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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Emily Wind and Rafqa Touma (earlier)

Crocodile euthanised after attack on man at NT swimming spot – as it happened

NATO Australia Trina Jones Anthony Albanese China Germany Labor ACRI Ukraine
A popular swimming spot in the Litchfield National Park remains closed after a crocodile attacked a man on Monday.
A popular swimming spot in the Litchfield National Park remains closed after a crocodile attacked a man on Monday. Photograph: Esther Linder/The Guardian

What we learned today, Tuesday 11 July

Thanks for following along on the liveblog. With that, we’ll wrap up our live coverage for the day.

Here’s a summary of today’s main developments:

  • The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, landed in Lithuania tonight, where he will soon attend the Nato summit. High on the agenda is finalising the free trade agreement between Australia and the EU, with the final sticking points largely around agriculture.

  • Ben Roberts-Smith has launched an appeal after he lost his war crimes defamation trial in the federal court.

  • Australian democracy advocate Chau Van Kham was released from jail in Vietnam and returned home to Sydney after more than four years behind bars.

  • The family of 95-year-old Clare Nowland, who died in May after being allegedly Tasered by police in an aged care home, is suing the New South Wales government.

  • Senior staff from Meta, TikTok, Google and Twitter appeared before the Senate committee on foreign interference through social media, and were questioned on what steps they’re taking to prevent other countries from meddling in government matters.

  • The shadow home affairs and cybersecurity minister, James Paterson, said “confronting this problem is no easy task”, and accused Chinese app WeChat of showing “contempt” for the Australian parliament by refusing to attend. The company says this is due to having no local representatives.

  • The law firm behind the $1.8bn robodebt class action says it’s prepared to launch a fresh civil case alleging misfeasance in public office unless a settlement for further compensation is reached.

  • The deputy PM, Richard Marles, today labelled the scheme “one of the most gross acts of maladministration that we’ve seen from a government”.

  • Medical abortions will become easier to access under new rules allowing doctors and pharmacists without specialist certification to prescribe the termination pills MS-2 Step mifepristone.

Have a lovely evening, and we’ll see you back here on the liveblog bright and early tomorrow morning.

Updated

Crocodile who attacked man at popular NT swimming spot euthanised

Northern Territory rangers have euthanised the crocodile that bit a man at Wangi Falls yesterday.

The NT department of environment, parks and water security confirmed in a statement that the 2.4m saltwater crocodile was euthanised overnight.

Access to the popular swimming spot in the Litchfield national park remains closed, and crocodile surveys will be undertaken prior to reopening.

Yesterday, a 67-year-old man was swimming at Wangi Falls about 11.30am when he was struck by the reptile, sustaining non-life threatening injuries to his arm and back.

The department’s director for northern Australian parks, Dean McAdam, said:

Public safety is our key priority, so please obey all closures and do not enter the water while we are completing the crocodile surveys.

We work hard to reduce the risk of crocodiles in the management zones, however there is always the chance they can move into an area undetected.

Read more from yesterday:

Updated

Crown’s $450m fine sends ‘clearest signal’ over casinos’ responsibility to guard against money laundering: Dreyfus

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, says the $450m fine against Crown sends “the clearest possible signal to the gambling and casino sectors that they must be vigilant to the risk of money laundering and terrorism financing”.

The federal court signed off on the order today, agreed between Crown and financial regulator Austrac earlier this year. Dreyfus praised Austrac for its work.

He said in a statement:

Casinos are at serious risk of exploitation by criminals seeking to launder illicit funds and have a clear responsibility to help protect our financial system from these threats.

Businesses who fail to meet their obligations and systematically breach the law should know that AUSTRAC will take whatever action is necessary to ensure they comply with the [Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing] Act.

Dreyfus noted Crown’s admission that it operated in contravention of the AML/CTF Act, that its failings were very serious, and allowed high-risk activity to go undetected or unaddressed for many years. He said:

This order sends the clearest possible signal to the gambling and casino sectors that they must be vigilant to the risk of money laundering and terrorism financing and ensure they stop these criminals from using their services to launder the proceeds of their crimes.

Updated

SA Health publishes weekly flu update

In more health news, South Australia Health has published its weekly flu update.

There are currently 33 people in hospital in the state with influenza, and 921 new cases were reported in the past week.

Updated

Rise in Victorian gastro superbug cases sparks public warning

Cases of a gastro superbug are rising in Victoria, prompting a warning from the state’s public health chief, AAP reports.

The outgoing Victorian chief health officer, Brett Sutton, has issued an alert over increasing antibiotic-resistant shigella bacteria infections, also known as shigellosis.

Shigellosis is a bowel infection and can lead to acute diarrhoea, fever, nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps. It is highly contagious and can be transmitted through sexual contact.

Sutton warned:

Symptoms usually develop one to three days following exposure but can occur as early as 12 hours to as late as one week afterwards in some cases.

Cases remain infectious while the shigella bacteria continue to be shed in faeces. This can last for up to four weeks after symptoms resolve.

Many of the antibiotic-resistant Victorian cases have been identified among men who have had recent sexual contact with other men, while others involved returned travellers.

Health officials are contacting those diagnosed with the shigellosis superbug and their contacts with advice about monitoring for symptoms, testing and exclusion requirements.

Sutton urged people with gastrointestinal symptoms to practise safer sex, maintain good hygiene and avoid preparing food or caring for others.

Updated

Frosty mornings in store for parts of Queensland and NSW

Large parts of Queensland and NSW could be in for a chilly morning tomorrow after experiencing frost and sub-zero temperatures early today, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Of note, it was -7.8C in Glen Innes and Armidale this morning, -5C in Applethorpe and -2.8C in Warwick.

The BoM said cooler than average conditions are expected to persist for southern QLD and northern NSW tomorrow.

Updated

It’s been quite a busy day of news, so if you’d like to take a moment and catch up on all the biggest headlines, my colleague Antoun Issa has you covered:

PM lands in Lithuania ahead of Nato summit

Anthony Albanese’s RAAF plane has just landed at the airport in Lithuania about an hour from Vilnius, where he will attend the Nato summit.

Here is what he had to say before he boarded:

Updated

ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle’s trial delayed by another 12 months

Richard Boyle’s trial has been delayed by another 12 months and will not take place until at least September 2024.

Boyle, a former tax official who blew the whistle on the government’s aggressive pursuit of debts, was due to face trial later this year in the South Australian district court.

Boyle had sought to use whistleblower protections to end the case against him. The district court ruled against Boyle and denied him whistleblower protections earlier this year.

His lawyers are currently appealing against the Public Interest Disclosure Act decision. The appeal will pose another major test of the strength of the nation’s whistleblowing laws.

The trial was on Tuesday delayed for a further year to allow the appeal process to be completed. His trial will now not take place until September 2024.

Human Rights Law Centre senior lawyer Kieran Pender said it meant Boyle would have had a prosecution hanging over him for almost seven years by the time his trial takes place.

The ongoing delay of the prosecution of Richard Boyle only underscores the injustice of the case. Boyle spoke up about wrongdoing at the tax office; he has been vindicated by multiple independent inquiries and yet his prosecution drags on.

Updated

Penny Wong announces new ambassadors and high commissioners

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has announced the appointment of Australia’s new high commissioners and ambassadors:

  • David Jessup as Australia’s first resident high commissioner to the Republic of Maldives.

  • Matt Skelly as Australia’s next high commissioner to Malta. Skelly will also be accredited to Tunisia.

  • Rachel Moseley as Australia’s next ambassador to Mexico. Moseley will also be accredited to Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

  • Shane Flanagan as Australia’s next ambassador to Qatar.

  • Brenton Garlick as Australia’s next high commissioner to Tuvalu.

  • Vanessa Wood as Australia’s next ambassador for arms control and counter-proliferation.

