News live: Australia to give $95m in military aid to Ukraine; murder charge over shooting in northern NSW

Australia pledges more military support for Ukraine

Tom McIlroy

Australia will give Ukraine another $95m in military support for the war against Russia and has beefed up sanctions against Moscow’s shadow fleet of oil tankers.

The defence minister, Richard Marles, and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced the plan this morning, saying it brought Australia’s overall support for Ukraine to more than $1.7bn since the start of the conflict.

Together with New Zealand, the commitment from the Albanese government will go to the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a Nato-led initiative to provide Ukraine with critical military equipment.

Included in the new funding is $43m in ADF materiel and equipment, including tactical air defence radars, munitions and combat engineering equipment, as well as $2m for the Drone Capability Coalition.

The final tranche of Australia’s gifted 49 M1A1 Abrams tanks will also be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

The new sanctions will target 45 so-called shadow fleet vessels, being used to support Russia’s efforts to circumvent sanctions imposed by Australia and like-minded partners.

“Australia is unwavering in its support for Ukraine,” Marles said. “These commitments will make a tangible difference in Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion.”

Updated at 21.15 CET

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NSW government commits to make preventative health a government priority

Natasha May

The NSW government has formally responded to the special commission of inquiry into healthcare funding, accepting the recommendation that “preventive health should be made, and remain over the long term, a standing whole of NSW government priority”.

The review of the NSW public healthcare system and how it is funded, led by commissioner Richard Beasley, visited every local health district and speciality health network across metropolitan as well as regional NSW, receiving 226 written submissions, hearing testimony from 225 witnesses over 70 days of hearings, including clinicians, patients, unions, providers and policy experts.

To summarise the 1,000-plus page report, Beasley found while the NSW health system is “a very good one”, he said it was in the main was a “reactive system” and called for greater focus on preventive health in order to avert the “substantial risk that it will soon be overwhelmed by what looms as a huge increase in healthcare demands by an ageing population with high expectations”.

Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

In its response to the 41 recommendation, the government said it supports 18, supports in principle 11, notes 10 and does not support two.

As part of the response, NSW Health will review its approach to statewide clinical service planning over the next year, and develop a statewide paediatric plan to clearly define care pathways for the delivery of care to children across the state.

It will also establish a central workforce unit to better monitor data on workforce supply and demand to guide strategies that will help to address and prevent future workforce supply challenges as well as create a “chief wellbeing officer” for its staff.

The government says this is in addition to other work already announced and under way including the establishment of an internal locum agency, as opposed to the use of third-party locum agencies which used tactics to increase rates paid by the government in order to maximise their own profits.

Updated at 21.38 CET

Man charged with murder after shooting in north-eastern NSW

NSW police have charged a man with murder after two other men were allegedly shot, one fatally, and another hit by a ute at a property in the NSW town of Eungella yesterday.

Police said emergency services were called to the property about 1.30pm on Wednesday. On arrival, paramedics treated one man, 41, for a gunshot wound, but he died at the scene.

Another man, 38, later sought treatment at a hospital for a gunshot wound as well.

Police then heard of a second incident nearby where a man, 45, was allegedly hit by a ute. He is being treated in hospital and is under police guard.

Later Wednesday, police arrested a fourth man, 36, after using dog squad teams to find him in bushland. He has been charged with murder and will appear in court today.

Updated at 21.24 CET

Good morning. Nick Visser here to take the reins. Let’s giddy-up.

Chalmers rebuffs RBA suggestion economy stuck with slow growth

Luca Ittimani

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has rejected the Reserve Bank’s suggestions the Australian economy may not be able to grow any faster.

Data on Wednesday showed the economy grew slower than expected in the September quarter, lifting annual growth to just 2.1% – still the fastest rate in two years, helped by a lift in productivity growth.

Inflation picked up over the same period, which in November prompted the Reserve Bank deputy governor, Andrew Hauser, to suggest the economy was hitting its speed limit, beyond which higher spending would push up prices.

Chalmers denied Australia was stuck at that speed limit, when asked on ABC’s 7.30.

He pointed to the productivity uptick:

The government’s economic plan is about lifting the speed limits on the economy, trying to make it more productive [but] you can’t turn these things around overnight … Today’s numbers represent good progress.

Higher growth and inflation, though, have lifted expectations for an interest rate rise. Asked how that would impact his economic credibility, Chalmers said:

“I don’t provide a running commentary on decisions taken independently by the Reserve Bank … We know there’s still challenges. Inflation is persistent.”

Updated at 21.02 CET

Illegal cigarette sales dragging down economic growth

Luca Ittimani

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is planning to account for illegal cigarette sales as years of falling legal purchases start to weigh on economic growth.

The ABS measures tobacco sales through supermarket chains’ scanner data but consumers are swapping away from legal sales toward black market tobacco and illegal vapes.

Legal tobacco sales have fallen 29% across the country in the past year, including a near-11% fall from June to September, dragging down overall measured economic activity. There’s no sign Australians are actually smoking 29% less.

To fix that statistical quirk, the ABS yesterday announced it would estimate purchases of illicit tobacco and vapes. Last night at Senate estimates, Matt Canavan, the Nationals senator, asked the deputy statistician, Brenton Goldsworthy, how that would work:

How are you going to do this? Are you going to infiltrate the gangs yourself, Mr Goldsworthy, to try and estimate the true sales volumes? I think you could pull it off.

The bespectacled, besuited Goldsworthy said consumption could be estimated with wastewater detection, a method used by the crime intelligence commission, but the ABS also needed to figure out where the tobacco was imported from and the size of profit margins going to the retailers – who in this case would be criminal gangs.

The new tobacco sales estimates would be included in GDP in about 12 months time, Goldsworthy said.

Updated at 21.00 CET

Australia pledges more military support for Ukraine

Tom McIlroy

Australia will give Ukraine another $95m in military support for the war against Russia and has beefed up sanctions against Moscow’s shadow fleet of oil tankers.

The final tranche of Australia’s gifted 49 M1A1 Abrams tanks will also be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

The new sanctions will target 45 so-called shadow fleet vessels, being used to support Russia’s efforts to circumvent sanctions imposed by Australia and like-minded partners.

“Australia is unwavering in its support for Ukraine,” Marles said. “These commitments will make a tangible difference in Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion.”

Updated at 21.15 CET

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories before Nick Visser takes you through the day.

The defence minister, Richard Marles, and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, have announced more support for Ukraine with another $95m in military support for the war against Russia. Australia will also beef up sanctions against Moscow’s shadow fleet of oil tankers, they said. More to come.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has rejected the Reserve Bank’s suggestions that the Australian economy may not be able to grow any faster. However, amid fears that the RBA might have to increase interest rates, Chalmers told the ABC’s 7.30 that “persistent inflation” was among the challenges he faced. More coming up.

And speaking of the economy, the sales of illicit tobacco are now so large that they’re going to become part of our official economic statistics, the ABS says.

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