A woman has died and a man is fighting for life after a house fire in Queensland’s north.
Key points:
Neighbors raised the alarm after seeing flames coming from the house after 5:30am
Police attended the house only earlier hours to respond to mental health concerns
The man and woman were in a relationship and were known to police
The couple suffered severe burns in the blaze, which gutted their home in the rural town of Ayr early Tuesday.
The 47-year-old woman and 65-year-old man were flown to hospital in critical conditions. Police later confirmed the woman had died.
Police have declared a crime scene at the property as they investigate the cause of the fire.
Acting Chief Superintendent Chris Lawson said police officers and paramedics had attended the property only hours before the blaze in response to welfare concerns.
“Police received a call in relation to some comments that were made at the residence so they went and attended and spoke to both residents that were there at the time,” he said.
Police attended the Ayr home only hours before the fire began.(ABC North Qld: Baz Ruddick)
Neighbors raised the alarm about three hours later just after 5:30am when they spotted flames coming from the house.
“Queensland Police Service and Queensland Ambulance Service responded to two people who were very severely burned, so there’s obviously graphic scenes around that,” Acting Chief Superintendent Lawson said.
A man in his 20s who tried to help was taken to hospital in a stable condition suffering from smoke inhalation.
Couple known to police
Acting Chief Superintendent Lawson said a crime scene had been established and investigations were underway.
“We haven’t established the actual cause of the fire at this point, so until we can actually sign up exactly what’s occurred, then we’re not going to speculate as to how the fire started,” he said.
The Ayr home was gutted in the blaze.(ABC North Qld: Baz Ruddick)
He said the man and woman were in a relationship.
“It’s not the first time the police have had dealings with this couple,” he said.
Queensland Ambulance Service Assistant Commissioner Matthew Green said it was a confronting incident for first responders.
“[It’s] a fairly tragic situation as far as I’m concerned and at the moment we’re just looking after the welfare of our staff that have had to attend that event,” he said.
A challenge to the validity of so-called “ag-gag” laws in New South Wales, which restrict animal activists’ ability to surreptitiously film farming practices and publish the results, has been thrown out by the High Court of Australia.
Key points:
The two plaintiffs, an activist group and its director, argued the law prevented them from publishing recordings showing animal cruelty at farms
They sought to challenge the Surveillance Devices Act 2007, which regulates the installation, use and maintenance of surveillance devices
But the High Court threw out the challenge on the grounds the law struck the right balance, in protecting farmers’ privacy
The group that brought the challenge had told the High Court the laws interfered with animal activists’ implied right to freedom of political communication.
But the government argued the laws were reasonable and necessary to protect farmers’ privacy and safety.
Today, the High Court agreed, finding the laws achieved the right balance.
Group argued law prevented them from revealing animal cruelty
The matter before the court dealt with the Surveillance Devices Act 2007, which regulates the installation, use and maintenance of surveillance devices.
Sections of the act prohibit installation and use of surveillance devices at agricultural properties as well as the publication of a recording or report that was obtained through that surveillance.
The court heard the activist group, a not-for-profit charity, had “agitated and advocated for political and legal changes to animal agricultural practices and animal welfare standards with the objective of ending modern farming and slaughtering practices”.
The High Court found the laws had a legitimate purpose, in protecting privacy.(AFP: Raul Arboleda)
Court documents state the group had published photographs, videos and audiovisual recordings of animal agricultural practices in New South Wales.
A second plaintiff, the group’s director, had also obtained recordings of the farming or slaughter of animals through “purported acts of trespass”.
Both groups argued the laws “impermissibly burdened their ability to publish information… that showed animal cruelty practices.”
But the court found the provisions of the law had a legitimate purpose, in protecting privacy.
It found that the relevant sections of the act “imposed an incremental burden on a person’s ability to publish records of lawful activities obtained surreptitiously and by conduct which amounted to trespass”.
“[The relevant sections of the act] achieved an adequate balance between the benefit they sought to achieve and the adverse effect on the implied freedom,” the High Court said in its judgement.
The federal Liberals have rejected an invitation to attend a national jobs summit next month, labeling it a stunt.
Key points:
The opposition has ruled out any of its MPs attending next month’s jobs summit
The federal government is agreeing to a summit with the hopes it will prompt wages and productivity growth
Peter Dutton says the summit is a “stunt” with the unions
The federal government is preparing to agree to a summit for the first week of September that it hopes will be a keystone for its economic policy in the term ahead that will unify business, government and unions.
