www.wakaticket.com –

Young adults’ sunburn rates not improving

Fewer people are getting sunburnt in NSW, with the exception of young adults whose rates show no improvement, new data shows.

The Cancer Institute NSW’s Sun Protection Behaviours Report, released today, showed one in 10 adults (10%) reported being sunburnt at least once in the four-week period before they were surveyed in 2024, down from almost 15% from the previous report.

However, there was no improvement from the previous report in the number of young adults, aged 18-24 years, getting sunburnt, with around one in five (18.5%) reporting a recent sunburn.

The same age group were also less likely to protect themselves by behaviours such as wearing protective clothing, a hat and sunglasses.

The report also provided insights on sun exposure, finding around four in 10 adults surveyed were frequently exposed to the sun from 11am-3pm, when UV levels are highest, yet only around 40% used three or more forms of sun protection.

Updated

Mouse plague risk after rapid rise in rodent numbers

Mouse populations are reaching plague proportions across Australia’s key cropping zones, with scientists warning farmers to remain on high alert, AAP reports.

CSIRO research points to concerning mouse numbers in paddocks stretching from Geraldton to Esperance in Western Australia.

Monitoring zones have also recorded increased numbers across South Australia’s Adelaide Plains, Yorke Peninsula and Eyre Peninsula, along with parts of southern Queensland.

Wimmera farmer and Grain Producers Australia research and development spokesperson Andrew Weidemann has urged farmers to be prepared to bait for mice at sowing time in autumn.

Updated

Australia should ‘seriously consider’ US requests for help to open strait of Hormuz, Taylor says

Taylor also says Australia should “seriously consider” any request made to help the US in opening up the strait of Hormuz.

I certainly support supporting the US alliance, supporting the United States in opening up the strait of Hormuz. What we don’t know is what requests have been made to the Australian government. We should seriously consider any request that has been made.

Updated

Angus Taylor accuses government of lack of clarity on fuel crisis

Taylor, speaking to the Today Show earlier this morning, also accused the goverment of failing to provide clarity on the fuel crisis.

What we need is to know where the fuel is in the supply chain, where the gaps are, what the government is doing to fill them and is it unable to fill those gaps. We’re not getting that clarity, we’re not getting that transparency.

Taylor says the Coalition provided such clarity during the AdBlue crisis.

Taylor points out that with state leader Roger Cook declaring a state of emergency for Western Australia, “it’s not clear whether the federal government is leading here or the state hovernment”.

It’s extremely confused and we’re getting now responses from state premiers which are muddying the waters on where we’re going with all of this.

Updated

Improvements for Aṉangu behind changes to 99-year lease on Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa

The traditional owners of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa national park and the federal government have agreed to vary the park’s 99-year lease, creating more jobs and projects to support local communities.

As part of the new lease, full-time employment targets for Aṉangu at the park are now required to reach 50% by 2030. Aṉangu businesses will also receive more help to win contracts.

Since 2013, the Central Land Council (CLC) has helped traditional owners negotiate the latest agreement with Parks Australia. The agreement aims to help with the extreme cost of living out bush and invest in community-driven development projects.

Since 2006, the CLC says it has supported traditional owners of the park and their communities in the cross-border region of Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia to use income from the park for Aṉangu education initiatives, recreational facilities, homeland infrastructure and other projects.

In that time, traditional owners have invested almost $21m in 102 projects in their communities, many of them multi-year initiatives.

The new agreement will also deliver “stronger protection for sacred sites and songlines”, CLC chief executive Les Turner said.

He said:

[There will be] tougher consequences for damage and more robust joint management principles informed by tjukurpa [pronounced JU-kurr-pa].

That may mean accepting guidance from Aṉangu about where and when to undertake traditional burning or when to close the park for cultural reasons.

Turner said Parks Australia also agreed to recognise the traditional owners’ cultural and intellectual property, such as songs, dances, stories and cultural knowledge, and to seek their explicit permission to use it.

Updated

‘Might as well have told us what he was going to have for dinner’: shadow minister lambasts address to the nation

The quips continue coming in thick and fast against Albanese’s address to the nation. The shadow minister for energy, Dan Tehan, tells ABC Radio:

He might as well have told us what he was going to have for dinner last night. There was nothing new in it. He didn’t take the Australian people into his confidence.

He made no commitments to transparency … there was no commitment from the prime minister to tell us whether ships have been cancelled, whether they’re being delayed, what our stock holdings are at the moment, where the shortages are, how many service stations are out of fuel, what they’re doing to make sure they’re getting fuel to those service stations – nothing.

And yet the Australian people are worried. They’re deeply concerned. They have no idea about what is happening. And yet all we get from the prime minister is political messaging, which he’d been instructed to do. And he said this in the parliament yesterday by his federal director, and no reassurances whatsoever by the Australian people. I think everyone was just flabbergasted.

Updated

Australia to attend UK summit on strait of Hormuz

Australia will be attending the UK summit on the strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping route for oil and gas that has been blocked by Iran, Marles confirmed.

We will be participating in that. It’ll be a virtual meeting as I understand the next 24 hours and the foreign minister will be representing Australia at that meeting.

