Telstra demands a premium for Australia's first 5G smartphone but it's probably not worth paying top dollar for the handset if you won't see the full benefit for months or even years. That will depend very much on where you live and work.

On sale Tuesday, and exclusive to Telstra, the 256GB model Samsung S10 5G starts at $132 per month on a two-year plan, including handset payments.

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In return, you get unlimited calls and texts but only a measly 3GB of data.

Prices rise if you need more data or more on-board storage, up to a hefty $199 per month. Unless you're on this plan, you're paying an extra $15 to $36 per month for the benefit of 5G, compared to the 4G-capable Samsung S10+.

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Keep in mind, these prices are for mobile lease plans, where you don’t actually own the phone but you have the option to upgrade your handset after 12 months.

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Consumer pricing is due later in the week, which will likely add $10 to all but the most expensive plans. Telstra is also simplifying its plans by the end of June, so better deals could be on the way.

If you've already bought the S10+ from Telstra, you can upgrade to the S10 5G for free. In return the 5G model also offers a slightly bigger screen and larger battery, plus an improved rear camera, although this bumps up the weight by another 23 grams.

Prices will rise even further as, after 12 months, Telstra intends to slug 5G customers an extra $15 per month if you're not on one of the two most expensive plans. At this point, on a 50GB plan, you'd be paying a hefty $51 per month for the privilege of being on 5G.

Buy before June 30, or trade up from an S10+, and you won't pay the 5G surcharge for the life of your plan. Getting in early will save you $180 on the second year of your contract, although Telstra could always decide to scrap the surcharge next year.

So is it worth making the leap to 5G today? Not unless Telstra's fledgling 5G network is set to reach where you live and/or work.

Right now 5G is available in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Launceston, Toowoomba and the Gold Coast – but only if you live within a few kilometres of the centre of town.

In Melbourne, it stretches from Carlton down to South Melbourne and from Port Melbourne across to Richmond – which admittedly is better than the earliest days for 4G. Sydney is a lot of hit and miss, apart from the CBD you've got patches around Mascot, Randwick and Mosman.

Across the country, Telstra's 5G footprint currently includes areas "where more than four million people live, work or pass through every day," says Telstra consumer executive Kevin Teoh.

It's hardly worth paying extra for 5G if you'll merely "pass through" the 5G coverage area for a few minutes each day and then fall back onto 4G with everyone else.

Over the next 12 months, Teoh expects Telstra's 5G coverage to "increase in area almost five-fold" and extend to at least 35 Australian cities.

If 5G coverage is unlikely to reach you in the next 12 months then you're better off waiting to see what next year's deals look like, when you'll have a wider choice of handsets and plans, plus perhaps even choice of mobile networks.

You always paying a premium for first-generation devices. Next year's 5G handsets could well be a little cheaper, while probably packing more grunt. There'll also be an improvement in battery life, and/or a reduction in bulk, once mobile processors have built-in 5G capabilities rather than relying on a standalone 5G chips.

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Opting for the S10 5G today also means missing out on support for the faster millimetre wave 5G bands, which Telstra doesn't use yet but will switch on in the next few years.

Holding off on a 5G handset could see you get faster speeds down the track. Telstra demonstrated speeds of 1200Mbps down and 64Mbps up at Monday's launch, but that's obviously going to drop once there are more 5G users in your area.

Considering you'll squeeze 50 to 100Mbps out of the 4GX network on a range of cheaper handsets and plans, across a far wider area of your city, you really need to be sure you’ll have access to 5G soon – and you’ll put that speed boost to good use – before taking the plunge.

Tommy Raudonikis isn’t a supporter of Scott Morrison’s side of politics but, like the Prime Minister, he certainly believes in miracles.

Two weeks ago, Tom’s medical condition was dire. He was in Gold Coast hospital with breathing problems; fighting against sleep, perhaps fearful his next slumber would be one from which he would never awake.

His devoted partner, Trish Brown, together with family and close friends, were so concerned that some feared he would not be around on Monday night when it was announced at The Star he had been inducted into the NSWRL True Blues Hall of Fame alongside another great halfback, Steve Mortimer.

Tommy was irritable, even rebellious and irrational, demanding to see the hospital superintendent at midnight.

