News live: Australians not preparing for emergencies; voice referendum voting enrolment closes tonight

Daniel Andrews has been asked about calls from Victoria’s public service watchdogs to be consulted on key reforms arising from Labor’s branch-stacking scandal.

The Age last week reported that public service watchdogs warned they have not been consulted on key reforms arising from an investigation into Labor’s branch-stacking scandal, 12 months after they handed down recommendations for change.

Speaking to ABC Radio Melbourne, Andrews said:

…with the greatest of respect to the heads of integrity agencies, they’re not elected by anybody so they’re not in the cabinet room, and for as long as I chair the cabinet, they won’t be in the cabinet room, they’re not ministers, just like I’m not down their office, you know, insisting that I be part of drafting reports.

There’ll be a big update [by] the end of the year. And I think at that point, integrity agencies will be pleased with what they see, but that’ll be a matter for them.

Daniel Andrews backs social housing percentage promises for faster developers approvals

Rafael Epstein:

There is a lot of talk that the faster approval comes because the developer says, a certain percentage of homes will be affordable [housing] or a certain percentage of homes will be social housing. Is the government going to give that sort of trade off?

Daniel Andrews:

What will be wrong with that?

… So better decisions faster, and high quality, lower price, more supply, lower price still, like, that’s a way forward. And if the trade off is, well, we’re going to build X number of units that are not 2% below market, but substantially below market, is a grand bargain there.

Dan Andrews flags ‘substantive, commonsense announcements’ on Victorian housing

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is speaking to Rafael Epstein on ABC Radio Melbourne this morning. He has faced criticism in the past for not appearing on talkback radio, particularly from the veteran radio host Neil Mitchell.

First on the agenda is housing – Andrews is asked if housing got worse under Labor, why should people believe it’ll get better?

Andrews flagged that “substantiative, commonsense announcements” around housing will be announced shortly:

I’m not here today to rule things in or out. The statement [will be] released in due course.

Acknowledging he has been premier for almost nine years, Andrews defended his government and said it’s “a different place today” when it comes to housing. He said you can’t chase 100% agreement on everything when it comes to reform:

If you do that, you’ll get precisely nothing done. You’ve got to find a balance point, you’ve got to be fair, you got to look at all the different angles or different arguments, but we’ve got to get more houses built because only through more houses being built, more supply [do] we get prices down.

Banking Association sees potential for AI to help protect customers from scams

The chief executive officer of the Australian Banking Association, Anna Bligh, is speaking to ABC News Breakfast about whether banks have enough people on their fraud teams to help victims.

She said the ABA is seeing an “explosion” of scams hitting Australians:

[Scams] come to us via our telephone, our emails, our social media platforms. These are not issues over which banks have control, but we need to be seeing banks working with all of those players to improve and to eliminate the ability of scammers to actually get to people in the first place.

… between Australia’s four major banks, they have in their financial fraud teams more people than the entire Australian federal police in every part of Australia.

When asked how AI and deepfakes will change the outlook for scams, Bligh said it has the potential to make it easier for scammers, but also easier for telcos and banks to protect people:

AI is basically trained to look at patterns and so it’s going to make it much easier, in fact, it’s already being used by banks to identify where something unusual is happening on your account.

… So I do think AI and other … new developments [are] going to be certainly in the hands of criminals [and] could be used to make our lives much harder, but in the hands of our banks, our law enforcement agencies and telcos and other players in this network, it could also help protect customers …

Labor looking to develop cybersecurity standards placing onus on companies after major data breaches

The federal government is looking at developing cybersecurity standards – a year on from the Optus data breach – to flip the onus towards companies and developers to keep Australians safe online, AAP reports.

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, says cybersecurity is “a defining national security problem for our country”. The minister pointed to similar laws overseas to move towards to ensure apps and programs have built-in protections rather than leaving it to the consumer. She told ABC TV this morning:

If you’re buying a car seat for a new baby, you go into the store and buy a product off a shelf knowing that it will be safe for use – we don’t see the same thing with digital products.

What we want to do is move towards a world where citizens are not the ones who are having to think about and protect themselves from the cyber threat.

O’Neil said the government needed to play a more significant role and work with the private sector to ensure vulnerable businesses that may not have the resources to protect themselves are shielded. She said feedback from Australians and small businesses was that they felt vulnerable and panicked trying to navigate cybersecurity.

O’Neil will address a cybersecurity conference on Monday.

Bowen says Eraring coal power station should not stay open beyond 2025

Chris Bowen also shot down any idea that the Eraring power station would be kept open beyond 2025 to ease the risk of blackouts:

No, we won’t be doing that and nobody has suggested that we should.

I agree with Penny Sharp [the NSW minister for climate change] … she said publicly she doesn’t want to see Eraring stay open a day longer than it needs to or close a day earlier than it has to.

Bowen on transmission wires over rural properties: ‘communities deserve proper engagement’

Speaking on the new transmission lines needed for renewable projects, Chris Bowen is asked about the impact on local landholders and farmers. The HumeLink project has faced notable opposition from locals, whose properties are set to be impacted.

He said there is “substantial aid to landholders” impacted by the transmission lines, but “money’s not all of it”:

We have worked pretty hard to improve the benefit from these transmission lines. I’ve made it clear [to] the transmission companies.

Bowen said he has asked for a short review on the consultation process to be conducted.

…communities deserve proper engagement. It hasn’t been done well enough in the past… I think [communities] made a valid point and we’ve been working to improve that in consultation and other bodies as well.