It follows on from Australia signing up to the UK-led statement … all of those countries and very much Australia have an interest in seeing the straits of Hormuz opened as soon as possible. We will look to what Australia can do.

Updated

Marles defends Albanese’s address to nation

The deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, has defended the PM using an address to the nation to tell Australians they should go about their business as usual.

Asked whether Albanese owed Australians more substance on ABC Radio, Marles said:

I think people are trying to come to terms with what all of this means and what they should be doing in this moment. I think that’s particularly the case as we head into the Easter weekend.

Updated

‘More drilling’ the answer to Australia’s gas security, Angus Taylor says

Asked about the resource minister’s move to secure gas for local users, Taylor say he’s “always believed that we need to make sure that Australian gas is working hard for Australians”.

But I also believe that the best way to achieve that is more drilling and more gas coming from under the ground. …we keep putting Band-Aids on bullet wounds across our economy whether it’s in gas whether it’s dealing with inflation or interest rates. What we need to do is solve the underlying problem – as I said upfront: we do need to make sure Australian gas is working hard for Australians but the best way to do that is to make sure gas is coming out from under the ground. In existing well-established basins, drilling can convert to more gas production quickly. It doesn’t take long, but we do need to make sure that we don’t get ourselves in this position again.

Updated

PM’s address ‘could have been a social media post’, Angus Taylor says

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has said the PM Anthony Albanese’s address to the nation last night was unnecessary, and “could have been a social media post”.

Speaking to ABC Radio, Taylor said:

At a time when Australians are wondering whether they can get away on their Easter holidays … what they need is confidence. They need clarity, not confusion. And last night’s address didn’t help. It could have been a social media post.

Updated

Resources minister puts gas producers on notice

The federal resources minister, Madeleine King, has formally put gas producers on notice to supply more gas locally or face restrictions on exports.

King appeared on ABC Radio this morning explaining the action being taken in response to the potential shortfall in the east coast market (Western Australia and the Northern Territory are well supplied with gas).

Yesterday I issued that notice of intent under the Australian domestic gas security measurement mechanism for the months of July, August and September. And that is based on the report of the ACCC … that forecasts – it’s a relatively small shortfall, … but the issue for me is that we are going into winter, and at a time when we see this international conflict in the Middle East causing disruption to supply.

What this does is brings all the exporters to the table to prove that they will make sure that shortfall doesn’t come to pass … What’s really important is we don’t want to repeat of 2022 when we didn’t have these tools available to us when there was a gas shortage.

Updated

Western Australia fishing ban ‘makes no sense’, court told

A controversial state ban that has left fish eaters without their favourite fillets was politically motivated, unreasonable and not based on science, a court has been told, Australian Associated Press reports.

Catch limits for harvesting prized demersal species, including pink snapper, red emperor and dhufish, have been slashed along most of Western Australia’s vast coastline with a permanent commercial ban over a large stretch.

Trawling companies are challenging restrictions that have prohibited their commercial operations off the Pilbara since January.

A decision by the WA fisheries minister, Jackie Jarvis, was not based on a recommendation from the department and was made without consultation outside the existing legislation to manage the fishery.

In his opening remarks at the supreme court in Perth, lawyer Eric Heenan said:

The order made by the minister was unreasonable and a disproportionate use of power.

The order cannot stand. The evidence will show the minister acted without any scientific assessment of the Pilbara fishery.

Jarvis had acted hastily while under pressure from conservationists due to the demersal species stock situation in a large recreational fishery adjacent to Perth.

Heenan argued the minister was “obsessed” with dolphin bio-catch from trawling, and the ban was “influenced by political considerations” and made “no economic sense”, he said.

Updated

Good morning! Thanks Martin for kicking us off.

Australia reacts to Albanese address

Anthony Albanese last night joined a small band of prime ministers to have made televised addresses to the nation but the reaction has been muted.

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, told 7News last night that the prime minister did not give enough detail about how much fuel the country had in reserve and urged him to be more transparent.

“There has consistently been a lack of detail, but also a lack of a plan,” Taylor said on Wednesday night. “We know we’ve got a problem with 600 servos, we also know that the government keeps telling us there’s more than enough stock and so we need clarity on this. We need a plan to go with that.”

Some newspapers were more direct, with Sydney’s Daily Telegraph running a story on less than complimentary reaction from Australians online, the gist of which was that they thought it was a “nothing burger” and a waste of time.

The Nine stable was a little more polite but an opinion piece argued the PM shouldn’t have bothered because his message was ultimately a bit meh.

Read our full story on Albanese’s address here:

And here’s that address in full:

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the breaking stories before Natasha May takes the helm.

Anthony Albanese used a rare address to the nation to attempt to allay public fears over dwindling fuel supplies, vowing to keep petrol prices down by shoring up international supplies and ramping up local production.

He will be up at the National Press Club later today, where he’ll announce new interest-free loans for businesses hit the hardest by fuel shortages and collapsing consumer confidence.

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has criticised the prime minister’s response to the crisis, pushing for more clarity.

Let’s get started.