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Category: Australia

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Cleaver Joins Over 100 House Democrats in Filing to Defend Taxpayer Privacy at the IRS

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II (5th District Missouri)

    (Washington, D.C.) – This week, U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO) joined the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and over 100 House Democrats in filing an amicus brief in the case Centro de Trabajadores Unidos v. Bessent, urging the D.C. district court to block an unprecedented agreement that would grant immigration enforcement access to millions of taxpayers’ confidential IRS records. 

    The brief reinforces Congress’s long-standing, bipartisan intent to maintain a strict firewall between tax administration and immigration enforcement. It defends the integrity of the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) program and taxpayer privacy protections under 26 U.S.C. § 6103. Established in 1996, the ITIN program enables individuals ineligible for Social Security Numbers to comply with federal tax law. In 2022 alone, ITIN filers paid $59.4 billion in federal income taxes—plus billions more to Social Security and Medicare, despite being ineligible to receive those benefits.

    “The American people have been very clear that they do not support the President allowing unelected bureaucrats or immigration extremists to access private, personal information on millions of American citizens at the Social Security Administration or the IRS; and historically, the courts have agreed to this commonsense principle,” said Congressman Cleaver. “As this administration continues to break the law to further their political goals, I’m proud to join my friends in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the fight to uphold the rule of law and protect the privacy of millions of Americans in Missouri and all across the country.”  

    “Taxpayer privacy is a cornerstone of our democracy and a principle Congress has protected for nearly 50 years,” said CHC Chair Adriano Espaillat. “The IRS promised immigrant taxpayers their information would be kept confidential when they stepped up to follow the law. Breaking that promise not only violates the law—it jeopardizes the critical contributions millions of working families make to programs like Social Security and Medicare.”

    The full list of signers includes Representatives Gabe Amo, Yassamin Ansari, Becca Balint, Nanette Barragán, Joyce Beatty, Ami Bera, Suzanne Bonamici, Julia Brownley, Salud Carbajal, Troy Carter, Greg Casar, Kathy Castor, Joaquin Castro, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Judy Chu, Gilbert R. Cisneros, Jr., Yvette D. Clarke, Emanuel Cleaver, J. Luis Correa, Jim Costa, Joe Courtney, Jasmine Crockett, Danny K. Davis, Madeleine Dean, Maxine Dexter, Lloyd Doggett, Sarah Elfreth, Veronica Escobar, Adriano Espaillat, Cleo Fields, Lizzie Fletcher, Bill Foster, Laura Friedman, Maxwell Alejandro Frost, John Garamendi, Jesús G. “Chuy” Garcia, Robert Garcia, Sylvia Garcia, Jimmy Gomez, Maggie Goodlander, Al Green, Pablo Jose Hernandez, Steven Horsford, Jared Huffman, Glenn Ivey, Sara Jacobs, Pramila Jayapal, Henry C. (“Hank”) Johnson, Jr., Sydney Kamlager Dove, Robin L. Kelly, Ro Khanna, Teresa Leger Fernandez, Mike Levin, Sam Liccardo, Ted W. Lieu, Lucy McBath, Jennifer L. McClellan, Betty McCollum, James P. McGovern, LaMonica McIver, Gregory W. Meeks, Robert Menendez, Dave Min, Kevin Mullin, Jerrold Nadler, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Scott Peters, Chellie Pingree, Nellie Pou, Mike Quigley, Delia C. Ramirez, Emily Randall, Jamie Raskin, Luz Rivas, Deborah Ross, Raul Ruiz, Andrea  Salinas, Linda T. Sanchez, Mary Gay Scanlon, Jan Schakowsky, Lateefah Simon, Adam Smith, Darren Soto, Melanie Stansbury, Greg Stanton, Mark Takano, Shri Thanedar, Bennie G. Thompson, Dina Titus, Rashida Tlaib, Jill Tokuda, Paul Tonko, Norma Torres, Ritchie Torres, Lori Trahan, Derek Tran, Juan Vargas, Gabe Vazquez, Nydia M. Velázquez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Maxine Waters, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Frederica S. Wilson.

    The official amicus brief is available here.

     

    Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee’s Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Greenwood, Blue Springs, North Kansas City, Gladstone, and Claycomo. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 5, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: The real impact of owning an electric vehicle

    Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

    Canberrans who own ZEVs are helping to reduce the city’s use of fossil fuels.

    In Brief:

    • Canberrans are leading the way with zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) ownership, with more than 10,000 ZEVs on our roads.
    • ZEVs can help you save money and are better for the environment.
    • This story details the financial and environmental benefits of owning a ZEV.

    You might have heard that zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs) can save you money and are better for the environment.

    But have you ever wondered just how much of an impact they actually have?

    We’ve done the maths to reveal just how much of a difference they can make for Canberrans.

    How much money can you save?

    Households with electric vehicles could save up to $2,000 per year over the next 10 years.

    That’s according to the Australian Energy Market Commission’s recent report on Residential electricity price trends  2024.

    Electric vehicles are cheaper to run than petrol, diesel and hybrid alternatives. This is because electricity costs less than petrol or diesel and maintenance is cheaper.

    You can increase your savings even further if you:

    • drive a lot (over 15,000 kilometres per year)
    • charge your vehicle at home
    • have home solar.

    The ACT has some of the most generous financial incentives available for ZEV purchase in Australia. These include:

    • zero interest loans
    • stamp duty exemptions
    • lower registration fees.

    Prices for new ZEVs are continuing to drop, with many options now available below $40,000. New manufactures are continuing to enter the market, which increases competition, reducing vehicle prices further.

    With more than 10,000 ZEVs on the road, Canberrans are saving almost $24 million per year on running costs.

    What about the environmental benefits?

    Doing your bit to reduce emissions helps our city take action on climate change.

    More than 40 percent of the ACT’s greenhouse gas emissions come from private vehicle use.

    With 10,000 ZEVs on the road, emissions are reduced by 32,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. That has real benefits to our environment, health and the quality of our air.

    Canberrans who own ZEVs are helping to reduce the city’s use of non-renewable energy sources. They are helping us save around 13 million litres of petrol or diesel per year. That’s roughly five Olympic swimming pools.

    To find out how much you could save by making the switch to electric, try our free Total Cost of Ownership tool.

    Visit the Climate Choices website for more information on owning a ZEV in the ACT.

    Read more like this:

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    MIL OSI News –

    May 5, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Fatal crash at Paechtown

    Source: New South Wales – News

    Two men have died following a fatal crash in Paechtown yesterday.

    Just after 5pm yesterday (Sunday 4 May), police received a report of a serious crash involving a Holden sedan on Echunga Road.

    Major Crash Investigators attended the scene to investigate the cause of the crash.

    The driver of the Holden sedan, a 22-year-old man from Angle Park and passenger a 21-year-old man from Prospect, suffered critical injuries and sadly died at the scene.

    Road closures were in place but have since reopened.

    The driver and passengers deaths are the 26th and 27th lives lost on South Australian roads so far this year.

    MIL OSI News –

    May 5, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: Newly discovered tropical oyster reefs are thriving across northern Australia – they deserve protection

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Richardson, Research Fellow in Marine Science, Griffith University

    Marina Richardson

    Oysters are so much more than a seafood delicacy. They’re ecosystem engineers, capable of building remarkably complex reefs. These structures act as the kidneys of the sea, cleaning the water and keeping the coast healthy, while providing homes for millions of other animals.

    Oyster reefs were once thought to be restricted to southern, cooler coastal waters where they’re the temperate equivalent of tropical coral reefs. But now, oyster reefs are being found right across Australia’s tropical north as well.

    These tropical oyster reefs are bigger and more widespread than anyone expected. In fact, they are some of the largest known intertidal oyster reefs (exposed at low tide) left in Australia. And they’re everywhere – from the southern limit of the Queensland tropics across to the northern coast of Western Australia – yet we know almost nothing about them.

    In our recent research, my colleagues and I completed the first detailed study of Australian tropical oyster reefs. These reefs are so new to science that until now, the species responsible for building them remained a mystery.

    Using DNA, we identified the main reef-building oyster species in tropical Australia as “Saccostrea Lineage B”, making it a new addition to our national list of known reef-builders.

    Lineage B is a close relative of the commercially important Sydney rock oyster (Saccostrea glomerata), but so little is known about this tropical reef-building species that it is yet to be assigned a scientific name.

    The Saccostrea Lineage B oysters we found in Australia’s tropical north are related to Sydney rock oysters.
    Marina Richardson

    Hiding in plain sight

    So why are we only learning about tropical oyster reefs now?

    Across the globe, oyster reefs have been decimated by human activity. These reefs declined in most tropical regions long ago, even as far back as 1,000 years ago. Most oyster reefs disappeared without a trace before scientists even knew they were there.

    However, Australia’s tropical oyster reefs haven’t just survived, in some cases they have thrived.

    Despite being delicious to many, the species we now know as Lineage B was not very attractive to the aquaculture industry, due to its small size. And while oyster reefs near Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne were dredged and burned to produce lime for mortar, used in the early construction of roads and buildings, this practice was not widespread in tropical regions. This lack of commercial interest is probably the reason why tropical oyster reefs have persisted unnoticed for so long in northern Australia.

    Here the tropical oyster reefs were found growing on a combination of both rock and muddy sediment.
    Marina Richardson

    What we did and what we found

    We assessed three tropical oyster reefs in Queensland, Australia. At Wilson Beach, near Proserpine and Turkey Beach, near Gladstone, reefs were surveyed in late winter 2022. The reef at Mapoon in the Gulf of Carpentaria was surveyed in early spring 2023.

    Using drone footage, we measured reef area and structure. We then collected oysters for genetic analysis.

    Oysters are notoriously difficult to identify, because their shape, size and colour varies so much. Oysters from the same species can look completely different, while oysters from different species can look identical. That’s why it’s necessary to extract DNA.

    We found almost all reef-building oysters across the three locations were Saccostrea Lineage B.

    At Gladstone reefs, several other reef-building species were also present, including leaf oysters, pearl oysters and hairy mussels.

    We compared three tropical oyster reefs in Queensland.
    Richardson, M., et al (2025) Marine Environmental Research

    An ecosystem worthy of protection

    In southern Australia, oyster reefs are critically endangered. But we don’t really know how threatened their tropical counterparts are, although there is some evidence of decline. Further research is underway.

    A new project has begun to map oyster reefs across tropical Australia. Since the project launched in June 2024, more than 60 new reefs have been found across Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia – including some as large as 5 hectares.

    These unexpected discoveries provide a beacon of hope in a world currently overwhelmed by habitat decline and ecological collapse. But tropical oyster reefs are not yet protected. It’s crucial we include them in assessments of threatened ecosystems, to understand how much trouble they’re in and what we can do to protect them into the future.

    By locating and understanding these overlooked ecosystems, we can ensure they’re not left behind in the global oyster reef restoration movement.

    Scientists and others involved in reef restoration are now inviting everyday people across Australia to get involved as citizen scientists in The Great Shellfish Hunt. Anyone can upload tropical oyster reef sightings to this mapping project. It’s more important than ever to work together and ensure tropical oyster reefs receive the protection they deserve, so they continue to thrive for generations to come.

    Marina Richardson currently receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) and the Queensland Government Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation.

    – ref. Newly discovered tropical oyster reefs are thriving across northern Australia – they deserve protection – https://theconversation.com/newly-discovered-tropical-oyster-reefs-are-thriving-across-northern-australia-they-deserve-protection-254612

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 5, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: We talk a lot about being ‘resilient’. But what does it actually mean?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter McEvoy, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Curtin University

    Kinga Howard/Unsplash

    In a world with political polarisation, war, extreme weather events and increasing costs of living, we need to be able to cope as individuals and communities.

    Our capacity to cope with very real stressors in our lives – our resilience – can determine whether we thrive, just survive, or are deprived of a reasonable quality of life.

    Stress vs resilience

    Resilience means having the ability to cope with, and rebound from, life’s challenges and still achieve our goals.

