Midday News Bulletin 7 May 2025
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TRANSCRIPT:
Anthony Albanese deciding on the shape of his second term government as MPs meet in Canberra;
At least three dead in missile strikes on Pakistan-controlled Kashmir;
Jarryd Hayne making his official return to rugby league.
Labor MPs will meet in Canberra this week to decide on the shape of its second term government.
The current top-line leadership members are expected to remain in their portfolios - but Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Murray Watt has told Seven's Sunrise it's up to the Prime Minister as to who will fill the various positions on offer.
"We do have an umpire, and his name is the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. So I think he'll do a good job of sort of shaping this. The way it's going to work is that we'll all get together on Friday in Canberra as a caucus to decide who will be elected into the ministry, and then it's a hundred percent up to the Prime Minister to decide who goes into what role."
Meanwhile, post-election fighting is continuing in the losing coalition party, with some experts saying the Liberals risk moving into permanent opposition unless they can fix their issue with women.
Retired senator Linda Reynolds is amongst a group of senior Liberals urging the party to learn from previous reviews, which found the party was failing to adequately represent the values and priorities of women.
.
More than a dozen seats remain too close to call as final counting continues after this year's federal election.
Independent Zoe Daniel is projected to lose the Melbourne seat of Goldstein to Liberal Tim Wilson by a few hundred votes, a dramatic shift from the weekend, in which Ms Daniel gave a victory speech to her supporters after thinking she had secured re-election.
In the Sydney seat of Bradfield, Liberal candidate Gisele Kapterian has taken the lead.
In Kooyong, Monique Ryan's lead remains slim.
.
To the next story - and a warning that it may be distressing for some listeners:
A colourful collection of toys, flowers and candles have been set up in the New South Wales town of Coonabarabran in tribute to two brothers who were found dead in a home there on Monday afternoon.
A 66 year old woman identified by police as the boys grandmother remains in a mental health facility in Orange after the grim discovery, but has not been charged.
Police say the grandmother was the sole carer of the boys and had moved to the town around 11 months ago.
Western Region assistant commissioner Andrew Holland says the scene was confronting for first responders.
"They've had to force entry to the house. They were first confronted with the death or sorry, the body of a young six year old boy who was located in the front bedroom. They then located the 66 year old woman who had attempted self-harm in that location. She was immediately placed under arrest at that time. And then from that point, police did a further search of the house and located the second young child."
.
Pakistan has vowed to respond to a series of missile strikes from India that have killed at least three people.
Local media say officials have launched strikes in retaliation, but there have been no details provided about the nature of those.
India's offensive has occurred amid heightened tensions in the aftermath of an attack on Hindu tourists in Kashmir last month, when Islamist assailants killed 26 men in the worst violence targeted at civilians in India in nearly two decades.
Witnesses say the missiles struck nine locations in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan's eastern Punjab province.
"We heard 5 to 6 huge blasts over there. After this panic spread among the people, and now we have been told to evacuate the area. This fire coming from the Indian side.'
.
Friedrich Merz has been elected Germany's new chancellor.
The conservative leader has been voted in thanks to a second ballot, hours after he failed to win a first round in parliament in an historic defeat.
The 69 year old is vowing to prioritise European unity and the continent's security during his term.
.
Australians are being warned to get vaccinated before the peak of the flu season.
Health officials say those considered at high risk are among those who should get immunised, including young children, the elderly, pregnant women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
There has been an unusual spike already in cases across the country, with more than 71,000 flu cases reported since January 1.
University of Sydney Public Health scientist Julie Leask says influenza vaccination rates in Australia are dire - but it's not always reluctance to vaccinate that is to blame.
"It's also access to free, convenient services and systems that really work for people, where you bring the vaccines to the people, where you remind them, where you encourage them."
.
To sport,
Jarryd Hayne's six-and-a-half-year exile from rugby league is over.
The former Parramatta No.1 will play for Wentworthville today in the Ron Massey Cup, a third tier open age competition.
