China is one of Australia’s ‘major challenges’, Chalmers says, but that’s not news

China’s economy is critical for Australia’s future, as we know, since it dominates our exports, accounting for about a third. Our next most important markets, such as Japan and South Korea, also have their economic wagons hitched to their giant neighbour.

Yesterday we had China’s GDP figures for 2022, with growth coming in at its second-slowest since the mid-1970s (when the nation started opening up):

Related: China’s economy slows sharply with GDP growth among worst on record

China’s stats carry various qualifiers, as we noted, not least the suspiciously speedy compilation of figures so soon after the year has ended.

But still, they did surprise generally on the upside, particularly for how little retail sales slumped (1.8% v 9% forecast) in December. That was when the tight Covid-zero tolerance policies suddenly became Covid-max, throwing workplaces and families into mayhem.

Cue the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, who opted not to accentuate the positives, warning instead: “We see China’s slowing growth as one of the major economic challenges facing Australia at the start of 2023”.

“The global economy is a volatile place right now and developments in China are a big part of that,” Chalmers said.

It seems likely that China is unable to play the role it did in 2008. Then, faced with the global financial crisis, it switched on a massive investment binge that helped the world avoid a much deeper slump (and kept Australia out of recession).

But that’s not exactly news, having been flagged widely in the past year. Here’s one stab, from August:

Related: China’s economy is losing momentum. What is happening and why does it matter for Australia?

The other big story from yesterday – China’s population shrinking for the first time in 60 years – is also not so newsy. The decline was widely seen coming.

The scary projection, though, is the People’s Republic is on track to have half the people by 2100, slumping from 1.4bn now to 587m. (Some think even that 1.4bn figure is exaggerated.)

What then to make of this data deluge?

Well, GDP is just a number and doesn’t necessarily imply “quality” growth, as China-based economists like Michael Pettis has been highlighting for years.

And also, beware of averages that mask underlying trends. Adam Tooze, a prominent economic historian, has lately drawn attention to an interesting study by McKinsey that looked into the role of microregions in driving economic growth.

“Bao’an, a district of Shenzhen, for instance, had comparable GDP per capita to Queens, New York, in 2019,” the report said. “Inhabitants of Karaikal in the Union Territory of Puducherry in India, lived on average with a GDP per capita equivalent to that in Pasco, Florida. Several districts in Beijing had GDP per capita similar to Baldwin, Alabama.”

In other words, economies are complex – and that’s even before issues of inequality arise from having pockets of plenty when many others miss out.

Flood cleanup efforts set to begin in north Queensland

Hopeful news on the flooding front: residents in Mackay, north Queensland, are ready to start a big cleanup after days of heavy rain and flooding, AAP reports.

Mackay regional council mayor, Greg Williamson, said things were looking a lot brighter this morning and the weather was clearing.

“The system looks like it’s going to clear away from the coast today, then the big cleanup starts,” he told Nine’s Today program.

The highway to the north of us is in pretty bad condition, but, look … we’ve got our crews out ready to go out.

We’ve had a lot of water around, and now we’ll just get back to life as normal, hopefully.

Williamson also said he expected the highway would reopen around midday.

About 50 roads in the area are still flooded, and the SES responded to more than 70 calls for help, mostly for leaking roofs.

Canberra is today marking the 20-year anniversary of its deadly 2003 bushfire disaster, which destroyed at least 470 homes, killed four people, and injured 490 others.

The bushfires were the most destructive in the ACT’s history.

Fires that had been burning in the mountains in the territory’s south-west for more than a week spread into suburban Canberra largely without warning to residents, causing mass destruction and loss of life.

The ACT government is holding a 20th anniversary commemorative event at Stromlo Forest Park, in the city’s west, later this evening.

The disaster exposed a series of failings in the ACT’s preparation and response. Earlier this month, an independent body set up to monitor the territory’s bushfire management and preparedness said the ACT remained underprepared for a similar disaster, because it had not properly accounted for the added risk of global heating and the city’s greatly expanded urban fringe.

The United Firefighters Union, which represents urban firefighters, issued a statement earlier this morning, saying that systemic failures involved in the 2003 fires remain unaddressed. The union criticised a lack of funding, inadequate firefighting resources, and a poor culture within the ACT’s emergency services agency.

Federal public servants no longer required to take 26 January off

Federal public servants are now allowed to work on 26 January – the day viewed by many as Invasion Day – if they don’t want to mark Australia Day.

The decision by Katy Gallagher, minister for finance, is a reversal of the former Coalition government’s directive, which forced public service staff to take off the date as a public holiday.

Now they can now substitute a day off for Australia Day and other public holidays.

Defence minister says ADF training given to Ukraine forces ‘will save lives’

More from Richard Marles, the deputy prime minister and defence minister, on ADF personnel heading to the UK to train Ukrainian troops.

