SBS News in Easy English 24 June 2024

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TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to SBS News in Easy English. I'm Greg Dyett.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced former New South Wales treasurer and Liberal M-P Matt Kean will chair the Climate Change Authority.

The authority is responsible for providing independent advice to government on climate change policy.

Mr Kean will begin in August, which is when the current chair, Grant King finishes up.
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A plan to power Australia with nuclear energy has been condemned by former prime minister Paul Keating.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has pledged to build seven nuclear plants across five states on the sites of coal-fired power stations if the coalition wins government at the next election.

Mr Keating is highly critical of the proposal and described Mr Dutton as a "peddler of danger".
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Independent politicians in Canberra will introduce legislation to make housing a human right in Australia.

Under the bill, governments would be legally required to improve the country's housing supply against set targets and make properties more affordable.

Independent Senator David Pocock says addressing the housing crisis must be a top priority for politicians.

"Housing is one of the biggest issues we face. And what I'm hearing from people is that they want this treated more as a human right, as something that enables our communities to function, that allows people to have a safe place to live."
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An Israeli air strike on a United Nations aid centre in Gaza City has reportedly killed at least eight people.

Witnesses say the strike hit part of a vocational college run by the U-N Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA that is now providing aid and shelter to displaced families.

The Israeli military defended the attack on the U-N facility saying it was targeting what it called terrorist infrastructure embedded in the aid centre.
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Saudi Arabian officials confirm more than 1,300 people have died at the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca amid extreme heat.

Pilgrims were plagued by temperatures that hit a high of 51.8 degrees Celsius at Mecca's Grand Mosque, with one Australian man among the dead.
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The nurses and midwives' union says a new wage deal could help stabilise Victoria's struggling health system.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation members will vote on a 28.5 per cent wage increase over four years on Wednesday.

The offer has come after intensive talks between the union, health department and the Victorian government, as well as 48 days of industrial action, including hospital bed closures.

I'm Greg Dyett and that's SBS News in Easy English.

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