Afternoon Update: Greens to back voice after Thorpe quits; deadly Turkey earthquake; and Beyoncé breaks Grammys record

Good afternoon. Senator Lidia Thorpe and the Greens have parted ways after failing to reconcile disparate views on the Indigenous voice to parliament.

Thorpe, who has insisted on a “treaty before voice”, will now sit on the crossbench where she says she “will be able to speak freely on all issues from a sovereign perspective without being constrained by portfolios and agreed party positions”.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, said he had offered Thorpe the option of staying with the party, even if she ended up opposing the voice. The Greens are now expected to officially support the voice when the party room convenes tonight.

Top news

• Deadly earthquake near Turkish-Syrian border | Scores have been reported dead in Turkey and Syria and buildings have been flattened after a 7.8 magnitude tremor hit southern Turkey. The earthquake is a devastating blow to an area suffering from years of conflict and flooded with refugees from the Syrian civil war. The death toll is likely to rise. You can view a photo gallery of the earthquake’s impact, and catch up on the latest in our Morning Mail tomorrow.

• All NSW pokies to go cashless | Pubs and clubs will have until 2028 to go cashless, under the Coalition’s $344m plan to reform gambling in the state. But the plan is likely to be criticised by reform advocates with gamblers being able to set their own gambling limits. Pubs and clubs will also receive extensive support from the government – including interest-free loans – to help them develop other revenue streams.

• Stop raising interest rates | … the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) has urged, a day before the RBA is expected to further hike the cash rate. Acoss says the government should address inflation at its source, “by reducing the cost of essentials such as rents, energy and medicine”.

• Greens introduce voting age bill | The Greens have used the first day of parliament for 2023 to introduce a bill to lower the voting age to 16. Labor has left the door open to the move, while the Coalition’s Jane Hume today showed little enthusiasm. “It’s safe to say that is certainly not one of our priorities,” she said – an understandable position given young Australians were more likely to vote for Labor and the Greens at the last federal election.

• International student suicides | A 2021 Victorian coroner’s report found that 47 international student suicides had occurred in the state in the decade to 2019. Such deaths by suicide will continue if gaps in providing targeted mental healthcare aren’t addressed, new research suggests.

• Canberra talks trade with the EU and China | Negotiations between Australian and EU officials resumed today in Canberra, with the European Commission setting a mid-year deadline to finalise a free trade deal. Separately, the Australian and Chinese trade ministers met for the first time in three years as relations continue to thaw. A major sticking point, however, is China’s $20bn in tariffs imposed on Australian goods, which Canberra is urging Beijing to lift.

• Beyoncė breaks Grammys record | Beyoncé is now the most awarded Grammy artist of all time with 32 awards, five of which were picked up at today’s ceremony.

• Trial of Hong Kong democracy advocates | Hong Kong’s largest national security trial began on Monday, involving 47 of the city’s most high-profile democracy advocates, in a hearing that has been labelled a trial of the territory’s pro-democracy movement itself.

• Ukraine corruption scandal | Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksii Reznikov is to be reshuffled into another government job after it emerged the defence ministry paid twice or three times the supermarket price for food to supply troops on the frontline.

Full Story

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What they said …

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“We welcome the US indicating … that they are open to continued engagement with China. We would encourage that to continue. We would encourage China to respond positively.” – Penny Wong

The Chinese spy balloon incident came at an awkward time for the Albanese government, which has been expending significant diplomatic effort to “stabilise” relations with Beijing. So it makes sense then that the foreign minister’s advice today was for the US and China to calm down and talk.

In numbers

Thousands of trucks are choking cities, with serious health consequences for residents in high-traffic zones. The Grattan Institute has suggested cutting the $8bn in fuel subsidies heavy vehicles receive a year, which has provoked a fierce rebuke from the trucking industry.

Before bed read

The west is turning on generation Z’s favourite app. US and European fears about China exploiting TikTok’s data harvest and promoting Beijing’s worldview look set to inspire an urgent overhaul in data privacy laws.

“It’s emblematic of ratcheting Sino-western tensions, where tussling over technology is as much about genuine paranoia over espionage as it is a useful arena for geopolitical grandstanding.” Read the full story.

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