  • James Larsen as Australia’s next ambassador and permanent representative to the UN in New York.

Wong said:

The appointment of Australia’s first resident high commissioner in Malé, Maldives demonstrates Australia’s increased engagement in the Indian Ocean, including through the Indian Ocean Rim Association.

I thank the outgoing ambassadors and high commissioners for their contributions to advancing Australia’s interests.

Updated

Labor senator calls robodebt ‘a train wreck’ while Liberal MP defends Morrison’s seat

The Labor senator Deborah O’Neill is speaking on the ABC about the robodebt royal commission, labelling it “the most gross failure of public office that could be imagined”.

It was a train wreck, being revealed, night after night in the Senate … I think we shouldn’t put away the words of the commissioner, that this was a crude and cruel mechanism, it was neither fair nor legal, and it made people feel like criminals, and that’s exactly what they said when they were giving evidence.

The Liberal MP James Stevens said the government “should facilitate a process to determine appropriate compensation”.

Stevens is asked if former PM Scott Morrison’s seat in parliament is feasible. Morrison has faced calls from across the political spectrum to resign in the wake of the robodebt report.

Stevens argues Morrison should stay:

He is the duly elected member for the seat of Cook and there’s no grounds for a member of parliament to be hounded out of the parliament. You serve your full term.

Updated

Google on ‘cutting edge’ of work to detect AI-generated content, senate committee hears

The Greens senator David Shoebridge is continuing to provide updates on social media from today’s hearing of the Senate committee on foreign interference through social media.

During a hearing this afternoon, Google said it was using artificial intelligence to detect harms and enhance security online, saying:

This is going to be somewhat of an arms race between attackers and defenders.

Google says it is on the cutting edge of the detection work to better inform users about AI generated content.

Shoebridge says there is an important role for the government to play in ensuring transparency and accountability when it comes to the use of AI and AI-generated content. He tweeted:

The Government needs to be proactive in this space to ensure it protects users, social cohesion and democracy.

This will take more than hoping these platforms do the right thing.

Updated

Prosecco and feta among main sticking points in EU trade deal, shadow minister says

The shadow trade minister, Kevin Hogan, just spoke on the ABC from Lismore on the free trade agreement negotiations between Australia and the EU.

He listed the main sticking points as prosecco and feta, and other dairy products like parmesan:

Just to take prosecco as one example we don’t think the government should cave in any shape or form on that one … [it] was found to be a grape variety not a geographical position.

… It is important for the prosecco industry in Australia that they not to lose the right to that name, as it is for feta and other dairy products.

… This is life and death for them [for that industry and] we have to hold out.

Hogan said that the EU has done free trade agreements before now, arguing they have “given much better quotes than what they are offering to us now”:

We should get one of the best deals we can.

Updated

Former EU trade boss on deal with Australia

The former EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan also spoke to the ABC from Brussels.

He said a lot of ground work has been done during five years of negotiations on the FTA between Australia and the EU, and it would be “unthinkable if it failed this last hurdle”.

His assessment is that Europe wants to do a deal but needs to strike the right balance between “sensitivities and insight”, like Australia:

There are very important sensitivities, in both continents, but that is the art of the possible in politics and I hope and expect we would be able to reach an accommodation with each other.

Updated

EU trade negotiations around agriculture ‘really tough’, farmers group says

The National Farmers’ Federation chief executive, Tony Mahar, spoke to the ABC from Brussels about Australia’s fair trade agreement negotiations with the EU.

He said negotiations are continuing but are “really tough”, especially around agriculture. He said agriculture is always one of the last issues to be agreed to and can be difficult because the agriculture is so culturally sensitive:

If we’re talking about things like geographical indicators for the dairy sector, beef and lamb imports, sugar, horticulture, some of these sectors are really challenging and it goes down to the different product.

Mahar said the Farmers’ Federation their advice to the government is to walk away from the deal if Australia doesn’t get the commercial outcomes for farmers it wants:

It’s not worth doing a deal just for the sake of it. These negotiations have been going on for a number of years. Our advice to government is walk away, let the dust settle a little bit, come back in a few months’ time, have another go.

It’s too important not to get it right. These agreements are in place … for decades after. So we want to make sure that we get this right for Australian farmers from the first day for the decades that follow.

Updated

Sydney toll network facing ‘number of problems’, review chair says

Sydney appears unlikely to ditch its reputation as one of the world’s most tolled cities, as a landmark review of its patchwork toll network hears of the complexities standing in the way of radical change.

On the first of three days of public hearings held by the independent review commissioned by the New South Wales Labor government, tolling goliath Transurban, which operates 11 of Sydney’s paid motorways, said it was “open to discussions” on reform approaches floated so far to simplify Sydney’s network that include toll zones as well as distance-based and time-of-day charges.

However Michele Huey, NSW group executive at Transurban, appeared to downplay the company’s dominance in the market, warning that other investors in its paid roads, particularly superannuation funds, would also need to be convinced that reforms would not adversely affect the toll contracts – known as concession – they’re invested in.

Chris Jackson, Transurban’s general manager of customer experience, said the company was open to improving signage on its toll roads to communicate costs but also the time savings motorists stood to benefit from.

Huey added that “from a competition perspective, we would consider our sector to be one of the most competitive and also regulated areas”, noting drivers always had the choice of a free alternative road. She also said Transurban’s toll roads had freed up local roads in Sydney from pollution and wear and tear.

However later on Tuesday, Bryce Spelta, manager of infrastructure at Sydney’s Bayside council, said the impact of the M5 East toll in 2020 had seen heavy vehicle movements on one suburban road increase by 300% since 2015 as trucks were unable to afford the toll charges, which are routinely multiplied by three for heavy vehicles.

Warren Clark, CEO of the National Road Transport Association that represents truck operators, said it was not uncommon for members to spend $100,000 on tolls a year, and that many larger operators spent this in a month. He said it costs more in tolls to distribute freight from Sydney’s west to the northern beaches than the driver’s wages.

Allan Fels, the former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair leading the review, acknowledged the complexities raised on the first day of hearings. “There are a number of problems. If we took any one of those problems and solved it, it would be in conflict” with other problems in the system, he said.

You can read more about Sydney’s toll reforms here:

Updated

More on NSW’s first rental commissioner, Trina Jones, via AAP:

Jones also won’t be advocating anytime soon for rent freezes – a Greens policy opposed by the government – but instead for areas she can get traction with immediately. She said:

You need to implement policies that will work.

What we need to do now is look at the available priorities to us where we’re in agreement.

Jones said she looked forward to sharing ideas with Heather Holst, the Victorian residential tenancies commissioner since 2018.

In recent years the state has banned all forms of rental bidding, introduced rental minimum standards, allowed modifications by renters, and expanded the definition of “urgent repairs” to include mould and damp.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said Jones had a massive job to navigate complex legislative and marketplace changes to make renting fair. But he won’t make that easier by accepting every change she recommends:

We’re the executive government, we’ve been elected to make decisions on behalf of the people of NSW.

But I don’t see that being vastly different from any other commissioner that we’ve employed in NSW that can provide public, independent advice about the best way to move forward.

Updated

NSW rental commissioner to push for affordable housing

The new advocate for NSW’s two million renters will continue calling for more social housing but has shied away from a recent stance on rent bidding, AAP reports.

The rental commissioner Trina Jones says she will prioritise quality, affordability and fairness as her independent office champions community-wide changes to the rental system.

Jones said part of improving conditions for renters would be continuing to call for more investment in social housing. She told reporters today:

The evidence and policy is clear that investment in housing that people can afford can have knock-on impacts to ensure that rental is more affordable.

But she declined to say whether she would maintain the position taken in June by Homelessness NSW in an inquiry into secret rent bidding.

Labor made an election promise to make rent bidding transparent, only to ditch the proposal when experts warned it could further inflate the market.