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But when he told a bemused doctor that "I’m going to give myself an uppercut", it was obvious he knew he was being "hard work" and needed to go home. He was discharged last Tuesday but not before he was scanned for evidence of his cancer.

On Friday, Tom and Trish visited his oncologist for the results. Two months earlier, the three of us met the oncologist who informed us the cancer had returned. Tom was told he could have no more radiotherapy and surgery was impossible because the insidious cancer, like a poisonous vine on a tree, was too close to the carotid artery in his neck. His last resort was to be accepted for an immunotherapy trial which he began shortly afterwards.

The highlighted sections of Friday’s report, showing comparisons to the March 12 scans, read: "The mass has reduced in size significantly … the nodules in the left perivertebral muscles have almost completely resolved."

The doctor explained that the aim of the treatment was to stop the cancer growing, yet, miraculously, it had shrunk.

Tom and Trish both cried and he ate four chocolates, right there in the surgery. (Beer unavailable).

It is now the fourth time he has cheated death. He has endured testicular cancer; quadruple heart surgery and, a few years ago, cancer of his throat where he was given a one-in-three chance of surviving.

We should have known this man, all heart and hustle, would survive this. After all, it was close friend John Singleton who said of the earlier one in three odds battle: "I’d hate to be the other two bastards he has to beat to survive."

How could we forget the come-from-behind victories he inspired on the football field, including the NSW versus Queensland match in Brisbane in pre-Origin days when Mortimer was selected as halfback and Tom was a reserve?

The Maroons were well ahead at half-time; Tommy replaced Turvey; ignited a brawl and the Blues came back to win. Even the first Origin match in 1980, when the NSW pack was weakened by withdrawals, Tommy, as captain, scored the final try in the 20-10 loss.

Ironically, Turvey was also inducted into the True Blues Hall of Fame at Monday night’s annual dinner, making them the 18th and 19th players to be so honoured.

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Turvey was given warning of Tommy’s fierce competitive spirit ahead of that game where he was replaced at half-time. The NSWRL management allocated them the same room in a Brisbane hotel. Turvey, seven years younger but awarded the No.7 jumper, claimed the double bed. Tommy began throwing Turvey’s clothing out the hotel window until Mortimer shifted his case to the single bed and said, "Would you like a cup of tea, Mr Raudonikis?"

Tommy played 24 games for NSW as well as 29 Tests for Australia between 1971 and 1980, including two as Kangaroo captain. Mortimer played in seven interstate matches from 1977 to 1981, and then nine Origins from 1982 to 1985.

That included the breakthrough 1985 series when NSW rolled back the Maroon tide and the Blues won the series for the first time. The images of Mortimer collapsing to his knees in tears in sheer relief, and then being chaired from the field by his teammates, remain two of most enduring in Origin history.

Tommy didn’t make it to last night’s dinner, with Trish saying, "It would take too much out of him. But he was keen to go right up until about three weeks ago when he had the big setback."

Like the Immortals concept, only playing records count towards induction into the Hall of Fame. But Tommy’s time as Blues coach for the 1997 and 1998 series fits the legend, immortalising the word "cattledog" forever after it became code for his players to break from a scrum and start a fight.

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Through a raspy voice, he passed on a message to coach Brad Fittler’s 2019 Blues who attended the dinner: "If I can beat cancer three times, you blokes should be able to beat Queensland in three games.

"If you need a miracle to win in Brisbane, remember they always work best when you have a go."

A takeover by Chinese regulators of a troubled lender with links to a missing tycoon jolted markets on Monday, lifting interbank financing costs for some smaller banks and raising worries about broader risks to the country's financial system.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) will take control of Inner Mongolia-based Baoshang Bank for a year from May 24, as it posed serious credit risks, the regulator and the central bank said on Friday, in a rare move to seize direct control of a bank.

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The seizing of Baoshang fanned concerns about indebted small banks across the country, pushing up yields on some negotiable certificates of deposit (NCD) issued by regional banks by more than 10 basis points on Monday, traders said.

"We recommend paying close attention to the impact on liquidity that could be triggered by this event," analysts at China Merchant Securities said in a note, referring to the Baoshang takeover.

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Selling pressure on Baoshang debt would not only affect the deposit yield curve, but could also lead to pressure on instruments from "Baoshang-like" city commercial banks that have not released financial results in several years and have significant interbank borrowings, they said.