    Stress isn’s something to be avoided. We need to feel some stress to achieve our best. Exposure to manageable levels of stress and adversity develops our coping skills and resilience.

    But if we feel too much stress, we can flounder or become overwhelmed.

    The ability to re-activate ourselves when we feel down, fatigued or disengaged helps to optimise our focus and motivation. Sportspeople, for example, might listen to high intensity music just before a competition to increase their energy levels.

    Conversely, the ability to dampen down emotional intensity can make use feel less stressed or anxious. Exercising, listening to relaxing music, or patting a much-loved pet can prevent high arousal from interfering with completing a task.

    Effective emotion regulation is crucial for adapting to life’s ups and downs, and keeping us on a relatively even keel.

    How does resilience develop?

    Resilience emerges from interactions between personal and environmental factors.

    In addition to emotion regulation skills, personal factors that can bolster resilience include academic achievement, developing a range of skills and abilities (such as sport and music) and problem-solving skills. Many of these skills can be fostered in childhood. And if one area of life isn’t going well, we can still experience confidence, joy and meaning in others.

    Sometimes we need to increase our energy levels, other times we need to lower anxiety.
    Ilias Chebbi/Unsplash

    People who reflect on traumatic experience and develop new positive meanings about themselves (getting through it means I’m strong!) and life (a greater appreciation) can also have higher levels of resilience.

    Genetic factors and temperament also play an important role. Some of us are born with nervous systems that respond with more anxiety than others in novel, uncertain, or potentially threatening situations. And some of us are more likely to avoid rather than approach these situations. These traits tend to be associated with lower levels of resilience. But we can all learn skills to build our resilience.

    Environmental factors that promote resilience include:

    • a nurturing home environment
    • supportive family and peer relationships
    • cultural identity, belonging and rituals
    • modelling from others overcoming hardship
    • community cohesion
    • government policies that provide social safety nets, strong education, anti-discrimination and inclusion
    • investment in facilities, spaces, services and networks that support the quality of life and wellbeing of communities.

    Can resilience be taught?

    Many factors associated with resilience are modifiable, so it stands to reason that interventions that aim to bolster them should be helpful.

    There is evidence that interventions that promote optimism, flexibility, active coping and social support-seeking can have small yet meaningful positive effects on resilience and emotional wellbeing in children and adults.

    However, school-based programs give us reason to be cautious.

    A trial across 84 schools in the United Kingdom evaluated the effectiveness of school-based mindfulness programs. More than 3,500 students aged between 11 and 13 years received ten lessons of mindfulness and a similar number did not.

    There was no evidence that mindfulness had any benefit on risk for depression, social, emotional and behavioural functioning, or wellbeing after one year. Teaching school children mindfulness at scale did not appear to bolster resilience.

    In fact, there was some evidence it did harm – and it was most harmful for students at the highest risk of depression. The intervention was not deemed to be effective or cost-effective and was not recommended by the authors.

    In another recent trial, researchers found an emotion regulation intervention with Year 8 and 9 school children was unhelpful and even harmful, although children who engaged in more home practice tended to do better.

    The evidence doesn’t support school-based resilience programs.
    Mitchell Luo/Unsplash

    These interventions may have failed for a number of reasons. The content may not have been delivered in a way that was sufficiently engaging, comprehensive, age-appropriate, frequent, individually tailored, or relevant to the school context. Teachers may also not be sufficiently trained in delivering these interventions for them to be effective. And students didn’t co-design the interventions.

    Regardless of the reasons, these findings suggest we need to be cautious when delivering universal interventions to all children. It may be more helpful to wait until there are early signs of excessive stress and intervening in an individualised way.

    What does this mean for resilience-building?

    Parents and schools have a role in providing children with the sense of security that gives them confidence to explore their environments and make mistakes in age-appropriate ways, and providing support when needed.

    Parents and teachers can encourage children to try to solve problems themselves before getting involved. Problem-solving attempts should be celebrated even more than success.

    Schools need to allocate their scarce resources to children most in need of practical and emotional support in non-stigmatising ways, rather than universal approaches. Most children will develop resilience without intervention programs.

    To promote resilience, schools can foster positive peer relationships, cultural identity and involvement in creative, sporting and academic pursuits. They can also highlight others’ recovery and resilience stories to demonstrate how growth can occur from adversity.

    More broadly in the community, people can work on developing their own emotion regulation skills to bolster their confidence in their ability to manage adversity.

    Think about how you can:

    • approach challenges in constructive ways
    • actively problem-solve rather than avoid challenges
    • genuinely accept failure as part of being human
    • establish healthy boundaries
    • align your behaviour with your values
    • receive social and professional support when needed.

    This will help you navigate the ebbs and flows of life in ways that support recovery and growth.



    Read more:
    People’s mental health goes downhill after repeated climate disasters – it’s an issue of social equity

    Peter McEvoy is a Professor of clinical psychology at the Curtin enAble Institute and School of Population Health. He is also a Senior Clinical Psychologist at The Centre for Clinical Interventions, Perth, and a Board Member of the Australian Association of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. He does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article. The opinions and perspectives in this article are his own.

    – ref. We talk a lot about being ‘resilient’. But what does it actually mean? – https://theconversation.com/we-talk-a-lot-about-being-resilient-but-what-does-it-actually-mean-245256

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 5, 2025

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: PM call with Prime Minister Albanese of Australia: 4 May 2025

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    Press release

    PM call with Prime Minister Albanese of Australia: 4 May 2025

    The Prime Minister spoke to the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese.

    The Prime Minister spoke to the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, this morning.

    The Prime Minister began by congratulating the Australian leader on his historic election win yesterday.

    Australia and the UK has a strong and enduring friendship, and the Prime Minister said he looked forward to working with Prime Minister Albanese in the years to come, including through increased trade and economic security for working people in both countries.

    Discussing defence and security, including our shared support for Ukraine, the leaders also agreed to increase ambition on our joint submarine programme, AUKUS. The Prime Minister said he would ask his AUKUS Adviser, Sir Stephen Lovegrove, to travel to Australia in the coming weeks to discuss the programme further.

    The leaders agreed to stay in close touch.

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    Updates to this page

    Published 4 May 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

    May 5, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: New deal for journalism – RSF’s 11 steps to ‘reconstruct’ global media

    Australia (ranked 29th) and New Zealand (ranked 16th) are cited as positive examples by Reporters Without Borders in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index of commitment to public media development aid, showing support through regional media development such as in the Pacific Islands.

    Reporters Without Borders

    The 2025 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has revealed the dire state of the news economy and how it severely threatens newsrooms’ editorial independence and media pluralism.

    In light of this alarming situation, RSF has called on public authorities, private actors and regional institutions to commit to a “New Deal for Journalism” by following 11 key recommendations.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 5, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: In its soul-searching, the Coalition should examine its relationship with the media

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin University

    Among the many lessons to be learnt by the Liberal-National Coalition parties from the election is that they should stop getting into bed with News Corporation Australia.

    Why would a political party outsource its policy platform and strategy to people with plenty of opinions, but no experience in actually running a government?

    The result of the federal election suggests that unlike the Coalition, many Australians are ignoring the opinions of News Corp Australia’s leading journalists such as Andrew Bolt and Sharri Markson.

    Last Thursday, in her eponymous program on Sky News Australia, Markson said:

    For the first time in my journalistic career I’m going to also offer a pre-election editorial, endorsing one side of politics […] A Dutton prime ministership would give our great nation the fresh start we deserve.

    After a vote count that sees the Labor government returned with an increased majority, Bolt wrote a piece for the Herald Sun admonishing voters:

    No, the voters aren’t always right. This time they were wrong, and this gutless and incoherent Coalition should be ashamed. Australians just voted for three more years of a Labor government that’s left this country poorer, weaker, more divided and deeper in debt, and which won only by telling astonishing lies. That’s staggering. If that’s what voters really like, then this country is going to get more of it, good and hard.

    The Australian and most of News’ tabloid newspapers endorsed the Coalition in their election eve editorials.

    The election result was a repudiation of the minor culture war Dutton reprised during the campaign when he advised voters to steer clear of the ABC and “other hate media”. It may have felt good alluding to “leftie-woke” tropes about the ABC, but it was a tactical error. The message probably resonated only with rusted-on hardline Coalition voters and supporters of right-wing minor parties.



    Read more:
    Peter Dutton calling the ABC and the Guardian ‘hate media’ rings alarm bells for democracy

    But they were either voting for the Coalition, or sending them their preferences, anyway. Instead, attacking the ABC sent a signal to the people the Coalition desperately needed to keep onside – the moderates who already felt disappointed by the Coalition’s drift to the right and who were considering voting Teal or for another independent.

    Attacking just about the most trusted media outlet in the country simply gave those voters another reason to believe the Coalition no longer represented their values.

    Reporting from the campaign bus is often derided as shallow form of election coverage. Reporters tend to be captive to a party’s agenda and don’t get to look much beyond a leader’s message. But there was real value in covering Dutton’s daily stunts and doorstops, often in the outer suburbs that his electoral strategy relied on winning over.

    What was revealed by having journalists on the bus was the paucity of policy substance. Details about housing affordability and petrol pricing – which voters desperately wanted to hear – were little more than sound bites.

    This was obvious by Dutton’s second visit to a petrol station, and yet there were another 15 to come. The fact that the campaign bus steered clear of the sites for proposed nuclear plants was also telling.

    The grind of daily coverage helped expose the lateness of policy releases, the paucity of detail and the lack of preparation for the campaign, let alone for government.

    On ABC TV’s Insiders, the Nine Newspapers’ political editor, David Crowe, wondered whether the media has been too soft on Dutton, rather than too hard as some Coalition supporters might assume.

    He reckoned that if the media had asked more difficult questions months ago, Dutton might have been stress-tested and better prepared before the campaign began.

    Instead, the Coalition went into the election believing it would be enough to attack Labor without presenting a fully considered alternative vision. Similarly, it would suffice to appear on friendly media outlets such as News Corp, and avoid more searching questions from the Canberra press gallery or on the ABC.

    Reporters and commentators across the media did a reasonable job of exposing this and holding the opposition to account. The scrutiny also exposed its increasingly desperate tactics late in the campaign, such as turning on Welcome to Country ceremonies.

    If many Australians appear more interested in what their prospective political leaders have to say about housing policy or climate change than the endless culture wars being waged by the coalition, that message did not appear to have been heard by Peta Credlin.

    The Sky News Australia presenter and former chief of staff to prime minister Tony Abbott said during Saturday night’s election coverage “I’d argue we didn’t do enough of a culture war”.

    Andrew Dodd has been the recipient of Australian Research Council funding

    Matthew Ricketson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. In its soul-searching, the Coalition should examine its relationship with the media – https://theconversation.com/in-its-soul-searching-the-coalition-should-examine-its-relationship-with-the-media-255846

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: Blaming Donald Trump for conservative losses in both Canada and Australia is being too kind to Peter Dutton

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Smith, Associate Professor in American Politics and Foreign Policy, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney

    Australia’s federal election, held less than a week after Canada’s, has produced a shockingly similar outcome. Commentators all over the world have pointed out the parallels.

    In both countries, centre-left governments looked like they were in serious trouble not long ago.

    On February 23, a Resolve Strategic poll found the Coalition leading Labor 55-45% on a two-party-preferred basis. An Angus Reid poll in December found voting intention for Canada’s Liberals dropping to just 16%, compared to 45% for the Conservatives.

    Yet, both governments are now celebrating historic victories. And in both countries, the conservative opposition leaders, Pierre Poilievre and Peter Dutton, lost their own seats.

    US President Donald Trump was undoubtedly a factor in both elections. Even Trump’s most ardent Australian fans admit the reversal of the Coalition’s fortunes in the polls seems to have been precipitated by Trump’s actions, particularly his chaotic tariff announcements and his White House humiliation of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

    In Canada, Trump cheerfully presented himself as an existential threat to the country.