Government ministers had expressed hesitation over inviting the opposition, saying it would only be invited if it was prepared to be constructive.
On Tuesday Treasurer Jim Chalmers wrote to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, extending an invitation for him or another Coalition MP to attend.
But Mr Dutton has rejected the invitation.
“It’s a stunt with the unions,” Mr Dutton said.
“We’ll support all sorts of good policies from the government … but we’re not going to support stunts.
“The fact that Jim Chalmers wrote to me and then within a couple of hours dropped it to The Australian newspaper demonstrates it is nothing more than a stunt.”
Unions lay down reform agenda ahead of summit
Overnight, the peak union body outlined its goals for the upcoming jobs summit, with “full and secure” employment being its first priority.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions said despite unemployment being at a historic low, real wages were declining and insecure work was “rife”.
The ACTU said the federal government should implement an excess-profits levy on companies “enjoying windfall profits as a result of current inflation”, cancel planned tax cuts for high-income earners and regulate labor markets to ensure wages rose in line with productivity.
The unions have already flagged they want enterprise bargaining rules overhauled, something the government has indicated it will pursue despite resistance from business groups.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said for workers to benefit, the government must do more than fiddle around the edges on workplace reforms.
“It requires new ways of thinking about how our system is managed, who benefits from it, and how to change it for the better,” Ms McManus said.
Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume said despite her party’s refusal to attend, the jobs summit would be an important chance to set the policy agenda for the coming term of government.
“The jobs summit that’s coming up will be a very important event in which a lot of these demands get aired,” Senator Hume told Sky News.
“The real test, of course, will be when Labor starts ruling out some of these demands from their union masters.
“I think this is an important opportunity for the Australian public to really hear what it was they voted on.”
Federal police have seized two homes, a Mercedes-Benz and six bank accounts, worth an estimated $4.4 million in total, from a sydney man accused of importing cocaine.
The 41-year-old man allegedly brought 2.1kg of cocaine into Australia via the post in February 2021, and was arrested and charged with the unlawful importation of a border controlled drug in June of that year.
Police have now seized his assets, including a house in Sydney’s Connells Point and a second property in Queensland, after court orders were made last Thursday.
The AFP has seized a house in Connells Point from a man accused of importing cocaine. (AFP)
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commander Criminal Assets Confiscation Stephen Fry said police were determined to ensure criminals did not enjoy benefits of their crimes.
“The AFP is relentless in pursuing every legal avenue to deprive criminals of their ill-gotten wealth, taking the profit out of their crimes and disrupting future criminal operations,” he said.
Fry has warned criminals his team will track down and seize their profits of crime.
“No person or criminal group is beyond the reach of the taskforce,” he said.
“The lavish criminal lifestyle is short-lived.
“We will take away the proceeds of your crimes, including your million-dollar properties, luxury vehicles and funds in any bank accounts.”
The man was arrested under Operation Ironside, a covered operation using an encrypted app distributed to organized crime networks and monitored by law enforcement.
The money obtained from the sale of assets confiscated by police is managed by the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) on behalf of the Commonwealth.
It can then be distributed by the attorney-general to be used for crime prevention, intervention or diversion programs, or other police programs.
Child’s grisly death sparks dad’s decades-long TV crusade
The first sitting of the new federal parliament agreed against the backdrop of a world in turmoil, reinforcing both the limitations and possibilities of an Albanese government.
As Labor took charge, China was firing missiles off Taiwan while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was putting pressure on a global economy already cleaving under the stress of the pandemic.
The global village that emerged after the cold war is imploding in the face of populist nationalism, fueled by the inherent unfairness of the neoliberal project and forcing societies to seek refuge behind national borders that have never been weaker.
Despite their trappings of power, the levers at the hands of our leaders are limited. After four decades of methodically stripping back the powers of the state, so much of this geopolitical buffering is now outside the control of any individual government.
The Albanese government risks becoming a victim of this crossroads moment in history, when the gap between public expectation and the reality of what government can control has become a chasm.
The latest Essential Report shows that cost of living is emerging as a major challenge for voters, with nearly everyone saying it is concerning them.
But even more worrying will be findings which show most people think the government has the sort of control over the economy that the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, could only dream of.