Homelessness NSW told a rent bidding inquiry that an effective compromise could be banning agents and landlords from accepting a price higher than initially advertised.

Updated

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has shared a clip on social media from his earlier press conference, speaking on why he is attending the Nato summit in Lithuania:

Updated

Senator calls on government to mandate TikTok ban on employee devices

As hearings of the Senate select committee on foreign interference through social media continue today, the shadow home affairs and cyber security minister, James Paterson, has welcomed news that consulting firm BCG has banned TikTok from the devices of its employees working on government clients.

Paterson tweeted:

It’s time for the Albanese government to mandate this requirement for all contractors.

Updated

Increased access to medical abortion ‘so important’: Tanya Plibersek

Politicians are reacting to news that medical abortions will become easier to access under new rules allowing doctors and pharmacists without specialist certification to prescribe termination pills.

Labor MP Tanya Plibersek said the move was “so important”, tweeting:

Accessible reproductive health is a fundamental right.

The deputy Greens leader, Mehreen Faruqi, said the decision marks another barrier down for reproductive healthcare access, particularly for those in regional and remote areas.

She wrote on Twitter:

Our work isn’t done yet, there are still many barriers … Abortion should be accessible and provided through our public hospitals, fee-free and covered by Medicare.

You can read more on the new rules here:

Updated

For World Population Day, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shared a snapshot of the nation’s population 20 years ago compared to now:

Ben Roberts-Smith lodges appeal after losing defamation case

Ben Roberts-Smith has lodged an appeal against his defeat in a war crimes defamation trial in the federal court.

Justice Anthony Besanko found last month that the newspapers he was suing had proven in their defence that Roberts-Smith had, on the balance of probabilities, murdered unarmed civilians while serving in the Australian military in Afghanistan.

Ben Roberts-Smith
Ben Roberts-Smith Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

The judge found Roberts-Smith, a recipient of the Victoria Cross and Australia’s most decorated living soldier, was complicit in four murders, and was “not an honest and reliable witness” who had “motives to lie” to the court.

The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times published a series of reports in 2018 that alleged Roberts-Smith was involved in murdering civilians, including kicking a handcuffed man off a cliff, ordering subordinate soldiers to kill prisoners, and placing weapons on the bodies of murdered people in order to fake combat deaths.

Roberts-Smith sued for defamation.

Judgment in the year-long trial was handed down last month, dismissing Roberts-Smith’s claim.

Roberts-Smith filed his appeal on Tuesday afternoon, two days before the deadline to appeal expired. His appeal will be heard before the full bench of the federal court at a date to be fixed.

Updated

China’s access to TikTok data ‘needs to be interrogated’, Greens senator says

The Greens senator David Shoebridge has been tweeting highlights from today’s hearings of the Senate select committee on foreign interference through social media.

This afternoon, representatives from TikTok are being questioned by the chair about its connections to parent company ByteDance and the Chinese government.

TikTok said its employees based in China are subject to China’s national security laws, and that any business with operations and staff in China are also subject to these laws including banks and telcos.

Shoebridge writes:

This raises important and serious questions around the broad access to data that China may have under its national security laws and this needs to be interrogated if we are serious about transparency and foreign interference instead of just playing politics with the issue.

Shoebridge said TikTok has taken on notice to provide the number of times Australian user data has been accessed by employees in China:

This is important information we should be seeking from all platforms who have access to Australian users’ data which may be accessible by foreign entities.

Updated

‘People who use social security are not villains’: Shorten

Circling back to Bill Shorten’s earlier press conference on robodebt, he said:

If the opposition want to work with us, they need to work with the victims of robodebt.

Having former prime minister [Scott] Morrison say he did nothing wrong makes it very hard for the opposition to be taken credibly if they want to work with us.

At the end of the presser Shorten said moving forward, the rhetoric around those accessing social security benefits needs to change:

Specifically, people who use social security are not villains. The level of fraud is tiny.

Of course, if people owe money they have got to pay [it] back. But we’ve got to change the debate that everyone on welfare is a doll bludger.

We have to stop treating people who may have fallen on hard times as a second-class Australian.

Updated

Who should be the next RBA governor – and who might be?

Speculation continues to swirl about what the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will do with the Reserve Bank governor’s role as Philip Lowe’s seven-year term nears its mid-September end.

We’re hearing that the decision has not formally been made yet. Chalmers and Lowe head off to India next week for a G20 meeting (as keen readers of this blog will have noted last week).

Should Chalmers declare his pick before the trip and choose someone other than Lowe might make for a frosty summit for the two.

A handful of candidates have been identified with most of those nominated hailing from Canberra. We look at that list here and ask whom Chalmers might be best served standing next to him in a financial crisis:

Lowe started at governor during a relatively calm patch, at least as market gyrations were concerned. In fact he went more than two and a half years without having to oversee an interest rate move and that first one was a cut.

Quite a contrast to how his term is ending – as seems to be the likely outcome – with 12 rate rises in 14 meetings and time for two more before he heads off into a post-RBA career.

Updated

Albanese warns he won’t sign EU trade deal unless in Australia’s interest

During his press conference in Germany, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, touched on the ongoing negotiations between Australia and the European Union for a free trade agreement.

His trade minister, Don Farrell, is in Brussels for a further round of negotiations but said today the EU must offer greater access for Australian exports.

Albanese said the issue came up in talks yesterday with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz:

We won’t sign up [to an FTA with the EU] unless it is in Australia’s interest and Chancellor Scholz is playing a very constructive role there.

Albanese is heading to Lithuania for the two-day Nato summit, and is due to meet tonight with another significant EU leader, the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

Asked what message he would have to Macron, Albanese said he expected an “open and constructive discussion” with the French president:

We won’t be signing up to things that are not in Australia’s national interest …

We’re not asking for anything that other countries have not received. It is important for Australia to have access to those markets.

Updated

‘Australia very much welcomes the release of Chau Van Kham’: PM

Concluding his press conference from Berlin, Albanese spoke on the release of the Australian citizen Chau Van Kham from detention in Vietnam after more than four years:

Australia very much welcomes the release of Chau Van Kham. This is an issue that I’ve raised during my visit to Vietnam which was a very constructive visit. And I thank our friends in Vietnam for listening and for agreeing during my visit there, for this to occur.

Chau Van Kham
Chau Van Kham Photograph: HRW/EPA

Chau Van Kham has now been able to be reunited with his family in Australia, we welcome that. It’s an example of how engagement in a constructive way achieves results in Australia’s national interest. And I was very pleased that Chris Bowen was able to represent me and welcome Chau Van Kham back to Australia.

Updated

‘We won’t be signing up to things that are not in Australia’s national interest’: PM

As Albanese prepares to meet the French president, Emmanuel Macron, later today, he said his focus is to conclude the free trade agreement while ensuring it is in Australia’s interest:

My message to president Macron will be that we want to conclude this agreement, but that we won’t be signing up to things that are not in Australia’s national interest.

In particular, we want access to European markets and we want to have the mutual benefit that comes from free trade between Australia and Europe. France, of course, has raised some issues but I’m confident that they can be worked through. And I’ll be having an open and constructive discussion with president Macron.

We’re not asking for anything that other countries have not received.

Updated

Australia a ‘significant player’ in ‘defending democracy’: PM

Albanese said he accepted the invitation to attend the Nato summit because it’s in Australia’s best interest to have a seat at the table:

And this seat at the table is one that’s a recognition of Australia’s contribution, and the fact we are a significant player when it comes to defending democracy, defending the rule of law, and Australia’s standing is reflected by the fact that I’ve been invited to the last two Nato summits.

Albanese said he’ll be meeting with his counterparts today and tomorrow to discuss a shared goal of a secure, stable and prosperous global community.