    But if anything, Labor’s landslide win in the Australian election on Saturday highlights just how poorly the Coalition fared under Dutton compared to Canada’s Conservatives. The Coalition bottomed out, while the Tories fared reasonably well in the face of difficult circumstances.

    A painful but respectable loss for Conservatives in Canada

    So, why the huge difference between the two parties? This is largely because of the differences between the Canadian and Australian electoral systems.

    Unlike Australia, Canada does not have preferential voting – a vote for one party is a vote against another. The Liberals’ rise in the polls came mostly at the expense of the left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) rather than the Conservatives.

    Back in December, 21% of voters preferred the NDP, compared to 16% for Justin Trudeau’s deeply unpopular Liberals. But when Trudeau stepped down and Mark Carney became the party’s new leader, the threat posed by Trump unified centre-left Canadian voters behind the Liberals, who had the best chance of winning.

    This is the strategic voting that is necessary in winner-take-all systems. The NDP has never won the largest share of seats in a national election, and it never had a chance of winning this one.

    The NDP was left with seven seats in last week’s election and under 7% of the vote, losing their party status in parliament and their leader. This was the most significant “Trump effect” on the Canadian election.

    Canada’s Conservatives ended up with 41.3% of the vote. This was only a few points down from their December high of 45% in the Angus Reid poll. They also won the greatest share of the national vote by any centre-right party since 1988, and expanded their share of seats in the parliament.

    The Liberals, meanwhile, barely won the popular vote and fell three seats short of a majority.

    Poilievre was rightly criticised for failing to respond effectively to the challenge posed by Trump’s bullying, instead continuing to campaign as if the election were still a referendum on Trudeau.

    That may have cost him a victory that seemed certain months earlier, especially considering Carney made his campaign all about standing up to Trump.

    Yet, the Conservatives still performed well enough for Poilievre to retain his position as opposition leader despite losing his seat. Another Conservative sacrificed his own seat to let Poilievre back into parliament.

    Dutton’s mistakes were bigger

    It’s hard to imagine any member of Dutton’s party doing the same. Dutton handed Labor a staggeringly high two-party-preferred vote and (likely) the most seats it has ever had. Labor won 86 seats in 1987, while Anthony Albanese’s party will have at least 86, with the count continuing.

    Dutton’s campaign has been widely described as “shambolic”. But it wasn’t just the last five weeks that doomed the Coalition.

    From the moment he became leader, it was clear Dutton had little interest in winning back the former Liberal heartland seats that fell to Teal independents in 2022. Instead, he held out the promise the outer suburbs would become the new heartland.

    Following the patterns established by John Howard, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison, he believed the loss of middle-class women, once the backbone of the Liberal vote, could be compensated by gains among working-class men.

    This was always a pipe dream, given the flimsiness of the culture war issues that have been Dutton’s preferred terrain. But it drove urban voters further away from the Liberal Party.

    The Liberals should have been alarmed that in state elections and byelections last year, they were making almost no gains in metropolitan seats, whether inner suburban or outer suburban.

    The Coalition should resist seeing Trump as a natural disaster over which they had no control. Dutton consciously positioned himself as part of the global populist right that Trump leads. Voters recognised this, even when Dutton half-heartedly tried to distance himself from Trump.

    Not all right-wing populists are the same. Poilievre and Dutton have their own brands of populism they have spent decades cultivating, as have other right-wing populists like Javier Milei in Argentina. But in the suffocating global environment created by Trump, there is limited room for brand differentiation. He is the unavoidable reference point of right-wing politics.

    Last November, many right-wing figures thought this would benefit them. One of them is now a spectacular political casualty.

    David Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Blaming Donald Trump for conservative losses in both Canada and Australia is being too kind to Peter Dutton – https://theconversation.com/blaming-donald-trump-for-conservative-losses-in-both-canada-and-australia-is-being-too-kind-to-peter-dutton-255599

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: Election flops – a night to forget for minor parties on the left and the right

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maxine Newlands, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Futures, University of Queensland, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, Cairns Institute, James Cook University

    Minor parties were all the rage at the last election when, along with independent candidates, they secured almost a third of votes.

    But they have failed to build on that success at this election. The biggest and best funded of the minor parties – the Greens, One Nation and Trumpet of Patriots – have all had disappointing results.

    Few green shoots

    The Greens are the largest party outside of the traditional two-party system. But they failed to launch on Saturday night.

    In 2022, the Greens secured 12.2% of the primary support which returned a record four members to the lower house. This time around, their nationwide vote is up – but only marginally and not where it matters.

    The party has lost big in Queensland, with Stephen Bates in Brisbane and Max Chandler-Mather in Griffith relinquishing their seats to Labor. Elizabeth Watson-Brown could hold on in the neighbouring seat of Ryan, though preference flows will be critical.

    Peter Dutton might not be the only party leader to lose his seat, with Adam Bandt on a knife’s edge in Melbourne, which he has held for 15 years. Again, it will come down to the spread of preferences.

    The Greens had high hopes for two other Melbourne-based seats. They remain a chance in Wills, but got nowhere near it in Macnamara.

    And it is unlikely to snatch the New South Wales seat of Richmond from Labor despite running a close second on primary vote.

    Balance of power

    The Greens have performed much better in the Senate, where they will once again be the largest cross bench party with a predicted 11 seats.

    While the ALP will clearly dominate the lower house in the 48th parliament, the Senate is looking to be more of a two-way spilt between Labor and the Coalition.

    The Albanese government will likely require only the support of the Greens to pass legislation. This is a much better scenario for Labor than the previous parliament when it needed to stitch together all the Greens and four independents to navigate the Senate.

    Once again, the Greens will effectively hold the balance of power. However, Labor will have other crossbench options, such as independents David Pocock, Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman if the Greens obstruct bills that are also opposed by the Coalition.

    Minor party fizzers

    Despite their disappointing result in the lower house, the Greens easily outperformed the right-wing minor parties, most of which flopped.

    None more so than Clive Palmer’s newly registered Trumpet of Patriots, which fielded candidates in most lower house seats and in the Senate. It scored 1.8% of the vote, the highest positive swing of all the minor parties.

    But it misfired everywhere, despite Palmer’s reported $A50-60 million advertising spend. While Senate votes are still being counted, Trumpet of Patriots is lagging behind both One Nation and the Legalise Cannabis Party.

    Pauline Hanson’s One Nation recorded just over 6% of first preference votes, up only slightly on its 2022 result and nowhere near enough to win any lower house seats. However, there are enough disaffected voters in Queensland to return Malcolm Roberts to the Senate. Hanson won’t be up for reelection until 2028.

    Hanson’s daughter Lee Hanson is an outside chance of securing a Senate spot for One Nation in Tasmania. Her main rivals are Jacqui Lambie and Legalise Cannabis, which is also in the mix to win the final Senate seat in Victoria.

    Gerard Rennick’s People First party also failed to make an impression. So too, Fatima Payman’s Australia’s Voice.

    What next for the minor parties?

    Minor parties play an important role in the Australian political landscape, and have long been players in federal parliament.

    The previous two elections have seen shifts away from the two-party system, with one in four voters preferring minor parties or independent candidates in 2019, and one in three in 2022.

    On the numbers counted so far in this election, voters have favoured either the traditional major parties or the array of independent candidates.

    The trend towards minor parties has been halted, at least for now.

    Maxine Newlands does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Election flops – a night to forget for minor parties on the left and the right – https://theconversation.com/election-flops-a-night-to-forget-for-minor-parties-on-the-left-and-the-right-255623

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: Second-term Albanese will face policy pressure, devastated Liberals have only bad options

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

    On February 1, on The Conversation’s podcast, Anthony Albanese not only declared that Labor would retain majority government, but held out the prospect it could win the Victorian Liberal seats of Menzies and Deakin.

    This was when the polls were still bad for Labor and the Coalition was confident of gaining a swathe of seats in Victoria.

    Now Liberal Michael Sukkar has lost Deakin to Labor’s Matt Gregg, while fellow Liberal Keith Wolahan says it is “more likely than not” he’ll be ousted from Menzies.

    Obviously Albanese’s political judgement was better than most. Two other points are notable. The first is how quickly things turned around. But there’s a counterpoint: maybe they didn’t turn around in quite the way they seemed. Perhaps a few months ago, voters were expressing their frustrations, but many were always going to be reluctant to endorse Peter Dutton when decision-time came.

    Even so, the extent of the decimation of the Liberals was nearly unthinkable. Labor minister Don Farrell said that two days out, Labor’s polling showed a majority but not this result. The Liberals are a rump, without a leader, with no obvious successor, and no clue of what direction to take a party left with hardly any urban seats and the prospect of another two terms, at least, in the wilderness.

    First, however, to the government. Albanese is basking in golden days. But he knows Labor must avoid hubris. As he enjoyed Sunday morning at a local coffee shop, he said “we will be a disciplined, orderly government”.

    To state the obvious, the win will boost Albanese’s authority. But it will also open him to pressures, externally and internally.

    In Labor’s first term, many commentators and stakeholders argued the government was too cautious. Some urged it should tackle more robust economic reform; others wanted it to shift left. Those voices will strengthen now Labor has the numbers to flex its muscles more vigorously. But Albanese is wary of breaking promises – it took a long time for him to go back on his word over the stage three tax cuts – or surprising the electorate.

    The person to watch is Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

    On Saturday night, the treasurer said, “We do believe we’re an ambitious government but we know there is a sense of impatience as well when it comes to some of our big national challenges”.

    Chalmers told the ABC on Sunday, “The best way to think about the difference between our first term and the second term that we won last night [is the] first term was primarily inflation without forgetting productivity, the second term will be primarily productivity without forgetting inflation”.

    This is a very big aspiration. Australia’s productivity performance is dreadful. If that’s to improve significantly, Chalmers may have to take on battles in some policy areas, such as industrial relations, that are very sensitive for Labor and the unions.

    The win, but more particularly the issues ahead, which focus on the economy here and overseas, will give Chalmers an even more central voice, as well as present even tougher tests for him. Chalmers was lavish in his praise of Albanese on Saturday night and Sunday; he said he had rung the PM during Saturday, before the result, and “I said his was an extraordinary campaign, he’s got a lot to be proud of and we are certainly proud to be part of his team”.

    For all that, Chalmers is, and sees himself as, Albanese’s most credible successor, although other aspirants are in the mix. Despite Albanese indicating he will serve a full term and the result leading people to say he will be well placed to lead into the 2028 election, that is not inevitable.

    Who will lead the Liberals into that election is absolutely unknowable. The potential field for the post election leadership vote is lacklustre, and whoever wins that vote could be a seat warmer.

    That field includes shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, deputy leader Sussan Ley, shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan, and defence spokesman Andrew Hastie.

    Taylor, an economic conservative, has faced immense criticism for his performance over the past three years. Ley, who is more towards the centre, has been guilty of overreach, although she’s toned down somewhat recently. Hastie has not broadened out from his defence comfort zone. Tehan is experienced but does not present well to voters.

    Dutton had a weak team around him; the next leader will have an even thinner one.

    Even more diabolical than who the Liberal Party should choose is where it should go in its positioning. The party has become an identity vacuum. It has lost its more genteel urbanites, and failed to win the aspirational suburbanites. These constituencies have different priorities but to revive themselves the Liberals have to thread the needle between them, which looks, at the moment, an impossible task.

    Then there are the problems with women and younger voters. The Liberals’ “women problem” has been debated for years; they seem further than ever from grappling with it. The failure ranges from candidate selection to policy blindness.

    On the latter, the working-from-home debacle was a classic example of disconnect with many women’s lives. The policy (later dumped) to bring public servants back to the office five days a week was driven by a woman, shadow finance minister Jane Hume. It wasn’t properly workshopped, but surely it was obvious that running this policy would be a disaster, especially with female voters. You wouldn’t need a focus group to tell you that.