The bank's own bonds were suspended from trading following the takeover, said an official at the China Foreign Exchange Trading System and National Interbank Funding Centre, China's interbank market trading platform.

The regulator's Beijing branch issued a notice on Monday asking banks not to try to grab clients from Baoshang, two banking sources with acknowledge of the matter said.

In Baotou, the regulator has made similar requirements, and warned of "severe punishment" of any breaches, a Baotou banking regulator told Reuters.

Financial crackdown

Baoshang, partly owned by Chinese financial group Tomorrow Holdings, has not published any annual reports since 2016, citing a plan to seek strategic investors.

Tomorrow has been in the process of divesting some assets since its chairman Xiao Jianhua was investigated more than two years ago amid a government crackdown on systemic risks posed by financial conglomerates. The billionaire has not been seen since 2017.

Baoshang Bank has 206 outstanding bonds worth a total of 73.83 billion yuan ($15.5 billion), according to Refinitiv data.

Baoshang's last filing on its assets and liabilities shows the bank had a total of 156.5 billion yuan of outstanding loans by the end of 2016, a 65 per cent jump from the end of 2014.

China's central bank said on Sunday that it would offer "timely and sufficient funds to ensure that (Baoshang Bank's) payment system is operating smoothly."

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) also said that it and the CBIRC would give more policy support to improve small- and mid-sized banks' corporate governance.

Chinese financial magazine Caixin, citing sources, reported on Monday that at least 70 per cent of interbank debts exceeding 50 million yuan owed by Baoshang Bank will be initially guaranteed by regulators.

The PBOC on Sunday said it would guarantee all principal and interest of corporate deposits and interbank liabilities below 50 million yuan, which analysts said helped to contain the market reaction.

"The reaction of the (interbank) capital market is relatively calm due to the guarantee offered to NCDs," said Dai Zhifeng, a banking analyst at Zhongtai Securities.

Traders said weakness in China's interbank market on Monday reflected broader concerns about the economy in the absence of clear signs for more policy stimulus.

Benchmark Chinese 10-year Treasury futures for September delivery, the most-traded contract, fell as much as 0.71 per cent to a low of 96.12.

Heavy borrower

NCDs are short-term debt instruments traded in China's interbank market, which are used by smaller banks to borrow from larger lenders, and which have in the past attracted regulatory scrutiny as they were used to fund speculative investments.

Reuters reported last year that interbank borrowings at Baoshang Bank, including NCD issuance, accounted for 48 per cent of its total liabilities at the end of the third quarter of 2017 – far exceeding a 33-per cent cap stipulated by the authorities.

While rare, regulatory takeovers aimed at cracking down on systemic financial risks are not unprecedented. The CBIRC took over Anbang Insurance Group in February 2018.

The takeover of Baoshang is not unexpected due to the risks it poses, Xing Wei, secretary of the Communist Party Committee at the Insurance Association of China, said at a forum on Saturday.

Xing cited a spot check five years ago in which he found that a Hangzhou-based small insurer had "colluded with" Baoshang. He did not elaborate.

At a Baoshang Bank branch in Beijing, customers had mixed reactions to the takeover.

Li Yan, whose parents had purchased a dozen short-term wealth management products at Baoshang, said bank staff had used the regulatory move as a selling point.

"They even comforted me with the possibility of Baoshang becoming a state-owned bank…they're daydreaming," she said, adding she would not let her parents invest in more Baoshang products.

An elderly client, who did not give his name, was more sanguine.

"Under the leadership of the Party, there will be no problem. The PBOC and CBIRC all promised that the takeover won't hurt the interests of normal people. I believe in the bank and will continue to put my money there," he said.

Reuters

Australian startup Morse Micro has secured almost $24 million in funding to take its 'HaLow' chips to the mass market as it looks to revolutionise Wi-Fi for the internet of things.

Investors include the private investment fund for Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, Skip Capital, headed by Kim Jackson, Blackbird Ventures, Ray Stata and Main Sequence Ventures’ CSIRO Innovation Fund, Right Click Capital, Uniseed, and the Clean Energy Innovation Fund.

Founders Andrew Terry and Michael De Nil launched the startup in 2016 after meeting at networking chip giant Broadcom developing the Wi-Fi chips that go into the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy.