In your view, how much influence do you think the federal government has on the following
The majority of respondents regard the economy as the product of a set of levers that our elected leaders choose to pull. But right now, debt, unemployment and workplace supply are all hostage to the pandemic; inflation and fuel prices are driven by a foreign war; While the easing of interest rates is the decision of the Reserve Bank of Australia, an independent body.
Compounding this mismatch between perception and reality is our appetite for the government to meet its spending commitments on aged care, early learning, women’s safety and the NDIS – while also reducing the budget deficit.
This crowded list of expectations flows from the “small target” strategy from before the election that further ties the government’s hands by committing to the Morrison government’s tax cuts that disproportionately favor the very rich.
As Jim Chalmers conceded in his budget update, there is not much the government can do but hunker down as inflation runs rampant, wages lag profits and interest rates rise – and pray the world stabilizes.
The one thing tit can control is the moral legitimacy it carries into these urgent global conversations after the previous government managed to have Australia all but shunned from polite global society.
Scott Morrison managed to unify the French, the post-Trump US administration, the Pacific and China with mutual disdain – a truly comprehensive lack of diplomacy.
It is already clear that Australia’s willingness to end its internal climate wars and legislate a more ambitious 2030 target (a floor, not a ceiling) has raised our stocks internationally with Pacific nations, the regions and global forums.
On first blush, the proposed voice to parliament which the prime minister articulated at the Garma festival in Arnhem Land last month might seem a sidebar to these global machinations.
But our response to the invitation of First Nations peoples to make peace, first issued five years ago in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, will frame our legitimacy as a credible nation-state every bit as much as our position on climate change.
This week’s report shows a growing majority of Australians ready to RSVP to the invitation embodied in the Uluru Statement from the Heart to enable a direct Indigenous voice to the federal parliament to address the “torment of our powerless”.
A voice to parliament is a body enshrined in the constitution that would enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to provide advice to the parliament on policies and projects that impact their lives. Do you support an alteration to the constitution that establishes an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice?
These figures show the conditions to build a genuine consensus around a voice are strong, with majority support for a voice already registered by Labor, Coalition, Green and unaligned voters alike.
Labor has a strong record of confronting if not totally reconciling our history: Whitlam’s iconic hand back of land to Vincent Lingiari, Paul Keating’s Redfern truth-telling and Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generation.
The Coalition has not covered themselves with the same glory, weaponizing the landmark Mabo and Wik high court decisions to foment division, militarizing the response to Indigenous community breakdown. But most of their voters want them to be better.
The Greens are demanding more long-term ambition around the Treaty and truth-telling but, as with climate change, they must recognize that their voters expect them to support the immediate advances on the table.
This leaves self-appointed “No” campaigner Pauline Hanson to stand in the way of constitutional change. Finding a way to respond to her fear and confusion with the open heart that lies at the center of the Makarrata will help build the path to the necessary majority.
Contrary to the braying from some on the right, the voice is not about symbolism. It’s about the sort of nation we will be as the world begins to understand itself as a collection of nation-states again.
Ukraine has shown the value of strong nationhood in an uncertain world, the commitment of ordinary citizens to take up arms and hold back what seems to be an unrelenting tide. Taiwan, too; its citizens’ engagement with government is recognized as world-leading.
Australia’s role in the world will be tested in the years to come. Addressing the weight of history that sees our first peoples the most incarcerated on the planet will heal us in ways we haven’t even imagined.
New South Wales and Victory are being told to brace for a multi-day rain event, as a cold front and low pressure system sweep across the nation.
It comes after an icy cold blast yesterday dusted parts of Western Australia with a rare flurry of snow.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has issued more than a dozen flood warnings across the two states in anticipation of the wet weather.
Sydney will be hit by more rain at the end of this week. (AP)
The BoM said “widespread rain and the chance of storms” will impact inland NSW from Thursday to Saturday.
“Increasing showers” are forecast for Sydney from Friday, with up to five mm of rain predicted to fall.
Moderate to major flood warnings are in place around Dubbo and Bourke.
“Moderate falls are possible about the western slopes, which may lead to renewed river rises,” the BoM wrote.
Meanwhile, Western Australia’s south-west corner has been dusted with snow.