    As the baby boomers, already outnumbered, fade further, how are the Liberals to connect with the younger voters who are now the dominant demographic? These voters are increasingly progressive. For them, the Liberals need generational change. But the only new generation contender in the present leadership list is Hastie, and he is a conservative.

    Another complication for the Liberals is that the Nationals have done well. This means they’ll have a bigger say in the Coalition, including a bigger share of the frontbench. This might push the Coalition further to the populist right. A few will argue the Coalition parties should separate, but this is not the answer – it hasn’t worked in the past.

    There’ll be a policy overhaul, and that could involve a tricky argument over nuclear, to which the Nationals especially are deeply committed. And will the Coalition commitment to the Paris agreement and the 2050 net zero emissions target come under assault?

    The Liberals are in an extraordinarily bad place. Politicians in such circumstances search for so-called “narrow goat tracks” to better ground. Debris is littering any track in sight for the Liberals. Their only comfort can be that politics is volatile.

    Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Second-term Albanese will face policy pressure, devastated Liberals have only bad options – https://theconversation.com/second-term-albanese-will-face-policy-pressure-devastated-liberals-have-only-bad-options-255618

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Annual firefighter memorial honours fallen heroes

    Source:

    Hundreds gathered today at the Victorian Emergency Services Memorial in Treasury Gardens to honour firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

    Each year, CFA holds a memorial service to remember those firefighters who gave their lives to protect others and to honour the personal sacrifices and commitment our firefighters make each and every day. 

    Acting Chief Fire Officer, Garry Cook AFSM said the day was one for remembrance and reflection.  

    “The memorial service affirms the dedication and courage of our firefighters and allows families, brigades and members of our communities to remember our fallen heroes, while reflecting on their exceptional service in protecting communities from harm,” Garry said.  

    “I encourage all Victorians to take a moment to reflect on those who are no longer with us and recognise the incredible commitment and contribution our members make every day to protect others.” 

    Each year the service is held around International Firefighters’ Day, which was started in 1999 following the death of five CFA firefighters near Linton in 1998.  

    Recognised worldwide, the day coincides with St Florian’s Day in recognition of St Florian, the patron saint of firefighters. 

    Submitted by CFA Media

    MIL OSI News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: Independents will not help form government – but they will be vital in holding it to account

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Visitor, School of History, Australian National University

    When the newspapers delivered their standard election-eve editorials, there were few surprises. Former Fairfax papers and smaller outlets offered qualified support for Labor, while the News Corp papers unashamedly championed the Coalition. In Adelaide, The Advertiser ran a curious line recommending a majority government of whatever persuasion, “lest our futures be in the hands of the mad Greens, self-serving teals or the independent rabble.”

    How must those editors feel this morning? On the one hand, they got the majority government they wished for, and then some. The 2025 election will be mythologised in Labor circles for decades to come.

    On the other hand, the “independent rabble” defied the expectations of some, and the best efforts of others, holding their seats and making gains in Sydney and Canberra, and potentially Melbourne and Perth as well. New crossbenchers will certainly be welcomed into the 48th parliament. And with the Coalition reeling from an historic defeat, they may all play a critical role in policy the debates to come.

    Weathering the storm

    The election campaign put all of the incumbent independent MPs through their paces. Coalition candidates and some of their outspoken media allies applied enormous personal pressure, with accusations of weakness on the issue of antisemitism and piercing questions from conservative news outlets about the transparency of some independent MPs’ donations.

    Vast sums of money were also involved. In the Perth-side seat of Curtin, for example, independent MP Kate Chaney’s supporters and the Liberal Party allegedly spent $1 million each on their respective campaigns.

    In the end, incumbent independents benefited from the historic pattern in federal politics: that a good independent is a tough proposition to beat. At election time, successful independent MPs benefit from the advantages of incumbency, the ability to point to specific policy or project victories arising from greater political competition for the seat, and the flexibility to adapt more quickly to changing voter attitudes, unencumbered by any party machinery.

    Zali Steggall in Warringah and Helen Haines in Indi enjoyed their third successive wins, Rebekah Sharkie in Mayo a fourth general election win (she won a competitive byelection in 2018), Andrew Wilkie in Hobart a sixth victory on the trot, and north Queensland’s Bob Katter yet another term after 50 years of parliamentary service.

    At the time of writing, all of the independents who won their seats in 2022 appear to have been returned. (The exception was Kylie Tink, whose electorate was abolished last year.) The closest count is in Goldstein, where incumbent Zoe Daniel narrowly leads her Liberal predecessor Tim Wilson. Other incumbents, such as Sophie Scamps in Mackellar, Allegra Spender in Wentworth, Monique Ryan in Kooyong and Kate Chaney in Curtin, have enjoyed distinctive swings toward them. In the formerly safe Labor seat of Fowler, where the party hoped to win, independent MP Dai Le enjoyed a handsome primary vote swing of around 6% in her favour.

    Changing hands

    The picture has been more mixed for the rest of the crossbench and other minor parties. The Greens seem set to lose two of their Brisbane seats, but a close race in the formerly safe Labor seat of Wills in Victoria may yet provide a win. Another record spendathon from Clive Palmer will see the Trumpet of Patriots win zero seats. One Nation may keep Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts in his place, but there do not appear to be any other gains for Pauline Hanson’s team.

    Coalition defectors fared poorly, too. Monash MP, independent and former Liberal Russell Broadbent, appears to have secured just 10% of the primary vote, placing him behind both major parties and the community independent candidate.

    In the Perth seat of Moore, Liberal defector Ian Goodenough has fallen behind Labor, Liberal and the Greens, with preferences flowing mainly to Labor candidate Tom French. Right-wing LNP defector Gerard Rennick appears unlikely to win his contest for a Queensland senate seat. In the regional NSW seat of Calare, ex-National MP Andrew Gee appears the only one able to buck the trend, coming second on primary votes and benefiting from a stronger flow of preferences than his National Party opponent.

    New crossbench faces?

    A series of close contests may yet result in extra independent members of parliament. Despite a bitter campaign, community independent Nicolette Boele appears likely to win in the north Sydney seat of Bradfield. In the Victorian seat of Flinders, independent Ben Smith has enjoyed a 5.4% swing toward him, and away from Liberal MP Zoe McKenzie, though preferences have not yet been published in that seat. In Fremantle, where the Australian Electoral Commission is yet to report any preference flows, independent candidate Kate Hulett may still be in with a shot to beat Labor’s Josh Wilson. The competitive result follows an impressive campaign from Hulett at the state election earlier this year.

    After five weeks of vicious debates about the public service and Canberra, voters in the ACT sent clear messages to both major parties. Voices for Bean candidate Jessie Price appears to have taken one of the three ACT electorates from Labor, and independent Senator David Pocock enjoyed an easy victory. Labor received less than a third of the primary vote in that Senate race, and barely one in seven ACT residents voted Liberal.

    Not burning down the house

    Despite that qualification, Labor’s victory is historic by several measures. It is one of only four occasions over the past 30 years where its primary vote actually grew at a federal election. It looks to have won a lower house majority comparable with that of the Howard government’s final term, and maybe even with the Coalition’s 2013 victory (when it won 90 seats, more than double the figure it is likely to have won this time). The two-party preferred vote shows Albanese securing the kind of victory that made John Curtin a Labor hero in 1943.

    So what role does that leave for independents in the 48th parliament?

    Returning crossbenchers will regard their impressive primary votes as confirmation their voters want them to keep doing politics differently. The Liberal and National parties, on the other hand, will be consumed for much of the parliamentary term with introspection and institutional reckoning. Given how unhelpful their studied unity over the past term ultimately proved, it may be there’s more infighting within the Coalition during the next parliament.

    Does it matter that the crossbenchers will not hold the balance of power in the lower house? Not necessarily. In the event of a serious policy misstep from the Albanese government during this term, the crossbenchers may prove to be the more influential voices of opposition in the lower house.

    Sometimes a solo voice speaks with powerful volume. In 2001 the rural independent for Calare, Peter Andren, proved to be a singularly powerful voice against the Howard government’s draconian offshore detention program for asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat. Andren defied the national trends (and the local opinion polls) and was returned with an increased primary vote, and again in 2004. When he died, some said his opposition to the Howard government showed “more guts and decency” than “all the other Coalition and ALP candidates combined”.

    Several of the current independents have earned themselves a national profile and are trusted advocates on issues such as public integrity and accountability, climate and energy policy and even foreign and security affairs. There will certainly be few MPs left on the opposition benches who can speak with compelling authority on some of these issues. In the face of an emboldened Labor government, their opposition to contentious legislation may sometimes have outsized influence.

    In pragmatic political terms, it is arguably in the Labor Party’s interests to negotiate, and to be seen to negotiate, with the crossbench. The independents in formerly safe Liberal seats are some of the biggest obstacles in any future Liberal pathway back into office.

    Newly-elected Labor MPs may also depend on preferences from community independent candidates next time they go to the polls. The Menzies government owed part of its longevity in the late 1950s and 1960s to its ability to win the preferences of the Democratic Labor Party, an anti-communist breakaway party from Labor.

    Independents are nothing like the DLP, and many run open tickets instead of strictly recommending preferences on their how to vote cards. But in some seats, including the leader of the opposition’s seat of Dickson, independent and Greens voters’ preferences will have proven crucial for Labor’s success.

    ‘Every day is minority government in the Senate’

    The other crucial reason independents still have a role to play is the Senate. Pocock recently remarked that “every day is minority government in the Senate”. Albanese’s victory, no matter how impressive, does not extend to a majority in the red chamber.

    The last time a party won a majority in the Senate was in 2004. Before that, it was 1977. No matter how large a lower-house majority, negotiation and compromise are simply unavoidable for laws to get passed in the federal parliament.

    The Greens will continue to exercise their crucial balance of power role in the Senate. So too will Pocock and, assuming she is re-elected as the sixth senator for Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie. During the 47th parliament, Pocock and Lambie often proved decisive in shaping, amending and sometimes postponing legislation they felt needed improvement.

    Both will bring a range of priorities to the 48th parliament. They may also collaborate more routinely with lower house crossbench colleagues to make those critical votes in the senate count for everything that they are worth. That would be a good thing. After all, both chambers really do matter in our parliamentary system.

    Joshua Black is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The Australia Institute.

    – ref. Independents will not help form government – but they will be vital in holding it to account – https://theconversation.com/independents-will-not-help-form-government-but-they-will-be-vital-in-holding-it-to-account-255517

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Media release: Australian oil and gas sector congratulates re-elected Albanese Government – Australian Energy Producers

    Source: Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association

    Headline: Media release: Australian oil and gas sector congratulates re-elected Albanese Government – Australian Energy Producers

    Australia’s oil and gas industry congratulates Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Federal Labor’s re-election and looks forward to continuing to work with the Government on necessary reforms for Australia’s long-term energy security and economic growth.

    Australian Energy Producers Chief Executive Samantha McCulloch said the decisive election result provided an opportunity for energy policy certainty and stability in the next term of Parliament.

    “Australia and our region’s economic growth and energy security needs reliable and affordable gas supply, which requires continued investment in new gas exploration and development,” Ms McCulloch said.

    “We look forward to working with the Albanese Government on advancing the shared goal of boosting Australian gas supply to ensure reliable and affordable energy for Australian homes and businesses, as outlined in the Future Gas Strategy and Australian Energy Producers’ election policy platform.”

    Ms McCulloch said the Government needed to prioritise implementing actions from the Future Gas Strategy and address the regulatory delays and uncertainty in the environmental approvals system.

    “Australia has abundant gas resources, yet we face gas shortfalls this decade due to regulatory uncertainty, approval delays and policy interventions that have delayed new gas supply and damaged Australia’s investment competitiveness. Addressing these risks must be a priority for the new Parliament.”

    Ms McCulloch also thanked Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and the Coalition for their support for the sector and urged the Government and Opposition to work constructively on enduring energy policy reforms that recognise the critical long-term role of gas in Australia’s energy mix.