I’ll be meeting with Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of Nato, senior leaders in the US congress, the prime ministers of Denmark, Portugal, the United Kingdom, as well as Emmanuel Macron, the president of France. And other leaders over the next couple of days in Lithuania.

Updated

Australia to ‘continue to provide support for Ukraine’: PM

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is speaking live from Berlin now.

He is discussing Australia’s deployment of the E7 wedge tail aircraft and crew to Germany for six months:

This will be a major contribution to the effort to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine and is something that has been requested. We have said that we will work with our Ukrainian friends but also work with our partners here in Nato to provide what support we can for the effort which has been undertaken to defend the people and government and democracy of Ukraine.

We understand that the impact of the Russian invasion on Ukraine has been felt around the world, with the rise in global inflation and a weaker global economy. And that’s why it is in Australia’s interest to reach out and be involved. The Nato summit meets as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. We’ll continue to provide support for Ukraine. I’m hoping to meet with president Zelensky over the next couple of days.

Updated

Some robodebt victims will seek further legal advice, Shorten says

Circling back to Bill Shorten’s press conference on the robodebt royal commission, he said:

I have watched the Coalition ministers say that merely because they haven’t been referred to a criminal body, or to some other regulatory authority, that somehow it has given them a clean bill of health.

I just think that there will be some victims of robodebt who will be seeking legal advice …

I suspect that there will be some individuals who seek legal advice and they may well seek a remedy of suing the individual former ministers and that is why said last night I don’t know why these ministers are running around acting like they are out of the woods yet.

This is a shameful scandal in Australian political history.

Shorten said that ministers may seek indemnity, but it will be a matter for lawyers to work through:

There are a lot of people out there who want accountability and until they see accountability, I don’t think it’s over.

Updated

Penny Wong flies to Indonesia

The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, is flying to Indonesia today as she prepares to attend a series of regional meetings.

The meetings in Jakarta include the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)-Australia foreign ministers’ meeting, the East Asia Summit foreign ministers’ meeting, and the Asean regional forum.

Wong said Australia saw Asean as being “at the centre of a stable, peaceful and prosperous region”. She said in a statement announcing her travel:

We have deep family, education, tourism and business connections with the countries of southeast Asia, and our future is tied to the future of the region we share...

A strong Asean is indispensable to the stability of our region. Australia will continue to work in partnership with Asean to shape the kind of region we all want.

Wong said she would discuss with her counterparts any opportunities to enhance cooperation on climate change, health security, and the Asean Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.

She is also scheduled to speak with young Indonesias “about our shared aspirations for the region”. Tomorrow’s youth dialogue event is hosted by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia, a thinktank, and the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

‘Shocking pathology of unlawfulness’ exposed by robodebt royal commission, Shorten says

Minister for government services Bill Shorten has been speaking from the Gold Coast about the fallout from the robodebt royal commission.

He labelled the scheme as “the most shameful chapter in the administration of Australia’s social security law since Federation”:

It was a mass act of unlawfulness perpetrated on hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Australians for no other reason that they were vulnerable and using a welfare system.

The royal commission, which is a result Labor’s election promise, has exposed a shocking pathology of unlawfulness at the cabinet level of the former Coalition government and in the senior ranks of Australia’s public service.

For four and a half years an unlawful scheme was perpetrated against Australia’s poor and vulnerable, merely because they were on welfare. It was illegal.

Updated

Fire in Sydney’s Northern Beaches treated as suspicious

A fire that engulfed an industrial estate on Sydney’s Northern Beaches is being treated as suspicious and nearby residents are being urged to avoid toxic smoke and fumes spewing from the charred remains, AAP reports.

Flames engulfed a tyre and mechanical workshop in Brookvale just before 7pm on Monday, and it took more than 50 firefighters and 16 fire trucks to get the blaze under control.

Residents are being urged to stay indoors and shut any windows as thick, acrid smoke continues to billow from the building.

Some said they could smell toxic fumes and worried of a possible chemical spill, a NSW Police spokesperson told AAP.

Several cars have been damaged by the fire and falling debris, though no injuries have been reported. It is believed there was no one inside the building when the fire broke out.

A crime scene has been established, with police suspecting the blaze was deliberately lit. Investigators have so far been unable to enter the building and properly assess the scene.

The fire is expected to smoulder for the next couple of days as firefighters continue to douse the building using aerial ladder platforms.

Yes campaigners in Perth

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney has shared a photo on social media from her travels around Western Australia this week:

As reported by my colleague Josh Butler yesterday, Yes23 took its campaign to Perth in hopes of driving up support for the Indigenous voice in WA – expected to be a crucial battleground in the referendum later this year.

Yes23 director Dean Parkin brought together a cross-party group of supporters in the capital city yesterday, while Burney will also spend several days campaigning around the state this week.

Updated

Continued from last post:

Environmental campaigners spent years calling for the NSW government to regulate the loss of surface water at mine sites.

On the eve of the NSW election in March, the former state government gazetted rules directing Water NSW to issue licences to several mines, including Dendrobium, in an attempt to address this.

A spokesperson for South32 said because of this earlier absence of an approved water licensing regime, it had been in talks with NRAR since 2019 in relation to past water usage at the Dendrobium mine.

The spokesperson said the company had cooperated with the regulator and committed to the enforceable undertaking, with the planned water project to be developed in collaboration with the community in coming months:

We welcome the surface water licensing regime announced by the NSW Government earlier this year and we are pleased the matter has been concluded.

Since 2014, South32 Illawarra Metallurgical Coal has paid A$5.6 million to account for the passive take of water resulting from underground activities at Dendrobium Mine. We understand that water is a critical resource and recognise our obligation to pay for all water used by our operations in the same manner all water users do.

‘Largest’ ever compensation agreement for water law breaches in NSW

The New South Wales water regulator says it has secured the “largest and most significant” agreement to compensate for breaches of water laws in the agency’s history after Illawarra Coal took surface water without a licence at its Dendrobium mine near Wollongong over five years.

The Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) said it had reached a $2.9m enforceable undertaking with the company, a subsidiary of South32, for multiple instances of unlicensed, incidental use of surface water at the metallurgical coal mine.

Under the agreement, Illawarra Coal will acknowledge the alleged breaches, which occurred in every financial year from 2018-19 to 2022-23, the regulator said.

The undertaking includes a $2,878,139 contribution for a community project to improve the health of and restore waterways and wetlands. The company has until September to submit a proposal for the community project to NRAR and must start delivering it within three months of the proposal being accepted.

The regulator said the company would pay a further $70,000 to cover NRAR’s investigation, legal and monitoring costs, with an option to increase these costs after the project proposal is received.

In a statement, NRAR said other aspects of the agreement included commitments from Illawarra Coal to improve surface water management with annual reporting back to NRAR and to consult with Aboriginal communities and groups connected to the area about the project.

NRAR’s chief regulatory officer Greg Barnes said the “landmark” agreement would result in tangible community benefits. He said before the regulator considered accepting an enforceable undertaking, it had to be satisfied the alleged breaches were acknowledged and the proposed actions would address them:

In this [undertaking], NRAR considers that we have achieved the most effective outcome for the people of NSW which redresses the alleged breaches that occurred, delivers benefits to the local community, and puts in place much improved processes to better manage water at this mine in the future.

This enforceable undertaking also takes into account the impact of the alleged breaches on the local Aboriginal community and puts in place a commitment to dialogue between the company and that community.

Updated

Regional communities ‘on frontline’ of energy transition

A group representing 51 regional cities around Australia has called for a nationally consistent approach to Australia’s “rapid escalation into renewable energy”, which it says has put its communities on the frontline.

In a statement, the chair of Regional Capitals Australia (RCA) Kylie King said regional communities “deserve a seat at the decision-making table” to make sure they had a “real voice on the massive infrastructure projects occurring in their own backyard.”