A large pool of icy air from the Southern Ocean spread over south-western Australia causing temperatures to plummet. (BoM)A rare flurry of snow delighted hikers in Stirling Range National Park. (Frederick Schafsma)
Parts of the state have been shivering through it’s coldest weather of the year, due to a polar blast of air.
“Perth had its coldest day of 2022 to date yesterday with temps in the single-digit range for all but a few hours and a maximum of just 12.1C,” Weatherzone said.
The air driving the cold front is said to be “unusually cold”.
‘River City’ wakes to white-out as fog swallows city
Indigenous people from America and Australia have gathered in the Red Center with the collective goal of saving their languages from extinction.
Native American language experts are sharing their secrets of success in a four-day conference attended by more than 100 people from communities across Australia.
From north-western California, Julian Lang firsthand witnessed the revival of his own native tongue—the Karuk language.
“One person teaches another person and that person becomes a seed for so many more,” Mr Lang explained.
“We wanted to create five new speakers in five years, and three years later we have five new speakers.”
No books needed to revive languages
Twelve Native American revivalists will be sharing the “master-apprentice program” their ancestors developed more than three decades ago.
The program does away with books, pen and paper, and doesn’t rely on a curriculum.
Instead, they speak about everyday things, slowly acquiring words and context.
Indigenous Australians and Native Americans have gathered at the Red Center to learn from each other about how to revive their languages.(ABC News: Xavier Martin)
Julian Lang is one of the founders of the program and said it takes dedication and time — he estimates about three years and 900 hours.
Once an apprentice, now he is teaching Tori McConnell to reconnect more fully with her Karuk culture.
“They used to pick up young native kids and take them to school and strip them of their culture and their language and their identity,” the 22-year-old explained.
“We are reconnecting with who we are in those pieces that the schools and the churches kind of stripped away.”
“We were told never to speak our language again”
This story of language extinction is universal.
Australian government policies actively sought to extinguish Indigenous languages up until the 1970s — like Pertame, also known as Southern Arrernte, originally spoken around the Finke River south of Alice Springs.
Pertame woman, Aunty Kathleen Bradshaw-Swan, recalled how they would yarn in secret when they were children.
Pertame woman Aunty Kathleen Bradshaw-Swan was told at school to never speak her language.(ABC News: Stephanie Boltje)
“At school, we were told not to speak that lingo and we were told never to speak our language again,” Aunty Kathleen said.
“My sister Christobel was saying, sometimes she got hit by the headmaster for speaking the language.”
They are two of about 20 people who fluently speak Pertame.
The latest census found 167 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are still spoken in homes across Australia.
But as many as 110 languages are severely or critically endangered.
“I am sad about our language being taken away in the past but with these people coming there are new beginnings for us,” Aunty Kathleen Bradshaw-Swan told The Drum.
The immersion technique
The UN has declared this next 10 years as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
In 2019 Aunty Kathleen and her granddaughter traveled to New York to hear about techniques that could fast-track the learning process, and they liked what they heard about the Master-Apprentice Program.
This one-on-one, or breath-to-breath, immersion technique is being shared at community-led The Pertame School in Alice Springs.
Samantha Penangka Armstrong is helping to run the conference with The Batchelor Institute and is also one of the apprentices.
“It’s reverting back to our old ways where we just only spoke language with our elders,” she said.
Samantha Penangka Armstrong is learning Pertame using the Master-Apprentice method developed by Native American language revivalists.(ABC News: Stephanie Boltje)
“It could be asking about a certain plant, what it’s used for, when it’s in season, if animals eat it or if humans eat it, getting the kids up for school — it’s learning Pertame [by speaking] Allow me.”
Through this conference, it’s hoped the next generation across Australia will benefit from the Native American experience.
“It’s really important for them to learn and get their language back,” Samanatha Penangka Armstrong told The Drum.
“It is not only just for their identity, but really ties into connection to country.”
“You can’t go onto country unless you actually speak to country in your own language.”
Police are trying to identify a mystery man who has been in hospital for nearly five weeks and has only been able to utter a few words since being hit by a train in Melbourne’s inner-north.
A computer-generated image of the unidentified man hit by train in Brunswick five weeks ago. Source: Victoria PoliceCredit:Victoria Police
A train struck the man between Royal Park and Jewell railway stations on the Upfield line in Brunswick on Thursday, July 7, before paramedics took him to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The man remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital, where he has been able to express the names “Roy” and “Ryan” “from Coburg”. However, police are uncertain whether he is referring to himself or someone he knows.