    Australian Energy Producers’ election policy platform outlined key actions to unlock the economic, energy security and emissions reduction potential of Australia’s gas sector:

    • Boost Australian gas supply to ease cost of living pressures
    • Restore Australia’s global competitiveness for investment
    • Deliver real emissions reductions with gas and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS)
    • Remain a reliable energy partner in our region

    Ms McCulloch said the election also showed Australians do not support the Greens’ reckless policies, including a ban on new gas projects, which would put Australia’s energy security at risk and drive-up energy costs.

    “With cost-of-living top of mind for voters, the Greens cannot be allowed to continue to hold legislation to ransom in the Senate,” Ms McCulloch said.

    Media contact: 0434 631 511

    MIL OSI Economics –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: State of the states: 6 experts on how the election unfolded across the country

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Clune, Honorary Associate, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney

    While counting continues nationally, the federal election result is definitive: a pro-Labor landslide and an opposition leader voted out.

    But beyond the headline results, how did Australians in the key seats in each state vote, and how did it shape the outcome?

    Here, six experts break down what happened in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.

    New South Wales

    Swing to Labor: 3.4%

    David Clune, honorary associate, government and international relations, University of Sydney

    The election results showed, in NSW as with the rest of Australia, a stronger than predicted swing to the government, returning it with a solid majority.

    Not only did Labor hold all its NSW marginals, many with increased margins, but it appears to have gained from the Liberals the seats of Banks and Hughes in suburban Sydney. Labor’s Jerome Laxale has retained Bennelong which was notionally Liberal after the redistribution.

    The Liberals appear likely to lose Bradfield to Teal Nicolette Boele and former National Andrew Gee seems likely to retain Calare in the central west as an independent.

    The three sitting Teals were all easily re-elected and right wing independent Dai Le held Fowler.

    At the time of writing, Labor has won 28 seats in NSW to the Coalition’s 12, a gain of three, with four independents so far and the probability of two more.

    The ALP two-party preferred vote in NSW was 54.8%, a swing towards it of 3.4%.

    Labor’s primary vote was 35.0% to the Coalition’s 31.8%, a swing against the latter of 4.7%.

    Albanese staged a Houdini-like escape from what seemed to be, in 2024, a steady decline in his prospects. Although only an average campaigner in 2022, he ran an almost flawless campaign three years later. The prime minister had a consistent, resonant message about Labor’s record, appealing policies for the future, and projected an image of stability in government.

    Given the bite of the cost of living, particularly in Western Sydney, the government should have been vulnerable. Instead, Albanese transformed this into a strength by persuading voters he was best placed to deal with the crisis.

    Queensland

    Swing to Labor: 3.9%

    Paul Williams, associate professor of politics and journalism, Griffith University

    I long argued Queensland would be inconsequential as to who would win the keys to The Lodge at this election.

    I was partly right. If Labor, as projected, wins 93 of the 150 House of Representatives seats, the six Queensland Labor appears to have seized from the Liberal-National Party (LNP) are but a small fraction of the government’s national haul. Even with no Labor gains in Queensland, Albanese could still have governed with a comfortable majority.

    But I was also partly wrong. The fact there were primary swings of up to five percentage points away from the LNP across Queensland (even in very safe seats like Maranoa), and the fact Labor appears to have captured two seats (Brisbane and Griffith) from the Greens, suggests the state has behaved very differently from expectations and, for the first time in more than a decade, become one of real consequence.

    Labor now looks to hold 13 of the state’s 30 seats, the LNP 15, the Greens one, and Bob Katter returned in Kennedy for the KAP. Few would be surprised that Pauline Hanson’s One Nation (PHON) and Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots failed to win any House seats, although PHON’s Malcolm Roberts is likely to be returned to the Senate.

    Nor is it unexpected that Dickson, held by the LNP by a tiny 1.7% margin, should have been in play this election. But that fact Dickson was lost by an opposition leader – the first such occurrence at federal level – is astonishing.

    So, too, are the LNP losses in the outer-suburban “battler” seats of Forde and Petrie (held by the LNP since 2010 and 2013 respectively) that embraced former Liberal PM Scott Morrison, even when he was at his nadir.

    The additional reality of an LNP losing such contrasting seats as Leichhardt in far north Queensland and Bonner in middle Brisbane suburbia now points to a deep existential crisis for conservatives even in their Queensland heartland.

    In the Northern Territory, Labor’s Marion Scrymgour has retained the seat of Lingiari and strengthened her position, with a 6.6% swing in her favour.

    So, what happened? How did Queensland, like the rest of Australia, defy electoral gravity? Was it that angry Queenslanders, stinging from a cost-of-living crisis, had already vented their wrath on a state Labor government six months ago? Or did the state finally warm to an Albanese it now concluded was a more competent economic manager? Or did Queensland, like every other state, reject a hard-right Peter Dutton – offering little in meaningful policy amid a ramshackle campaign – as out of touch with a moderate, centrist Australia?

    After defeats at local and state elections in 2024, Labor is back in Queensland.

    South Australia

    Swing to Labor: 5.1%

    Rob Manwaring, associate professor of politics and public policy, Flinders University

    On first glance, South Australia did not seem to be at the centre of the Albanese government’s landslide win. Of the ten electoral seats in the state, only one changed hands – the seat of Sturt which Labor’s Claire Clutterham won from the Liberals’ James Stevens. Yet, this was a massive win for Labor, with a 57–43 two-party preferred vote.

    This is a seismic result and exemplifies all of the Coalition’s electoral problems. Sturt was a classic Liberal blue ribbon seat which the Liberals had held since 1972. The Teal candidate in Sturt, Dr Verity Cooper, might well be disappointed not to have scored a higher primary vote than her 7.2%.

    Elsewhere, Labor handsomely improved its position in the hitherto marginal seat of Boothby. A 8% swing to Louise Miller-Frost saw the Liberals’ Nicolle Flint easily routed.

    To confirm the Liberal misery in the state, the Centre Alliance’s Rebekha Sharkie consolidated her place in Mayo. The scale of Labor’s performance also brought into scrutiny the Liberal regional seat of Grey, where long-standing member Rowan Ramsay retired. The Liberals will retain it despite a swing against them.

    Overall, this is now a solidly Labor state, and the party holds a remarkable seven of the ten seats. Those with long memories, will know seats like Kingston and Adelaide, traditionally bellweather, are now solidly safe Labor seats.

    The Liberals’ loss of Sturt confirms the party now has only two seats in the state, and no representation at all in the major cities around the country. It might well be a long road back for the centre-right.

    Tasmania

    Swing to Labor: 8.1%

    Robert Hortle, deputy director of the Tasmanian Policy Exchange, University of Tasmania

    If the Liberal Party’s ranks were thinned out on the mainland, in Tasmania they have been clear-felled. The state elected four Labor candidates out of five, and notably, all women.

    In Braddon, Labor’s Anne Urquhart overturned the 8.3% margin enjoyed by retiring Liberal MP Gavin Pearce. It looks like the swing to Labor will be around 15%, with Urquhart’s pro-salmon farming and pro-jobs position resonating in the traditionally conservative electorate.

    A swing of around 10% to Labor in Bass was more than enough for first-time candidate Jess Teesdale to defeat Liberal MP Bridget Archer. Labor’s messaging that “a vote for Archer is a vote for Dutton” successfully neutralised Archer’s personal popularity in the electorate and reputation for standing up to her party.

    Lyons was Tasmania’s most marginal seat after the 2022 election. That’s no longer the case, with Rebeca White, former state Labor leader, securing a swing of around 10%. White’s popularity as a state MP transferred smoothly to the federal level – Labor’s primary vote in the seat looks to have jumped by more than 14%.

    So why was the swing to Labor in these Tasmanian seats so much greater than on the mainland? Astute candidate selection played a role – in particular, White and Urquhart were well-known in their communities.

    It is also possible the ongoing travails of the state Liberal government played a part. Northern Tasmanians are strongly opposed to the controversial AFL stadium in Hobart, and the ongoing Spirit of Tasmania ferry fiasco has involved prominent mismanagement of port upgrades in Devonport in the state’s north-west. State politics isn’t usually considered to have a big impact on federal elections, but these issues may have been high profile – and long running – enough to make a difference.

    The southern seat of Franklin was a focal point for a lot of drama during the campaign. In the end, Julie Collins, Tasmania’s only cabinet minister, received a bit of a scare. She slightly increased her primary vote, but the ABC currently projects her overall margin will be cut in half. Anti-salmon farming independent Peter George achieved the second highest primary vote, but wasn’t close enough to Collins for preferences to get him over the line.

    As expected, independent Andrew Wilkie won the Hobart seat of Clark for a sixth time, with a margin of just over 20%. He increased his primary vote, but it looks like Labor will shave a tiny amount off his margin.

    Victoria

    Swing to Labor: 1.8%

    Zareh Ghazarian, senior lecturer in politics, school of social sciences, Monash University

    The Liberal Party’s fortunes in Victoria went from bad in 2022 to much worse in 2025.

    The ALP’s primary vote increased by about 1% while the Liberal Party’s primary vote fell by about 2.5%. While the percentages are smaller than in other states, this performance had a significant affect on the representation of the parties in Victoria.

    The Liberal Party lost Deakin in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Held by Michael Sukkar since 2013, the seat has been marginal for several elections. The primary vote swing against the Liberal Party was 4.2%. In a two-party preferred outcome, Deakin now appears to be a relatively safe seat for Labor.

    The Liberal Party primary vote also went backwards in Kooyong which was held by independent Monique Ryan. High profile Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer could not reclaim the seat which had previously been held by then-Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

    Goldstein, the other inner metropolitan seat won by an independent at the last election, looks to be a closer contest with the Liberal Party’s Tim Wilson experiencing a rise in the primary vote but it may not be enough to defeat incumbent Zoe Daniel.

    Compounding the problems for the Liberal Party was that it could not make any inroads in other key seats across the eastern suburbs in Melbourne. This was where the party needed to win seats if it was to be competitive in forming government. In Aston, the seat the party lost at a byelection in 2023, the Liberal Party’s primary vote fell by 5%. The party’s primary vote also went back in Chisholm and McEwen.

    In short, this was a disastrous result for the Liberal Party in the state of Victoria.

    Western Australia

    Swing to Labor: 1.2%

    Narelle Miragliotta, associate professor in politics, Murdoch University

    WA didn’t disappoint for Labor. Although the two-party swing was more muted than in other parts of the country, it came off the back of a more much stronger electoral position entering this contest. On a two-party preferred basis, Labor gained 56.2% of the vote.

    Labor has retained the nine lower house seats it won in 2022, and it has also managed to make decent, even if not spectacular, gains in the party’s share of the primary vote in Tangney (+4.9%), Hasluck (+5.93), Swan (+3.5%), and Perth (+4.7%).

    One of the unexpected wins for Labor was the former Liberal held seat of Moore. Labor won the seat on the back of +0.9% increase in the party’s primary vote. Assisting Labor’s electoral fortunes was a former Liberal incumbent who ran as an independent, and whose vote accounts for much of the -10.4% swing against the Liberal candidate.

    But it wasn’t all good news for Labor, going backwards on primary votes in Fremantle (-4.48%) Brand (-5.96%) and Pearce (-0.01%).

    The Liberals’ performance affirms just how much trouble the party in the West. The Liberals recorded a swing of -5.66% in their primary vote, winning only 28.5% of the first preference vote.

    In addition to the loss of Moore, the party failed to win back the once-prized seat of Curtin, despite a heavy investment of resources into the contest. The Liberals also have a fight to retain the seat of Forrest, where is registered a -13.4% swing in its primary vote. The Liberals are, however, expected to win it.

    There were very few bright spots for the Liberals. The Liberals did achieve an increase in their two-party preferred vote in O’Connor (+6.3%) and Canning (+3.8%). And at last check, the Liberals are still in the hunt for the new seat of Bullwinkel.

