The Northern Territory’s former chief minister Michael Gunner’s electorate office has been broken into days after he quit politics, in what he has described as the latest in a series of “personal” attacks.
Key points:
Former chief minister Michael Gunner’s electorate office was broken into and ‘extensively damaged’
It comes days after his resignation as member for Fannie Bay, prompting a by-election on August 20
Both major parties have announced their candidates for the seat
According to NT Police, a 47-year-old man was arrested over the alleged unlawful entry and criminal damage of Mr Gunner’s office in the Darwin suburb of Parap.
Police received reports just after 4am this morning that a man had broken in and caused “extensive damage”.
“It was a very personal break in targeting photos of me and items of personal importance to me,” Mr Gunner — who stood down from his role as Member for Fannie Bay last week — said in a social media post.
“We’ll take advice from the police on what our next steps may need to be to keep my family safe.”
A 47-year-old man is expected to be charged over the break-in. (ABC News: Janus Gibson)
Mr Gunner said the break-in was the latest in a series of targeted incidents against him.
“This appears to be a continuation of behavior from a range of fixed individuals that has seen a number of incidents not limited to my family abused, filmed and our personal address revealed,” he said.
The alleged offender was arrested a short time after the break-in, with charges expected to be laid later today.
Michael Gunner believes a break-in at his electorate office was a ‘personal’ attack. (ABC New: Che Chorley)
Chief Minister Natasha Fyles also described the incident as a personal attack.
“Michael put his hand up and served our community for 14 years, he deserves now to have the opportunity to spend time with his family and feel safe in doing so,” she said.
“Sadly it’s something [safety] that all of us as members of parliament do consider.”
By-choice race heats up
Mr Gunner announced his resignation from politics in a speech to parliament last week, sparking a by-election in the seat of Fannie Bay, which has been held by several former chief ministers.
The Country Liberal Party last night announced Ben Hosking as his candidate for the seat.
Mr Hosking was described in a CLP statement as “a local small business owner and former NT Police Officer”.
“Ben will fight for immediate action on crime and antisocial behavior which is plaguing the parks, shops and public spaces in Fannie Bay, Parap, the Gardens and Ludmilla including much loved places like East Point which has become consumed with grog, broken glass and antisocial behaviour,” the statement reads.
NT Labor confirmed former political staffer and defense force veteran Brent Potter as their candidate on Friday evening.
Mr Potter — who kicked off his campaign with a media event at the Parap markets on Saturday — most recently worked as a policy advisor for current NT chief minister Natasha Fyles.
“An army veteran, Territorian and devoted father of four, Brent knows what it takes to serve the community — and that’s where his passions lie,” Ms Fyles said in a Facebook post.
The Fannie Bay by-election has been scheduled for August 20.
A detector dog at Darwin Airport has sniffed out a stowaway McDonald’s breakfast in the backpack of an Aussie traveler flying home from Bali – leaving him with a $2664 fine.
The penalty for the undeclared meat and dairy products is part of the active biosecurity efforts being made to stop foot and mouth disease (FMD) from entering the country.
Watch the video above for more on this story
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“Two egg and beef sausage McMuffins from McDonald’s in Bali and a ham croissant” were the offending menu items that caught the attention of biosecurity sniffer dog Zinta, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Murray Watt told 7NEWS.com.au in a statement.
Stopping the food groups from entering the country is just one of several measures the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry is cracking down on to mitigate the biosecurity threat.
“Detector dog Zinta responded to a passenger’s backpack and, after further inspection, it was found they were carrying a variety of risk items,” Watt said.
“This will be the most expensive Maccas meal this passenger ever has.
“This fine is twice the cost of an airfare to Bali, but I have no sympathy for people who choose to disobey Australia’s strict biosecurity measures, and recent detections show you will be caught.”
McMuffins from a Bali McDonald’s cost one Australian traveler more than twice the price of his flight after he failed to declare the potential biosecurity threat. Credit: Supplied
He was issued a “12-unit infringement notice for failing to declare potential high biosecurity risk items and providing a false and misleading document”.
The undeclared food was inspected for FMD and destroyed.
“Biosecurity is no joke—it helps protect jobs, our farms, food and supports the economy. Passengers who choose to travel need to make sure they are fulfilling the conditions to enter Australia, by following all biosecurity measures,” Watt said.
Indonesian authorities confirmed on July 5 that there had been an FMD outbreak in livestock, and as Australia is FMD-free, authorities are being extra vigilant at the border.