RCA has called on the energy minister, Chris Bowen, to introduce new safeguards to make sure regional communities are consulted and protected.

RCA points to a speech from Bowen last year where he estimated Australia would need to install about 40 wind turbines every month and 22,000 solar panels a day until 2030 to hit its emissions reduction target. King said:

A nationally consistent framework that delivers baseline community investment and best-practice consultation should assist in delivery of a social licence.

Adherence to this framework should be a regulatory requirement for all project proponents seeking to operate in regional communities.

Aerial drone image of South Keswick Solar Farm, Dubbo, NSW
A solar farm in Dubbo, NSW. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

RCA said impacts of renewable energy installations could include “loss of vegetation and wildlife, loss of public and private land, pollution (noise/air/ground), visual impacts and loss of local amenity and long construction phase and itinerant workforce leading to impacts on local roads, housing and services.”

Updated

No special treatment for government on reported posts, Meta says

Meta has said government departments that reported posts containing alleged misinformation received no different treatment than any member of the public would for making similar reports.

During the early stages of the pandemic, Guardian Australia reported Home Affairs, under the former Morrison government, had been reporting hundreds of posts to Facebook parent company, Meta, for misinformation related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Two years later, News Corp has reported this amounted to thousands of posts, which the Australian newspaper said was censorship.

Speaking before a foreign interference on social media committee, Meta’s head of public policy in Australia, Josh Makin, said such reports were only assessed against Meta’s existing misinformation policies and a referral didn’t amount to a legal request for the content to be removed:

Of course we want to be responsive to Australian government agencies … but I would want to state fairly clearly there is no special treatment applied. We have the same policies applied to it… Just because it’s come from government doesn’t mean we treat it differently.

We would remove it if it violated our policies, but there were instances where … it did not violate our policies and we advised the government departments of that.

Updated

Queensland Kiwis take up Australian citizenship

Immigration minister Andrew Giles says more than 1,100 Queensland-based Kiwis have already taken important steps towards Australian citizenship.

In April around 380,000 New Zealanders living in Australia became eligible to apply for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first, thanks to sweeping changes restoring reciprocity to the rights of expats in both countries.

Updated

Greens call for consultants to drop political donations

The Greens say all four major consultancy firms should stop donating to political parties, following PwC’s announcement yesterday it would no longer donate directly to parties.

The decision covers contributions that are reportable to the Australian Electoral Commission as political donations, including in-kind support such as catering, services and office space.

The company has yet to decide on whether it will continue to pay for memberships to organisations such as the Liberal Party’s Australian Business Network and the Federal Labor Business Forum.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock said PwC needed to explain its decision in more detail:

Will they continue their membership of the business networks run by the major parties?

It doesn’t matter what pipeline you use, anyone doing business with the government should not be allowed to give them money, full stop.

She told AAP all of the “big four” consulting firms should stop making cash donations to parties, adding that law changes were needed to “break the link between money and politics”.

- with AAP

Updated

Australia threatens to walk away from EU trade talks

Negotiations for a free trade agreement with the European Union have hit a crunch point, with the trade minister, Don Farrell, warning that he will “not go back to Australia with the offer that’s currently on the table”.

The comments appear to raise the possibility that Farrell, who is in Brussels for the second time in just over a month, is prepared to walk away from a deal unless the EU offers more meaningful market access for Australian beef, sheep meat, sugar and dairy into the EU.

The negotiations in Brussels are expected to resume in a few hours. Farrell said:

I want to secure a fair, long-term agreement that lasts us into the future and is in both of our interests – Australia and the European Union.

I will not go back to Australia with the offer that’s currently on the table.

This approach has the backing of the National Farmers’ Federation chief executive, Tony Mahar, who is also in Brussels.

In a statement issued today, Mahar urged Australian negotiators to “continue to hold the line to ensure a fair and commercially meaningful deal with the EU”:

While we appreciate the years of hard work that has brought us to this point, and it would be a shame to see that wasted – we are better to walk away than to agree a dud deal.

We’ve made that point clearly to Minister Farrell here in Brussels. We’ve said to walk away from any deal that doesn’t make good business sense. We’d rather this take a few extra months if necessary.

Updated

Sex Assault Squad detectives have charged a WA Police Force senior constable with 17 offences after an investigation into allegations of child sex offences, according to a WA Police Force media release.

The 48-year-old man works in Regional WA. He was stood down at the time police received the complaint, while the matters were investigated.

It will be alleged that between 2009 and 2012 the man had a sexual relationship with a girl who was 13-years-old at the time of the first alleged offence.

He is due to appear before the Perth Magistrates Court today.

The media release outlines the charges of seven counts of Indecently Deals with a Child of or over 13 and under 16 years; six counts of Sexually Penetrated a Child of or over 13 and under 16 years; three counts of Sexually Penetrated a Child over 16 under their Authority.; and one count of Persistent Sexual Conduct.

‘Welcome home Mr Kham’

Shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham has welcomed news that Australian citizen Chau Van Kham has been released after more than four years’ detention in Vietnam.

In a tweet, Birmingham said:

This is very welcome news. This positive outcome for Mr Kham & his family reflects the determined efforts of [Australian] ministers & officials, including former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marise Payne, over a number of years. Welcome home Mr Kham.

Updated

Young people most likely to give to others in need, survey finds

Young Australians are leading the way as the country’s most altruistic despite often having lower paying jobs and less in the bank, according to new research from Finder.

According to a survey of 1,080 respondents, two in five Australians have lended a hand to a friend, family member, colleague or even a stranger struggling to keep up with the cost of living.

Despite being the second-most financially stressed of all generations (90%) and feeling the least secure in their current job (12%), Gen Z was the most likely to step up and help others around them when they needed it the most (55%).

This is followed by Gen Y (44%), Gen X (35%) and baby boomers (26%).

The area where people are most likely to help out is with groceries. For the average Australian, 27% of respondents helped someone in need with groceries, compared to 40% of Gen Z.

Sarah Megginson from Finder said:

It’s a heartening act that demonstrates the power of community and the importance of looking out for one another during tough times.

Updated

Queensland police are taking a unique route to poach experienced police officers from NSW – $20,000 in incentives AND the lure of a winning state of origin team:

Updated

Human Rights Watch welcomes Chau Van Kham’s release

More reaction is flowing in after the news that Australian citizen Chau Van Kham has been released after more than four years of detention in Vietnam.

Human Rights Watch’s Asia director, Elaine Pearson, said in a statement:

It’s fantastic news that Australian retired baker and activist Chau Van Kham has been released after more than four years of detention in Vietnam. He spent far too long in prison.

Vietnamese police arrested him in January 2019 and in November 2019, a Vietnamese court convicted him of ‘terrorism’ and sentenced him to 12 years prison after a trial lasting merely hours that raised serious due process concerns.

The case was based on his affiliation and activities with an opposition political party, Viet Tan, which operates openly and lawfully in many countries including Australia, but which Hanoi arbitrarily labels ‘terrorist.’ He spent long periods of time isolated from family and consular staff due to pandemic restrictions.
We are thrilled for Chau Van Kham’s family and acknowledge the successful efforts of the Australian government at the most senior levels to secure his release.

Chau Van Kham
Quynh Trang Truong with her son Daniel Chaua at their home in Sydney. Her husband and his father Chau Van Kham has been released from detention in Vietnam. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

Pearson said the Australian government should “continue to call on Vietnamese authorities to release all political prisoners”.

Updated

Thanks Rafqa for taking us through the morning! I’ll be with you on the blog for the remainder of the day.

Thanks for joining me on the blog this morning. Handing over to Emily Wind, who will take you through this afternoon’s news.

See you tomorrow!

Meta can't say when fact-checking function will launch

Meta has “aspiration” to apply fact-checking and state media labels to accounts on its Twitter rival, Threads, but could not say when such functions will be made available.