"Wi-Fi has been around for a while and it is all about getting faster, but we saw an opportunity to really go after the internet of things market where you need a reliable connection and longer range with lower power," Mr De Nil said.

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The internet of things means everyday objects such as lights and alarm systems in the home or office will be internet enabled allowing them to send and receive data.

The pair said the Wi-Fi chips for phones have a powerful battery but they have to be recharged every night with little regard for power consumption.

"We saw an opportunity to design from scratch with low power which is low-cost," Mr Terry said.

Morse Micro's Wi-Fi HaLow chip has greater range and lower power consumption than conventional wi-fi and can connect more than 8000 devices to a single access point, with data rates of many megabits-per-second.

Mr De Nil said this has a huge range of applications in smart homes, retail signs and displays and sensor networks.

The pair started Morse Micro in August 2016 using $25,000 each in savings and were accepted into the Startmate accelerator by the end of that year which helped them raise an initial seed round of $450,000.

"It was a big leap of faith," Mr De Nil said. "We always thought it was going to be inevitable that we would be successful but in the early days we were not making any money and taking money out of our mortgages.  We didn’t draw a salary for half a year then the minimum wage afterwards."

However, they knew they were on to something and came up with a working prototype which enabled them to raise $4.5 million in 2017.

"We went out for months to the US fundraising there. We spent many night in the bars in Pao Alto cursing the VCs [venture capitalists] over there," Mr De Nil said.  "We were staying at Startuphouse which was like a hostel in San Francisco in the dodgiest neighbourhood there, we were sleeping in bunk beds for way too long."

Mr De Nil said the latest funding round was a much smoother process and the company would use the investment to take their Wi-Fi chips to the mass market, in the process increasing Morse Micro's staff from 24 to 54 people, mainly based in Sydney.

"We design chips and there is a lot of development work but now we need to turn the company around and manufacture them in high volumes with high reliability," he said.

"[The investors] are a good balance between people who have built massive companies themselves helping us out, and venture firms that lend a different perspective to the business."

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Morse Micro has the backing of Nick Crocker of Blackbird Ventures, who said the company was involved in  world-first innovation.

"I have been so impressed at the quality of the team they've recruited, the speed at which they've built the chip, the way the market has turned for them since the seed investment, and the quality of both their characters – resilient, high-integrity, brilliant."

Key employees at Morse Micro include two of the inventors of Wi-fi – Neil Weste and John O'Sullivan.

"Wi-Fi was invented over 20 years ago in Australia and over that time we have seen it go into every laptop, phone and tablet, and all of that came from people in Australia," Mr Terry said. "Today we are opening it up and expanding Wi-Fi so it can go into everything, every smoke alarm, every camera."

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A few years ago, I was looking for some kind of large and indestructible plant that would make our house seem like a lush oasis in the dead of winter. Perhaps it was a bit of a tall order. My children tagged along, distracted by the bird feeders and whirligigs. "A plant! A living thing!" I reminded them. At one point I lost track of my 11-year-old daughter, only to eventually find her stroking the leaves of the saddest, most miserable-looking plant I had ever seen.

"It needs us!" she pleaded. And I knew I was sunk.

Every pet we have is a rescue, many of them acquired after she ran one of her influence campaigns, complete with PowerPoint presentations, propaganda posters, and not-so-subtle dinner-table speeches. I knew if we walked out of the store without this sickly-looking tree, I'd simply be signing myself up for weeks of infotainment about the benefits of half-dead hibiscus plants.

The children named it Hibby, and it took over a corner of the dining room as I scrambled to learn enough about hibiscuses to save it from what seemed a certain death. The first thing it did was drop every one of its leaves.

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Fantastic; now I was going to be responsible for the demise of this pathetic plant, which surely would have died anyway if we'd just left it in the garden centre under the "75 per cent off!" banner where we'd found it.

And so I watered and I fertilised and slowly, slowly, new leaves began to emerge, large and shiny green, however sparse. A few tentative buds developed, then bloomed spectacularly into improbable pink flowers. When the weather got warm enough, I moved Hibby onto the back deck.

It promptly dropped all of its leaves.

Over the past few years, I've learned that Hibby needs attention, but not too much. Over watering will do as much damage as neglect. It gets stressed by changes in its environment, even if the change ultimately turns out to be beneficial. And just when it looks so skeletal and lifeless that I'm sure there's no hope, it will summon up whatever resources it has and burst into bloom.