The disease “can survive in meat and dairy products even if they are frozen, chilled or freeze-dried,” the department said.
Zinta the biosecurity detector dog has been assigned the job of tracking down potential carriers of foot and mouth disease before they enter the country. Credit: Supplied
The infringement notice cost more than the man’s flights, but that is the standard cost of failing to declare biosecurity risks at the border.
Travelers who are entering Australia on temporary visas could also risk them being cancelled, ensuring they cannot enter the country.
“Travellers arriving from Indonesia will be under much stricter biosecurity scrutiny due to the presence of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Indonesia, including at the popular tourist destination Bali,” the department said in a statement.
The Albanese government last month announced a $14 million biosecurity package.
It has also rolled out biosecurity dogs at Darwin and Cairns airports, as well as sanitation and on-ground support at Australian and international airports.
A traveler from Indonesia has been fined thousands of dollars for sneaking two beef sausage McMuffins and a ham croissant into Australia.
Key points:
Biosecurity measures have ramped up since foot-and-mouth disease was detected in Bali
The fast food snacks were seized and will be tested for the disease
A domestic outbreak has the potential to decimate the Australian agriculture industry
Passengers returning from Indonesia have been facing tougher biosecurity checks, after the detection of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in cows in Bali.
The highly contagious disease, which is yet to reach Australia, affects cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, and the virus would have severe consequences for the nation’s animal health and trade.
A biosecurity detector dog at Darwin airport sniffed out the fast food meat products in a passenger’s backpack last week, with the traveler fined $2,664.
The pork and beef snacks were seized and will be tested for foot-and-mouth disease, before being destroyed.
An outbreak of the disease in Indonesia has prompted Australian biosecurity officials to categorize some meat products as “risk items”.
Biosecurity measures have ramped up since foot-and-mouth disease was detected in Bali.(ABC News: Michael Franchi)
Minister for Agriculture, Murray Watt, said he wanted Australia to stay free of the disease.
“This will be the most expensive Maccas meal this passenger ever has, this fine is twice the cost of an airfare to Bali,” he said.
The passenger was fined for failing to declare potentially high biosecurity risk items and providing a false and misleading document.
“I have no sympathy for people who choose to disobey Australia’s strict biosecurity measures, and recent detections show you will be caught,” Mr Watt said.
“Biosecurity is no joke—it helps protect jobs, our farms, food and supports the economy,” he said.
FMD does not pose a risk to human health, but it causes painful blisters in cattle, sheep, pigs and goats and could result in animals being slaughtered en masse to eradicate the highly infectious virus.
The disease spreads between animals via their breath, through contact with the blisters, and through infected milk, semen, faeces and urine.
The virus can also live on vehicle tires, clothing and footwear, which is why stricter biosecurity measures are being put in place for travelers returning from Indonesia.
“Passengers who choose to travel need to make sure they are fulfilling the conditions to enter Australia, by following all biosecurity measures,” Mr Watt said.
A domestic outbreak could decimate the Australian agriculture industry and cost the nation an estimated $80 billion over several years.
The federal government in June gave biosecurity a $14 million boost, adding more detector dogs at Darwin and Cairns airports, and rolling out sanitation foot mats at all international airports.
Deep in the outback, you’ve just played one of the great pub shows on a cross-country tour.
And then you realize you’ve stuffed the logistics.
Guts first toured in 2016 and travels about 7,000 kilometers across the country.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
When the tour played in Katherine.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
Now you’re driving through the night to make it to your next gig, an eye-watering 700 kilometers away, and ‘Tracy’, the bus you bought from a retirement home, is chugging fuel at what seems like an unsustainable rate.
It’s all part of the fun on a Guts tour, which first dissected the country from south to north along the Stuart Highway in 2016, drawing inspiration from Midnight Oil and Warumpi Band’s legendary 1986 Blackfella/Whitefella tour.
Midnight Oil and the Warumpi Band performing on the South Alligator River at Kakadu during the Blackfella/Whitefella tour.(ABC)
Guts will be back on the road for the first time since 2017 next month, playing 36 shows from the tropics to Tasmania with 19 bands, and putting on 20 music workshops in towns and communities across the outback.
The tour begins it’s 7,000km journey in the town of Jabiru, on Kakadu’s edge, on August 15 and includes artists like Bad//Dreems, Black Rock Band, Children Collide and Birdz.
‘Play some Chisel’
Jack Parsons says not enough live music gets out to regional and remote Australia.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
The idea for a tour that snatches up and drops mostly southern bands into some of Australia’s most remote locations, the tour’s creator Jack Parsons says, was a nod to a time when things were a little different in the Australian music scene.
