What we learned today, Monday 10 July
With that, we’ll wrap up our live coverage of the day’s news. Thanks so much for following along.
Here’s a summary of today’s main developments:
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, arrived in Berlin and will meet Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz tonight (Australia time). This afternoon Australia and Germany signed a deal to send 100 Brisbane-made armoured vehicles to Germany as part of a $1bn deal, one of the largest defence export deals in the country’s history.
There have been growing calls for Scott Morrison to resign since the findings of the robodebt royal commission were released. Liberal MP Bridget Archer said the former PM’s presence in parliament is “hampering the party’s attempt to enter a new era”, while Nationals leader David Littleproud suggested it may be better for the people of his Cook electorate if he resigned.
Morrison said he “completely” rejects adverse findings in the report, saying they were “wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear documentary evidence”.
NT rangers confirmed a man was attacked by a 2-metre saltwater crocodile at Wangi Falls in the Litchfield national park today. A team is working to remove the animal and the man has been taken to hospital for medical treatment.
The search for missing 31-year-old Belgian woman Celine Cremer in the Tasmanian wilderness has been formally suspended by Tasmanian police after three weeks of search efforts.
Independent MP Lidia Thorpe announced she will quit politics when her term expires in 2028, telling 60 Minutes “I’ve been able to make big changes in the short time that I’ve been here” but “we need new [and] younger people coming in with fresh ideas”.
More than 1,000 people were evacuated from a Westfield shopping centre in Sydney’s south-west after an electrical fire broke out. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and most of the centre has re-opened.
Updated
‘Unprecedented’ demand for meals in Tasmania, federal inquiry told
Half of Tasmanian households experienced some degree of food insecurity in 2022, with several charities recording unprecedented demand for free meals, AAP reports.
A Senate inquiry examining cost of living pressures in Australia on Monday held a public hearing in Hobart.
A 2022 report by the University of Tasmania found 50 per cent of homes had suffered some degree of food insecurity in the previous month, with 20 per cent experiencing “severe” insecurity.
Senior economics and finance lecturer Mala Raghavan said “severe” insecurity includes missing meals, reducing food intake or in extreme cases, going without food for days:
This is quite acute compared to other states.
Anglicare Tasmania’s Mary Bennett said people from the state’s lowest socio-economic demographic were having to decide between food and heating:
We’re hearing anecdotally … people are faced with, when they talk about what fuel they are going to buy, they are choosing between food and paying the heating bill.
In Tasmania where our winters are colder, that’s a much more serious issue.
Foodbank Tasmania chair Stuart Clutterbuck said over the past nine months there had been an average increase of 21 per cent in people seeking help on the organisation’s website:
We just do not have enough food and groceries to meet demand.
The inquiry, tasked with investigating cost-of-living pressures and government responses, is expected to finalise a report by November.