    In the senate, the swing against the Liberals on primary votes was even more pronounced (-7.36%) although the party are on track to elect two senators. The Greens senate primary vote held up, enjoying a very slight increase (+0.74%) and comfortably returning a senator. Although recording a -0.04% swing, Labor has two senators confirmed and the possibility of the election of a third.

    Paul Williams is a research associate with the T.J. Ryan Foundation.

    David Clune, Narelle Miragliotta, Rob Manwaring, Robert Hortle, and Zareh Ghazarian do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. State of the states: 6 experts on how the election unfolded across the country – https://theconversation.com/state-of-the-states-6-experts-on-how-the-election-unfolded-across-the-country-255508

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Call for information – Pedestrian strike – Palmerston

    Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

    The Northern Territory Police Force is calling for information following a hit and run incident that occurred in Palmerston on Friday 25 April 2025.

    Approximately 7:00pm, a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle whilst crossing the outbound lane of Temple Terrace in Gray, just before the Emery Avenue roundabout.

    The vehicle involved is believed to be an older model silver four-door sedan, travelling southbound along Temple Terrace at the time of the incident. The driver failed to stop and render assistance and continued to drive outbound after striking the pedestrian.

    A passerby observed the injured male and provided assistance at the scene until police and St John Ambulance arrived. The pedestrian was then conveyed to Royal Darwin Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

    Police are urging anyone with information or who may have dash-cam footage or CCTV from the area around the time of the collision, to make contact on 131 444. Please quote reference number NTP2500043020.

    Anonymous reports can be made through Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via https://crimestoppersnt.com.au/.

    MIL OSI News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Call for information – Aggravated assault – Palmerston

    Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services

    The Northern Territory Police Force is calling for information in relation to an aggravated assault that occurred in Palmerston overnight.

    Around 10:05pm, the Joint Emergency Services Communication Centre received a report of an unconscious male at an address in Johnston. It is alleged the unknown offender seriously assaulted the victim before fleeing the scene. 

    Police and St John Ambulance attended, and the victim was conveyed to Royal Darwin Hospital with serious head injuries. He remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition.

    The alleged offender remains outstanding, and investigations are ongoing.

    Detectives urge anyone with information about the incident to contact police on 131 444, quoting reference number NTP2500045794. Anonymous reports can be made through Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via https://crimestoppersnt.com.au.

    MIL OSI News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: SOUTH ROAD, WINGFIELD (Grass and Stubble Fire)

    Source: South Australia County Fire Service

    Issued on
    04 May 2025 12:20

    Issued for
    WINGFIELD in WESTERN METROPOLITAN AREA.

    Warning level
    Advice – Threat is Reduced

    Action
    The threat of this fire has reduced however people are reminded to take care in the area. Smoke will reduce visibility in the area and there is a risk of falling trees and branches.

    For updates, check the MFS website at mfs.sa.gov.au or phone the Information Hotline on 1800 362 361.

    MIL OSI News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: ER Report: A Roundup of Significant Articles on EveningReport.nz for May 4, 2025

    ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on May 4, 2025.

    Too many journalists remain silent over the Gaza genocide, a threat to our media credibility
    Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – By David Robie on World Press Freedom Day 2025 I ask you now: Do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories – until Palestine is free. These are not my words, although I believe and

    Labor makes Senate gains, and left-wing parties will hold a Senate majority
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne On Saturday, Labor won a thumping victory in the House of Representatives, and this has carried over to the Senate results. Only 35% of enrolled voters have

    Rabuka salutes Fiji media but warns against taking freedom for granted
    By Anish Chand in Suva Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has paid tribute to all those working the media industry in his message to mark World Press Freedom Day. He said in his May 3 message thanks to democracy his coalition government had removed the “dark days of oppression and suppressions”. “Today as we join

    Albanese increases majority and Dutton loses seat in stunning election landslide
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government has been re-elected with a substantially increased majority, and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has lost his seat, in a crushing defeat of the Coalition. As of late Saturday night, there was a two-party swing to Labor of

    Labor wins election in landslide: full results
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Digital Storytelling Team, The Conversation The Conversation, CC BY-SA Digital Storytelling Team does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. – ref. Labor

    Labor wins surprise landslide, returned with a thumping majority
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne With 52% of enrolled voters counted, The Poll Bludger has Labor ahead in 92 of the 150 House of Representatives seats, the Coalition in 43, the Greens

    Labor routs the Coalition as voters reject Dutton’s undercooked offering
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In a dramatic parallel, what happened in Canada at the beginning of this week has now been replicated in Australia at the end of the week. An opposition that a few months ago had looked just possibly on track to

    Dutton and the Coalition did not do the work, and misread the Australian mood
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University The former federal director of the Liberal Party, Brian Loughnane, used to tell media companies that their practice of commissioning expensive opinion polls right through a parliamentary term was a waste of money. Election 2025 seemed to vindicate

    Labor wins with a superior campaign and weak opposition – now it’s time to make the second term really matter
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra Superior campaigning by the Labor machine, a lift in the personal performance of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and a woeful campaign by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have seen Labor

    Albanese’s government might not thrill, but it has shown unity and competence – and that’s no mean feat
    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University The Coalition’s election campaign of 2025 has a strong claim to be considered among the worst since federation. I know of none more shambolic. Barely a day passed without some new misstep

    Palestine protesters march on TVNZ, accuse broadcaster of bias on Gaza
    Asia Pacific Report About 1000 pro-Palestinian protesters marked World Press Freedom Day — May 3 — today by marching on the public broadcaster Television New Zealand in Auckland, accusing it of 18 months of “biased coverage” on the genocidal Israeli war against Gaza. They delivered a letter to the management board of TVNZ from Palestine

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: Too many journalists remain silent over the Gaza genocide, a threat to our media credibility

    Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. –

    By David Robie on World Press Freedom Day 2025

    I ask you now: Do not stop speaking about Gaza.

    Do not let the world look away.

    Keep fighting, keep telling our stories – until Palestine is free.

    These are not my words, although I believe and support them absolutely. They are the words of Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat in his final message left behind when he was killed by an Israeli air strike on March 24.

    His message is a poignant one today, especially today which is May 3 — World Press Freedom Day.

    It is a message that I have been carrying in my heart since even earlier, since the assassination of another Palestinian journalist, the famous Shireen Abu Akleh, who was murdered by Israeli sharpshooters six days after Media Freedom Day in 2022 while reporting in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.

    It was her blatant killing in plain view on live video with impunity that signalled how the rogue state Israel was flaunting all international laws and accountability with contempt. And it was a hint of how it would it conduct itself in this disaster.

    According to the United Nations Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OHCHR), since October 2023, Israeli occupation forces have killed 211 Palestinian journalists, including 28 women reporters reporting on Gaza. At least 47 journalists have been killed while on duty, and at least 49 media people are languishing in Israeli detention or hidden in prisons, mostly without charge.

    Why? To silence the journalists.

    To silence their storytelling, as Hossam Shabat indicated in his final message.

    And for more than 18 months Israel has refused access to Gaza by international journalists.

    Why? To kill the truth. To stop the world’s media from exposing the Israeli lies and their controlled narrative.

    But it hasn’t worked. The Zionists are losing control of the narrative — and they know it. As Amnesty International called it this week, the mass atrocity is a “livestreamed genocide” thanks due to the courage and dedication of the Gazan reporters and citizen journalists.

    A year ago — on this very day — the Gazan journalists were honoured with the UNESCO Guillermo Cano Prize in Santiago, Chile, in recognition of their “unique suffering and fearless reporting”.

    The protest march to Television New Zealand headquarters. Image: Asia Pacific Report

    Who would have thought this grotesque war, this obscene war would still be causing such terrible suffering more than year later?

    And we can’t even really call it a war at all because it is continuous massacres carried out by one of the most advanced and powerful military machines in the world, supplied and aided by the United States, on one side, with a relatively tiny resistance force armed with small arms on the other.

    Gaza is a “killing field – and civilians are in an endless death loop”, as the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, said the other day. Horrendous!

    And since the Cano award for the Gazan journalists, a further 111 media workers have been killed by Israel.

    Gazan journalist Hossam Shabat’s final message . . . he was killed by the Israeli military last month. Image: APR screenshot

    In the latest survey by Reporters Without Borders 2025 World Press Freedom Index released yesterday, global zones have been flagged where press freedom is “entirely absent and practising journalism is particularly dangerous”.

    “This is the case in Palestine, where the Israeli army has been annihilating journalism for more than 18 months, killing more than 200 media professionals — including at least 43 murdered while working — and imposing a blackout on the besieged strip.”

    Just a couple of weeks ago, a group of French and international journalists staged a “die-in” in Paris. They lay down on the steps of the Opera-Bastille as a street theatre representation of the unprecedented scale of the killing of journalists.

    It was organised by Reporters Without Borders, and secretary-general Thibaut Bruttin said:

    “The difficulty of making the cause of Palestinian journalists heard is proof that the insidious poison of the Israel armed forces has sometimes even penetrated our own narrative.

    “I have never seen a war in which, when a journalist is killed, you are told that they were really a terrorist.”

    Bruttin also reflected: “I think it must be said that solidarity is a form of strength. It is a source of strength, I hope, for Palestinian journalists to whom we send these images and to whom we express our solidarity through words and action.

    “And I also think that is an appeal to the media profession, and it’s true that this demonstration is happening late, perhaps too late. It must be recognised.

    “In the 10 years that I have been working at Reporters Without Borders, this is the first time that I have been asked if the journalist was really a journalist when they were killed. This had never happened. Never.

    “And I think we must salute all those who have been marching and all those professionals who have come and who say: ‘Yes, we must continue to report what is happening but we must also protest and do more. Journalists are being targeted. And they are also being defamed after their deaths.’”

    In January 2024, I wrote an article for Declassified Australia headlined: “Silencing the messenger: Israel kills journalists, while the West merely censors them.”

    I declared then that reporting Israel’s war on Gaza had become the greatest credibility challenge for journalists and media of our times.

    Dr David Robie and Del Abcede speaking at Auckland’s “Palestine Corner” rally on World Press Freedom Day. Image: Bruce King

    “Covering the conflict has opened divisions among media groups about fairness and balance that have become the most bitter since the climate change and covid pandemic debates when media ‘deniers’ and ‘bothsideism’ threatened to undermine the science.”

    It shocks me that so many journalists have remained silent. They should also be on the streets like us and reporting the truth. To me, the deafening silence is a betrayal of the 50 years of truth to power journalism that I have grown up with.

    Silence is complicity.

    Finally, I would like to quote from PSNA’s co-chair John Minto in the letter that we are taking today to Television New Zealand appealing for an independent review of 1News reporting on Palestine/Israel.

    Minto says: “Over the past 18 months of industrial scale killing of Palestinians by the Israeli military in Gaza we have been regularly appalled at the blatantly-biased reporting on the Middle East by Television New Zealand.

    “TVNZ’s reporting has been relentlessly and virulently pro-Israel . . .

    “The damage to human rights, justice and freedom in the Middle East by Western media such as TVNZ is incalculable.”

    I endorse and support these comments and call a halt to Israel deliberately targeting of Palestinian journalists. Let the truth be told, as Hossam told us, over and over again and prevent this blatant Western attempt to “normalise” genocide.

    Dr David Robie is editor of Asia Pacific Report and convenor of Pacific Media Watch. He gave this address at the World Press Freedom Day rally in “Palestine Corner” in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s Te Komititanga Square on 3 May 2025.

    The Television New Zealand protest on World Press Freedom Day – “Remembering the journalists killed by Israel”. Image: APR

    This article was first published on Café Pacific.

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: LAWRENCE ROAD, KAPINNIE (Grass Fire)

    Source: South Australia County Fire Service

    Issued on
    04 May 2025 12:00

    Issued for
    KAPINNIE 5km North of Kapinnie in the Lower Eyre Peninsula of South Australia.

    Warning level
    Advice – Monitor Conditions

    Action
    Monitor local conditions and stay informed if you are in this area. Decide what you will do if the situation changes.