Marles tells ABC News this morning the training revolves around “basic infantry tactics” to “give these Ukrainian soldiers the skills they need to equip them on the battlefield”.

“The Ukrainian army right now is really a reservist army, it is citizen soldiers, people who are giving up their day jobs to help fight for their country and the heart is very much there,” he says.

“The training that will be provided by the Australian troops … it will save lives, and it will keep Ukraine in the fight which is really important.”

Good drivers in NSW to get one-off reprieve on minor traffic fines under Coalition election pledge

News for drivers in NSW – if you have a three-year clean driving record, you could dodge fines for minor driving offences in a newly announced election policy from the NSW government, AAP reports.

Good drivers will be given a one-off chance to escape a fine for offences including low-range speeding, disobeying no left or right-hand turn signs or driving in a bus lane, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Those drivers will save $124 on fines where the speed limit was exceeded by less than 10km/h, $275 for ignoring a no left or right-hand turn sign, and up to $2200 for driving in a bus lane under the government’s plan.

The promise from the government comes one day after NSW Labor revealed its own election promise to reward NSW motorists, offering to remove a demerit point after 12 months of good driving.

Barty is back … in a way

Ash Barty has returned to Melbourne Park to launch First Nations Day at the Australian Open this morning.

A year after breaking the country’s 44-year Australian Open singles title drought, Barty is back – hitting with the First Nations ballkid squad, AAP reports.

The retired champion is pregnant and awaiting the birth of her first child this year with golfer-husband Garry Kissick.

Anthony Albanese was asked last night on Sky News and again on 2GB Radio this morning whether Labor would legislate the Indigenous voice if the referendum to entrench it in the constitution fails.

Albanese told 2GB Radio:

Well, one of the things that I’m not doing is leading with a position that assumes a loss of a referendum. That would not be a very sensible thing to do. And I am determined to do what I can, along with so many other Australians who will be campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote from across the political spectrum. And that is my focus.

Responding to the suggestion if it were legislated anyway this would mean the vote in the referendum doesn’t count for anything, he replied:

It does count. The whole point of a referendum is that you change the constitution. And that will do just two things.

One, it will recognise First Nations people, Aboriginal Australians, in our constitution, in our nation’s birth certificate. That is something that’s been spoken about for decades, but never achieved.

And secondly, it will say that there needs to be a consultative body, not a body that makes determination or makes funding decisions, but one that enables Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be asked about policies that will directly impact them so that we can close the gap in education, in health, in all of those issues.

That is what is being asked. Now, the issue of legislation for the voice comes after that, because the voice is subservient to the parliament. It’s not seeking to be above it, or even beside it. It’s just a body where the parliament will continue to be the decision-making body in Australia.

PM hints at new funding for National Library

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, hinted that “national institutions” like the National Library and Archives may get new funding in the federal budget on ABC Radio Sydney this morning.

This comes after the arts minister, Tony Burke, told the Woodford Folk Festival in December that funding for institutions such as the national museum, gallery, archives and Trove will not be contained in the national cultural policy to be released later this month. But Burke did promise “major decisions” to correct “systematic underfunding” – suggesting these would be contained in the budget.

Paul Karp has written about that here:

Related: Labor to impose streaming content quotas and boost funding for writers and musicians

And you can read more about the National Library’s woes here:

Related: National Library of Australia’s free digital archives may be forced to close without funding

Australian Open disrupted by weather

Extreme heat and late night rain has left 22 first-round singles matches cancelled or postponed into day three of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park.

Australians Thanasi Kokkinakis, Max Purcell and Aleksandar Vukic are among players who will have to finish their respective matches today, AAP reports.

As of last night, 10 matches had been cancelled and another 12 postponed at varying stages. They will all need to be recommenced or started today, when second rounds will start as well.

© Provided by The Guardian Thanasi Kokkinakis’s round one singles match against Fabio Fognini was postponed due to rain. Photograph: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images © Provided by The Guardian Rain interrupts play during the first round at the 2023 Australian Open. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA

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In today’s morning mail wrap: Philip Ruddock’s Sydney council is challenging the legality of GST levies on local government, almost two-thirds of sharks and rays that live around the world’s coral reefs are at risk of extinction, and Greta Thunberg was among climate activists carried away by police during a protest against the demolition of a German village to make way for a coalmine.

Read the full wrap up by Imogen Dewey here:

Related: Morning Mail: multimillion-dollar GST challenge from councils, shark extinction fears, Greta Thunberg detained

Delivery of Black Hawk helicopters to commence this year

Defence has now confirmed the government will acquire 40 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters for the Australian army.

The head of land capability, Maj Gen Jeremy King, described it as “an important acquisition which will meet the strategic needs of the Australian army”.