"You're so sensitive."

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"Oh, for heaven's sake, can't you pull it together?"

"I don't know what you want from me!"

These are all things I've said to Hibby recently. But they're also things I've wanted to say to my now 14-year-old daughter. Like the plant she rescued, she can be temperamental and is prone to acting out dramatically when stressed. These days she spends hours in her room, ear buds plugged in, her closed door shutting the rest of us out. I spend endless amounts of energy trying to interpret her various silences. Sometimes I wish she would simply drop her leaves.

The thing about a house plant is that it can't talk. It can't tell you that the sunlight is too weak in that corner, or that its nitrogen levels are dangerously low, or that its roots are crowded in its plastic pot. Despite how much I might talk to it – inquiring after its health, or praising it when it blooms – Hibby never responds. Its woody stalks and slick green leaves remain frustratingly mute.

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It's also hard to know what changes might be working. Like the proverbial steering of an ocean liner, it takes a long time for a small change to have any visible effect. Did adding fertiliser to the water help? What about turning the pot 90 degrees? It might be a month before I notice any change, and by then I won't know what to attribute it to.

Though my teenager is blessed with the power of speech, she struggles sometimes to articulate what she needs. Her stormy interior life can seem both too complex and too murky to communicate to me. Meanwhile, the very process of establishing her own identity requires her to pull away, expanding the distance between us so she can figure her own self out. Finding a language to bridge that distance has been a tricky process of trial and error.

Together, we try to negotiate a balance. How much nagging is just enough? Where is the line between providing her with enough autonomy to succeed on her own terms and providing a safety net to protect her from the more dangerous stumbles? Where does my care feel warm and comforting, and where does it stifle? The answers to these questions are fluid, ever-changing. And who's to say I'm ever getting it right?

Once upon a time, my daughter gave us PowerPoint presentations; a bullet-pointed guide to her heart's desire. Life was easier when making her happy was as simple as opening the door of our home a little wider, making room for someone new to love.

The kittens that showed up on a neighbor's back porch. The hyperactive mutt from the shelter, who came complete with a list of fears and neuroses as long as my arm. The guinea pigs that had to be adopted together because they were a bonded pair. And of course, a certain nervous hibiscus plant.

Maybe that was her plan all along. Here, Mum, let's bring home this plant. It will drive you crazy, and it will make you doubt your ability to properly care for it, but when it blooms? It'll knock your socks off.

And then you'll be ready for me.

The Washington Post

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Tokyo: A man carrying a knife in each hand and screaming "I will kill you" attacked a group of schoolchildren waiting at a bus stop just outside Tokyo on Tuesday, wounding at least 19 people, including 13 children, Japanese authorities and media said.

The victims were lined up at a bus stop near Noborito Park in Kawasaki City when a man in his 40s or 50s attacked. NHK national television, quoting police, said that the suspect died after slashing himself in the neck.

Police wouldn't immediately confirm the report or provide or other specific details.

It wasn't immediately clear how many others had died.

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An official with the Kawasaki fire department told The Associated Press that one person had been killed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to speak to the media.

Some Japanese media outlets were reporting at least three deaths, while some were saying two, including the attacker.

Kyodo news agency reported that all 13 children who were stabbed were girls at a nearby private school in Kawasaki City.

A witness told the Mainichi newspaper that he heard children shrieking after walking past a bus, and when he turned around, he saw a man wielding a knife in each hand, screaming "I will kill you" and that several children were on the ground.

NHK, citing police, said that a bus driver told officials that a man holding a knife in each hand walked toward the bus and started slashing children. NHK also interviewed a witness who said he saw the suspect trying to force his way onto a bus.

The attacker's identity and motives weren't immediately known.

Television footage showed emergency workers giving first aid to people inside an orange tent set up on the street, and police and other officials carrying the injured to ambulances.

Although Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, it has had a series of high-profile killings, including in 2016 when a former employee at a home for the disabled allegedly killed 19 and injured more than 20 others.

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In 2008, seven people were killed by a man who slammed a truck into a crowd of people in central Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district and then stabbed passers-by.

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Also in 2016, a man stabbed four people at a library in northeastern Japan, allegedly over their mishandling of his questions. No one was killed.