Speaking at a hearing of the parliamentary committee examining foreign interference on social media, Meta’s head of public policy in Australia, Josh Makin, said while the content moderation policies on Facebook and Instagram apply to Threads out of the box, tools to identify state media and fact-checking of Thread posts aren’t yet available on the platform.

Noting the popularity of the site – there are now 100m users on the service less than a week after launch – Makin said “it’s only a couple of days old, we are still building out broader functionality and partnerships.”

Makin said Meta plans to build it out “fairly quickly” but when pressed by chair senator James Paterson on when state-affiliated news outlets like RT might be labelled as such, Makin said it was the company’s “aspiration” to get it built quickly but could not provide timing.

Updated

Australian pro-democracy activist released from Vietnamese jail

Australian citizen and pro-democracy activist Chau Van Kham has been released from a Vietnamese jail, AAP reports.

The retired Sydney baker was arrested in 2019 on terrorism charges. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison over his membership of the overseas, pro-democracy political party Viet Tan.

Deputy prime minister Richard Marles thanked the Vietnamese government for its action.

Chau Van Kham
Pro-democracy activist Chau Van Kham. Photograph: HRW/EPA

Marles told reporters today:

They’ve done this on the basis of humanitarian grounds and in the spirit of friendship, which exists between Australia and Vietnam.

This is a result of careful advocacy which has been undertaken by the Australian government with the Vietnamese government over a number of months now.

Updated

NAB business survey points to economy’s resilience despite cost pressures

If consumers are in a funk, companies aren’t there – yet.

The last monthly survey of business by NAB shows conditions remained steady at above-average levels.

Not all is going swimmingly, though, with the retail sector weakening, business confidence at “zero” and forward orders now negative.

Capacity utilisation has also dropped to 83.5%, or the lowest level since April 2022 (just prior to the RBA starting its rate-rise cycle). A bit of slack in the economy is what the central bank wants to see.

Employees may be happy to see labour cost growth picking up to 2.6% in the June quarter alone, but the central bank won’t be so keen. Input costs overall rose 2.3% for the quarter.

NAB’s chief economist Alan Oster said:

Overall, the survey suggests the economy remained resilient and price pressures continued through the end of Q2, despite warning signs that growth is slowing.

Updated

Consumer confidence perks up a bit but remains subdued

There are a couple of sentiment surveys out today tracking the mood of households and businesses.

First up, there’s the monthly Westpac/Melbourne Institute survey of consumer confidence, which showed a pickup of 2.7% to 81.3 in July.

Westpac’s Bill Evans said:

Sentiment remains at the deeply pessimistic levels that have prevailed for just over a year now.

The main drags on sentiment throughout this period of depressingly low consumer sentiment have been the surging cost of living and sharply higher interest rates.

Still, the drop in monthly CPI inflation to 5.6% in May was one positive. Interestingly, the Reserve Bank keeping its cash rate unchanged in July didn’t help buoy confidence. (Presumably it would have tanked if they had lifted it.)

ANZ and Roy Morgan run a separate weekly sentiment survey, and that found a 0.8% decline, too, even with the RBA pause.

Their gauge also tracks inflation expectations, and those retreated in the past week, a trend the central bank wants to see.

We’ll have the business survey shortly. Stay tuned...

Updated

Greens call for free abortions after TGA changes

Greens senator Larissa Waters says today’s Therapeutic Goods Administration amendment to allow more medical practitioners and pharmacists to supply the abortion pill is a step forward in improving access to reproductive choice, but urges the government to make the abortion pill free of charge.

Today’s decision to allow all doctors and nurse practitioners to prescribe the pregnancy termination pill, and all pharmacies to stock it, will improve access for women and pregnant people, particularly in regional and remote parts of the country.

This announcement will go a long way to improving access, but financial barriers remain and the Greens want to see zero out of pocket costs for abortion, whether medical or surgical.

Waters also says “it is disappointing to see midwives not included in today’s announcement”.

She calls the government to implement all recommendations made by the multipartisan Senate inquiry into Universal access to reproductive healthcare.

Updated

Industry super body wants 30-hour threshold removed

Teenage workers could forgo more than $10,000 from their super balances because of a rule that bars them from automatic contributions.

Hundreds of thousands of young workers are missing out on super from their employers because of a law asserting under-18 workers are not entitled to compulsory super contributions unless they work 30 hours a week for the same employer, AAP reports.

Industry Super Australia revealed teenage workers are heavily penalised by the rule, with the average young worker forgoing an extra $885 a year.

This amounts to a $10,200 hit to their final super balances upon retirement and after years of compound interest.

The industry super body wants the 30-hour threshold law removed.

Industry Super Australia chief executive Bernie Dean said modernising the rules would also benefit employers.

Removing the 30-hour threshold wouldn’t just be fair for young workers, it would be good for the employers who have to face the administrative nightmare of keeping track of the weekly hours of a highly casual workforce.

Updated

Australia joining ‘climate club’ puts pressure on fossil fuel action at home

Australia’s entry into a “climate club” is expected to increase pressure on the government to improve action to cut emissions, AAP reports.

While prime minister Anthony Albanese was meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, he confirmed that Australia had been invited to join the initiative.

The club includes countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States, and aims to increase international collaboration on climate action.

Albanese said:

Australia and Germany are now united in our deep commitment to tackling climate change, and I commended chancellor Scholz on his development of Germany’s climate club and was pleased to confirm that Australia will join that high ambition initiative.

Climate Council research director Simon Bradshaw said it was an important initiative to decarbonise industry and pursue net zero emissions, “but (it) must be backed by stronger steps at home to phase out fossil fuels and build the clean industries of the future”.

International collaboration is key to achieving the emissions reductions we need to combat the climate crisis.

But we need to see any new international partnerships backed with real action.

Updated

From 21 August, Australians will be able to ban themselves from all online gambling companies using “BetStop” – a national self-exclusion register that will replace systems in the states and territories that have been criticised as ineffective.

You can read the full story from Henry Belot here:

WeChat's no-show at election interference hearing shows 'contempt'

Ahead of the hearing on foreign interference on social media later this morning, the chair of the committee, James Paterson, has tweeted a letter from Chinese app WeChat.

He has been seeking to have the company appear before the committee alongside TikTok, Meta, Google and Twitter. However, in a response to the committee, the company has said it is unable to attend due to not having any local representatives in Australia.

WeChat did say however that it would be responsive in writing to the committee and would answer any questions the committee has.

Paterson said the company is continuing to show contempt for the parliament.

Unlike TikTok, WeChat is not covered by a blanket restriction from federal government devices, despite similar concerns over the data collection and security on the app.

Updated

WA’s credit rating reinstated to AAA

For the first time since 2014, Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Western Australia’s credit rating to AAA – that is the highest possible rating.

S&P Global, a private banking company, upgraded WA to AAA credit rating in June last year.

WA is the only state or territory with this rating from Moody’s and S&P Global– highlighting its strong financial management, as put in Moody’s statement.

Their financial performance is “an outlier to its domestic and international peers”, with sustained budget surpluses and material easing in the State’s debt burden under the current Government, according to the statement.

Moody’s AAA rating was lost under the Liberal National government in 2014. S&P’s rating was lost in 2013 under the same government.

It is now reinstated under the Cook Labor government.

Premier Roger Cook says of the rating:

Under my government we continue the focus on strong financial management, invest in what matters, pay down debt, diversify the Western Australian economy and create jobs for future generations.

Updated

Commuters send more than 1500 sexual harassment incidents to Victoria police

In the 12 months since the launch of a text service to stamp out sexual harassment, commuters have sent police more than 1500 alerts about incidents on Victoria’s public transport, AAP reports.

The service, STOPIT, was launched on 11 July 2022. More than half the users are women and girls. The service is the first of its kind in Australia, which enables victims or witnesses to text a dedicated police transit team with details about incidents.

