TRANSCRIPT
- The search continues in Sydney for a missing 12-year-old boy
- Barnaby Joyce says electric vehicles are useless in Australia
- Liverpool fights back to draw 1 all with Manchester City
Dozens of emergency service crews have spent the night searching for a young boy missing in western Sydney.
12-year-old Hussein Al Mansoory was last seen running from Auburn Memorial Park about 10.30am on Saturday.
There are serious concerns for Hussein's welfare as he lives with down syndrome and autism and is non-verbal.
State Emergency Services and police believe Hussein could have taken shelter in a construction site to escape hot weather.
Locals are being asked to check sheds, garages, backyards and properties for Hussein, who is slim with short black hair and was last seen in a white t-shirt.
_
Nationals M-P Barnaby Joyce has criticised the government's new vehicle efficiency standards, arguing electric vehicles are not suited to the Australian context.
The new regulations are designed to encourage car companies to sell more fuel-efficient vehicles, including making electric vehicles more available and competitive.
But in an exchange with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek on Channel 7's Sunrise, Mr Joyce has said electric vehicles are "useless" in Australia.
"Australia's a big nation, 26 million people and the size of Western Europe - we're completely different to other nations where they're small, compact and overwhelmingly in a lot of places in Europe - flat. Now, we have different requirements which means we like four-wheel drives, we have to use them for not only work but for recreation, for family purposes, we've got long distances to cover. And the cost of getting into these things is exorbitantly more than the cost of the vehicles that are there."
_
Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced the government will scrap around 500 so-called "nuisance tariffs" on a range of goods including washing machines, shoes and tampons.
A nuisance tariff is a tax so low it costs more for the government to collect it than the revenue it generates.
The government has announced it will cut the 5 per cent tariff on 500 imported goods, as part of what Dr Chalmers has said is the biggest reform of the tariff system in decades.
In a speech to this year's Financial Review Business Summit, he has said removing the tariffs will streamline around 8.5 billion dollars worth of annual trade.
"It will save businesses more than 30 million dollars in compliance costs each year, 120 over the next four. It will simplify the system, reduce costs, improve supply-chain resilience, and make it easier and cheaper for business. And also - and I don't want to over-state this bit - it will provide a bit of extra help with the cost-of-living challenge by making everyday items just that little bit cheaper."
_
A widely circulated photo of the Princess of Wales has been removed from news agency websites because it appears to have been manipulated.
The photo of Princess Kate in a chair, surrounded by her three children, was originally published by the Associated Press and said to be the first photo since her abdominal surgery nearly two months ago.
But A-P later retracted the image after indications it had been manipulated at the source, including inconsistencies in the alignment of Princess Charlotte's left hand.
_
There's a fresh plea for Australians from a range of backgrounds to donate blood, after a study highlighted a shift in the nation's blood types.
There are four commonly known blood types - A, A-B, B and O.
But it's less well-known that there are more than 360 variations of those, which can be linked to a person's ethnicity.
Research from the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood shows in Australia, there's a jump in variations commonly found in India, parts of Asia and the Middle East.
Lifeblood is urging people of Polynesian, Southeast Asian, Indian or Middle Eastern descent to consider donating.
_
In football,
Liverpool have fought back to draw 1-1 with Manchester City.
Alexis Mac Allister struck a 50th-minute penalty to cancel out John Stones' first-half strike at Anfield.
Liverpool might have gone on to snatch a late winner in the game but had a penalty appeal in stoppage time dismissed by V-A-R, after Jeremy Doku's high challenge on Mac Allister.
After the match Jurgen Klopp said it was a clear foul but he was already "over it".
"Why would the guy in the VAR studio think 'Ah, that's not clear and obvious'? What must you have had for lunch if you think that's not clear and obvious? But I'm not angry or whatever, it's just the situation, but it's fine. I'm so happy about the way we played today, so the result is only one thing."
The draw came hours after Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham celebrated an emphatic 4-0 win at Aston Villa in another key match.