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Support can be found at Lifeline (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au) and the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467 and suicidecallbackservice.org.au).

Eight people have been rescued after becoming trapped in heavy snow near Mount Hotham with "terrible" conditions forecast to get worse.

The alarm was raised following heavy snowfall on Monday afternoon.

The four adults and four children, aged between six and 12, spent a chilly night in their vehicles on the Blue Rag Range Track west of the Dargo High Plains Road. Temperatures got down to minus five overnight and are currently sitting on minus two.

There were fears they would be trapped there as conditions in the area worsened, with wind gusts of up to 110km/h forecast for later on Tuesday.

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But at midday police announced they had got them out, safe and well.

The vehicles were stuck in thick snow, which locals say is up to half a metre deep in some places after heavy falls on Sunday.

“It started on Sunday evening, it started coming down quite heavily," a local told The Age.

"We had 30 centimetres over Sunday night, and since then we have had maybe 10 centimetres on top of that. The weather has been terrible, howling winds.”

Police say one group of travellers in two 4WDs got stuck in the snow after failing to bring appropriate snow gear with them. A second group them came across them, tried to get them out, and also became stuck – leading to all needing to be rescued.

Blue Rag Range is an extremely remote track through Victoria's High Country but is popular because of its panoramic mountain views. There is only one way in or out, and the sides of the track drop off steeply on both sides.

Tuesday's rescue attempt follows an incident on Monday morning where eight students and two teachers from Beechworth Secondary College were rescued from Mount Bogong.

That group were in the final day of a five-day hike and got caught out in thick snowfall.

Earlier, Senior Sergeant Doug Incoll said the hikers had set off in the morning and were forced to turn back to a hut, before being recovered about 2pm.

‘‘There was 20 centimetres of snow yesterday,’’ he said.

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‘‘We’re expecting another 25 centimetres today above 1200 metres, which is where the group of 4WDs are.

‘‘There is an increase in strong winds forecast throughout today.’’

He said those in the vehicles had adequate shelter, food and water.

Rescue crews gathered about 6am on Tuesday to resume the search, which is being hampered by the deep snow.

‘‘We’re making progress and we’re continuing to assess the road conditions,’’ Senior Sergeant Incoll said.

‘‘If the snow get insurmountable, we will have to get a bulldozer or other equipment in.’’

He said the conditions were ‘‘terrible’’, but those in the vehicles were safe and warm.

‘‘The weather can change in the alpine environment at any time of the year, but at this time of the year the snow can be extreme and last a few days,’’ he said.

‘‘People need to be aware of the conditions and undertake a risk assessment of whether they need to change their plans.

‘‘You need to determine whether it’s a good idea to go out in the first place.’’

With Border Mail

Bravo Prime Minister Scott Morrison! How many of those very few who predicted his re-election also foresaw that he would announce shortly after that he is “committed” to constitutional recognition? Good. None of you. And yet for the Prime Minister it is brilliant politics.

As he is all but solely being credited with the election victory, how impressive if he can use his unchallenged authority to wrong-foot his critics and steer a bipartisan push – that would help heal the national divide – towards something important that is so long overdue? Yes, an actual legacy!

Would the hard right of media and politics bitterly criticise the Prime Minister, if he pushed it hard? Perhaps, a very little. But he would get support, and respect, from broad swathes of those to the left of him who could never have imagined him being so wise.

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For at issue are some deep truths in our national story. The central point of the First Peoples is that they never ceded sovereignty in the first place, and that the Australian Constitution is therefore built on a false premise is simply irrefutable. The aspect that particularly interests me – as one now finishing the final draft of a book on Captain Cook – is the first claim of British sovereignty on these lands. Given the importance of the current debate for both recognition and the coming Australian republic, I have gone deeply into what happened.

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In the last half of August 1770, Captain Cook is just coming to the northern end of the east coast of “New Holland” – Australia – whereupon the plan is to turn west, ideally to go across the top of the continent and get to the Dutch outpost of Batavia before heading home.

But before leaving these climes, there is something he must do, which is why the Endeavour drops anchor beside an island just to the west of the tip of “Cape York”, as he names it.

Shortly after he is rowed ashore by 12 marines, in the company of botanist Joseph Banks among others. After climbing a hill on the island to determine the best way through the many shoals, Cook descends to rejoin the marines, all glittering in their red coats, white breeches and tricorn hats. They have been ordered to dress in the most formal of their finery. It is time to perform a particular ceremony.