Police urges anyone who has witnessed or experienced unwanted sexual behaviour on Victoria’s public transport network to contact STOPIT. More than 40% of notifications sent in are about threatening and offensive behaviour, including verbal abuse and harassment.

Police have arrested 13 people attached to incidents reported to the service.

Victoria Police Transit Safety Division Insp Mark Zervaas thanked all those who used the service.

Every piece of information received has helped us make the network a safer place for all commuters.

Updated

Rental crisis shows modest signs of easing

Some good news for renters (finally).

The search for a rental property is now a little less competitive in most Australian cities as vacancy rates finally start ticking up, AAP reports.

Vacancies edged slightly higher again last month, reaching 1.45%, with renters finding it easier to secure a new home in every capital city except Brisbane, as measured by property firm PropTrack.

Vacancy rates still remain at around half their pre-pandemic levels, however.

PropTrack senior economist Paul Ryan said demand was slowing but from elevated heights.

It remains difficult to find a rental across the country and we expect rents to continue to grow quickly, placing additional financial pressure on renters.

Read more from Peter Hannam and Tamsin Rose here:

Updated

Survey shows ecologists reportedly facing gags on publicly releasing work

Researchers warn suppression of science by governments and corporations is hampering efforts to address the global biodiversity crisis, AAP reports.

James Cook University professor Bill Laurance points to a survey of Australian ecologists who reported facing gags on the public release of their information.

He says:

Imagine someone who’s done years of work on a subject and has more or less been told not to talk to the media.

Of 220 people interviewed by the Ecological Society of Australia, about 50% of government experts and 40% of industry respondents said they had been banned from publicly sharing their work.

Laurance says the suppression of academic work was inherently dangerous in Australia – the result is poor policy outcomes, impacts on threatened species and delayed action on climate change.

It often happens in situations where the stakes are high, when it’s an important issue causing controversy.

Updated

Reward of $1m to solve 1980s murder mystery

More on the $1m reward being offered by police in a bid to solve the murder mystery of Robert Richardson, known as Jack.

Police believe several people helped arrange Richardson’s murder, including his friends. They are searching for who fatally shot Richardson, and anyone who helped plan the murder – likely including people formerly associated with the Painters and Dockers Union.

The $1m reward will be paid at the chief commissioner of police’s discretion for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of the person or people behind Richardson’s murder.

The 49-year-old was on bail and living with his girlfriend at St Kilda before his death.

He also had a young daughter, who grew up never knowing who killed her father and why.

Victoria Police Detective Insp Dean Thomas said:

Given Jack’s significant criminal history and associations, we also believe there is a strong likelihood that people with information were afraid to come forward at the time of his death because they feared significant retribution.

We’re hoping that some of those people may now be able to speak to us without those fears or concerns.”

The director of public prosecutions will consider granting indemnity to anyone who leads them to the perpetrators.

- AAP

Updated

'All the hallmarks of an underworld execution'

Feel like an unsolved murder with your morning news and coffee? Because police are offering a $1m reward in a bid to solve a decades-old underworld mystery, AAP reports.

On 31 March 1984, Robert Richardson, known as “Jack”, was found dead in bushland in central Victoria – off King Parrot Creek Rd near Strath Creek.

He was shot in what police believe was an execution-style killing.

The 49-year-old was last seen with two unknown men at St Kilda between 1.20am and 2am on 4 March – the day before he was due to go to trial at Melbourne County Court with two co-accused charged with conspiring to traffic heroin.

His killing was two years to the day after police first made arrests over the heroin trafficking investigation.

Victoria Police Detective Insp Dean Thomas said it was no coincidence Richardson’s death was the day before the trial was due to start.

The investigation involved a high-level Melbourne organised crime syndicate connected to the notorious Painters and Dockers Union, the police believe.

It was also linked to an attempted hit on a NSW Police undercover operative, who was a prosecution witness.

Thomas said:

Jack’s death had all the hallmarks of an underworld execution, and the evidence suggests he probably had no warning he was going to be killed and trusted the person who did it.

Ultimately, his fatal mistake may have been trusting the wrong person.

Updated

Australia plane to aid Ukraine in European airspace

Australia will deploy a surveillance aircraft for logistical support to Ukraine, but it will not enter the country’s airspace, AAP reports.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese is set to meet the leaders of New Zealand, Japan and South Korea in a special session with Nato leaders in Lithuania to discuss global security.

Ahead of the meeting, he announced a Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail aircraft would be deployed to Europe to help protect multinational logistics hubs.

The aircraft would ensure the uninterrupted flow of military and humanitarian aid into Ukraine. It will be deployed for six months, based in Germany, and will operate within European airspace – but will avoid the territory of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

Albanese said the deployment would include up to 100 crew and support personnel from Australia.

This demonstrates Australia’s commitment to upholding the rules-based international order.

Updated

Marles focuses on building Nato relationship not Keating’s comments

Policing what Paul Keating says is “the last thing I’m going to do,” deputy prime minister and minister for defence Richard Marles said after the former prime minister labelled the head of Nato a “supreme fool”.

Marles said on ABC TV this morning:

The last thing I’m going to do is to suggest what Paul Keating should or shouldn’t say. I also know that whatever I suggested is not going to have much influence anyway. Paul will have his say. That’s fine.

The principal message … in terms of Australia’s position in the world, is that articulated by those governing Australia right now. We’re very focused on building our relationship with Nato. It’s important, and the prime minister is attending the summit as I said.

Marles also said the government is focused on “our relationship with the countries within our region”:

We brought down the defence strategic review and the government’s response to it a month or two ago … We made clear that one of the key tasks of the Australian Defence Force now and Australia’s strategic policy is around providing for the collective security of the Indo-Pacific region. At the heart of that is building our own relationships with the countries within the Indo-Pacific. And that’s our focus as we see it in terms of providing for Australia’s security.

Updated

Government welcomes more future abortion access through health professionals

The TGA’s decision to remove restrictions on health professionals who prescribe and dispense MS-2 Step – medical abortion pills – has been welcomed by the government.

Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care Ged Kearney says “we welcome these changes that remove red tape and improve equitable access to healthcare for all Australians,” in a statement.

We know that women experience structural barriers trying to access the health care that they need, particularly in regional and rural areas. That’s why it’s so important that all health practitioners can perform the care that they are already trained to provide.

These changes recognise the importance of health practitioners that women see regularly – their GP, their nurse practitioner and their community pharmacist.

The TGA’s decision will take effect from 1 August

Updated

TGA to amend restrictions on abortion pills

It will be easier for women to medically terminate pregnancies up to 63 days of gestation, now that the Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved an application from MS Health to amend restrictions on the prescribing of MS-2 Step (Mifepristone and Misoprostol).

MS-2 Step was only able to be prescribed by a doctor certified to prescribe the medicine, and then dispensed by a pharmacist who was a registered dispenser.

Now, the drug can be prescribed by any healthcare practitioner with the right qualifications and training, with no need for certification – this may include nurse practitioners.

Restrictions on dispensing by only registered pharmacists have also been lifted.

The decision will assist in addressing important access issues for patients who require this medication, the TGA’s media release says.

Independent expert advice from the Advisory Committee on Medicines informed the decision.

A new warning has been included in the product information, providing information about circumstances where a person should be referred to a medical practitioner.

Updated

Labor claims almost half a million new jobs under its first year in office

The Albanese government says treasury analysis of ABS data shows the economy added 465,000 jobs in its first year of office.

That’s the most by any first-year government (as it was for the first three, six and nine months). Just over half of the new jobs went to women, 249,000 and more than 80% were full-time.