He said in the statement:

The Black Hawk capability will be a crucial element for us to protect Australia’s sovereignty, and deliver foreign policy objectives, including providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

The Black Hawk will support the deployment of our troops and their equipment where they are needed in times of crisis. The Black Hawk is a reliable, proven and mature platform supported by a robust global supply chain.

This acquisition will mean we can continue to defend Australia and respond in times of need in a safe and effective way for years to come.

The statement confirms that the Black Hawks will operate from Oakey in Queensland and Holsworthy in New South Wales. It says this effort will be “supported by a highly skilled, blended maintenance workforce including Australian industry contractors”.

Defence says Australian industry “will be involved in logistic support, warehousing services, training development and engineering services, as well in the aircraft’s global supply chain”.

This will not only support the capability, but also maximise Australian industry participation, laying a foundation for future helicopter industry growth across the service life of the helicopter.

Delivery of the Black Hawk helicopters will commence this year.

Back to the deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, on ABC RN this morning – this time talking about the 70 Australian defence personnel heading off to the UK today to train Ukrainian recruits.

Marles said:

This is certainly the first training initiative that we will be a part of. It’s a training initiative which is being led by the United Kingdom and is in the United Kingdom. So it’s important to understand – we’re not sending troops to Ukraine, we’re sending troops to Britain, where they will be training those who are going into the Ukrainian.

It forms part of an enduring commitment, really, that we’ve been making to Ukraine as part of this conflict, because we think it’s really important that we stand with Ukraine.

This comes after Ukraine called for more Australian military aid on Monday following a Russian missile strike that killed 40 people in a residential block in Dnipro on Saturday.

“At the time Australia is having a summer vacation, Ukrainians are getting killed in large numbers,” Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, told ABC Radio on Monday morning.

In order for us to advance and to be able to kick Russians out of Ukraine, we need a different armour and tanks … as well as fighting capabilities.

Read more on this from our foreign affairs and defence correspondent, Daniel Hurst, here:

Related: Australian troops fly to UK to teach Ukrainian recruits ‘infantry tactics for urban and wooded environments’

There are reports the Australian army will replace its European-made Taipan helicopter fleet early with an estimated $2.8bn purchase of 40 American-made Black Hawk helicopters.

In 2021, the army announced it would ditch the fleet of Taipan helicopters a decade earlier than planned.

We anticipate the federal government’s announcement of the acquisition later today.

The background behind Australia’s Black Hawk purchase

Today’s government announcement on the acquisition of US Black Hawk helicopters is not a surprise: it has been in the works for quite some time, starting under the former Coalition government.

In 2021 the then defence minister, Peter Dutton, announced the Australian government had formally requested advice from the US on the acquisition of up to 40 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters for the Australian army “as an alternative platform to the MRH90 Taipan”. It was presented as a done deal by Dutton at the time: he said the Taipans had been found to be “unreliable” and the government would buy up to 40 Black Hawk helicopters.

But it was still subject to government consideration, a process that continued when Labor took office.

Labor has long been critical of the handling of the original acquisition of the European-backed MRH90 Taipan. Australia bought 47 of the MRH-90 Taipan helicopters for use by the army and the navy, but the Howard government-era acquisition had been listed as a “project of concern” since 2011.

The Australian National Audit Office has previously found “significant implications” from the Howard government’s decision in 2004 to approve the acquisition of the MRH90 aircraft, instead of the initial defence department recommendation for Black Hawks.

In 2021 it emerged that the defence department was spending $37m to hire private helicopters as it grappled with low availability of the trouble-plagued Taipan choppers.

Then, in Senate estimates two months ago, officials said the government was paying to maintain seven Taipan helicopters in a Brisbane warehouse after the navy ceased using them, saying this would ensure the parts still had resale value once the government decided whether to dump the fleet entirely.

Voice will not impede normal process of parliament, PM says

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is now on ABC Radio Sydney talking about the principles behind the Indigenous voice to parliament and the fact the constitution will set out the principle and the detail will be legislated by parliament.

He acknowledges how the voice operates might change in future, just like other federal legislation changes from time to time. Albanese says it is the job of the constitution to set out the broad principles of the way that Australia functions. He says policy and outcomes will be better if Indigenous Australians are consulted on matters that directly affect them.

Albanese says on Peter Dutton’s call for more detail:

There is an enormous amount of detail out there already about how it might operate but it’s not prescriptive because it’s not something that is enshrined in stone if you like.

Albanese suggests there would be an obligation to consult on native title but a preference to consult on other issues – but says none of that would be subject to court challenges. He says the normal processes of the parliament can occur unimpeded:

It has no impact on our democratic system and our parliamentary processes – that remains completely intact. This is just an advisory body.

Voice referendum not about ‘whether there will be an office’, PM says

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has spoken to 2GB Radio about the Indigenous voice, rejecting suggestions that it will result in litigation if the parliament does not follow its advice as “not correct”.