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"We designed the cheaper home batteries program to be stackable with state incentives, and it is," she said. "NSW are now also offering a battery incentive, for joining virtual power plants, which is stackable with ours. "The design and balance of NSW incentives is a matter for them, but giving more people more support to get batteries and join [virtual power plants] is good news for the industry." But the industry at a wider level was nonetheless disappointed in the cancellation of the NSW battery installation discount. "The announcement of the new NSW scheme was not the outcome they had expected or wanted," Smart Energy Council acting chief executive Wayne Smith said. "Industry has been operating under a great deal of uncertainty as they awaited clarity around the NSW PDRS that's caused considerable pain for many," he said. "The cuts to the scheme will continue to cause pain." 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"Incentives under the NSW PDRS to connect batteries to virtual power plants (VPPs) will almost double, and can be stacked with the commonwealth program." Any new batteries cannot be turned on before July 1 in order to be eligible for the federal discount under the $2.3 billion cheaper home batteries program. Households in NSW promised federal and state government discounts on a new home solar battery have been told they are no longer eligible for both and will need to start from scratch. Australians with rooftop solar rushed to take advantage of the new federal "cheaper home batteries" discount - worth about $4000 on a typical 11.5kWh battery - in the wake of Labor's May election win. Many installers took orders and started fitting batteries on the basis the federal rebate could be claimed after July 1 on top of any state schemes. But the NSW government on June 10 announced it was scrapping its existing discount after only seven months. Instead, it decided to expand a program to encourage households to sell power stored in batteries back to the market through virtual power plants. This left installers with a lot difficult phone calls to make to battery customers who they'd promised would receive both the state Peak Demand Reduction Scheme (PDRS) discount and the federal rebate on new batteries. Some customers who had not yet had a battery fitted were offered refunds on their deposits, or new quotes with the NSW discount - sometimes worth thousands of dollars - removed. "There have been no circumstances where people can claim solar battery installation incentives under both the commonwealth and NSW schemes," a spokesman for the NSW energy department said. "We recommend that households and small businesses contact their installer to discuss any quote that claimed both incentives would apply." Installers would likely have to bear the cost of the state discount they expected where households had already paid for, and received, their battery. Solar Battery Group, which operates nationally and has been installing 40 batteries a day since the government's re-election on May 3, was one of those. "If the customer is adamant they don't want to change the size of battery or the specifications, then yes, we will wear it," chief executive James Hetherington said. "We've had a lot of people wanting finance that are very confused because those [NSW] laws changed." Mr Hetherington said each business made a choice about how to respond to the federal funding - but new policy "hand grenades" were coming thick and fast across the country. "They did warn all of us: 'Install at your own risk'," he said. "They made that quite clear and we all made our own individual decisions on what risks we were going to take based on our own margins, on our own business models." He said the industry was moving very fast. "It's never moved like this in its history with batteries. "It's had this, obviously, many times with solar and solar panels, but the battery industry is not used to this, so it's got a few growing pains in the next six months," Mr Hetherington said. A spokeswoman for Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the federal battery discount was always designed to be used in conjunction with state incentives. "We designed the cheaper home batteries program to be stackable with state incentives, and it is," she said. "NSW are now also offering a battery incentive, for joining virtual power plants, which is stackable with ours. "The design and balance of NSW incentives is a matter for them, but giving more people more support to get batteries and join [virtual power plants] is good news for the industry." But the industry at a wider level was nonetheless disappointed in the cancellation of the NSW battery installation discount. "The announcement of the new NSW scheme was not the outcome they had expected or wanted," Smart Energy Council acting chief executive Wayne Smith said. "Industry has been operating under a great deal of uncertainty as they awaited clarity around the NSW PDRS that's caused considerable pain for many," he said. "The cuts to the scheme will continue to cause pain." RESINC Solar and Batteries founder Leigh Storr did not offer customers both NSW and federal installation discounts. "I feel for any installers who've jumped the gun," he said. "What they've been selling on is hope." He said the cheaper home batteries discount was a large enough incentive on its own to encourage battery take up. "I'm in huge support of what Chris Bowen has done," Mr Storr said. The PDRS scheme in NSW, which delivered about 11,000 rebates in first six months of the program, will be scrapped after June 30. Instead households with batteries are eligible for up to $1500 to help more connect to virtual power