The man had no phone, wallet or cards to assist police in identifying him, and despite extensive police efforts have been unable to uncover any further information about the man.
Police have now released a computer-generated image of the man, who is about 175 centimeters tall, between 65 and 75 years old, and of medium build.
He has a prominent mole below his left eye and was wearing black runners with white soles, black socks and a black belt at the time of the incident.
Anyone who recognizes the man or has information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online.
If you or anyone you know needs support call Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.
The ink is dry on Tony Fitzgerald’s report into how corruption is investigated in Queensland, but it remains unclear how the state government will deal with a long list of “additional issues” that weren’t within the inquiry’s terms of reference.
Key points:
The report aims to steer the CCC away from mainly criminal investigations, Professor AJ Brown says
Misconduct law specialist Calvin Gnech says a lack of public hearings was a missed opportunity
Protection for whistleblowers was not covered by the terms of the inquiry and still needs to be addressed, critics say
Mr Fitzgerald, who led the historic Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption 30 years ago, co-chaired the inquiry with retired Supreme Court justice Alan Wilson.
Their findings on rebuilding public trust in the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) were released yesterday.
As the authors noted, the report was “not Fitzgerald 2.0”, and was charged only with examining and reporting on “quite specific aspects” of the CCC’s operations.
The 10 “additional issues” outlined in the report’s appendix include how the CCC should be funded, the need for a clearing house for corruption complaints, and the need for certain legislative reforms.
The report was commissioned by the Queensland government after a string of high-profile failed prosecutions, and the finding by the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee (PCCC) that the CCC had erred in its decision to charge eight Logan City councilors with fraud in 2019.
One of the key recommendations is that fewer police be seconded to the CCC, in favor of training up “civilian investigators” from a range of other professional backgrounds.
Griffith University public policy and law Professor AJ Brown said this was to allow the CCC to pivot away from predominantly criminal prosecutions.
Two of the key recommendations from the report on improving operations in the CCC. (abcnews)
He said there were many instances of corruption and misconduct being raised that did not meet the benchmark of a criminal offence, but nonetheless needed to be stamped out.
“The remedy may not be a criminal prosecution, it might be disciplinary action in relation to individuals, or it might be system reform in relation to procedures and institutions,” he said.
“When the CCC looks at serious misconduct issues that are high corruption risks, like acting in the presence of undisclosed conflicts of interest or alleged favoritism or nepotism, the threshold that’s being used to judge those things is not necessarily simply whether a criminal offense has been committed.”
Professor Brown said the report was not suggesting civilians were better placed to judge corruption matters.
“There’s a range of different disciplines and skills that have to be brought to bear potentially, whether they’re a lawyer, or a police investigator or a forensic accountant or a policy person – they all need to see the big picture of corruption and what’s involved in addressing it and stopping it through all sorts of different angles.
One officer told the inquiry there should be more of a focus on education, rather than police enforcement.(ABC News: Patrick Williams)
“This is potentially a big turning point — not just in Queensland, but for anti-corruption investigations and training right around the country — to actually recognize that we need to have the skills that deal with that full complexity,” Professor Brown said.
Among the 87 submissions that the inquiry received, which were only publicly released when the report was complete, former Queensland police commissioner Bob Atkinson submitted his view that “unless there is clear criminal and/or corrupt activity, an educational approach is better than an aggressive prosecutorial approach”.
Mr Atkinson highlighted the prosecution of police Superintendent Michelle Stenner as an example of what he saw as misuse of the CCC’s powers on telephone intercepts, search warrants and covert methods to gather evidence.
Superintendent Stenner was acquitted of perjury in a retrial in October last year, after initially being prosecuted over allegedly giving false testimony to a CCC hearing in 2017.
Mr Atkinson argued that evidence-gathering techniques should only be used in the most serious matters.
Superintendent Michelle Stenner was acquitted after being charged with giving false testimony to a CCC hearing.(Supplied)
“The Stenner case, which was never more than a HRM [human resource management] matter, is an example of the misuse of such powers [phone intercepts and coercive hearings],” he said.
Lack of public hearings a ‘missed opportunity’
Brisbane-based lawyer Calvin Gnech, who specializes in professional misconduct law, said the inquiry had missed the opportunity to reset the bar for transparency and the CCC.