“We wanted to tour regionally and with a real sense of adventure and go to some places off the beaten track, like bands used to tour, and that famed pub rock era of Australian music where it was really a plug-in-and-play ethos,” he said.
“And it didn’t matter if there were 10 people or 100 people or 1,000 people, you toured.”
Bad//Dreems and Black Rock Band will play the NT leg of the tour.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
So on a Guts tour, Parsons says, bands will gig wherever they are like their life depends on it
“There’s been some tough shows,” he recalls. “Coober Pedy springs to mind, you know, sort of eight people in the crowd, one of which was yelling out to these Melbourne bands to play some Chisel.”
The tour will roll out eight different line-ups in 2022.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
But in the bush, open-air desert shows can give way to special moments for bands and the host communities, which have little access to touring artists.
“The kids have a beaut time and the response is always fantastic,” Parsons says.
“It’s a good opportunity [for kids] to refresh their mind,” Black Rock Band’s Richie Guymala says.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
“I do remember one showing, when we did pay in Barunga the kids were going absolutely bananas and they were sort of all over the stage and playing the drums.
The Guts tour in the Northern Territory community of Barunga.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
“The walls were down and it was pandemonium.
“There have been some very memorable shows, and we’re so lucky this year to have grown to a point where we can ask these great bands to be a part of it.”
“We’re really blessed … these communities welcome us with open arms,” Parsons says.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
Shows, workshops and swags
Getting kids in communities excited when the bands are rocking out is one thing, but much of the tour’s energy is directed towards workshops, where band members share technical expertise and some music industry 101 with kids.
A workshop in Barunga.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
The Northern Territory leg of the tour includes gigs and workshops in 10 remote communities.
“The workshops are a beautiful thing,” Parsons says.
“We get kids who have never played drums before and we put them on a drum kit, we show them a basic beat, and they can play and get the feeling of being in a band.”
A drum lesson in session in Santa Teresa, near Alice Springs.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
Richie Guymala, the lead vocalist of the Black Rock Band out of west Arnhem Land, says the workshops uplift spirits in communities, where there are already a lot of great young bands.
“There are a lot of issues around communities in the Northern Territory, but stuff like this, it helps,” he says.
“The [bands] come up from down south and they get to see a bit of Black Rock’s family, where we are connected from,” Richie Guymala says. (ABC News: Leigh Brammel)
“It’s a good opportunity [for kids] to refresh their mind and to say, you can do this for yourself — whatever it is… you can follow your dreams.”
The touring bands, Parsons says, are grateful for it too.
“We’re really blessed that the people we speak to in these communities welcome us with open arms, and we’re putting on shows and workshops, and we’re being looked after with accommodation and places to roll out the swags,” he says.
“It all comes back to that Oils and Warumpi Band tour, being able to take great music and great artists to these wonderful places that have great music in them.”
This year’s shows kick off in Jabiru, where the Kakadu and Arnhem highways intersect.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
‘There’s good music out there’
Guymala and Black Rock Band will play through the whole Northern Territory leg of the tour, finishing at Kalkarindji Freedom Day Festival where they will share the stage with artists like Paul Kelly and Ripple Effect Band.
“I’m looking forward to getting back on the road again, sharing our music again with the community, and also just to run into other countrymen,” Guymala says.
“It’s also good because the [bands] come up from down south and they get to see a bit of Black Rock’s family, where we are connected from.”
Communities get behind bands and look after them when they roll into town, Parsons says.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
Guymala says he’d love to welcome touring bands more often.
“I think it should happen more. I think it will be a good way to promote smaller bands from smaller communities,” he says.
“We’ve got that many bands in Arnhem Land, and there’s good music out there, and I think tours like this will open up opportunities for other bands that want to get their music heard.”
Coco Eke says it can be tough for bands in community to get out and tour.(ABC News: Leigh Brammel)
Coco Eke, a board member of Music NT, says the rarity of regional tours through these parts of the country is what makes Guts exciting.
“It’s really difficult to tour regionally and especially remotely coming in, and for bands wanting to tour outside of their communities, it’s expensive,” she said.
“The roads are tough and it’s hot and to get a band from one community to Darwin takes tens of thousands of dollars sometimes.
“So this is a really exciting tour to see the bands and the rest of the crew that will be in the bus go through to the communities to really lift the spirits and bring music back.”
