The method of finalising offers for applicants this year has included new processes that have played out across a tight timeframe, one that draws on complex factors.

When it became clear that we needed more time to do this for the maximum number of applicants, we made the decision to delay the offer round. It’s certainly not a move we made lightly.

Griffiths said QTAC understood applicants and their families had planned around the original date – whether it be relocation practicalities or celebrations.

As a team we share in the emotions and excitement around offer rounds, so we sincerely appreciate the understanding and feedback we’ve been shown as we work to best support applicants with their move into tertiary study.

A new deadline has been made for Friday 19 January for applicants to respond to their offers.

Tamsin Rose

NSW to host first road safety forum

Road safety experts from around the world will join with local reform advocates and policymakers as part of the first road safety forum to be held in New South Wales next month.

The stakeholders will meet on 22 February to discuss what can be done to reduce the number of people dying on roads across the state.

Last year, 351 people died on roads in NSW.

The forum will hear from Scandinavian experts about how their countries have been able to reduce road fatalities over the past two decades.

State roads minister John Graham said:

The road toll has increased across Australia and many parts of the world after Covid. This forum is an opportunity to hear from experts who have had some success in reducing the road toll and identify new measures and actions from the road safety plan that could be accelerated.

Good morning, Mostafa Rachwani with you to take you through the day’s news.

We begin in Queensland, where residents are being urged to prepare for even more wild weather, as another potential cyclone looms. While deputy premier Cameron Dick has said Queenslanders are “battle-hardened,” residents are still being urged to be wary of flash flooding and heavy rain.

It comes as people in parts of Western Australia brace for a heatwave, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a warning of temperatures as high as the mid 40s for the Kimberley, Pilbara and Goldfield regions. A low intensity heatwave is expected in Perth, with much of the state expected to swelter today.

Finally, new research from the Australia Institute shows that an EU-style tax on plastic in Australia could raise up to $1.5bn each year. Their research found that the government could raise $1,300 per tonne of “virgin” or un-recycled plastic through a levy on businesses that import or manufacture plastic packaging. Voters polled by the institute showed strong support for the measure, with 85% saying they support legislated waste reduction targets.

We’ll bring you the latest updates and more as the day unfolds.