First the Union Jack is taken from its pack, attached to a pole, and lifted high. Now taking the Letters Patent from his inside pocket, Captain Cook makes a statement whereby in the name of King George III, Captain Cook does hereby claim for Great Britain “the Eastern Coast [of New Holland] from the Latitude of 38 degrees South . . . to this place”.

At the conclusion of his words, the marines, with their muskets pointed to the sky fire off three volleys. Within a minute the reply is answered with three joyous volleys of muskets from the ship.

It is done. From the point of view of Great Britain at least, this ancient land is now the sovereign territory of Great Britain. The ancient land itself does not blink, just as her ancient people have not the tiniest awareness of the significance of what has occurred.

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This act of claiming possession by Captain Cook – he subsequently calls the place “Possession Island” and marks it on his map – will of course, resonate through the ages, with every era interpreting it differently, according to the mores of the time. For imperial Britain, it was just another act of appropriation, of no more particular significance at the time, than the other. As ever, Cook was eager to follow orders and this was simply a matter of following his instructions from Admiralty to “with the Consent of the Natives . . . take Possession of Convenient Situations in the Country in the Name of the King of Great Britain”.

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What is more, “if you find the Country uninhabited take Possession for his Majesty by setting up Proper Marks and Inscriptions, as first discoverers and possessors.”

Now, under the circumstances, claiming possession “with the Consent of the Natives”, is simply not possible. This is first because on this island here are none to be found who could consent, second because even if there were the Indigenous did not have a concept of themselves owning a land that could be ceded, so much as themselves being of the land. And finally because even if a few tribal elders could have been found to agree to hand over land on which their people had lived since the Dreamtime, there is no way they could be speaking for the other 750,000 Indigenous people living in Australia at a time, speaking more than 700 different languages and dialects.

The act was a sham, a British conceit which an enlightened age must concede did not establish British sovereignty.

Of course righting so many ancient wrongs of history is not possible. But giving recognition in the constitution to the First Peoples via a Voice to Parliament is a good start, and if Scott Morrison – with no doubt the full support of Anthony Albanese – can push that through in this term of Parliament, both will be on the right side of history, will be remembered for it and we, as a people, will be stronger.

Twitter: @Peter_Fitz

Gas, not coal, was the fossil fuel that would take the traditional energy industry into the future, a national industry conference has been told.

The annual Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) conference is being held in Brisbane this week, with the result of the recent federal election front of many delegate’s minds.

APPEA chair and Shell Australia chief Zoe Yujnovich said in the wake of the election result, which saw the Coalition returned to power, the industry had an opportunity to “plant the seeds of positive public debate” around energy.

“In the wake of the election, when armchair experts are hoarse from shouting, we have a real opportunity to drive real change,” she said.

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“What we can do now is assist this Coalition government to overcome the tumult that has surrounded energy and resources policy in Australia for too long.”

Ms Yujnovich said natural gas was the way forward for the traditional energy sector, because it enabled investment in renewables by providing the baseline power which coal currently does.

She said getting the message out that natural gas was an ally, not an enemy, of renewable energy was key if the sector wanted to move forward with the support of the general public.

“Armed with megaphones or iPhones, an increasing number of professional activists and increasing numbers of ideologically driven volunteers are waging a virtual war with religious zealotry,” she said.

“What the industry needs to avoid is being drawn into the trap of either/or debates.

“These opposition constructs … create face-offs between mutually beneficial technologies.

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As Ms Yujnovich spoke there was an environmental demonstration outside the convention centre, protesting the industry in general and the process of fracking to extract gas.

Philip Winzer from the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network said the environmental downside to the gas production industry outweighed its benefit as a transitional energy source.

“Opening up new areas to dangerous gas and oil fracking and drilling will unleash a massive carbon bomb on our communities and the world, and poses an unacceptable risk to health of country and communities,” Mr Winzer said.

“APPEA are not acting in our best interests and need to be called out for their destructive projects that devastate local communities and the climate.”

The high-profile example environmental campaigners point to is that of Linc Energy, which was charged in 2014 with serious environmental breaches at its underground coal gasification plant at Chinchilla.

That process of extraction has now been banned after local groundwater was severely contaminated, with companies using different methods to extract gas.

