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Labor has to get into an ‘arm wrestle’ with One Nation, Chris Minns says

Chris Minns was also asked about how Labor should respond to the surging poll numbers of One Nation. The New South Wales premier told Sky “we’ve got to get into the arm wrestle”.

People have got every right to vote for One Nation if they want to. And if they feel that they’re the best antidote or the best medicine for what’s ailing the state or the country, that’s exactly what they’ll do. Our job is to convince them otherwise and to say, well, this is our plan for the future.

Minns said Australians were “going through an incredibly tough time” and there were “concerns” about the level of immigration after the pandemic. But he pushed back on her unexplained calls for a “monoculture” in place of multiculturalism.

The populist right or far right movement has swept through Brazil, Argentina, the United States, Hungary, Italy, perhaps France, maybe the UK. So we’d be pretty naive not to think that it could affect us here too.

One of my biggest gripes with what Hanson has been saying … is that she seems to be saying, if you support multiculturalism, then you’re also for Sharia Law, multiple marriages … that’s utter garbage. That’s not the view or the lived experience of people that live in Sydney, who grew up in Sydney … I wouldn’t support Sharia law or any of these insane ideologies in a place like Australia, but I do believe multiculturalism’s worked.

Drone technology won’t be ‘foolproof’ but should ‘mitigate the risk’, NSW premier says

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, says the state government’s expansion of shark surveillance came in response to a reduction in the number of people visiting beaches amid a spate of shark attacks.

Appearing on Sky News on Sunday, he said people had been rattled by the recent attacks.

We now are in a situation where … we seen a reduction in the number of people who are enjoying our beaches and enjoying the Pacific Ocean, even in the winter period. So we know we want to take action … It’s not going to be foolproof. We can’t promise it won’t lead to further shark attacks in the future, but we think it’ll mitigate the risk.

Minns also reiterated his opposition to culling great white sharks to prevent future incidents, which some sectors of the community had called for following the attack on Leah Stewart at Coogee.

They’re a protected species. They’ve been a protected species since the 90s, and I’m not convinced it would work. I mean, the distances these sharks travel are massive. It’s not like we can knock a few off and send a message to the rest of them …

I think it’s a different situation for bull sharks. Generally they’re in our estuaries … We’re looking particularly at an audit of the number of sharks in Sydney Harbour. We want to keep people safe, particularly when there’s a higher number of people in the water.

Chris Minns announces shark-spotting drone technology to patrol NSW beaches year-round

Shark-spotting drone technology will be deployed in New South Wales year-round under a state government investment that it says will be the largest expansion of aerial shark surveillance in the world.

On Sunday, the state government announced an additional $34m in drones, including using artificial intelligence, to scale up coverage across beaches in Sydney and along the state’s coast.

Around 70 beaches will be monitored 365 days of the year, prioritising areas with high numbers of users and where shark incidents have become more common.

A unmanned aerial vehicle pilot flies a Surf Life Saving shark-spotting drone at Coogee beach in Sydney on 16 June. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

This expanded monitoring will start 1 July and include year-round coverage across all Sydney beaches expanding from 26 to 38. There will also be two SharkSmart listening stations in Sydney harbour to alert swimmers to the presence of tagged sharks.

The premier, Chris Minns, said people should “feel confident” visiting the state’s beaches.

While no one can ever promise no shark interactions, this investment is about putting more eyes in the sky so we can spot sharks earlier and give people a clear heads-up when they’re in the water. More drones in the air means we’re getting a better picture of what’s happening offshore and it means we’ll get better at seeing them.