“Only in recent times have the submissions of everyone been disclosed on the website, so the practical effect is there has been no contradiction to any of the submissions,” Mr Gnech said.
“And we now know that the CCC themselves submitted four separate submissions to the inquiry, and no stakeholder or no community member has been able to contradict those submissions in any way because of the way it was conducted.”
Professor AJ Brown says legislative change to protect whistleblowers is “the unresolved issue.” (Mark Leonardi, ABC News.)
Mr Gnech said Mr Fitzgerald and Mr Wilson should have allowed public hearings as part of the review.
“This was the first reform in regards to corruption that was considered in Queensland since 1989, and ultimately a concerning feature of the whole inquiry that has been disappointing is the lack of any public hearings or transparency in regards to the submissions.
“At the moment, you’ll see the benefit of a public inquiry right here in Queensland by looking at the meticulous way that Commissioner Richards has conducted the inquiry into policing and domestic violence in a public way, to allow for public comment, and contradiction of any statements made by – in that inquiry – the police service or any other stakeholder.
“That’s been denied here in regards to the way the process of the inquiry was conducted, and it’s disappointing,” he said.
“I think looking back on this, for a number of reasons, this may well be a missed opportunity.”
Whistleblower protection still an open question
It’s the areas the CCC report didn’t examine that have attracted a lot of commentary, including those outlined in its appendix.
Professor Brown said the key unresolved issue remained how whistleblowers were to be protected under the Public Interest Disclosure Act.
“The parliamentary committee separately recommended that there needed to be a review of the … whistleblower protection laws and the government accepted that as a separate recommendation,” Professor Brown said.
“So I think everyone has been waiting for the government to say how it’s going to progress that review separately — it was never included in the terms of reference for this inquiry.”
Professor Brown said a legislative review remained critical because the commission of inquiry was a result of the CCC’s attempted intervention in support of the whistleblower who made the original Logan Council corruption allegations.
“So that’s sort of the unresolved issue at the heart of this,” he said.
“As part of the wash-up, it’s going to be very important that the Queensland government indicate how that review [of the Public Interest Disclosure Act] is going to happen so that the true root causes that really began this whole saga can actually be addressed.”
The acting Prime Minister insists there is little the federal government can do to ward off constant Chinese criticism of Australia, as Beijing lashes out against international condemnation of its military drills in the Taiwan Strait.
Key points:
Richard Marles says a more diplomatic approach with China may do nothing to improve relations
China has threatened to continue conducting combat exercises around Taiwan
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister has thanked countries that have stepped up to China
Australia has joined with other nations to condemn Beijing’s decision to extend military drills around Taiwan, triggered by a visit to the island from United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Chinese officials said condemnation by Australia was undermining regional peace and stability, and amounted to meddling in its affairs.
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles dismissed that accusation and said it was up to China whether relations with Australia thawed or deteriorated again.
“If engaging in a more respectful, diplomatic way takes us some way down a path, it does — and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t,” Mr Marles said.
“We can only control our end of this equation. But we will always be speaking up for the national interest.”
Taiwan has been preparing air raid shelters and conducting drills as Chinese military air and naval combat exercises have increased around the island.
Taiwan thanks ‘courageous’ nations stepping up to China
In a briefing to media yesterday, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister, Joseph Wu, expressed his gratitude to the nations that had supported his country.
“Taiwan is grateful to all of its friends around the world who have stood up courageously to condemn China’s actions and to support Taiwan,” Mr Wu said.
“It also sends a clear message to the world that democracy will not bow to the intimidation of authoritarianism.”
The People’s Republic of China has threatened to continue regular drills as it seeks its decades-long goal of bringing Taiwan under Beijing’s rule.
Mr Marles called on China to end his combat exercises and maintain the status quo.
“I think there would be a sigh of relief around the world if we were to see a de-escalation of tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
“It is critical that we return to a much more peaceful and normal set of behaviours.
“What we are seeing there is very concerning.”
Mr Wu warned China was testing agreements that had been in place for decades.
“The median line of the Taiwan Strait has been there for decades, safeguarding peace and stability as well as the status quo across the Taiwan Strait,” he warned.
“And China is trying to wreck that.”‘
Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian is set to deliver an address at the National Press Club later today.