    At this time there is no threat to life or property and firefighters are attending this fire.

    More information will be provided by the CFS when it is available.

    MIL OSI News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: SOUTH ROAD, WINGFIELD (Grass Fire)

    Source: South Australia County Fire Service

    Issued on
    04 May 2025 11:24

    Issued for
    WINGFIELD in WESTERN METROPOLITAN AREA.

    Warning level
    Advice – Avoid Smoke

    Action
    Smoke from WINGFIELD is visible from the North South Motorway and moving towards Cormack Road.

    Smoke can affect your health. You should stay informed and be aware of the health impacts of smoke on yourself and others.

    Symptoms of exposure includes shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing, burning eyes, running nose, chest tightness, chest pain and dizziness or light-headedness.

    If you or anyone in your care are having difficulty breathing, seek medical attention from your local GP. If your symptoms become severe, call 000.

    More information will be provided by the MFS when it is available.

    MIL OSI News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-Evening Report: Labor makes Senate gains, and left-wing parties will hold a Senate majority

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne

    On Saturday, Labor won a thumping victory in the House of Representatives, and this has carried over to the Senate results.

    Only 35% of enrolled voters have been counted in the Senate so far, compared with 71% in the House. It’s likely that the current Senate count is biased to Labor, so Labor is likely to drop back in some states as more votes are counted.

    There are 76 senators, who have six-year terms, with about half up for election at every House election. Each state has 12 senators, with six up for election, and the territories have two senators each, who are all up for election.

    Senators are elected by proportional representation with preferences. A quota in a state is one-seventh of the vote, or 14.3%. In the territories, it’s one-third or 33.3%. I had a Senate preview on April 16.

    Comments on each state are below. I disagree with the ABC’s view that Labor is “likely” to win a third New South Wales seat. Putting this seat into the doubtful column reduces Labor to an overall 27 senators with the Greens on 11, so the two main left-wing parties would hold a minimum 38 of the 76 seats in the new Senate.

    This would represent a two-seat gain for Labor (one in Queensland, one in South Australia). Labor has reasonable chances to gain further Senate seats.

    If Labor and the Greens combined hold the minimum 38 seats after the election, Labor will only need one more vote to pass legislation supported by the Greens but opposed by right-wing parties. Independent David Pocock, former Green Lidia Thorpe and former Labor senator Fatima Payman will be good options.

    In NSW, Labor has 2.6 quotas, the Coalition 1.9, the Greens 0.9 and One Nation 0.4. Labor would win three seats on current primaries, but the Senate swing to them is much greater than in the House, so they will drop back.

    In Victoria, Labor has 2.4 quotas, the Coalition 1.9, the Greens 1.0, One Nation 0.3 and Legalise Cannabis 0.3. Labor is likely to drop back, with the final seat likely a three-way contest between Labor, One Nation and Legalise Cannabis.

    In Queensland, Labor has 2.1 quotas, the Liberal National Party 1.8, the Greens 0.9, One Nation 0.5 and former LNP senator Gerard Rennick 0.35. One Nation is the favourite to win the sixth seat.

    In Western Australia, Labor has 2.4 quotas, the Liberals 1.7, the Greens 1.1, One Nation 0.4, Legalise Cannabis 0.3 and the Nationals 0.3. Labor would be the favourite to win the sixth seat on current counting, as the Liberals would absorb right-wing preferences that would otherwise help One Nation.

    In SA, Labor has 2.6 quotas, the Liberals 1.8, the Greens 1.0 and One Nation 0.4. Labor won the House vote in SA by 58.4–41.6, so the Senate result looks plausible. Labor and the Greens are likely to win four of SA’s six Senate seats.

    In Tasmania, Labor has 2.4 quotas, the Liberals 1.5, the Greens 1.2, Jacqui Lambie 0.5, One Nation 0.4 and Legalise Cannabis 0.3. It’s difficult to determine which parties are the favourites to win the last two seats.

    In the ACT (two senators), Pocock has been easily re-elected with 1.3 quotas, and Labor will win the second seat. In the Northern Territory, Labor and the Country Liberals will win one seat each.

    Doubtful House seats, and the Greens’ and teals’ performance

    There are many seats where the electoral commission selected the incorrect final two candidates on election night and now needs to redo this count. Labor could lose Bean, Fremantle or Calwell to independents. Labor could also lose Bullwinkel or Bendigo to the Coalition.

    The Greens have lost Brisbane and Griffith to Labor. They lost Brisbane after falling to third behind Labor and the LNP and Griffith because the LNP fell to third and their preferences will help Labor. Labor is narrowly ahead against the Greens in Wills.

    In Greens leader Adam Bandt’s Melbourne, there was a substantial primary vote swing to Labor and against Bandt, and the electoral commission needs to redo the preference count between Bandt and Labor.

    Teal independents in Kooyong, Goldstein and Curtin are likely to retain their seats, but they didn’t gain substantial swings that usually occur when an independent elected at the last election recontests. It’s possible they’ve become too associated with the left in their seats. Fortunately for them, the left won a thumping victory at this election.

    Adrian Beaumont does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Labor makes Senate gains, and left-wing parties will hold a Senate majority – https://theconversation.com/labor-makes-senate-gains-and-left-wing-parties-will-hold-a-senate-majority-255848

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Security: Five arrested as part of Counter Terrorism Policing operation

    Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

    Counter Terrorism Police have arrested five people on suspicion of terrorism offences as part of a proactive investigation, which is being led by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.

    The men, who were arrested on Saturday, 3 May, as part of a pre-planned operation are as follows:

    [A] a 29-year-old man was arrested in the Swindon area
    [B] a 46-year-old man was arrested in west London
    [C] a 29-year-old man was arrested in the Stockport area
    [D] a 40-year-old man was arrested in the Rochdale area
    [E] a man (age to be confirmed) was arrested in the Manchester area

    All five men were arrested on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act, contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act (TACT), 2006. Four men [A-D] are Iranian nationals and were detained under TACT. The nationality of the fifth man [E] is still being established and he was detained under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE). All five men currently remain in police custody.

    As part of the investigation, officers are also carrying out searches at a number of addresses in the Greater Manchester, London and Swindon areas in connection with this investigation.

    The investigation relates to a suspected plot to target a specific premises. Officers have been in contact with the affected site to make them aware and provide relevant advice and support, but for operational reasons, we are not able to provide further information at this time.

    Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “This is a fast-moving investigation and we are working closely with those at the affected site to keep them updated.

    “The investigation is still in its early stages and we are exploring various lines of enquiry to establish any potential motivation as well as to identify whether there may be any further risk to the public linked to this matter.

    “We understand the public may be concerned and as always, I would ask them to remain vigilant and if they see or hear anything that concerns them, then to contact us.

    “We are working closely with local officers in the areas where we have made arrests today and I’d like to thank police colleagues around the country for their ongoing support.”

    The arrests and search activity is being supported by officers from Greater Manchester Police and Wiltshire Police, as well as colleagues from Counter Terrorism Policing from across the country.

    As always, we would ask the public to remain vigilant and if they see or hear anything that doesn’t look or feel right, then to report it to police – either by calling police, in confidence, on 0800 789 321 or via www.gov.uk/ACT

    In an emergency, always dial 999.

    MIL Security OSI –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: PRESIDENT OF INDIA GRACES THE LAUNCH OF THE MEDIATION ASSOCIATION OF INDIA AND ADDRESSES THE FIRST NATIONAL MEDIATION CONFERENCE

    Source: Government of India

    PRESIDENT OF INDIA GRACES THE LAUNCH OF THE MEDIATION ASSOCIATION OF INDIA AND ADDRESSES THE FIRST NATIONAL MEDIATION CONFERENCE

    THE DISPUTE RESOLUTION MECHANISM UNDER THE MEDIATION ACT SHOULD BE EFFECTIVELY EXTENDED TO RURAL AREAS SO THAT THE PANCHAYATS ARE LEGALLY EMPOWERED TO MEDIATE AND RESOLVE THE CONFLICTS IN VILLAGES: PRESIDENT DROUPADI MURMU

    Posted On: 03 MAY 2025 6:31PM by PIB Delhi

    The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu graced the launch of the Mediation Association of India and addressed the First National Mediation Conference 2025 in New Delhi today (May 3, 2025). 

    Speaking on the occasion, the President said that the Mediation Act, 2023 was the first step in consolidating the civilisational legacy. Now we need to add momentum to it and strengthen its practice. She emphasised that the dispute resolution mechanism under the Mediation Act should be effectively extended to rural areas so that the Panchayats are legally empowered to mediate and resolve the conflicts in villages. Social harmony in villages is an essential prerequisite of making the nation strong, she said. 

    The President said that mediation is an essential part of the delivery of justice, which is at the heart of the Constitution of India – our founding text. Mediation can speed up the delivery of justice not only in the specific case under consideration, but also in other cases, by reducing the burden on courts of a large number of litigations. It can make the overall judicial system much more efficient. It can thus open up the developmental pathways that might have been blocked up. It can enhance both the ease of doing business and the ease of living. Mediation, when we see it this way, becomes a key instrument to realise the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047. 

    The President said that India has a long and rich tradition of judicial mechanisms in which out-of-court settlements were more of a norm than exception. The institution of Panchayat is legendary for fostering amicable resolutions. The Panchayat’s endeavour was not only to resolve the dispute but also to remove any bitterness among the parties about it. It was a pillar of social harmony for us. Unfortunately, the colonial rulers ignored this exemplary legacy when they imposed an alien legal system on us. While the new system did have a provision for mediation and out-of-court resolution, and the old tradition of alternative mechanisms did continue, there was no institutional framework for it. The Mediation Act, 2023 plugs that loophole and has a number of provisions that will form the foundation of a vibrant and effective mediation ecosystem in India. 

    The President said that the First National Mediation Conference is not a mere ceremonial event; it is a call to action. It calls upon us to collectively shape the future of mediation in India — by nurturing trust, building professional capabilities, and making mediation accessible to every citizen, across all sections of society. The establishment of the Mediation Association of India is a significant step forward in carrying this legacy into the future. It institutionalizes and promotes mediation as a preferred, structured, and widely accessible mode of dispute resolution — an approach that is timely and much needed in today’s dynamic and complex world. 

    The President said that we should see effective dispute and conflict resolution as not merely a legal necessity but a societal imperative. Mediation fosters dialogue, understanding and collaboration. These values are essential for building a harmonious and progressive nation. It will lead to the emergence of a conflict-resilient, inclusive and harmonious society. 

    Click here to see the President’s address.

    ***

    MJPS/SR/SKS

    (Release ID: 2126534) Visitor Counter : 14

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: PM congratulates Mr. Anthony Albanese on being elected as Prime Minister of Australia

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 03 MAY 2025 6:26PM by PIB Delhi

    Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today extended his congratulations to Mr. Anthony Albanese on his election as the Prime Minister of Australia.

    In a post on X, he wrote:

    “Congratulations @AlboMP on your resounding victory and re-election as Prime Minister of Australia! This emphatic mandate indicates the enduring faith of the Australian people in your leadership. I look forward to working together to further deepen the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and advance our shared vision for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”

    Congratulations @AlboMP on your resounding victory and re-election as Prime Minister of Australia! This emphatic mandate indicates the enduring faith of the Australian people in your leadership. I look forward to working together to further deepen the India-Australia…

    — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 3, 2025

    ***

    MJPS/SR/SKS

    (Release ID: 2126526) Visitor Counter : 85

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Asia-Pac: Breakout Session at Waves 2025 Highlights Madhya Pradesh as India’s Emerging Creative Hub

    Source: Government of India

    Posted On: 03 MAY 2025 3:10PM by PIB Mumbai

    Mumbai, 3 May 2025

     

    A high-profile breakout session titled “Digital Dreams & Cinematic Visions: Madhya Pradesh as the Next Creative Hub” was held today at Waves 2025. The session was moderated by Naman Ramachandran, International Correspondent of Variety.

