Australia news live: Albanese meets Zelenskyy and pope in Rome; eight rescued from NSW floods

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Watt undecided on form of environment bill

Watt is being asked more about specifics – whether he will continue Plibersek’s approach of trying to reform the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act in stages or look to legislate the reforms all together.

Watt says he hasn’t reached a concluded view but will test the issues with different stakeholders:

There would be some advantages in going along with a fairly similar bill to what we had last time, but obviously it would require some adjustments to get through – but equally I can see some advantages in trying to broaden out that reform and try to have a bigger reform package in one go.

Murray Watt says his job is to build on environment work done by Tanya Plibersek

Murray Watt, the new environment minister, is talking on ABC Radio about how his first job is to get environmental laws passed:

I’ve made calls to environment groups, mining groups, business groups, they all agree that we need change. So my job is to build on the work that Tanya [Plibersek] did as the minister and get these laws passed.

… I think that the election result did see a strong endorsement of Labor’s approach to environment environmental protection, which is that we can protect the environment and protect jobs. That’s what we want to do.

Albanese meets leaders in Rome

Albanese’s flurry of meetings with world leaders while attending the pope’s inaugural mass were immortalised with formal pictures and Vatican-backdropped selfies:

Hearings begin to determine Qantas penalty for outsourcing of ground handlers

Qantas could be forced to pay more than $120m in penalties, as the final hearings begin of what has been a years-long, costly legal process after the airline was found to have illegally outsourced 1,820 ground handlers.

From Monday, a five-day hearing in the federal court will determine the financial penalty Qantas must pay over the 2020 outsourcing decision, in which the Transport Workers Union (TWU) – which brought the initial legal action that found the outsourcing had been illegal – will call for the maximum penalty of $121m to be ordered.

The outsourcing saga has already seen the airline agree to pay $120m in compensation to the affected workers as part of a deal reached in December, on top of the hefty legal fees covering its defence against the initial legal action brought by the Transport Workers Union as well as subsequent unsuccessful appeals to the full bench of the federal court and the high court.

If justice Michael Lee does decide on the maximum penalty, it would bring the cost of penalties and compensation to more than $240m, well above the $135m Qantas budgeted for in its half-year financial results released in February. It would cap off a costly 12 months for Qantas – in an entirely separate matter in May last year, the airline also agreed to a civil penalty of $100m and $20m in customer compensation for allegedly selling tens of thousands of tickets to flights that had already been cancelled.

Michael Kaine, the TWU national secretary, said the union is calling for the maximum penalty against Qantas to “reflect the scale of its decision” and ensure the financial burden of the legal process meant there was no remaining “business case” for the outsourcing.

Kaine said:

Not only was it an appalling act to get rid of a loyal workforce, it was the biggest case of illegal sackings in Australian corporate history. The penalty to Qantas must reflect this and send a message to every other company in Australia that you cannot sack your workers to prevent them from using their industrial rights.

You can read more about the outsourcing legal process here:

Albanese spoke to pope of his mother ‘looking down from heaven’

What did Anthony Albanese choose to tell the Catholic leader when he met him?

After being taken into the basilica to greet the pope after the mass, AAP reports Albanese spoke to him about his mother:

I spoke to him about my mother who would be, I’m sure, looking down from heaven with the biggest smile she’s ever had.

Albanese, who was raised Catholic in a housing commission flat in Sydney, often references his late single-parent mother and her influence on his life.

Good morning!

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says he has been honoured to attend the inaugural mass and meet His Holiness Pope Leo XIV.

While in Rome, Albanese also met with other world leaders on the sidelines, including the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, European Union president, Ursula von der Leyen, and Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Back home heavy rainfall, strong winds, hazardous surf and minor to moderate flooding is expected on the northern New South Wales coast throughout the first half of this week, the SES warns.

The slow-moving heavy rainfall is expected to last several days across the mid north coast and Hunter regions, with the SES having already had to rescue eight people.

More to come soon, let’s get going!