Bands “learned a thing or two about dancing” on a past trip to Santa Teresa.(Supplied: Guts Touring)
Tambikos Driss and his daughter Grace sleep all year round in the tropical heat of the Northern Territory, besides large industrial fans to save on power.
The single father now limits the days he uses the washing machine, and has stopped cooking food in the oven to keep the bills down.
“Last night I didn’t go to sleep, I sat up all night thinking, how am I going to manage this fortnight,” he said.
Tambikos is now cutting back on using his oven to save on power. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
Soaring inflation is pushing the cost of living up across the country, with warnings prices will get worse before they get better.
Consumer prices rose 6.1 per cent for the year to June this week, and another interest rate decision is expected on Tuesday.
Mr Driss, who lives in public housing in Palmerston, outside Darwin, said eating meat was now “out of the question”, and he’s buying frozen vegetables to keep his grocery bill down.
“I have my power bill to pay… my groceries, I have a car registration to come,” he said.
“It’s always a worry you know, [thinking]am I going to have enough next week and if I don’t have enough, where do I go?
Tambikos Driss says the cost of living is hitting his neighborhood of Palmerston especially hard.(ABC News: Michael Franchi )
Tambikos is worried about his family’s future.(ABC News: Michael Franchi )
Mr Driss knows what it’s like to hit rock bottom – at his lowest point he had a stint in prison, after taking drugs and sleeping rough on the streets.
But after turning his life around, and now looking after his daughter who has special needs, he never imagined life “on the right side” would be so hard to keep the lights on and the fridge full.
He called himself a “proud man”, but had been left with no choice but to take offers of free pantry items, like pasta and rice, from a local charity to fill the gaps.
“All I see in the supermarkets is just the prices going up, at some stage people won’t be able to buy,” he said.
Salvation Army Team Leader Jamie-Leigh Barnard (left) says there’s been a huge jump in the number of people seeking help. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)
Charities hit with a storm of new faces in trouble
Beneath a dark shopping center car park in Darwin’s north, the city’s homeless meet for a hot coffee at the break of dawn each week.
The event is organized by Jamie-Leigh Barnard, who manages the Doorways Program with the Salvation Army in the Northern Territory.
“A lot of our clients are feeling hopeless,” she said.
“They are feeling that there isn’t a way out this current climate and that they are drowning and there isn’t a rescue boat anywhere in sight.”
Salvation Army’s Jamie-Leigh Barnard says the rising cost of living is forcing more people to sleep rough.(ABC News: Michael Franchi)
Working at the coalface of homelessness in the Northern Territory for six years, Ms Barnard said 2022 has been the worst year yet.
She blamed the rising cost of living for pushing more people out of communities onto the street.
“In the last month we’ve seen a 72 per cent increase in the number of clients that have attended our sites in Darwin city, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” she said.
Ms Barnard said the price of food in remote communities was “insane” and not sustainable.
“I had a friend who recently went to the Tiwi Islands and a tin of baby formula cost $60.
“So people come into Darwin wanting to get formula, blankets and clothing at a cheaper cost but then they get stuck.”
Adding to the pressure is the decision by some electricity retailers to end COVID-19 moratoriums on overdue bills.
“We’ve seen clients attend our centers with [power] bills of upwards to $5000, and the payment facilities on those bills are exorbitant,” Ms Barnard said.
“We have clients that are at risk of electricity disconnection, eviction, they’re at risk of homelessness … we do all we can but it’s a dire situation.”
Ready to pitch a tent with nowhere to go
Further south in Katherine, Leah Burch and her partner Darrell Lee have been in a race to find a rental property within their budget.
Leah Burch and Darrell Lee have spent over a month trying to find an affordable home to rent in Katherine.(ABC News: Pete Garnish )
The couple have months to move out of the home they’ve lived in for six years because the owner wants to renovate.
But finding another rental, let alone one that’s affordable, has been near impossible, and the stress has taken its toll.
The couple is preparing for the worst.
“I’m even considering moving into a caravan park and setting up our tent to live in, that’s the way I look at the market at the moment,” Mr Lee said.
Katherine’s vacancy rate has hit 0 per cent.(ABC News: Michael Franchi)
Despite the pressure, they still call themselves the “lucky ones” to have secure employment and each other, and don’t know how others on lower incomes are getting by.
“It’s horrible, terrible… the amount of money that people are paying just to have a roof over their head,” Ms Burch said.
“The ones that are lucky enough to be able to afford the rent, it’s enjoyable for them, but you feel for the ones that can’t.”