plants, which take customers' excess energy stored in batteries and sell it on. "From 1 July the NSW Peak Demand Reduction Scheme (PDRS) incentives for installing a battery will be suspended, but the consumers will have access to higher incentives under the commonwealth cheaper home batteries program," an NSW energy department spokesman said. "Incentives under the NSW PDRS to connect batteries to virtual power plants (VPPs) will almost double, and can be stacked with the commonwealth program." Any new batteries cannot be turned on before July 1 in order to be eligible for the federal discount under the $2.3 billion cheaper home batteries program. Households in NSW promised federal and state government discounts on a new home solar battery have been told they are no longer eligible for both and will need to start from scratch. Australians with rooftop solar rushed to take advantage of the new federal "cheaper home batteries" discount - worth about $4000 on a typical 11.5kWh battery - in the wake of Labor's May election win. Many installers took orders and started fitting batteries on the basis the federal rebate could be claimed after July 1 on top of any state schemes. But the NSW government on June 10 announced it was scrapping its existing discount after only seven months. Instead, it decided to expand a program to encourage households to sell power stored in batteries back to the market through virtual power plants. This left installers with a lot difficult phone calls to make to battery customers who they'd promised would receive both the state Peak Demand Reduction Scheme (PDRS) discount and the federal rebate on new batteries. Some customers who had not yet had a battery fitted were offered refunds on their deposits, or new quotes with the NSW discount - sometimes worth thousands of dollars - removed. "There have been no circumstances where people can claim solar battery installation incentives under both the commonwealth and NSW schemes," a spokesman for the NSW energy department said. "We recommend that households and small businesses contact their installer to discuss any quote that claimed both incentives would apply." Installers would likely have to bear the cost of the state discount they expected where households had already paid for, and received, their battery. Solar Battery Group, which operates nationally and has been installing 40 batteries a day since the government's re-election on May 3, was one of those. "If the customer is adamant they don't want to change the size of battery or the specifications, then yes, we will wear it," chief executive James Hetherington said. "We've had a lot of people wanting finance that are very confused because those [NSW] laws changed." Mr Hetherington said each business made a choice about how to respond to the federal funding - but new policy "hand grenades" were coming thick and fast across the country. "They did warn all of us: 'Install at your own risk'," he said. "They made that quite clear and we all made our own individual decisions on what risks we were going to take based on our own margins, on our own business models." He said the industry was moving very fast. "It's never moved like this in its history with batteries. "It's had this, obviously, many times with solar and solar panels, but the battery industry is not used to this, so it's got a few growing pains in the next six months," Mr Hetherington said. A spokeswoman for Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the federal battery discount was always designed to be used in conjunction with state incentives. "We designed the cheaper home batteries program to be stackable with state incentives, and it is," she said. "NSW are now also offering a battery incentive, for joining virtual power plants, which is stackable with ours. "The design and balance of NSW incentives is a matter for them, but giving more people more support to get batteries and join [virtual power plants] is good news for the industry." But the industry at a wider level was nonetheless disappointed in the cancellation of the NSW battery installation discount. "The announcement of the new NSW scheme was not the outcome they had expected or wanted," Smart Energy Council acting chief executive Wayne Smith said. "Industry has been operating under a great deal of uncertainty as they awaited clarity around the NSW PDRS that's caused considerable pain for many," he said. "The cuts to the scheme will continue to cause pain." RESINC Solar and Batteries founder Leigh Storr did not offer customers both NSW and federal installation discounts. "I feel for any installers who've jumped the gun," he said. "What they've been selling on is hope." He said the cheaper home batteries discount was a large enough incentive on its own to encourage battery take up. "I'm in huge support of what Chris Bowen has done," Mr Storr said. The PDRS scheme in NSW, which delivered about 11,000 rebates in first six months of the program, will be scrapped after June 30. Instead households with batteries are eligible for up to $1500 to help more connect to virtual power plants, which take customers' excess energy stored in batteries and sell it on. "From 1 July the NSW Peak Demand Reduction Scheme (PDRS) incentives for installing a battery will be suspended, but the consumers will have access to higher incentives under the commonwealth cheaper home batteries program," an NSW energy department spokesman said. "Incentives under the NSW PDRS to connect batteries to virtual power plants (VPPs) will almost double, and can be stacked with the commonwealth program." Any new batteries cannot be turned on before July 1 in order to be eligible for the federal discount under the $2.3 billion cheaper home batteries program.