The biggest employment growth areas were health care and social assistance, manufacturing and construction. The latter is a bit surprising given the collapse of a range of large builders but is a testament to the large state and federal projects.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said:

We’re investing in the care economy, we’re investing in manufacturing and we’re investing in critical infrastructure to create secure, well-paid jobs for Australian workers.

While we know that slowing global growth, higher prices and higher interest rates will impact our economy and labour market and continue to strain household budgets over the coming months, Australia is in a better position than nearly anyone else to face the challenges ahead.

Labor inherited a labour market that was growing strongly, and the pace has been maintained at a level higher than economists had forecast.

We’ll get June jobless numbers next week. In May, the economy added more than 76,000 jobs, dropping the unemployment rate to a near-50 year low of 3.6%. Another big monthly reading like that would be good news for those looking for work but would almost certainly nudge the Reserve Bank back into its rate-rising mode.

As of yesterday, the ASX’s rate tracker indicated there’s about a 50:50 chance the RBA will lift the cash rate from 4.1% to 4.35% on 1 August.

Updated

Robodebt is ‘one of the most gross acts of maladministration’, says Marles

Deputy prime minister and minister for defence Richard Marles was asked about whether there is a case for robodebt victims to sue former ministers who presided over the illegal scheme after Bill Shorten suggested it last night on 7.30.

Although Marles did not give a resounding “yes,” he did call robodebt “one of the most gross acts of maladministration that we’ve seen from a government” on ABC TV:

I think those matters will unfold in the course of time. There’s a class action that has already taken place. We’ll see that play out.

But I think the point I would make in relation to robodebt is that what is totally clear from the report of the royal commission is that this stands as one of the most gross acts of maladministration that we’ve seen from a government, from the former Liberal government, in the culture they established, in the way in which they managed this, and half a million Australians were adversely affected as a result of this.

That must never be forgotten in terms of what happened with robodebt. And the lessons that we draw from it, when you’re talking about the administration particularly of a program which impacts individuals in this way, good governance must be at the heart of it, not politics.

The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, speaking in Parliament House
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, told the ABC we must never forget that half a million Australians were affected by robodebt. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Possible raised welfare payments for robodebt compensation, says Shorten

Bill Shorten has raised the prospect of former Coalition ministers involved in the robodebt scheme potentially being sued individually by victims, and didn’t rule out the possibility of raising welfare payments as a form of compensation to those on social security.

Shorten, the minister for government services, told ABC’s 7.30 program last night that there would be further processes following the royal commission, and said Australians “have a right to see what happens” – referencing the sealed section of the report which goes into referrals to other agencies.

Shorten noted that commissioner Catherine Holmes’ report “says that on the face of the evidence presented to the Commission, the elements of the tort of malfeasance in public office are made”.

“I do not know why these Coalition ministers think that they’re out of the woods,” he said of those involved.

This royal commission has a long way to go and a lot of lessons to be applied, but I do not know why coalition ministers with that sort of very, very damning analysis … why they think when the commissioner says there’s the tort of malfeasance in public office, that people, victims, won’t sue them individually.

If these characters think that somehow they’re in the clear, I don’t read that when I read this royal commission.

Shorten said that the report stated a general compensation scheme may be too costly to run, but when asked about Holmes’ suggestion that welfare payments generally could be raised as a form of compensation, he didn’t bat it away.

We certainly have increased the Commonwealth rent support. We’ve increased the single mothers’ payments, we’ve increased Newstart. I don’t think the journey stops there.

Read more on what Shorten had to say here:

Updated

Public hearing into foreign interference through social media

Senior staff from organisations like Meta, TikTok, Google and Twitter will appear today before a parliamentary committee on foreign interference through social media, AAP reports.

They will be asked what steps are being taken to prevent other countries from meddling in government matters like federal elections.

Concerns that social media companies were being weaponised by foreign powers were not theoretical, the committee’s chair, shadow home affairs & cybersecurity minister James Paterson, said:

Russia and China have notoriously attempted to meddle in US and Canadian elections, with US and Canadian intelligence agencies assessing that these governments were behind online influence activities designed to undermine electoral processes.

Confronting this problem is no easy task. It will require a concerted effort from governments and social media platforms on which this conduct takes place.

Shadow home affairs and cybersecurity minister James Paterson speaking in Parliament House
Shadow home affairs and cybersecurity minister James Paterson said concerns that social media companies were being weaponised by foreign powers were not theoretical. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Good morning! Thank you to Martin Farrer for kicking off the blog today.

I’m Rafqa Touma, and I’ll be with you on the blog for the rest of the morning. If you see anything you don’t want us to miss, let me know on Twitter or Threads.

Let’s get into it.

More Melburnians adopting cats

Almost 1000 lost and abandoned cats have found new homes after an animal shelter’s winter adoption drive, Australian Associated Press reports.

Melbourne pet rescue centre Lost Dog’s Home is purring after adopting out 979 cats and kittens over a five-week period.

It continues a recent trend of more Melburnians adopting feline companions, with numbers rising from 5258 in 2021-22 to 6440 in the last financial year.

It was hard to pinpoint the exact cause of the feline frenzy, the home’s spokesperson Suzana Talevski said in a statement.

She theorised it could also be connected to more people returning to work in the office and opting for an easier pet to manage when they weren’t home, or that inner-city apartment living was more appropriate for cats.

Updated

Labor best able to handle China policy, says poll

Labor is the party most able to handle Australia’s relations with China, according to a poll by the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) and analysts at UTS.

They report today that almost half of respondents nominated Labor (49%) as the political party best placed to handle Australia’s China policy, a 14-point increase from 2022 (35%).

The poll by ACRI, in conjunction with the Centre for Business Intelligence & Data Analytics (BIDA), also found that just over a quarter of Australians (27%) say that the Morrison-led government’s management of China policy had an impact on their vote in the 2022 federal election.

Just over half of Australians (51%) say that “Military conflict with China within three years is a serious possibility”, while 67% of Australians say that “the Australian government is right to increase defence spending, to balance, among other considerations, China’s growing military might’.

NSW welcomes first rental commissioner

The New South Wales government has appointed Homelessness NSW chief executive, Trina Jones, as the state’s first rental commissioner.

Jones will work alongside the Labor government on reforms to make the rental system fairer including making it easier for renters to keep pets, ending no-grounds evictions and introducing a portable bond scheme.

Jones said her mission was to “amplify the voice of renters”.

The position was promised ahead of the March election amid growing calls for the state government to meaningfully intervene in the housing crisis.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said:

I’m looking forward to working with the new commissioner to make our state a fairer place for both renters and owners. We can’t fix years of problems in the rental market overnight, but we have already made a start and we are determined to do more.

It comes amid a report pointing to some very modest easing in the rental crisis gripping Australia.

Rental vacancy rates nationally increased 0.02 percentage points to 1.45% last month, according to data group PropTrack, while those in capital cities edged 0.03 percentage points higher to 1.42%. Both were just shy of half the rates in March 2020.

Full report here:

-----

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories and then your host will be my colleague Rafqa Touma.

Anthony Albanese will travel to Lithuania later today for the Nato summit after a productive trip to Berlin which saw him ink a new arms deal with Germany and announce that Australia was sending a surveillance plane to Germany to help protect supply lines to Ukraine.

He also officially confirmed that Australia will join the Climate Club – a new international grouping led by Germany focused on reducing emissions in heavy industry and bringing “green steel” and “green hydrogen” onto the market quickly.

Corporate debt collectors are facing calls to return more than $11m in taxpayers’ money they earned by chasing down welfare recipients for debts raised under the unlawful robodebt scheme. The issue was highlighted in last week’s royal commission report into the scandal, while pressure was building for full disclosure of its findings.

A Guardian Essential poll has found that support for the Indigenous voice has dipped, although a majority of Australians questioned – 47% to 43% – intend to vote yes rather than no. It found that the remaining 10% of voters were unsure about which way to go.

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