Here’s our look at that earlier in August.

Bowen on wiring Australia: ‘would have been better if more had been done over the last 10 years’

The energy minister, Chris Bowen, is asked how much of the 10,000km of new wiring to support renewable infrastructure has been built.

Bowen said there are a “couple of projects” underway from the previous government, and funding arrangements have been made with Tasmania, NSW, Victoria and Western Australia on new project deals.

So obviously those projects haven’t yet commenced…

We’ve come to the situation where it would have been better if more had been done over the last 10 years. And we wouldn’t be in this situation where we’ve had to move so fast, but that’s the situation we’ve inherited, and that’s the situation we’re dealing [with].

Climate and energy minister Chris Bowen is speaking to ABC RN about a proposal from the Coalition to replace Australia’s retiring coal-fired power stations with small nuclear reactors.

As my colleague Daniel Hurst reported this morning, the federal government says the proposal would cost as much as $387bn:

Bowen said the small modular reactors proposed by the opposition are 300 megawatts each, which means “you need a lot of them to replace the retiring coal fired power” stations.

It’s a unicorn and a fantasy and somebody has to pay for it if they are really serious about this plan, whether it’s consumers or taxpayers.

When you put the most expensive form of energy into the system, there is a massive cost paid and that is the cost that the government has identified.

The Australian Red Cross is calling on Australians to prepare for emergencies as new data shows only 10% of people are taking steps to actively get ready.

Independent research conducted on behalf of the Red Cross surveyed adults living across Australia and found 58% of Australians are set to be impacted by heatwaves during the next 12 months – more than double five years ago (25%).

The research also found 34% are worried about being impacted by bushfires, and 38% are expected to be impacted by major power outages, lasting four hours or longer.

The Red Cross chief of staff, Penny Harrison, said the concern of emergencies is not translating into active preparation:

We know the better prepared you are, the better your capacity to respond and recover from any emergency. Just thinking about it is not enough.

…The stress of a situation can affect decision making and reasoning so it’s important to have thought through your response – how you, your family and community may think, feel and act if an event occurs.

Today is the last day to enrol to vote or update your details for the 2023 referendum.

The Australian electoral commissioner, Tom Rogers, has reminded Australians that the enrolment deadline is 8pm tonight:

Don’t delay – if you do, you could be one of the very few eligible people out there not ready to vote in the first referendum in nearly a quarter of a century.

It’ll be the best democratic base for participation Australia has ever had and we want all eligible Australians to be a part of that.

Rogers said since the announcement of the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, there have been more than 240,000 enrolment transactions submitted – around 15,000 a day.

There is currently more than 17.5 million Australians on the electoral roll with at least 97.5% of all eligible Australians enrolled to vote. The referendum will be held on 14 October.

Family violence to be considered in property disputes under family law reforms

Daniel Hurst

Family violence will be considered as an important factor in property disputes under proposed new family law reforms.

The federal government will today release draft legislation for further changes to the Family Law Act “so that it is accessible, safer, simpler to use, and delivers justice and fairness for all Australian families”.

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said in a statement:

For the first time this draft legislation proposes that family violence be considered as an important factor in property disputes.

This sends a clear signal that the government understands the long-term harm caused by family violence, and the need for its consequences to be taken into account in property settlements.

Dreyfus said the draft legislation would simplify key principles for property settlement in the Family Law Act to assist separating parties, legal representatives and the courts.

He said new measures include:

• Enhancing the court’s discretion to manage evidence where family violence is alleged or present between separating couples.

• Inserting a specific duty of disclosure in property and financial matters in the Family Law Act which would apply during court proceedings or when a party is preparing to start a proceeding.

• Clarifying the circumstances in which a court can order a party to contribute towards the cost of an independent children’s lawyer.

• Strengthening commonwealth information orders to ensure the court has access to critical information about the risk of violence to a child.

• Providing a framework for the future regulation of children’s contact services.

The government is seeking feedback on the draft legislation by 10 November.

Government requests online dating industry develop code of practice

Dating apps have been issued with an ultimatum in order to address sexual assault on their platforms – be better or face regulation, reports AAP.

The government has requested that the online dating industry develop a new voluntary code of practice to protect Australians using their services. The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, says she will take action if nothing improves.

Online dating platforms must do their part to end violence against women.

I have made it crystal clear that if the industry fails to improve safety outcomes for Australians, we will not hesitate to develop legislative options.

The government wants the code in place by mid-2024 and have it include commitments to better engage with police, support users, improve safety measures and be more transparent about the potential harms.

The Australian Institute of Criminology found three in four people using online dating experienced some form of sexual violence facilitated by the app. This included sexual harassment, abusive or threatening language, image-based sexual abuse and stalking.

Good morning

Emily Wind

And happy Monday. Welcome back to the Australia news liveblog, I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be with you throughout the day bringing you the latest.

Before we get started, here’s what’s making headlines this morning.

AAP is reporting that dating apps have been given an ultimatum to better address sexual assault on their platforms or face regulation.

Family violence will be considered an important factor in property disputes under proposed new family law reforms. My colleague Daniel Hurst will bring you the latest on this shortly.

Today is the last day to enrol to vote, or update your details with the electoral commission, before the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum on October 14.

If you see anything that needs attention on the blog, feel free to send me an email at: emily.wind.casual@theguardian.com.

And with that, let’s get started.