In an at-time testy exchange the host Ben Fordham quoted former high court justice Ian Callinan who has written that “stretching my imagination only a little, I would foresee a decade or more of constitutional and administrative law litigation arising out of a voice”. Callinan concluded that sentence “whether constitutionally entrenched or not” but Fordham did not read the full quote.

Albanese said that other high court justices, including former chief justice Robert French disagreed. Albanese revealed the draft words to insert into the constitution came from consultations with experts including former high court judges, but not the solicitor general.

Fordham read quotes from leading lights including Marcia Langton and Bill Shorten about the benefits of legislating the voice first. Albanese replied that Fordham knows “full well” that is not their current position. He explained the comments were made “in the context of a government that refused to hold a referendum and said that they would legislate rather than have a referendum”.

Fordham then tried a series of rapid fire questions in search of detail:

• Will there be premises in Canberra? Albanese: “There will be an office, yes.”

• Will members of the voice be paid? Albanese: “There’s no suggestion of that,” although he qualified that this doesn’t necessarily mean no.

• Will members be appointed or elected? Albanese said the Calma-Langton report spoke of two members from each state and territory and representatives for remote communities.

Albanese said:

The way that Noel Pearson has put it is that you’re making a decision over, whether there will be a Sydney Harbour Bridge or not and then you decide how many lanes it will be, which will go in what direction, what the toll will be some of that detail.

The question before the Australian people is a really simple one … It doesn’t go to our constitution, doesn’t go to whether they’re being office somewhere or not. It doesn’t even have, our constitution, doesn’t have the office of prime minister in it. The constitution is the birth certificate of the nation that has in it the principles all of the detail, all of the detail will be subject of legislation that everyone in the parliament are so the house of reps and the Senate. They’ll be processes to deal with these issues. A whole range of the further serious detail. Not whether they’ll be an office or not.

Defence minister says Australia has spoken to France about replacing European-made helicopters

The deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, has said the Australian army’s early replacement of its European-made Taipan helicopter fleet with American-made Black Hawk helicopters was a decision “we’ve spoken a lot to France about” on ABC RN this morning.

The reason we’ve decided to go with the Black Hawks, and have to transition away from the Taipans, is because really over the course of the last decade we’ve struggled in terms of getting the hours out of the Taipans that we would want, both with maintenance of having spare parts available.

It’s obviously a decision that we’ve spoken a lot to France about.

I think obviously the French would have liked us to stay with the Taipans but … really issue with France is about dealing with the French with honesty … and that’s what we’ve done in respect of this decision.

I’ve spoken with my counterpart defence minister Sebastian Lakonia, on a number of occasions. They are aware of the thinking that we had about the process that we’ve gone through.

We’ve been completely clear with them and I, you know, I think they’ve appreciated the upfront way in which we’ve gone about making this decision.

Residents in Mackay, north Queensland, are still at serious risk of flooding after days of heavy rainfall, AAP reports.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicted rainfall over the Central Coast would shift offshore over last night. A severe weather warning remained in place, stretching from Sarina to Bowen in the north. Many waterways in the area also broke their banks after more than 300mm of rain fell in the 24 hours to Tuesday afternoon.

The Mackay Regional Council warned people living in the Sandy Creek, Eton and Kinchant Dam areas they could see more flooding in low-lying parts depending on the amount of rainfall moving into Wednesday.

“Make sure you have enough food, water, medicine and pet food for two days,” it said. “Stay away from rivers and creeks. Stay informed because conditions may change overnight.”

And storms swept across parts of western Victoria overnight, after the state was hit with a severe thunderstorm warning from the Bureau of Meteorology.

There are reports of trees falling on to powerlines, homes and even a parked car in South Yarra – and the SES received more than 202 calls for help, including 147 for fallen trees. About 10,000 homes are still without electricity.

And welcome to Wednesday’s Guardian Australia live blog.

We wake up to the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, responding late yesterday to data from Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics. China’s economy grew 3% in 2022, well below the country’s official target and the slowest since the mid-1970s (barring 2020).

Chalmers says this is “one of the major economic challenges facing Australia at the start of 2023”, adding that “the global economy is a volatile place right now and developments in China are a big part of that.” Read more on China’s troubled economic weather from our economics correspondent, Peter Hannam, here.

And speaking of weather, it continues to be temperamental across the country. While Sydney is finally forecast to enjoy its first 30C day in almost a year, flooding continues in northern Queensland, isolating thousands in communities pummelled by more rainfall into this morning. And temperatures dropped a sudden 10C yesterday evening in Victoria, followed by a storm that cut power to an estimated 10,000 homes.

I’m Rafqa Touma, taking the blog through the day. If you spot something you don’t want us to miss, you can tweet it my way @At_Raf_.

Let’s get started with the day’s rolling news coverage.