    Renowned producer and director Ekta Kapoor officially launched the Film Tourism Policy 2025 of the Madhya Pradesh government. The session also witnessed the launch of the AVGC XR Policy 2025 and the Second Phase of the Madhya Pradesh Film Cell Portal.

    Speaking on the occasion, Ekta Kapoor emphasized that while choosing a film destination, factors like rebate, ease of obtaining permissions, visual scenery, and ease of shooting are paramount.

    Shri Sheo Shekhar Shukla, IAS, Principal Secretary, Tourism Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh, highlighted that MP is the heart of Incredible India and is fast becoming the heart of filmmakers as well. He noted the state’s shooting-friendly environment, rich history and heritage, and ready talent pool. The state has one of the best benchmark financial incentive policies and a simplified single portal system for permissions, ensuring ease of shooting. He mentioned that the 2.0 policy marks an improvement with increased incentives and special provisions for repeat shooting. Extra incentives will be extended to films using local languages and local talent as well as films made in other Indian languages that shoot in MP. He added that Madhya Pradesh is aiming to give Mumbai a run for its money by branding the state through facilitating filmmaking.

    Shri Sanjay Dubey, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of IT and DST, Government of Madhya Pradesh, said the new AVGC policy will support pre and post-production and also promote related sectors like animation, gaming, and VFX. He emphasized the government’s proactive and risk-taking approach in supporting filmmakers.

    Shobha Sant, CEO of Creativeland Studios and a seasoned producer, shared her experiences from the film Stree 2, shot in MP using local talent and technicians. She cited international productions like Lion and A Suitable Boy, also shot in the state. An upcoming Australian co-production has also chosen MP as its location. Remarking that no complaints have ever been reported by film teams located in Madhya Pradesh added that “People who come once to Madhya Pradesh, want to keep coming back”.

    Other dignitaries in the panel, Jyotirmoy Saha, CEO of August Media Group, stated that the new policies will catalyze the formation of creative hubs across the state while Ashish Kulkarni, Chairman, FICCI AVGC sector, spoke on the other attractions of Madhya Pradesh, including its cuisine, the Tribal Museum, and the Global Skills Park.

     

    For official updates on realtime, please follow us: 

    On X : 

    https://x.com/WAVESummitIndia

    https://x.com/MIB_India

    https://x.com/PIB_India

    https://x.com/PIBmumbai

    On Instagram: 

    https://www.instagram.com/wavesummitindia

    https://www.instagram.com/mib_india

    https://www.instagram.com/pibindia

     

    * * *

    PIB TEAM WAVES 2025 | Rajith/ Athira/ Darshana | 161

    (Release ID: 2126457) Visitor Counter : 17

    MIL OSI Asia Pacific News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Serious crash at Goodwood Road, Adelaide

    Source: New South Wales – News

    Emergency services are at the scene of a serious crash at the intersection of Goodwood Road and Greenhill Road, Adelaide.

    The collision occurred just before 8am on Sunday 4 May.

    Police are closing the intersection while emergency services work at the scene.

    Goodwood Road is closed to all traffic from South Terrace.

    Motorists are advised to avoid the area.

    MIL OSI News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: SPC Severe Thunderstorm Watch 221

    Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

    Note:  The expiration time in the watch graphic is amended if the watch is replaced, cancelled or extended.Note: Click for Watch Status Reports.
    SEL1

    URGENT – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
    Severe Thunderstorm Watch Number 221
    NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
    535 PM CDT Sat May 3 2025

    The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a

    * Severe Thunderstorm Watch for portions of
    East central Alabama
    West central into north Georgia

    * Effective this Saturday afternoon and evening from 535 PM until
    1000 PM CDT.

    * Primary threats include…
    Scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph possible
    Scattered large hail events to 1.5 inches in diameter possible
    A tornado or two possible

    SUMMARY…A line of storms with a history of some wind damage will
    continue eastward across north Georgia this evening. Farther south,
    the environment does support supercells capable of producing
    isolated large hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter and damaging gusts
    of 60-70 mph. An isolated tornado or two may occur with the
    supercells and/or embedded circulations in the line.

    The severe thunderstorm watch area is approximately along and 50
    statute miles east and west of a line from 75 miles north northeast
    of Atlanta GA to 20 miles south of Montgomery AL. For a complete
    depiction of the watch see the associated watch outline update
    (WOUS64 KWNS WOU1).

    PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

    REMEMBER…A Severe Thunderstorm Watch means conditions are
    favorable for severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch area.
    Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for threatening
    weather conditions and listen for later statements and possible
    warnings. Severe thunderstorms can and occasionally do produce
    tornadoes.

    &&

    OTHER WATCH INFORMATION…CONTINUE…WW 219…WW 220…

    AVIATION…A few severe thunderstorms with hail surface and aloft to
    1.5 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind gusts to 60 knots. A
    few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 450. Mean storm motion vector
    27030.

    …Thompson

    SEL1

    URGENT – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
    Severe Thunderstorm Watch Number 221
    NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
    535 PM CDT Sat May 3 2025

    The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a

    * Severe Thunderstorm Watch for portions of
    East central Alabama
    West central into north Georgia

    * Effective this Saturday afternoon and evening from 535 PM until
    1000 PM CDT.

    * Primary threats include…
    Scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph possible
    Scattered large hail events to 1.5 inches in diameter possible
    A tornado or two possible

    SUMMARY…A line of storms with a history of some wind damage will
    continue eastward across north Georgia this evening. Farther south,
    the environment does support supercells capable of producing
    isolated large hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter and damaging gusts
    of 60-70 mph. An isolated tornado or two may occur with the
    supercells and/or embedded circulations in the line.

    The severe thunderstorm watch area is approximately along and 50
    statute miles east and west of a line from 75 miles north northeast
    of Atlanta GA to 20 miles south of Montgomery AL. For a complete
    depiction of the watch see the associated watch outline update
    (WOUS64 KWNS WOU1).

    PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

    REMEMBER…A Severe Thunderstorm Watch means conditions are
    favorable for severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch area.
    Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for threatening
    weather conditions and listen for later statements and possible
    warnings. Severe thunderstorms can and occasionally do produce
    tornadoes.

    &&

    OTHER WATCH INFORMATION…CONTINUE…WW 219…WW 220…

    AVIATION…A few severe thunderstorms with hail surface and aloft to
    1.5 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind gusts to 60 knots. A
    few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 450. Mean storm motion vector
    27030.

    …Thompson

    Note: The Aviation Watch (SAW) product is an approximation to the watch area. The actual watch is depicted by the shaded areas.
    SAW1
    WW 221 SEVERE TSTM AL GA 032235Z – 040300Z
    AXIS..50 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF LINE..
    75NNE ATL/ATLANTA GA/ – 20S MGM/MONTGOMERY AL/
    ..AVIATION COORDS.. 45NM E/W /31W ODF – 14SSW MGM/
    HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT..1.5 INCHES. WIND GUSTS..60 KNOTS.
    MAX TOPS TO 450. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 27030.

    LAT…LON 34638305 32008555 32008725 34638480

    THIS IS AN APPROXIMATION TO THE WATCH AREA. FOR A
    COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE WOUS64 KWNS
    FOR WOU1.

    Watch 221 Status Report Message has not been issued yet.

    Note:  Click for Complete Product Text.Tornadoes

    Probability of 2 or more tornadoes

    Low (20%)

    Probability of 1 or more strong (EF2-EF5) tornadoes

    Low (5%)

    Wind

    Probability of 10 or more severe wind events

    Mod (40%)

    Probability of 1 or more wind events > 65 knots

    Low (20%)

    Hail

    Probability of 10 or more severe hail events

    Mod (40%)

    Probability of 1 or more hailstones > 2 inches

    Low (20%)

    Combined Severe Hail/Wind

    Probability of 6 or more combined severe hail/wind events

    High (70%)

    For each watch, probabilities for particular events inside the watch (listed above in each table) are determined by the issuing forecaster. The “Low” category contains probability values ranging from less than 2% to 20% (EF2-EF5 tornadoes), less than 5% to 20% (all other probabilities), “Moderate” from 30% to 60%, and “High” from 70% to greater than 95%. High values are bolded and lighter in color to provide awareness of an increased threat for a particular event.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 4, 2025

  • MIL-OSI USA: SPC Severe Thunderstorm Watch 220

    Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

    Note:  The expiration time in the watch graphic is amended if the watch is replaced, cancelled or extended.Note: Click for Watch Status Reports.
    SEL0

    URGENT – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
    Severe Thunderstorm Watch Number 220
    NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
    550 PM EDT Sat May 3 2025

    The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a

    * Severe Thunderstorm Watch for portions of
    Northern Delaware
    Far northeastern Maryland
    New Jersey
    East central Pennsylvania
    Coastal Waters

    * Effective this Saturday afternoon and evening from 550 PM until
    1100 PM EDT.

    * Primary threats include…
    Scattered damaging wind gusts to 70 mph possible
    Scattered large hail events to 1.5 inches in diameter possible

    SUMMARY…Scattered supercells will be possible through the evening
    with large hail of 1-1.5 inches in diameter and isolated wind
    damage. Some clustering of storms now in northern Maryland could
    spread into the watch area later this evening.

    The severe thunderstorm watch area is approximately along and 45
    statute miles east and west of a line from 10 miles south of
    Wilmington DE to 25 miles west northwest of Newark NJ. For a
    complete depiction of the watch see the associated watch outline
    update (WOUS64 KWNS WOU0).

    PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

    REMEMBER…A Severe Thunderstorm Watch means conditions are
    favorable for severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch area.
    Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for threatening
    weather conditions and listen for later statements and possible
    warnings. Severe thunderstorms can and occasionally do produce
    tornadoes.

    &&

    OTHER WATCH INFORMATION…CONTINUE…WW 218…WW 219…

    AVIATION…A few severe thunderstorms with hail surface and aloft to
    1.5 inches. Extreme turbulence and surface wind gusts to 60 knots. A
    few cumulonimbi with maximum tops to 450. Mean storm motion vector
    25025.

    …Thompson

    Note: The Aviation Watch (SAW) product is an approximation to the watch area. The actual watch is depicted by the shaded areas.
    SAW0
    WW 220 SEVERE TSTM DE MD NJ PA CW 032150Z – 040300Z
    AXIS..45 STATUTE MILES EAST AND WEST OF LINE..
    10S ILG/WILMINGTON DE/ – 25WNW EWR/NEWARK NJ/
    ..AVIATION COORDS.. 40NM E/W /45NW SIE – 14SSW SAX/
    HAIL SURFACE AND ALOFT..1.5 INCHES. WIND GUSTS..60 KNOTS.
    MAX TOPS TO 450. MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 25025.

    LAT…LON 39537643 40837547 40837375 39537475

    THIS IS AN APPROXIMATION TO THE WATCH AREA. FOR A
    COMPLETE DEPICTION OF THE WATCH SEE WOUS64 KWNS
    FOR WOU0.

    Watch 220 Status Report Message has not been issued yet.

    Note:  Click for Complete Product Text.Tornadoes

    Probability of 2 or more tornadoes

    Low (10%)

    Probability of 1 or more strong (EF2-EF5) tornadoes

    Low ( 65 knots

    Low (20%)

    Hail

    Probability of 10 or more severe hail events

    Mod (40%)

    Probability of 1 or more hailstones > 2 inches

    Low (20%)

    Combined Severe Hail/Wind

    Probability of 6 or more combined severe hail/wind events

    High (70%)

    For each watch, probabilities for particular events inside the watch (listed above in each table) are determined by the issuing forecaster. The “Low” category contains probability values ranging from less than 2% to 20% (EF2-EF5 tornadoes), less than 5% to 20% (all other probabilities), “Moderate” from 30% to 60%, and “High” from 70% to greater than 95%. High values are bolded and lighter in color to provide awareness of an increased threat for a particular event.

    MIL OSI USA News –

    May 4, 2025
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