Despite that, Queensland Natural Resources Minister Anthony Lynham said gas was important to the Queensland economy and would be a way forward as they transitioned to renewable power generation.

“Fracking remains a sensitive issue, and there is much work for us to do in dispelling the fear and providing the community with more information on this practise,” Dr Lynham said.

“There is much for this industry to be proud of, for what it has done in this state.”

Dr Lynham used the opportunity to announce that energy company Senex had been awarded the contract to explored 153 square kilometres near Miles in regional Queensland for gas.

The gas produced would be earmarked for Australian supply only.

Queensland supplies about a quarter of the current east coast demand for gas, and that demand was expected to increase in the coming years.

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Jerusalem: Israel's parliament on Monday passed a preliminary motion to dissolve itself.

The move further pushed the country toward an unprecedented political impasse, less than two months after elections seemed to promise Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a new mandate.

If the bill receives final passage in a vote scheduled on Wednesday, Israel would be forced to hold new elections – sending the political system into disarray.

Netanyahu appeared to have a clear path to victory, and a fourth consecutive term, after the April 9 elections. His Likud party emerged tied as the largest party in the 120-seat parliament, and with his traditional allies, he appeared to control a solid 65-55 majority.

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But he has struggled to form a government ahead of a looming deadline to do so. His prospective coalition has been thrown into crisis in recent days by former Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, an ally and sometimes rival of Netanyahu's.

Netanyahu delivered a primetime statement on Monday calling on his potential partners to put "the good of the nation above every other interest" in order to avoid sending the country once again to "expensive, wasteful" elections. He placed the blame on Lieberman for creating the crisis, but said he was hopeful his efforts to salvage a compromise in the next 48 hours would succeed.

Lieberman has insisted on passing a new law mandating that young ultra-Orthodox men be drafted into the military, like most other Jewish males. Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox allies demand that the draft exemptions remain in place.

Without the five seats of Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, Netanyahu cannot muster a majority.

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"The draft law has become a symbol and we will not capitulate on our symbols," Lieberman defiantly said, vowing to press for new elections if his demands are not met.

Netanyahu and Lieberman met on Monday evening in a last-ditch effort to find a compromise. Israeli media said the meeting ended without any progress, and quoted Likud officials as saying Netanyahu would soon order new elections.

Netanyahu's ruling Likud has traditionally had an alliance with ultra-Orthodox and nationalist parties. But Lieberman, a former top Netanyahu aide, is a wild card. Though stanchly nationalist, he also champions a secular agenda aimed toward his political base of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

Likud insists Lieberman is motivated by his personal spite for Netanyahu and has launched a vicious campaign against him in recent days. But Lieberman says he is driven by ideology and will not be a hand to religious coercion.

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"I will not be a partner to a Halachic state," he said, using the word for Jewish law.

Ultra-Orthodox parties consider conscription a taboo, fearing that military service will lead to immersion in secularism. But years of exemptions have generated widespread resentment among the rest of Jewish Israelis.

A stalemate on the issue was one of the factors that shortened the term of the previous coalition government, which Lieberman resigned from months before elections were called because he disagreed with its policy toward the Gaza Strip.

Dissolving parliament would be a shocking turn of events for Netanyahu, who has led the country for the past decade. "We invite Lieberman to join us today and not contribute to the toppling of a right-wing government," a statement by Likud read.

President Donald Trump waded into Israeli politics and tweeted support for Netanyahu, saying he was "hoping things will work out with Israel's coalition formation and Bibi and I can continue to make the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever."

With the 42-day timeline allotted to Netanyahu to sign agreements with his partners and present his new government set to expire late Wednesday, his Likud party presented the paperwork to dissolve the parliament.

The Knesset passed the bill on Monday with 65 members of parliament voting in favor. But the motion could still be pulled at any moment before Wednesday's vote if a compromise is found.

The main opposition party, Blue and White, which also controls 35 seats, appealed for a chance to form a coalition. But a parliamentary vote for dissolution would automatically trigger new elections. Blue and White has ruled out any alliance with Netanyahu.

If Wednesday's final vote passes, it would mark the first time the scenario had played out in Israel and set the stage for an unprecedented second election in the same calendar year.

Polls indicate the results of a new election would not be much different from the last one.

AP

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