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House prices in Australia are dropping at their fastest pace since the global financial crisis — and market conditions are “likely to worsen” as interest rates continue to rise, according to property analytics firm CoreLogic.
Key points:
Economists predict Australian house prices could fall between 12 and 20 per cent
The median property value dropped 8.5pc during the GFC
Rents have arisen 9.8pc in the past year
The latest data shows that the nation’s median property value has dropped by 2 per cent since the beginning of May, to $747,182 (a figure which includes houses and apartments).
“Although the housing market is only three months into a decline … the rate of decline is comparable with the onset of the global financial crisis (GFC) in 2008, and the sharp downswing of the early 1980s,” said CoreLogic’s research director Tim Lawless.
But he noted that, on average, prices had jumped 28.6 per cent from mid-2020 (the low point of the housing market during the COVID-19 pandemic) to April 2022 (when national prices hit their peak).
Regional Australia had an even bigger surge, with prices up 41.1 per cent in two years — as smaller towns outside the capital cities experienced a huge influx of city-dwellers seeking better lifestyles (as working remotely became the new normal).
“In Sydney, where the downturn has been particularly accelerated, we are seeing the sharpest value falls in almost 40 years.”
Property prices in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart fell sharply in July.(CoreLogic)
The median price in Australia’s most expensive city fell by 2.2 per cent in July (taking its quarterly loss to 4.7 per cent). Despite that, an average house in Sydney still costs around $1.35 million, while an average unit may fetch about $806,000.
Melbourne and Hobart also recorded steep falls, with prices in both cities down 1.5 per cent last month, while Canberra prices dropped 1.1 per cent.
Prices in Brisbane and regional Australia fell 0.8 per cent (their first monthly decline since August 2020).
At the other end of the spectrum, Darwin, Adelaide and Perth were the only capitals where prices actually went up in July (by between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent). However, it has been a sharp slowdown since May, when the Reserve Bank began to aggressively lift the cash rate from its record low levels.
short and sharp
“I think this downturn will be similar to the global financial crisis in that it will be quite short and sharp,” Mr Lawless told ABC News.
Australia’s median property price fell by around 8.5 per cent over an 11-month period during the GFC, according to CoreLogic.
Adelaide property prices jumped 3.6pc in the past three months.(CoreLogic)
Mr Lawless said the property downturn is “accelerating”, and that he would not be surprised if “the current decline gets worse than what we saw during the GFC”.
He noted the main difference is that governments and central banks are currently determined to withdraw trillions of dollars worth of stimulus, in a desperate bid to lower inflation (instead of pumping it into the global economy, liked they did after the 2008 crisis).
Many analysts are predicting Australian property prices, on average, will fall between 10 and 20 per cent (from peak to trough) — with the two most expensive cities Sydney and Melbourne likely to suffer the biggest declines.
But even if the worse case scenario eventuates, it will not drastically improve housing affordability.
“If we saw say, a 15 per cent drop in national housing values, it would take prices back to where they were in about April 2021.”
How quickly (and by how much) prices fall will depend on how aggressively the RBA decides to lift its cash rate target in the next few months.
Brisbane and Adelaide tenants are experiencing the sharpest rent increases.(CoreLogic)
Since May, the RBA has lifted its cash rate target from 0.1 to 1.35 per cent.
If the central bank delivers another double-sized rate hike on Tuesday (0.5 percentage points), as widely expected, that would bring the new cash rate up to 1.85 per cent.
Buyers’ market and surging rents
“The market has moved to being very much more in favor of buyers over sellers now, especially in markets like Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Lawless said.
“Buyers are getting back in the driver’s seat. They have more choice, and there’s less urgency.
“But for sellers, it means they need to be much more realistic about their pricing expectations, and they should expect there’s going to be more negotiation.”
Renters are also disadvantaged in the current property market. As their landlords’ mortgage repayments increase (and more foreign workers and students) return to Australia, rents have surged rapidly.
“Rental markets are extremely tight, with vacancy rates around 1 per cent or lower across many parts of Australia,” Mr Lawless added.
“If you consider the history of rents, it’s very rare to see dwelling rents rising at more than say 3 – 4 per cent per annum.”
But in the past quarter, the national average rent jumped 2.8 per cent — and they are up nearly 10 per cent in the past year.
Looking forward, Mr Lawless said renters may be under increasing pressure to rent out any spare bedrooms to more flatmates, look for cheaper rents in apartments (rather than houses), or “stay at home with mum and dad longer.”
“There’s definitely going to be some negative social outcomes from such high rents, which aren’t showing any signs of slowing down at the moment.”
